Headlands Center for the Arts - Kristen and Brian!

It's always an honor when someone in the industry asks me to photograph their wedding and Kristen was no exception! As the Marketing Director for Got Light, she knows her stuff about gorgeous weddings and the wedding industry! Also, an extremely creative knitter, she has her own YouTube channel called "Studio Knit". Check it out! A woman of many talents and boundless energy, Kristen took on her wedding like she seems to take on everything - with a passion and talent rarely seen, Kristen made this the DIY wedding of all time!

Creating 1,000 paper cranes as a backdrop for their ceremony was just a start for Kristen! I also loved the paper butterflies she added to the lanterns. She added buttons down her back from her mother’s 1967 wedding dress, symbolizing that her mother “had her back” during the wedding. For her adorable flowergirl Delilah, Kristen created a pomander wand with hand dyed French silk ribbons and daisies in her favorite color – purple! With her exquisite eye for design and color, she put her graphic arts and paper folding skills to work. She designed all the wedding collateral, creating the whimsical cohesive branding of their wedding, even adding hand made paper cranes to the wedding invitations!

Headlands Center for the Arts is one of my fave bay area venues and their official caterer, Katie Powers of Katie Powers Catering knocked the socks off - as always - with the food and I was also thrilled when I arrived and saw my friend Erica of Erica Rose Designs was doing the flowers. Add in the talented Got Light team and Jasmine Rae Bakery, and you truly have an all-star team!

Kristen and Brian's union was over 25 years in the making, so when they tied the knot, I'm not sure there was a dry eye in the house - especially when two of the members of Brian's former band Veil of Ashes played a love song from their band days during the ceremony. I was crying behind the lens! These two know how to have fun together, love beautiful things and great music and it all came together on their wedding day. Congrats to Kristen and Brian!!!

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Venue: Headlands Center for the Arts

Caterer: Katie Powers Catering

Cake: Jasmine Rae Bakery

Event Design: Chambray Event Design

Lighting: Got Light

Florist: Erica Rose Designs

Hair and Make-up Artist: JT Artistry

Officiant: Rhythm & Light

 

 

Featured: Ceremony Magazine!

I was lucky enough to have two of my shoots published in this year's Ceremony Magazine! I so excited to share these photos. Here are the links to Champagne & Caviar and Into the Woods.

Venue: Meritage Resort  Rentals & Linens: Classic Party Rentals  Desserts: Recherche Du Plaisir  Stationary: Dreammaker Designs  Floral Design: Bella Vita Event Productions

Rancho La Puerta Photo Shoot!

I feel more than lucky every time I get to go to Rancho La Puerta to photograph for their marketing materials. Rancho La Puerta is truly an amazing place and one of my favorite places in the world! They are consistently voted #1 destination spa in the world by Travel and Leisure magazine readers and if you go you will see why! Go for a whole week and carry that wellness with you for a long, long time. Go every year for a week and you'll be a new person!

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Interior Design Fair San Francisco Home Shoot

Always fun in the off-season to photograph interiors for some of my fave designers! IDF (or Interior Design Fair) is one of them! Love their style and how they are able to work with typically tight San Francisco spaces. Loved that this nursery was tucked into what was once the dining room off of the living room. That mural by Alfredo Lopez Nunez in the nursery is also pretty gorgeous as well as that darling ship themed mobile over the crib!

Rancho La Puerta: A beautiful desination for friends and brides

I've been back almost a week from my shoot at Rancho La Puerta and have missed it so. My friend Laurel and I have already heard from a few of our ranch friends, all just as nostalgic as we are. There's a saying at the ranch, which is "take the ranch home with you," and I've been trying! I'm still going to bed pretty early (they even have a lecture on sleep!) and getting up early to do stretches before starting my day, and every day has had some form of exercise but one! Because most of the tables in the dining room are community tables, we got to meet so many fascinating people. More than one described the ranch as "summer camp for adults" and I would agree. That's a great description. The guests are limited to 100 a week and many guests sign on immediately for the same week the next year so they can see their ranch pals.

Cooking school, organic garden tours, swimming pools for relaxing AND water classes, a world class spa, 3,000 mountainous acres for hiking, and healthy, organic, mostly vegetarian eating. I would say it's perfect. Travel and Leisure magazine apparently agrees because it named the ranch the "Best Destination Spa in the World." Brides, if you can go to the ranch with your besties for your bachelorette party or just with your mom and sisters for a little R&R before the wedding (I ran into one of my former brides and her mom and sister in a swimming class!), I would HIGHLY recommend it!

Enjoy the photos!

Rancho La Puerta Organic Garden
Rancho La Puerta Organic Garden
Rancho La Puerta Courtyard
Rancho La Puerta Courtyard
Rancho La Puerta Cactus
Rancho La Puerta Cactus
Rancho La Puerta Hiking 1
Rancho La Puerta Hiking 1
Rancho La Puerta Hiking 2
Rancho La Puerta Hiking 2
Rancho La Puerta Hiking 3
Rancho La Puerta Hiking 3
Rancho La Puerta Hiking 4
Rancho La Puerta Hiking 4
Rancho La Puerta Hiking 5
Rancho La Puerta Hiking 5
Rancho La Puerta Yoga 1
Rancho La Puerta Yoga 1
Rancho La Puerta Yoga 2
Rancho La Puerta Yoga 2
Rancho La Puerta Gym 1
Rancho La Puerta Gym 1
Rancho La Puerta Gym 2
Rancho La Puerta Gym 2
Rancho La Puerta Bingo
Rancho La Puerta Bingo
Rancho La Puerta Pool
Rancho La Puerta Pool
Rancho La Puerta Organic Farm 2
Rancho La Puerta Organic Farm 2
Rancho La Puerta People
Rancho La Puerta People
Rancho La Puerta Eggs
Rancho La Puerta Eggs
Rancho La Puerta Cooking School
Rancho La Puerta Cooking School
Rancho La Puerta Food 1
Rancho La Puerta Food 1
Rancho La Puerta Food 2
Rancho La Puerta Food 2

Scenes from Rancho La Puerta

The incredible people behind Rancho La Puerta—a Mexican fitness resort and spa just an hour south of San Diego—invited me this week to photograph the resort’s fitness department and its new cooking school and chef for marketing materials. I love, love, love Rancho La Puerta. I love its unique atmosphere, its classes that promote a lifetime of health, its place beneath the mountains. Because my assignment was the resort’s fitness and cooking departments, I didn't get to photograph its lovely spas, grounds and pool—maybe on my next visit. This place is truly transforming. I think it may be perfect. Most of the vegetables and eggs used in dishes prepared here come from the resort’s onsite organic garden. Its spa treatments are to die for, as are the resort’s serious classes and workshops. I even went on a seven mile mountain hike this morning!

I’ll be sure to post more when I return.