The Lodge at the Regency Center - San Francisco Wedding of Thalia and Ian

Oh what style and grace! Loved this classic San Francisco wedding. In Thalia's previous career she was a set designer and she let her previous work shine at her wedding. Thalia and Ian are both now firefighters and I have to say, Thalia may be the most good-looking firefighter ever! She was also one of my most stunning brides ever in her classic lace, mermaid Maggie Sottero gown! I thought her look was perfect for the venue and style of the wedding.

Alex and the team from Dreams on a Dime Weddings worked with Thalia and The Regency Center to create the perfect setting for this classic wedding in one of my favorite rooms in the city. The Lodge at the Regency Center is the top floor venue at the Regency Center and was originally a Mason's lodge! The Regency Center has kept all of the old stage backdrops and they let each couple choose their own backdrop for their wedding. I LOVE the backdrop Thalia and Ian chose. It worked so well with the gorgeous florals by Carol Antraccoli.

Congratulations, Thalia and Ian!

Venue: The Regency Center

Event Coordinator: Dreams on a Dime

Floral Designer: Carol Antraccoli 

Caterer: Englund's Catering and Cafe 

Cake: Lotta's Bakery

Stationary: Foreignspell 

Hair and Make-up Artists: Painted Ladies

Ceremony Musicians: An Elegant Touch of Strings

Reception Musicians: Horns A Plenty 

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!

The InterContinental The Clement Monterey Wedding - Lisa and Ken

LOVED the yellow and gray/charcoal color scheme for this gorgeous Hotel Clement Monterey wedding which was beautifully planned and executed by my former bride, Lauren Sloan of Ryder Sloan Events. Lisa was radiant in her Ace gown by Allure and I loved her bridesmaids gray flowing dresses and yellow flowers by Laughin' Gal Florist!

What a setting and what incredible weather for January! Sometimes winter weather on the west coast can be better than summer weather and this proved that point. It was downright hot out and there was no fog in sight for the glorious view of the Monterey bay throughout the wedding. Plus the wedding was set right off of the main drag, so we were able to sneak away and grab a shot of the bride and groom with their bridal party in front of the iconic Monterey Cannery Row sign! 

What fun was had by all, but especially Lisa and Ken. A super sweet couple who was smiling all day long. Ken was doing the traditional surprise honeymoon for his bride and I'm just DYING to know where it was. How romantic overall! Congrats to Lisa and Ken!

Venue and Caterer: InterContinental The Clement Monterey

Event Coordinator: Ryder Sloan Events

Floral Designer: Laughin' Gal Florist

Cake: Patisserie Bechler

Hair and Makeup Artist: Oya Salon

Linen Rentals: La Tavola

Rentals: Chic Events

Musicians: Sound in Motion

Dress Designer: Allure

Bridesmaid Dress Designer: Bill Levkoff

Tina and Spencer - E-Shoot!

Tina and Spencer love their life in San Francisco so wanted to shoot their engagement session in a great SF setting with great weather AND views. That would be Potrero Hill! They were totally adorable together as we ran around the neighborhood and it was obvious they had a great time on our shoot. Can't wait to photograph their fall wedding at the San Francisco Ferry Building!

Featured: Jamie and Peter on Carats & Cake Blog!

I'm excited to announce that Jamie & Peter's wedding has been published again! To see it on Carats and Cake click here and enjoy all of it gorgeousness!

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!

Cecile Lozano Interiors - Living Wall!

LOVE this living wall in a San Francisco hi-rise condo living room. Gorgeous concept for a difficult corner conceived of by Cecile Lozano of Cecile Lozano Interiors. Had to share!

Featured: Karyn's 50th Birthday Bash on Hostess With The Mostess blog

I'm so excited to see that Karyn's 50th birthday party which was held at Tante Marie's in San Francisco is being featured on the blog Hostess With The Mostess! It was such a delicious night and the perfect way to celebrate the big milestone while drinking and cooking with your closest friends. Amy Nichols Special Events did a great job with planning and Design and the florals by La Fleuriste set on old cookbooks were a great touch. Click here to see more of the fun-filled night.

Featured: Molly & Aneep's wedding on Borrowed and Blue blog!

I am thrilled to announce that Molly and Aneep's wedding is being featured on the blog Borrowed & Blue! It was a wonderful day! You can experience it yourself here.

