off to sacramento we go...

We are headed up to Sacramento for the wedding of our wonderful web designer, BSmith Designs. It is going to be a beautiful and fun wedding in a barn at a winery just outside of Sacramento. I can't wait! This is the second time in a month I have headed up to norcal for a wedding! I am happy to be driving up this time because I don't have to figure out a way to smuggle my emergency kit through security :) They don't look kindly on scissors, razor blades and sewing kits.

When I get back next week, I will post about this wedding, as well as Sarah & Partick's wedding, which was held at the end of March in Lodi. Have a great week everyone!

A Beachy St Patty's Day Wedding

On a beautiful St. Patrick's Day, Stacie & Dana became husband & wife. It was a fun day filled with laughs and lots of beachy touches. They were married at St. Simon & Jude and had their reception at the Hilton Waterfront in Huntington Beach. Both the church coordinator & the site coordinator were great! So nice & easy to work with. That always makes my job 10 times easier and more enjoyable!

Stacie & Dana join a couple of our other recent pairs who were lucky enough to meet online! They are such a fun couple- very easy going with an evident love of life. The wedding was beautiful with a lot of personal touches. Stacie decided to go with a classic black & white color scheme, with touches of sage green. There were a few fun St Paddy's day surprises thrown in at the end of the night, including ridiculous hats & emerald green boas paraded around the dance floor.

Now, I have to give a big high-five to Stacie. She was one of the most organized and prepared brides I have ever worked with. She made pretty much everything herself, including the centerpieces, placecards and even the flower pens used to sign the guest book & photo matte. Not only did she do an incredible job making these things, they were done weeks, even months before the wedding! Everything was boxed up and labeled for me. She even put the adorable starfish placecards into ordered individual bags broken up into letters of the alphabet. When someone is as organized as I am, if not more, it always makes me smile & sigh with relief at the same time!

Below are some of the wonderful photos taken by Rene' and Jay of The Storykeeper Photographer. Not only are the pictures beautiful, but they were a pleasure to work with! Check out their website to see some more of their work.






These placecards are so cute! Take a tip from Stacie: If you are making your placecards, be sure to design them in such a way that you can get most of the work done prior to knowing the table assignments. She made the tags using a square of cardstock, and then gluing on a small strip of green paper with the guest's name along with another strip of green paper with the table assignment below. She was able to get the placecards done weeks ahead of time, and then just glued on the table assignments once the rsvp's were in and the table assignments had been done. It will save you a lot of stress in those final weeks!


The beautiful and tasty cake was made by the Great Dane Bakery. One of my favorites!


The favors were king-sized Hershey bars, wrapped in various styles of paper, all in the color scheme. Stacie got the paper from one of my favorite stores, Paper Source. Brides- this is an amazing resource. They have the most incredible paper, as well as favor boxes, idea kits, and more than you can imagine. They also have colored labels, which are great for customizing favors, such as Stacie's above.





A great guestbook idea! Shutterfly can make photo guest books with pages filled with blank lines for your guests to leave notes. You can use engagement photos or fun photos that span your relationship. Much more fun and memorable than a normal guest book.



I included this photo because it makes me laugh. This is a photo of the Groom's parents. They were adorable! First of all- the mother's hat is amazing. At the end of the night, she kept asking the photographer to get some photos of the two of them. She especially liked this pose. Now- look closely. Who can you see in the mirror? Me- ruining the mother of the groom's idyllic photo. Way to go Courtney!

Another touch that Stacie included, which I love, is displaying wedding photos of the parents, grandparents and even great-grandparents. She made labeled cards explaining who was who. The guests loved it! It is a special way to include your family heritage into your day.

Other vendors (all of them get an A+ in my book):

So Cal DJ's
Today's the Day Weddings (videography)
The Spiraled Stem (florist)
Carina Lindgreen (make-up)
Natalie Buketov (hair)
White Rose Limo

Happy Taxes!

