Margee + Kate Elopement and Engagement in San Francisco

As a true Southern California girl, rain kinda bums me out.  Truth be told, I was a little nervous when I realized that all of Kate and Margee's elopement and engagement session was going to be photographed indoors because it was raining outside.  Lucky for me, we started with them at San Francisco City Hall where Margee and Kate signed their domestic partnership papers, and the cloud cover that initially bummed me out actually turned City Hall's giant upstairs windows into huge soft boxes.  And, here's a little photo lighting tip: if you want a quick and easy way to make your subjects look beautiful, use giant soft boxes to create soft, natural looking light.  They had a lovely ceremony with just the two of them before heading to the county clerk office to make things official, and we just loved photographing them in such beautiful light in such an amazingly gorgeous space.  Because San Francisco City Hall is so beautiful, photographing there can be frustrating because it can get pretty crowded with all of the couples getting married and taking photos.  I've never liked fighting for space, but Margee and Kate were just so involved with one another that it made it seem as if all the other people just disappeared.  Their smiles, laughter and love were so incredibly infectious that we all just created our own little world.

What better place to spend a rainy Friday afternoon than the Exploratorium in San Francisco?  After our session at City Hall, we headed to one of the best science museums around and pretended like we were all little kids, exploring all of the exhibits, mixing right in with the rest of the kids, and having a blast.  Adm and I had such a fun time finding spots to take pictures with different reflections, color and textures.  The exploratorium was the perfect environment to take photos that were a true reflection of Margee and Kate's fun and curious personalities.  We are so looking forward to photographing their wedding later this May!

Crystal + Vincent in San Francisco, CA

Crystal and Vincent were married in the Spanish Suite of the Clift Hotel in November.  They had a lovely, intimate affair - there were candles and crystals everywhere, which really nicely accentuated the simple flower arrangements.  Since everyone snuggly fit into one dining room, they managed to combine elegance with coziness, which seems to perfectly reflect both Crystal and Vincent - they were both very formal at times, especially considering Vincent's military background, but throughout the course of the night, they still let loose and partied with all of their friends and family.

This was our first wedding where we photographed everything indoors (with the exception of 10 minutes right outside the Clift for some night light portraits as shown above).  Since we're big natural light people, this was a fun challenge to figure out how to light everything while still retaining our same photographic style.

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Here's the detail panel:  (photos by both Adm and me)

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Tracy + Ian in Oakland, CA

A few weeks ago we photographed Tracy and Ian's wedding in Jack London Square in Oakland.  This was our first Buddhist ceremony, and we always love photographing things (and people) new to us!  Their ceremony took place just before and during " golden hour," the period before the sun sets when the light is magical so we had a blast shooting during the beautiful light!  In addition to being treated to such gorgeous light, we also had a blast photographing all of the dancing!  Tracy, Ian and their family and friends tore up the dance floor for the duration of the reception.  Check the photos at the end of the post for all of the dancing.  What a great way to spend our Friday night!

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Jeanna + Peter in Brentwood, CA

Remember Jeanna and Peter from earlier this year?  Well, here they are again as a newly married couple!  They had a gorgeous wedding day at Wedgewood Banquet Center in Brentwood, Calif.  Jeanna's friend Max officiated a beautiful ceremony and one of our favorite brides from earlier this year treated us to some lovely singing during the ceremony.  It's obvious that Jeanna and Peter are both very close to their family, and it was a real privilege to witness and document some of these moments.  Peter was also quite the dancer and busted a number of dance moves to keep everyone else dancing!

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