Hotel Vitale San Francisco Wedding - Damon and Eunmin

What a lovely wedding and an even lovelier couple! I was so happy when a former bride of mine, Lauren Wakefield, who is also a planner extraordinaire contacted me on behalf of her clients for this intimate November wedding at the Hotel Vitale in San Francisco. With only sixty guests and a sunset ceremony scheduled to take place on one of the many terraces at Vitale I knew we were in for a treat. 

Not only was the setting gorgeous and lush florals, by Natalie Bowen Designs, in soft pinks beautiful to photograph, I was more than thrilled that the rain cleared in time and Eunmin and Damon were game for a super fun and extended portrait session out on the Embarcadero before the ceremony. We had a blast and I loved that the colorful streetcars seemed to be waiting just for us! 

The ceremony couldn't have been more magical as the sun set over the bay and then the outdoor family portrait session and cocktail hour had the added treat of the city and bay bridge lights coming up. Then we all got cozy in one of the intimate rooms for the dinner and dancing. Such a lovely little wedding and thank you Eunmin and Damon for being so enamored with each other! Everyone made my job super easy that day!

Venue: Hotel Vitale

Coordinator: Ryder Sloan Events

Floral Designer: Natale Bowen Designs

Caterer: Americano Restaurant

Cake Artist: Cake Coquette

Stationary: Wedding Paper Divas and The Aerialist Press

Hair & Makeup Artist: Marisa Perel

Musicians: Entire Productions

Macarons: Chantal Guillon

Linens: La Tavola Fine Linen Rental

Rentals: Hartmann Studios

Featured: Jamie & Peter's wedding on Borrowed and Blue blog!

I'm so excited to see that Jamie and Peter's wedding is being featured on Borrowed & Blue! It was such a gorgeous day and now the whole world can enjoy it. Check out all prettiness here.

Sebastiani Sonoma Wedding - Amy and Michael

Lovely wedding, Lovely couple! I loved that Amy and Michael's love for music (they are both musicians!) flowed into their elegant Sebastiani Winery wedding so perfectly. They had live musician performing throughout the event and even took dancing lessons so that they could expertly swing dance to the music for their first dance!

Christopher of Leftwich Event Specialists made sure all of the elegant touches in this gorgeous setting were perfect including the lush flowers by Taste Catering and Event Planning both in the outdoor ceremony setting and in Sebastiani's spectacular barrel room. I love this barrel room and am fortunate enough to be on the preferred vendor list at Sebastiani and have seen it in so many gorgeous iterations depending on my client's style. Amy and Michael were the picture of happiness as then entered the room down the giant curving staircase surrounding the huge barrel at one end of the room. The railing was decked out in garland making it even more of a spectacular entrance. 

The traditional Jewish touches throughout the wedding also made it special and festive. Especially that EXTRA long Hora dance! I think the friendly band was torturing Amy and Michael and the lucky guys holding up the chairs just for some extra festive fun! 

Congrats to Amy and Michael!

Venue: Sebastiani Vineyards and Winery 

Wedding Coordinator: Leftwich Event Specialists

Event Designer, Floral Designer, Caterer, Cake Artist: Taste Catering and Event Planning

Wedding Dress and Veil: Amy Kuschel

Hair and Makeup Artist: Melisa Hall

Music: AMS Entertainment and D'Lilah Monroe and the Tom Cats

Pebble Beach and The Inn at Spanish Bay Wedding - Molly and Aneep

In my questionnaire that I send to all my brides, I have a question that asks for any favorite moments or memories of their day. Molly's answer was: "Too many to list. Day was perfect." and that it was! I have NEVER photographed a wedding in the Carmel/Monterey coastal area that wasn't a bit chilly and often foggy. Molly and Aneep and everyone else were completely surprised by this unseasonably warm wedding day! Pebble Beach and the coastline were stunning and sparkly in the warm sun and it really WAS a perfect day. Molly was absolutely the picture of "stunning" in her Vera Wang gown and Aneep was smiling every time he looked at his gorgeous bride! 
 

