Friday, April 27th had Loren and Annie at St. Catherine’s of Alexandria church in Temecula and then Wedgewood Banquet and Wedding Trilogy Golf Club in Corona to document the wedding ceremony and reception of Ximena Jimenez and David Navarrete. We’re still finalizing Ximena and David’s final collection of images, so for now, here’s a little sneak peek! Look for more images soon.

To pre-register to see all of their wedding pictures and recieve a $5 gift credit towards prints, please visit Ximena and David’s online web gallery at www.pictage.com/1244282 and sign the guestbook. You’ll receive an email notification once web gallery goes live!

Engagement portraits of Kara Hanson and Dean Fox taken last month at our favorite park, Glen Arbor in Murrieta. Be sure to watch the slideshow at the end of this post to see more of Kara and Dean’s beautiful pictures!

To view the entire collection of images from Kara and Dean’s session, please visit www.pictage.com/1248435 and fill out the guestbook.

We always feel a great sense of accomplishment whenever we receive a nice “Thank You” note or a really awesome online testimonial from our couples. But yesterday, we received one of the most special “Thank-You’s” we’ve ever had the pleasure of receiving, and we were so excited that we wanted to share it on our blog!

Kerri and Eric Novikoff, married April 13, 2012 (Friday the 13th), came in for their viewing appointment to see all of their beautiful wedding pictures, and Kerri brought this special “Thank You” created by her darling little daughter, Maya. Maya was a huge part of the wedding, even walking her mother down the aisle. Maya is quite the artist! So, this means a great deal to us, and we’re so honored to have a piece of Maya’s artwork to hang on our office wall.

Here is our awesome “Thank You” drawing, a Maya original:

Maya’s Backstory: I’m holding the light while Loren photographs Kerri, Eric and Maya in the vineyard. Notice Loren’s camera bag and all his gear around his feet, extra lenses and what-not. Maya’s story is that Loren is snapping his fingers, saying, “More light! Give me more light!” LOL, I don’t recall Loren ever snapping his fingers at me, but it’s quite an accurate representation of us none the less!

Thank you, Maya! We’re thrilled to have been a part of your family’s special day and we will cherish this “Thank You” always!

– Rachel Scott

Friday the 13th is supposed to bring bad luck. Yet, I have heard it said that rain on your wedding is supposed to be good luck. Try explaining that to a bride when she’s trying to put on her makeup and the storm has just cut the power to the building. A lesser woman may have let that get her in a funk, but Kerri Berlin did not let it affect her big day with soon-to-be-hubby Eric Novikoff at Wiens Family Cellars in Temecula on Friday, April 13th.

In fact, rather than get bothered by it, Kerri just went with it! Kerri had pre-planned for the rain by bringing a pair of the coolest fuschia rain boots and, after getting in her wedding dress, and having a “First Look” with Eric, we all ran out into vines to catch some shots of her dancing in the rain.

Due to the weather, the ceremony that was planned for outside was moved inside to the barrel room, where the reception dinner had been planned for anyway. With the intimate number of guests, this was no problem, and it actually turned out to be a really nice change of pace. Perhaps the rain was good luck after all! In fact, moments after the ceremony ended, the rain stopped and the clouds parted just long enough to let a little rainbow appear!

Since the rain put a damper on our ability to take romantic portraits in the vines, we went back to Wiens the following Monday for what we call a ‘Day After’ session in order to get some additional portraits of Eric and Kerri, and Kerri’s daughter, Maya. The weather cooperated and we lucked out with a beautiful warm sunset!

You can view all of the images from Kerri and Eric’s wedding at http://pictage.com/1236589.

Congratulations Kerri + Eric!

On Sunday, March 31st, we were in Laguna Beach at one of my favorite spots just behind the Montage Resort, to photograph engagement portraits for Jill Kovalcin and John Petrizzi. Their wedding will be held June 30th of this year at Wiens Family Cellars in Temecula.

As with many of my wedding clients, Jill and John told me that they are not particularly fond of posing for pictures. Fortunately for them, that fits my preferred style of primarily candid shooting just fine. And, fortunately for me, Jill and John were unbelievably photogenic and relaxed and completely into each other during the whole shoot. John has a tremendous sense of humor and was having a great time getting Jill to crack up the whole time.

Here are just some of our personal favorites from their session:

On Saturday, March 24th, I drove all the way to Malibu to a beautiful hillside estate to photograph the wedding of Marie Shanks and Michael McCreary. Marie and Michael live in Hawaii. So, the first time I actually met them was when I arrived on the property for the wedding. But, being from Hawaii, they were typically laid back and extremely easy-going the whole day through.

In fact, they had decided to do a First Look and to go a few miles up the coast to a spot on the beach that they had checked out a few days earlier. After Michael finished gushing at how beautiful Marie looked in her dress, they and their bridal party had a blast “modeling it up” on the beach for some fun shots. Marie was so game for some fun shots, she even ran down the edge of the water in her weddings and later laid right down in a bed of ice plants. Not to be outdone, Michael showed how tough he could look by stepping up on a barnacle-encrusted boulder for some shots — barefoot. Ouch! And, he was smiling the whole time!

Back to the estate and the small group of close friends and family watched as Michael smiled his biggest smile as Marie came down the aisle on the arm of her proud father. The ceremony was short, sweet, and tender and capped off by two very big kisses and a shower of bubbles from the guests. The reception was a simple informal buffet dinner with some heartfelt toasts from family members and from the groom himself.