I hope you all are not having to deal with post office lines today. I will be momentarily- hooray for waiting to mail taxes until the last day! Honestly- I am just blown away that I got them done in time and didn't have to file an extension. I cannot take even half of the credit though. Here is a big shout out to my Uncle Ray- taxman extraordinaire! Also, for the record- owning your own business + having a spouse in ministry= extremely confusing taxes. I miss the days of getting a refund!

Anyway- enough about taxes. I am smiling for a bigger reason than having my taxes done. Contrary to popular belief, we are not having twins! After an Easter sunday filled with comments about how big my stomach is and assertions that we most definitely were going to have twins, we rushed into the Doctor's office to get her opinion. Upon hearing that we do have twins in our family, she rushed us in for an ultra-sound (YES! We were looking for any excuse to see this baby before the 20th week!). You cannot imagine our relief when the technician assured us that there was only one baby. And, for any of you who know my husband, I am sure you can imagine his child-like awe seeing a fetus for the first time. With a smile that could not be made any larger, he was nearly jumping up and down. It truly was an amazing experience- made the whole thing much more of a reality. I cannot believe that there is a baby growing inside of me! It is such a miracle! Only 7 more weeks and we'll get to find out if it is a boy or a girl!

In the meantime, if you look at my stomach and wonder why I am so big in the beginning of my second trimester, I am, as my doctor said it, "petite. With nowhere for this baby to go but out" :)

I'm a stalker

I admit it. Happily! I love to scour the blogs of my client's photographers, eagerly awaiting a post that bears their names. Engagement photo sessions are so fun! I love seeing how photographers are able to catch the personalities of my clients in fun, artistic & beautiful ways.

Check out the engagement session of Endren & Caohien, a fun couple from Texas who are going to have a beautiful, tradition-filled wedding this June. Their photos, by Michael Norwood, are great! Check them out at on his blog: Endren & Caohien on mnphotography.blogspot.com

Lazy....

Happy Easter Everyone! (well..technically, it's the day after Easter, but hey!)

So.... I've been really bad with keeping my blog updated. Really bad. That ends today! After a wonderful weekend of celebrating the life and resurrection of Christ, I spent a lazy day relaxing with my family. At the end of my lazy day, I realized that I had been extremely lazy with my blog. Now, I absolutely love blogs. I'm addicted to the wonderful blogs of a few of my photographer friends. However, I'm horrible with my own. I always think of great things to put on here and I never get around to it.

So, all of this to say- I promise to write more often! I usually wait for photos to post about my recent weddings, but now I'm going to gush about them right away while the joy and the details are fresh in my head.

So- look out! Here we come!

Deanna & Tommy

A few weeks back, we were able to be a part of a very special occasion. This was not just another wedding- it was the wedding of Darcie's sister, Deanna! Darcie did all of the planning and Courtney stepped in on the day of so that Darcie could fulfill her made of honorly duties.

Darcie did an amazing job with the planning- especially the details! She turned a boring church sanctuary into a romantic, fun, beautiful ceremony location. On a budget too! Check out the photos below of the flower girl pomander & the ring bearer pillow. Tara of Megan's Garden did an incredible job with the flowers! Tommy is in the Airforce, so each table was named after a different type of plane. The sweetheart table was Air Force One!

Deanna & Tommy are such a fun couple- you could see their love for each other & their excitement in every smile. I have to say- I have never seen a couple get into as a big a cake fight as these two did! After the original smash, Tommy stuck his hand into the cake & grabbed more cake to fling at the beautiful bride. She was right back at him. It was messy and sticky- but it was pretty funny!

The reception was held at the El Adobe restaurant in San Juan Capistrano. What made this extremely special is that Deanna's parents had their wedding reception there as well! Our best wishes to Deanna & Tommy as they move across the country to Arkansas.

As always, it was a pleasure to work with Jasmine Star. Her photos are incredible and she & JD are so much fun to work with! Here are some of her shots:

Darcie, fulfilling her MOH duties

A girl after my own heart! Gotta love the rainbows!