Melia Yust of Wedspring in San Francisco designed and planned this simple and elegant wedding for this intimate gathering. I loved the use of dahlias in the florals, the sparkle of the cocktail tablecloths and especially the intimacy of the candlelit dinner set in a small private dining room at The Inn at Spanish Bay. Molly was one of the most calm brides I ever photographed and it was a joy to connect with that calm and gorgeous face through my camera all day long. Stunning.

Ceremony Venue: Pebble Beach Resort

Reception Venue: Inn at Spanish Bay Resort 

Wedding Coordinator & Florist: WedSpring

Caterer: Peppoli Restaurant

Stationary: Alee & Press

Timber Resorts and Mayacama Weddings

I was flattered when the Timbers Resort Group asked if they could use my photos to illustrate Mayacama weddings. I love shooting at the GORGEOUS Mayacama Private Resort and Golf Club and am thrilled to have my work represent a wedding at the property. Here is a glimpse of the post, but you can view the full Timbers Resort post here and Thanks to Stephanie Beer of Covenant Coordinating for all of her hard work producing these weddings!

Calistoga Vineyard Wedding - Tanya and Allen

Oh my! What a wedding, what a crowd and what a couple! I loved shooting this wedding. Not only was it simply gorgeously executed by Mary Ellen and her team from Off the Beaten Path Weddings, but Tanya and Allen and their guests were all so full of love. It was a giant love-fest! 

This private residence was the perfect "off-the-beaten-path" venue for this truly picturesque wedding. The guests got slow glimpses as the ceremony in the late afternoon transitioned up the hill to the glorious views of the mountains just north of Calistoga and then back to the lovely lawn area for dining and dancing as the sun set over the vineyard on the hillside. This wedding was so perfect for this couple because they love wine country, the forest, camping, and hiking. The location not only had vineyards and rolling hills, but there's even a small redwood grove in which they nestled a lounge area with a dessert and coffee bar for later in the evening. The grove and the dining area were strung with lights making the evening portion of the wedding just as magical as the late afternoon and sunset portions of the day! 

There were so many personal touches beyond the gorgeous florals, the luscious family style meal and of course event design done by Mary Ellen of Off the Beaten Path, but friends, family, bride and groom also contributed in so many special ways! Tanya's sister married the couple and helped design the ceremony so it was personal to Tanya and Allen. The bi-lingual ceremony included touches from both the bride and groom's background including ringing Swiss cowbells to mark the official moment they were married.

Overall, one heck of a perfect wedding and one terrific couple. So much LOVE! Hooray for Tanya and Allen! I feel so fortunate to have shared in such an intimate day of their lives!

Event Designer, Floral Designer, and Caterer: Off the Beaten Path Weddings

Hair and Make-up Artist: Betten Chaston

The Firehouse at Fort Mason + Chinese Banquet = Stacey and David

Such a sweet couple and such a DIY couple! Also super talented with a LOT of energy. David and Stacey had a marathon day starting with a tea ceremony in Sacramento in the morning and ending with a traditional Chinese banquet at the Far East Cafe in San Francisco's Chinatown. It's been a while since I photographed a Chinese Banquet! I forgot how fun it is to watch course after course come out while the Lion Dances and entertainment go on!

In the middle of the day was their sweet ceremony at The Firehouse at Fort Mason. It was a gorgeous day and views of the bay were clear and sunny. Friends and family gathered for the traditional American ceremony and Stacey stunned all in her appropriately blowy handmade gown. Not just handmade, but handmade BY STACEY! Gorgeous! This couple had so much of their heart and souls in this wedding starting with Stacey's handmade gown of her own design, their travel themed invitations and reception decor (they love to travel!) and David even made the wedding cake himself. These two are definitely talented. Oh and did I mention, they are also an adorable couple and managed throughout it all to have genuine fun with me and their guests. I'm impressed and will forever remember this darling couple. Congrats to David and Stacey!

Ceremony Venue: Fort Mason Center - Firehouse 

Reception Venue and Caterer: Far East Cafe 

Event Coordinator: Events by Herna & Marissa

Floral Design: PK Floral

San Francisco Fairmont Hotel Elopement - Kristal and Robert

Oh such a sweet couple! Kristal contacted me a few weeks before her arrival in San Francisco for her elopement wedding with Robert. Their ceremony was to take place on the Hornblower Dinner Cruise boat and they were required to use the photographer on the boat for the wedding and dinner portion of their day, but they wanted a few getting ready pictures at the Fairmont Hotel and a fun San Francisco City portrait shoot as they made their way to their departure on the boat. What fun we had in the two hours we spent together! Loved Kristal's Grecian look and her long black hair and gorgeous smokey eyes. She was lovely to photograph and as a couple they were so in love it was very easy to capture their spirit as a couple! When done viewing their slideshow, Kristal wrote "OMG I just balled my eyes out!!! Julie that is the most perfect wonderful absolutely stunning representation of my entire day!!! Thank you so much!!!!!"  Congrats to Kristal and Robert! 