Marie and Michael did request our Portrait Station photo booth, and they and the guests made good use of it during dinner. By the way, my son, Brandon, assisted on this wedding — handling the camera at the Portrait Station, and Erin was my second shooter on this day.

To view all of the images from this wedding, visit the couple’s online web gallery at www.pictage.com/1215457.

Congratulations Marie and Michael!

On Sunday, March 4th, I was a guest on “RKR’s Talk of the Town” radio show on 101.3 KATY-FM in Temecula. I discussed some tips for selecting a wedding photographer, my own photography background, some recent changes in wedding traditions, and some interesting stories from weddings past.

Many thanks to Judy Zulfiqar of RKR Marketing for having me as a guest on the show.

Here is the in-studio video that they shot during the interview.

On Saturday February 4th, 2012 we were at the Wedgewood Wedding and Banquet Center in Fallbrook to document the wedding of Jill Liggett and Aaron Maurice. Although many of our recent couples have elected to do a “First Look”, they did not want to see each other prior to the ceremony. Yet, they did want to exchange personal handwritten messages to each other, which they did — separated by only the open door of the Bridal Room. As you’ll see in the highlights below, it was definitely an emotional moment — especially for Jill who got choked up while reading Aaron’s romantic words.

One of my personal favorite moments when photographing a wedding is catching the groom’s reaction the moment he first sees the bride come into view as the ceremony is starting. Aaron’s huge smile said it all. He was one very, very happy guy.

Red shoes for the girls and red socks for the guys were the theme of the day for the bridal party. And Aaron’s daughter played a special role in the day — she designed the beautiful wedding cake (see the shot below). I heard (from Aaron) that it was delicious too. He was sad that I had missed out on getting a piece. More often than not I am too busy getting my shots to get a piece of cake, and now I’m kicking myself that I missed out on this one.

To view all images from their day, or to order professional prints and other products of these images, click HERE.

Please share your thoughts on these images by clicking the “Leave a Comment” link at the bottom of this post. Thanks!

Congratulations Jill and Aaron!

Chelsea and Joe are both outdoorsy type of people. They love to hike, and run, and ride bikes together. So, when I suggested nearby Santa Rosa Plateau as the location for their engagement portraits, they loved the idea. Rachel and I met them at the Visitor’s Center on the plateau and hiked around one of my favorite trail loops to capture them enjoying nature and each others’ company.

We all had a great time enjoying the fresh air. And I enjoyed dusting the ants off of me that I collected on my shirt as I backed into some low-hanging tree branches to get just the right angle of Chelsea and Joe snuggling on a bridge. Anything for a good shot! Speaking of which, it was Joe’s idea (not mine) to go the extra mile to actually stand on the rails of another semi-rickety wooden bridge to get a very unique shot of the two of them. If they were this daring on the engagement portrait shoot, I cannot wait for the shots we’ll get on their wedding day — August 3rd, 2012 at Los Willows in Fallbrook!

To view all images from Chelsea and Joe’s engagement portrait session, or to order professional prints or other products of these images, click HERE.

Please share your thoughts on these images by clicking the “Leave a Comment” link at the bottom of this post. Thanks!

Any time of year is a good time of year to get married in Southern California. And, although the vines were bare, Saturday, January 14th was a very good day to get married at Wiens Family Cellars! The weather was calm and the temperature was perfect as Greer Wayland and Scott Sheldon said, “I Do” just before sunset.

The day started with photos in the vines. For our Temecula Wine Country weddings, it is not uncommon for me to take photographs of the wedding dress out in the vines. But the images you usually see include green, leafy vines plump with grapes in the summer sun. With the vines just bare, naked winter twigs, I expected a completely different effect. As a fan of black and white photography, I was anticipating that the harsh, twisted shapes of the black vines would make a cool and artsy backdrop to the dress. Wow, was I right! The results were awesome!! When I came back to the bridal suite with her dress, Greer couldn’t wait to see what I’d shot, so I gave her a sneak peek. She and all of her bridesmaids were “oohing” and “ahhing” — and this was just the beginning of the day! So, I knew it was going to be a good day.

Since Greer and Scott would be seeing each other prior to the ceremony for the signing of the ketubah, we planned for a “First Look”. The “First Look” is where, in a private moment before the chaos of the wedding day begins, we capture the first time a groom sees his bride in her dress. It opens up the morning or early afternoon for portraits of the couple and their bridal party, and generally allows the photography schedule, and the couple’s day in general, to run more smoothly. I love First Looks. Not only does it work to de-stress the couple from any pre-ceremony jitters they may have, but it enhances their excitement. You can just see the anticipation in Scott and Greer’s faces. They were both smiling so big. And their smiles were contagious, because I was smiling big, too!

The start of the day was great, and the rest of the day just kept getting better. From the sunset ceremony to the hora to the cake cutting to the “photo booth” portrait station, Greer and Scott were such a fun couple. And, clearly, very much in love.

We just held their viewing session at our studio today and showed them the highlights of their images. So, now that it won’t spoil their surprise, here is just a sample of the 975 final images they received on their image DVD. Now, we start on their custom album design!

Congratulations, Greer and Scott!
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