Rachel + Matt - 7-7-07

Rachel and Matt were married on Saturday July 7th, the busiest wedding day in history! You may recognize them from their engagement session at Hotel Del.

They have a beautiful son named Kaeden. He was such a trooper! He even stayed up way past 10:00! :) They were married at Sycuan Resort, just down the road from the casino.

When I showed up, everyone was getting ready in the same room, and Matt even peeked in when Rachel was putting on her dress. It made the whole day much more relaxed.

Kaeden is so photogenic!Sometimes the best shots just happen

Beautiful family!

Matt and his crew:

Rachel and her entourage:

The kiss:

Gotta love self portraits!
And my personal favorite thing ever, a photobooth!

Thanks Rachel and Matt for letting me spend your special day with you! Please click here for your slideshow!

Photog are fun to be around!

Today I met up with a cool group of local wedding and portrait photographers. We all gathered at Wilson Creek Winery to chat, shoot and drink some wine!

We even had a nice couple come model for us!

The set up before everyone arrived:

Th gorgeous couple:

Jeanette Sanchez:

Janelle Dill:
Kelly and Ryan:
Ryan, Kel and me:

Thanks for coming everyone! There were about a dozen total people that showed up!

Next up - blogging my other 7-7 wedding!

-M

Kiss :-* Albums

I just recieved my latest flush mount album today from Kiss Wedding Books. I couldn't be happier with the quality and the customer service! I felt like a little kid on Christmas ripping open the well packaged box! And of course the album cover is in green, my favorite color!

Pros: Fast turn around time (fastest in the business, I think!), A++ customer service, no gutter (my #1 priority in albums), quality product!

Cons: Can't think of any!

Thanks Kevin, Phylicia and everyone else at Kiss! :-*

Elizabeth + Nathan

Elizabeth and Nathan were married in front of a group of their closest friends and family just north of Seaport Village.

It was a beautifuk intimate ceremony, very casual, just the way I like it! I shot Elizabeth's sisters wedding this past April and was honored that they wanted me to capture a second wedding in their family!

I had already booked an evening wedding for 7-7-07 but fortunatley this wedding was only scheduled to be 2 hours long in the morning! Lots of Nathan's family traveled from Utah for the event.

The ceremony took place on the lawn of the Embarcadero Marina Park and the reception breakfast at Buster's.

Thank you to the families for involving me in this important day and treating me like a friend!

Elizabeth getting ready before the ceremony:

Taking their vows:

The kiss! (It was a good one!)

Enjoying the sit down breakfast:

Yummy cake! This big swirls are chunks of white chocolate!

They were good to each other! :)

Amalia + Brett

On June 30th, I assisted Jen Harris at a wedding in Rancho Cucamonga. The bride and groom were so sweet, two of the nicest people I have ever met! Their love for each other, God and their families was a reoccuring theme throughout the whole day.

Enjoy the photos, I had a blast taking them!

Amalia and her dad before the ceremony

I liked this shot of Amalia getting her photo taken by Jen, and Brett just hanging out. :)

Gettin their groove on!

This was a post card they got for a gift. They said it was about 20 years old!
This is Amalia's sister goint after the boquet!

Through Their Eyes

David Hessemer is doing a blogathon TODAY for his "Through Their Eyes" Africa project. He is going to be taking a team of photographers to Africa next year to areas where all the adults have died and the children are more or less on their own with little aid.

In addition to helping the people living there, they will also be teaching them to take photographs, in the hope of giving them a skill as well as to be able to see the world the way they see it. The photographs they take will be formed into a traveling exhibit all over the country. It's really a fantastic project, however, it needs funding to make it happen!

Today and tomorrow they are running a blogathon to make that happen. The link where you go to donate and learn more about the project is: http://www.throughtheireyesafrica.typepad.com/

Please go take a look, it is a great cause!

Marisa's visit

Whew its been a busy couple of days!

My friend and sorority sister, Marisa spent the last few days in So Cal before she leaves for a year in Mexico and Guatemala. (Read more about Marisa's adventures here)

I picked her up at a friends house in LA on Friday afternoon. We drove down south and made out first stop at Balboa Park. I told her she needed a new headshot for her blog, so she got to be my model!

From there, we walked over to the San Diego Zoo and hung out for a few hours. This is us on the Skyfari, such a beautiful view!

One exhibit I had never seen was the Pandas. They looked like fake robots! You can get pretty close to them, although its hard to tell with a fish eye lens!

After the Zoo, we drove over to Seaport Village. The view of Coronado is really nice and we even enjoyed some Ben and Jerry's! Gotta validate your parking somehow!

We headed back up to North County and stopped in La Jolla to take a look at the Cove at night. Marisa really fell in love with California and its scenery. This girl has some serious wanderlust!

We called it a night after a quick bite and a beer at Lampost Pizza by my house. I had to be up early for a 7-7 wedding the next morning, which happened to be at Seaport Village!

I was gone pretty much all of Saturday so Marisa saw an aquaintance from Wash U. She was asleep by the time I got home from my second wedding.

This morning I drove her down to San Ysidro (American side of the Baja border) where she met up with another woman going with the same program.

I'm so proud of the person Marisa has become, she is smart, strong and is following her heart. She is an inspiration to me and I know that she will be very successful in the future!

Good luck over the next year, Maris, I'll be faithfully following your adventure through your blog!