Posts Tagged ‘san juan capistrano wedding photography’

{ Angela + John | San Juan Capistrano Wedding }

When I first met with Angela & John {over mile-high pastrami sandwiches at Jerry’s Famous Deli, my kind of couple!}, they shared about their wedding, but also extensively about their families. I got such a strong sense of how important their families were to them and what a vital role they would be playing in the wedding.

But what I discovered on their wedding day was even more wonderful – that they were close with their families yes, but also that the two families seemed to be so close to each other. I spotted their mothers laughing together and walking arm in arm, I saw the sweet friendship between Angela’s brother and John’s son, observed the fun interaction between everyone on the dance floor. A wedding day, just as it joins people, most definitely joins families, but I seriously felt as if everyone there was already one big happy wonderful family – tears and hugs and laughs were shared freely among everyone and it was amazing to witness.

I know Angela poured her heart and soul into planning this wedding and it unfolded perfectly. It definitely couldn’t hurt that it all started off with the loveliest pair of shoes…

I think my heart skipped 2 beats when I saw her bouquet, pale pink peonies are one of my favorites…

For their first dance, John surprised Angela with a live song performed by their friends. Her reaction was perfect!

I love how John’s son came over and sat on Angela’s lap during the slideshow. So sweet:

{ Gia + DJ | San Juan Capistrano Engagement Photography }

A friendly reminder: Cans for Comments is going on until 12/31! Any comments left (including those for this post) will turn into a donated can :) Thanks everyone for your awesome comments so far!

Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday! It was so refreshing to take a breather for a couple days and really soak in the season, but I’m back in full working mode as there’s still lots more photos battling it out on my hard drive for their chance to make their blog debut. Keep an eye out for 2 stunning weddings & a heartwarmingly beautiful & intimate vow renewal. Such a wonderful way to round out the year! (I’m about 3 seconds away from gushing about 2009, but I promised I would save that specifically for a “Gushfest 2009” entry.)

So for now, I will be sharing this lovely engagement session! I first met Gia a few years ago, though only briefly, but we managed to stay connected through the magic of Facebook. I was ecstatic when she contacted me saying she had been following my work and was recently engaged! The holidays marked an especially meaningful time for Gia & DJ as they were married this Christmas… in India! Though it didn’t work out for me to be there to photograph their day, they shared all of the details with me as we sauntered through San Juan Capistrano… down to DJ taking an uber-traditional route and riding in on an elephant!

Gia & DJ are so in love – I usually give some direction to start off sessions & they just took off with it running, exuding love and joy that filled up every frame. It’s ridiculously easy to create photos when working with couples as beautiful {both inside & out} and in love as them!

{ San Juan Capistrano Trash the Dress }

What’s better than one bride trashing her dress? Four brides trashing their dresses!! (plus some grooms too!)

Last Saturday I attended a group TTD session, graciously organized by Chris Austin. We gathered at the San Juan Capistrano train depot, which has lots of cool little places to shoot (including train tracks of course, which are always exciting.) Got to meet some awesome So Cal photographers and some equally awesome models who were up for whatever our crazy minds could come up with. One cool model even enthusiastically announced, “yeah, I’ll totally do whatever you guys want – climb on things, roll around in the dirt, you got it!”

One of my favorite things about the shoot was getting to see the unique styles of each couple & model. Everyone had a bit of a different mood, a different way of interacting with the camera, and it was really exciting to try and capture that in the images. In the same way, it was so cool seeing the different styles of all the photographers who were there that day, both in the midst of their work and in their finished images. It got me thinking even more about what kind of style I find myself gravitating towards and what I want to create for myself & reflect in my photos. Anyway, here are a few from the day!