The Sweetest Thing

A few weeks ago, Craig & Victoria were married at the Hilton Waterfront in Huntington Beach. It was one of the sweetest weddings I have ever been a part of! From the ceremony, to the details, to the speeches, to the cake- everything was so meaningful, personal and adorable.
Here are some of my favorite highlights from the day:

• Victoria & Craig were married alongside Madison, Victoria's seven year old daughter. She is so cute! Madison escorted her mom down the aisle, and half through the walk, she turned and hugged her mom, and then sprinted down the rest of the aisle with a giddy smile, only to jump up and give Craig a huge hug. It was precious (& also a surprise to Craig)!
• The recurring motif of the wedding was the 3 of them. The invites, programs and other wedding stationary all featured a drawing by Madison of the 3 of them holding hands. The centerpieces featured three vases & the cake had three tiers. Victoria & Craig also included vows to Madison and gave her a beautiful necklace during the ceremony.
• One of my favorite details was the chuppah. Each guest received a piece of fabric with their invitations, along with instructions to decorate with wishes for the couple. They sent it back with their reply card and the designed fabric squares were sew together by the bride's mother to create a very personal, unique & beautiful chuppah. My only problem with it was that there was a USC square right in front. Go Bruins! (I should also note that Victoria surprised Craig with a USC garter belt!)
• The couple was very concerned with making their guests feel welcomed & appreciated. They created welcome baskets for all of the hotel rooms and provided blankets for the ceremony (which definitely came in handy- it was a bit chilly!).
  
• In lieu of favors, the couple made a donation for each guest to the Susan G. Komen Foundation in honor of a family member who battled breast cancer. Each guest received a breast cancer ribbon pin.

Overall, it was a joy to get to know these three & to be a part of such a special day for their family. I wish them the best!

A wheelchair, a refrigerator cake, and a wedding crasher

Lord, help me if I ever have a wedding guest like Michael Scott.


I love The Office. It is one of very few TV shows that I actually watch. This week had me rolling with laughter and also caused a flash of panic: What if there really is a Michael Scott out there? How could I get him to stop clanking the wheelchair? How in the world would I get him to shut his mouth? Joining in the cake cutting? That awful toast... just thinking about it makes me cringe!

Thankfully, it's a TV show. And brides, rest assured, I have dealt with many a crazy guest/family member/parent and am able to tame them with a smile. Just please don't invite Michael Scott. Or anyone close to his level of social understanding :)

By the way, did anyone catch the adorable Groom's cake? A 3-D refrigerator!

We'd like to thank...

Exciting news! We have been voted one of the best wedding vendors in Southern California by the Knot for 2007! We will be featured in their upcoming "Best of " issue. I am so excited, honored, and surprised!

Thank you, thank you to our previous brides who nominated us- we are extremely flattered & feel so blessed! I absolutely love what I do- what a privilege it is to help create and orchestrate such an important day in two people's lives. It is a day that most of our couples have dreamt of for years and I am so honored that I get to be a part of it! The joy on a bride's face at the end of the night when she says "thank you for making this day perfect for us" is more then enough. Getting nominated for something like this is just the icing on the cake!

Thank you all for your love and support!


Here is a sneak peak at our ad that will be included in the magazine:

A huge thank you to Jasmine Star. This amazing woman helped me pull this ad together in just two days! She did an incredible job- it would look like a 6th grade report cover page if I had done it by myself. She is an amazing photographer- please check out her website. Again, thanks Jasmine!

We love a good sale!

Gina at Hair Comes the Bride contacted us last week, letting us know about a fun event they have coming up in Feb. They're having a sale!!! We love finding a good bargain, and we especially love helping our clients find ways to save some money.

On February 4th, Hair Comes the Bride will be having an open house and sample sale at their Laguna Niguel location. Accessories will be 50%-80% off! There will also be food (another top incentive to get me to be somewhere!) and you'll get a chance to find out more about the hair & make-up services this company offers. This will also be the last date they will book 2007 weddings at 2006 pricing.

Sounds like a deal to me!