Nikki and Joe's amazing Carmel Wedding {sonoma county wedding photographer, mision ranch wedding photos}

If you didn't read the post just before this one, you should! =) This is the second part to that post!

Here are the rest of the images from Nikki and Joe's AMAZING wedding that I second shot with Jihan Cerda.


Hello cutie patootie! Hey adorable kid in the vest, how about in 25 years when I let my adorable daughter start thinking about dating you have your people call her people??? You'd be a dangerously good looking couple!

I love the shot of Joe on the right. He was just staring into the very long church looking at what was soon to be the best moment of his life. I walked outside and around the corner was my first vision of Nikki looking drop dead gorgeous in her beautiful dress and veil! (Jihan had been photographing her all morning and I was with the guys so I had only seen the dress on the hanger and Nikki but not the two together) I honestly was taken back by how gorgeous she was! She oh so casually asked if I'd take a picture of her waiting to go in the church with her Maid of Honor... I might have looked like Jihan's dopey assistant cuz I was in shock at how gorgeous she looked that I stumbled for a second..."umm uh ya ya of course, say cheese (you crazy idiot Wedding Day Barbie doesn't say cheese!-idiot!)


I'm serious someone needs to call up Matel and tell them to look no further the new Modern Wedding Day Barbie Inspiration has arrived!






the one on the right is my very favorite!












At the Mission Ranch in Carmel there is a place for dinner and a separate place for drinks and dancing with a gorgeous patio and open field. So after dinner all of the guests headed back into the room for dancing and drinks. As they entered they were greated with halloween buckets of candy and fun toys for the kids and candy apples for the big kids ;)... yes please, I'll take one for me, one for Jihan, and one for her Mom please! I love how she incorporated the time of year (it was 3 days before Halloween) with out turning her entire wedding into a Halloween themed wedding. And I especially love how they included the kids in such a special way and at just the right time. Kids get so restless late at night. It was just what they needed, they were entertained the rest of the night with those buckets!

and oh yeah how can I forget, my personal favorite THE ESPRESSO GUY!!!!! They had a guy come in with his espresso cart armed with a custom menu packed with cheesy lovey dovey names for each of the drinks just for this special occassion! and if you know me you know that the key to my heart is GOOD COFFEE! Jihan learned that quickly because on our drive out to Carmel I was frantically searching on my Starbucks ap for the nearest Starbucks like a 7 year old who is trying to get a glimpse of Justin Beiber at a concert! It's crazy and desperate, not pretty!

....I heart you coffee guy and your wonderful cart of goodness!!!!!

and I had to throw these shots in here. Mainly because I just love the feeling it represents. This reception was full of dancing, laughter, and high energy! Weddings are so hard to plan, there are so many little details and what not. I feel like sometimes people spend so much time on the small details themselves but forgetting what all the little details are suppose to add up to. It's this...

.... great moments with your closest friends and family. Where you can't help but put your arm around each other and sing like crazy fools! That's what it's all about, your love for each other and sharing that love with your friends and family!

A special thanks to Jihan Cerda for letting me tag along and capture some amazing shots along side her. It was such a wonderful break from my crazy wedding schedule last year. I have so much fun shooting with her! I am looking forward to us shooting for each other a little bit next year! I can only imagine the adventures the two of us will get into in 2012!! Check out her blog post on this wedding here she got some amazing amazing shots as well!

Boys just want to have fun! {sonoma county wedding photographer, carmel mission ranch wedding photos}

It's almost a give in, most Grooms and especially their Groomsmen dread the part of the day where they have to have their pictures taken. It is my mission to try and change that! Your wedding day should be over the top AMAZING. Not just for the Bride but for the Groom as well. Photos are a HUGE part of the day so when a Groom has to dread a portion of the day that's just not good! Well these guys made it really easy for me! They laughed at my rediculous jokes and self mockery and they really just had no problems being themselves while I was around. I can't say how much I appreciate that. It made for a really fun time photographing them!

Nikki, I have to say though, I am sorry, you probably got way more funny photos of the guys than you ever wanted! Some of these I'm posting simply because they make me literally laugh out loud! You two are going to have a lifetime full of giant smiles and tons of laughter!

This wedding was at the Carmel Mission Ranch in Carmel, CA.... que ahhhhs and oooohs! I know, Carmel? GORGEOUS!! and Nikki should really get an award for her wedding planning skills, this was a swoon worthy wedding FOR SURE!! There were so many amazing shots that I am going to split this into two posts. The first one is of the guys and a few of the details and then the second post will be of the rest.

