Miranda and Matt’s Wedding

Remember Miranda and Matt?

Their wedding took place in November at the beautiful Sova Gardens, a hidden gem in Sonoma.

This is one of those weddings full of vibrant colors: from the decor of the venue, to the morning attire, everything shined.

Miranda’s bridesmaids helped out and made everything fun.

In the meantime, Matt was getting ready outside, waiting for the “First Look”.

Miranda waiting to see Matt and to be seen for the first time.

And here it is: the first, magical moment, bride and groom see each other on their wedding day.

Weddings are a team sport. Here are the wonderful people who made this event a success:

Photography: Aurora Meneghello Productions

Second Photographer: Hardy Wilson

Florist: By Madeline Trait

Venue: Sova Gardens

 Make up: Angela LaFlamme

Caterer: Preferred Sonoma Caterers

Alison and Justin’s Wedding

I loved Park Winters the moment I first saw it and couldn’t imagine a better place for Alison and Justin’s Wedding. The Locally Grown Weddings team transformed the property into a magical and romantic place to gather with friends and family.

Getting married in October has its advantages, such as beautiful light, gorgeous weather and giant pumpkins!

Alison has amazing eyes: I have never seen the like.

Do you remember Alison and Justin’s engagement photos? They chose this one image for their gift table.

Madeline designed this beautiful map of the premises.

Every time I have been to Park Winters, I have seen wild turkeys!

Pei-Yee worked closely with Alison to choose an alternative to the traditional wedding cake. A dessert table is always a great option.

Weddings are a team sport. Here are the wonderful people who made this event a success:

Photography: Aurora Meneghello - Locally Grown Weddings

Second Photographer: Genevieve Shiffrar

Wedding Coordination: Sadie Waddington - Locally Grown Weddings

Caterer: Chef Stephanie - Locally Grown Weddings

Florist: Madeline Trait - Locally Grown Weddings

Dessert: Pei-Yee Woo - Locally Grown Weddings

Jen and Dmitri’s Wedding at the Presidio

Here are some of my favorite photos from Jen and Dmitri’s June Wedding at the Presidio Inn and Log Cabin. If you haven’t checked out their engagement photos yet, take a peek here and here and here.

The Inn at the Presidio is still fairly new and a beautiful venue to get ready for your wedding.

For their First Look, we used the front porch, which has beautiful light and great rocking chairs.

And then we walked down the street for some photos with the entire wedding party. We lucked out on the weather: sunny, beautiful days in June can be a rarity in San Francisco!

The Presidio Log Cabin is on a hill overlooking the city. The ceremony took place outdoors.

In the afternoon and evening, the light was just perfect.

Inside the Locally Grown Weddings team had transformed the Log Cabin for a stunning reception.

One of Jen and Dmitri’s priorities was to have beautiful photographs of their wedding day, so we took some time to make sure to capture the two of them around sunset time.

Congratulations, Jen and Dmitri!

Weddings are a team sport. Here are the wonderful people who made this event a success:

Photography: Aurora Meneghello - Locally Grown Weddings

Second Photographer: Douglas Despres

Wedding Coordination: Sadie Waddington - Locally Grown Weddings

Caterer: Chef Stephanie - Locally Grown Weddings

Florist: Kristina Tracy

Dessert: Cascades Cakes

Rentals: Toni Hill - Hartmann Studios

Hair Stylist: Hair to Dye For

Make-up: Flame Angel

Ceremony Music: Chris Dugan

DJ: Four Leaf Entertainment

San Francisco Engagement Photos: Alison and Justin

I met Alison and Justin a few months ago to talk about their wedding. It’s been fun to get to know a bit about them, their love of good food, jazz and French wine.

Justin proposed in Paris (can you get any more romantic than that?) and the Locally Grown Weddings team is hard at work to bring a bit of that feel to their October wedding in Park Winters.

Alison and Jsutin have a dog they adore, named Zoe. For our engagement photo session together we wanted to include her in the photos. So we chose to go to a couple of parks in San Francisco where she could freely run around.

Here are a few more photos from our session together.

Joaquin Miller Park: Catie and Russ Engagement Photos

I am looking forward to Russ and Catie’s wedding at Campovida with the Locally Grown Weddings team next September!

Catie and Russ live in Chicago and came to visit for the weekend. So we found a few hours to get together and take their engagement photos at Joaquin Miller Park in Oakland.

An engagement photo session is the best way to get in sync with your wedding photographer. I find that most of the couples I work with have never been photographed by a professional and don’t know quite what to expect. I can totally relate! I don’t like being photographed and feel quite self conscious in front of the camera.

Spending time together, though, really helped us all connect. I also got a good idea of what Catie and Russ like and learned more about their story.

Congratulations, Catie and Russ!

I thought for this wonderful wedding I would do something different…enjoy a slideshow of Marco and Lindsey’s Wedding at Paradise Ridge Winery!

Thank you for all these wonderful vendors who made this happen:

Venue: Paradise Ridge Winery

Flowers: Maria Philbin Floral Design

Cake: Costeaux with floral arrangement by Maria Philbin

Make-up/Hair: It’s a Date at the Powder Room

2nd Shooter: Christopher Mackessy

Sam’s Bar Mitzvah

Sam’s Bar Mitzvah was beautiful and moving. We need to be reminded more often that young people are full of wisdom.

And after the service, everybody enjoyed the great party Katie (Sam’s mom) organized. So much fun!

Thank you to everybody who worked with me:

Venue: Or Shalom Jewish Community

Catering: Beverlee Hassid

DJ: Jeff Werner

Golden Gate Park Family Portraits

It’s always such an honor when somebody you work with asks you to take photos of their family. It’s also lots of fun to get to know the important people who love and care for your friend.

Pei-Yee and I work together with the rest of the Locally Grown Weddings team and this was such a wonderful opportunity to spend a few hours together in Golden Gate Park with her whole family.

Here are some of my favorite photos from the shoot. Enjoy!

I love these candid moments! You can’t really expect young children to pose for the camera and often what they do spontaneously is so much cuter.

Pei-Yee’s parents have been together for 40 years…I just love these kind of stories, it’s the romantic in me :)

Here’s a great idea of what to wear: the family chose a combination of blues and purples. These colors worked beautifully with the green and February flowers of Golden Gate Park.

And here’s another “behind the scene” moment…

Wente Vineyards Wedding - Michelle and Matt Part Two

Let’s pick up from where we left off.

Michelle worked closely with Madeline to add flowers and decor that worked well with the venue while being modern and sophisticated. From the beginning she like the color purple and in October, dahlias turned out to be the perfect choice. 

I love this colorful bouquet, especially the green accents.

A boutonniere can be as creative as the bride’s bouquet. I love how Madeline used the different flowers for the groom and the best man.

Dahlias are perfect in their simplicity. Madeline used them in vases all around the reception area and with such a gorgeous setting, they enhanced the location, without being overbearing.

In addition to the flowers Madeline and Michelle selected pears and purple artichokes for the escort cards, adding something unique, as well as coordinating with the purple hues of the flowers and other decorative elements.

Then the same flowers and decor elements were used int he ceremony area.

Here come the bride…

More photos every day this week!

All weddings are the creation of a team of great professionals. I am so lucky I got to work with:

Venue: Wente Vineyards

Flowers and Event Design: By Madeline Trait

Hair and Make up: Cinta Salon

Wedding Dress: Amy Kuschel

Catering and Wedding Cake: Wente Vineyards

Michelle in her beautiful dress. You can see Part One of Michelle and Matt’s wedding here. The rest next week!