Venue: The Fairmont Hotel

Ceremony Venue: Hornblower Cruises

Hair & Makeup Artist: Mr. Eckhard Beauty Salon

Menlo Park Wedding, Quadrus Conference Center - Sally & Robin

I love when my couples honor their traditional heritage at their weddings. In this case, Sally wore a traditional Japanese Yukata which is a lightweight summer Kimono-style outfit and Robin celebrated his Filipino heritage wearing a barong traditional male dress shirt. What a lovely look for both! Although the ceremony was mostly a traditional outdoor American ceremony, they also incorporated a sake ceremony as well.

Additional traditional touches included origami style "fun kits" for the kids, chopsticks at dinner, personalized pens to do a word search that included the couple's history together and a couple of their favorite Hawaiian appetizers served during cocktail hour. Sally and Robin included some DIY touches too. I thought the most original was Sally's coffee filter bridal bouquet! I've definitely never seen that before! They also surprised guests after dinner with two yummy dessert food trucks! What fun for all! Congrats to Sally and Robin!

Vendors who participated in this wedding include:

Venue & Caterer: Quadrus Convention Center

Hair & Makeup Artists: Aziza Beauty Salon

Photo Booth: Impressions Photo Booth

Food Trucks: Cookies N Cream and Kona Ice

Rentals: Stuart Rental

Ralston White Retreat - Mill Valley Wedding of Jennie and Eric

Everything about the wedding was totally dreamy, from the flowers and the redwoods to the bride and groom! I loved shooting at this venue which I've never shot at before. The Ralston White Retreat is tucked in a grove of redwoods on the side of Mt. Tamalpais (Mt. Tam to locals) in Mill Valley, Marin County. If you love quiet, redwoods and a location close to SF this is it! 

Forest was important to Jennie and Eric because they spend a lot of time hiking and in the outdoors so being amongst the redwoods for their wedding was pretty special to them. I loved shooting their portrait session on the dirt road on the property. The light was filtering through and Jennie looked like a woodland fairy! 

Jennie's sister envisioned the style of the decor and florals and Flora Grubb executed the look beautifully. The food by Le Papillon was incredible (the vendors were also treated to this yummy food) and the little dancing room was simple and pretty with white balloons floating to the ceiling. This was a lovely group and an equally lovely wedding! Congrats to Jennie and Eric!

Vendors who participated in this wedding included: 

Venue: Ralston White Retreat

Floral Design: Flora Grubb

Caterer: Le Papillon 

Bakery: Jasmine Rae Bakery

Jacuzzi Family Vineyards Wedding - Sabrina and Garrett

What a gorgeous venue! This was my first time shooting at Jacuzzi Family Vineyards and I just loved the Italian Villa feel. The dinner was held in the gorgeous courtyard and then guests were surprised when they entered the barrel room for dancing! Cocktails in the vineyard were also a nice surprise for guests. Perfect winery wedding!

Sabrina and Garrett were pretty great, too! I was so happy when they were game to steal away from dinner for a sunset shoot in the vineyard. There was gorgeous light, but using Jacuzzi's lovely doors and stone walls for our post-ceremony shoot was also pretty special. Sabrina was also lucky enough that her parents live in a lovely Victorian home where she and her bridesmaids got ready.  I had the pleasure of shooting them there, and her parents were so involved in the process, which made everything that much more special for our bride.

As always, Dee Merz's wedding design and plan was impeccable. I thought the style of the flowers and the birch and floral arrangements at the ceremony were beautiful in this setting. Overall, a pretty perfect wedding in every way! 

Vendors who participated in this wedding included: 

Venue: Jacuzzi Family Vineyards

Event Designer: Dee Merz

Caterer: Park Avenue Catering 

Music: The Fundamentals