I shot over 25 weddings last year, 21 of which were mine and I was fortunate enough to 2nd shoot 4 weddings this year with Jihan Cerda Photography. 2nd shooting for me is a great way to get a chance to photograph with out the stress of being the "main" photographer. To assist another amazing photographer, watch them in action, watch their workflow on the big day, and to really try and see things from a different perspective. I am so lucky that Jihan of Jihan Cerda Photography brought me along to second shoot for this wedding! Nikki is a close friend of her sister's so Jihan's family was all there. It was so much fun to watch them all together! Her parents are as adorable as you'd imagine they would have to be to have such a gorgeous daughter! and her Mother doesn't leave her seat with out her little point and shoot camera, capturing all the little moments! I wonder where Jihan get's it from....???







LOL this one makes me laugh! The were reinacting the sculpture behind them!




This one cracks me up too! I turned to this one as I was culling through them all and laughed so hard! LOVE it! ... boys will always be boys, even on their wedding day!

Danny and Julie's Winter Engagement! {sonoma county wedding photographer, sonoma county engagement photographer, starbucks love photos}

I was recently asked how far in advance you need to book your wedding photographer. The usual answer to this is as early as you can. I often book weddings just over a year in advance and as short as 6 months in advance. But very rarely will I get an inquiry with a wedding date 6 weeks in advance! and that inquiry be on the day before Christmas Eve! Danny and Julie knew right away they were destined for each other. So why wait? Danny got a job transfer to North Carolina and starts in February (second couple of mine who has moved to NC after the wedding...odd coincidence right?) So it was now or much later so they chose now and I don't blame them! Oh and to make the situation even more complex, they live in the Pasadena area (15 min from my home town) and the wedding is up here in Sonoma County. Luckily I came home from Christmas Vacation just a few short days before they left to go back home to Pasadena. So we met on the 30th, they booked their date, January 14th and we scheduled their engagement session for New Years Eve! the very next day! Now that was a record for me! I've never booked a wedding and done the engagement session the very next afternoon! But we had such a great time. I fell in love with them more and more as the session went on!

Their first date was at Starbucks so it was a PERFECT excuse to start the session off with a great cup of coffee!






This was the very last sunset of 2011 and my very last session as well.....great way to end a fabulous year!

Nicola and Victor's San Francisco Wedding {San Francisco Wedding Photographer, Sonoma County wedding photographer}

I think it's always good for any photographer to take time to shoot with other photographers. I gain a lot of perspective from my time working with other photographers. Especially Jihan Cerda . Lucky for me she asked me to second shoot a few weddings for her this passed year, one of which was the beautiful wedding of Nicola and Victor. This wedding was full of Wedding Photographer's adventures! See the previous post for the full story.... I won't bore you with it again so here are the pictures I shot on this adventure!

Behind the Scenes with Jihan Cerda Photography

So January is "downtime" for us Wedding Photographers. It's funny cuz with 2 kids under the age of 3 nothing feels like "downtime" But I've been trying to play catch up with all my blog posts and as I was going through Nicola and Victor's Wedding images (a wedding a 2nd shot for Jihan Cerda )I noticed that I captured a lot of candid shots of Jihan. Jihan and I always have a lot of fun shooting together but we had an especially fun time with the Cardenas wedding! I drove the "limo" aka our getaway vehicle. Every getaway vehical needs a trusty driver, that driver was ME =) Being the driver I had to stay with the car a couple times and I couldn't resist snapping a few shots of Jihan in action.

This wedding ceremony was at the GORGEOUS Shakespeare Garden in San Francisco. It's hidden right next to the Academy of Science. Their reception was held at The Winery (super cool winery I highly suggest you check it out) on Treasure Island. But as many of you know we always take photos in between the ceremony and reception. This couple especially wanted a shot in front of a trolley so we knew we had a mission at hand and let me tell you, there was NOTHING that was getting in Jihan's way! So to make this journey a success we knew we needed to drive the couple from the ceremony to the reception and along the way we'd get their romantic shots (including the trolley shot) Well Jihan being as cute and amazing as she is, she brought a bottle of champagne and two super nice champagne glasses. So after the ceremony we headed out to the car and Jihan popped the bottle open and greeted them to the car with some champagne! We headed out to California street in hopes we could find a trolley car parked. Well we were greeted with the busy streets of San Fran (did I mention it was Fleet Weekend???) and the trolley cars were all in full operation. Surely they wouldn't stop for us???!!!??? Sure enough we see one slowly chuggin along so I sped ahead of it pulled over to the nearest red zone, Nicola, Victor, and Jihan jumped out and ran into the street in front of cars and the trolley car! The driver was so nice and stopped the trolley for them but I honestly think Jihan was going to lay in front of the tracks if he didn't just to get the shot they asked for! Not only did Jihan get the shot, she got one of my most favorite shots of all time! check out her blog post on the wedding here here


this one is my favorite (I hope Jihan doesn't kill me for it!) If you are a Jihan Cerda Photography fan like I am then you all know her famous shoe shots! Thought everyone might enjoy a sneak peek at how she gets those! ....I'm sure it helps that her husband is a personal trainer!