Wedding at Dectahlon Club

James and Laura are one of the sweetest couples ever! And super funny too! I photographed their wedding at the Decathlon Club at the end of December.

Decathlon Club is a great place for a winter wedding since you can do most everything inside. We lucked out and actually had some sunshine and took a bunch of outside images too.

Laura's friend who went to India before the wedding took a trace of Laura's foot and had these custom shoes made for her. Cute, eh!



I don't usually like to publicly admit to my short comings but walking backwards with 15 pounds of camera gear is not something I do well. It was sort of funny, but sort of embarrassing as I fell back into a step as Laura and her father were heading down the isle. Sorry Laura! Fortunately, I was able to make a quick recovery and still get images of the back of her dress as they walked down the isle. Just another moment where I was really glad my mom didn't name me Grace!




On the subject of mothers. Laura has the privilege of having two mothers; one biological and one adoptive. They were both at the wedding and it was awesome to see how well all the families got along and how much affection everyone showed for each other.

After some heart felt toasts there was plenty of dancing.



Laura's bouquet toss was probably the funniest bouquet toss of the year! There was some definite diving going on. I'm surprised I was able to catch all these images as I was laughing hysterically! There is a picture of some of the women on the ground but I don't want to embarrass anyone so I will leave that one out.


Congrats to James and Laura! I hope you continue to make each other laugh for eternity.

Family and Baby Portrait Session in San Jose

I photographed Brian, Anne and Helen back in December but just haven't had the time to blog about it until now. Isn't Helen cute!


These are just a few of my favorites.

Love Story Contest Winners!

First I want to thank everyone who participated in the contest! We had over 700 people go online and vote in the poll!

I also would like to thank the judges Jennifer Low, Sarah from Blush and Melanie from Dutchess Intimates Boutique for taking the time out of their busy schedules to read and vote on the stories.

Without further ado the winners of the free wedding photography love story contest are James and Jill. James and Jill are getting married in Arizona in February and I am very excited to be a part of their wedding day!

Hans Fahden Winery Wedding in Calistoga, CA

Brad and Gretchen where married at the end of October at the Hans Fahden Winery in Calistoga, CA. Since I had not yet photographed a wedding at Hans I showed up early to take a tour of the grounds. This place is spectacular with a terraced hillside, lush greenery and a middle ages feeling cave. I could shoot here all the time!

I started photographing Gretchen's shoes and fell in love with them. They have perfect lines and the most sophisticated little star pendant. Makeup was done by Reggie Freeman (reggiefreeman@yahoo.com)

The beautiful floral arrangements were designed by Michael Holmes Designs. They gave the bridesmaid's bouquets a unique bird nest look. The tall grasses they have growing at the winery made for a perfect backdrop for some images!

The bamboo looking plant was a fun prop I used to photograph their rings.

The ceremony took place out side on one of the terrace areas where there were shade umbrellas for everyone to block the suns bright rays. At the end of the ceremony Brad and Gretchen retreated for a private moment in the shade.

I had fun photographing Gretchen and Brad as they gave me some of their best sassy looks and played around for the camera.





Rolando the chef from Alex's Catering rocked! His presentations and the flavor of the food were all 5 star!


Glass Slipper Gourmet also did a wonder job on her wine country themed cake with cupcakes. Tasty too!

Thanks to Helena for assisting!

Love Story - Contest Finalists

All the love stories have been reviewed and I have chosen three finalists. It was a little difficult to narrow it down because of all the great stories. When choosing the finalists I took into consideration the story, the couples need and weather they provided all the requested items and data (image, dates and venues).

Originally I wanted to add the voting directly to my blog. However, figuring out how to do this was taking forever! It sounded so easy but ended up being a pain in the butt. So I have posted the stories and voting options in the link below using Survey Monkey.

Please read all three of the finalists stories and vote for your favorite on the last page of the survey (poll). Keep in mind not only the story but also the couples need (or deservability - not a real word).

Thanks for participating! You might want to grab a couple tissues!

Click here to read the stories and vote!

Oh, and here are their pictures.

Jeanette and Carlos


Jill, James and Riley


Ketura and Shalom

Senior Portrait Session

Family is so Patient! I photographed my nephew Steven's senior portrait session in October. Since I was so busy with weddings and such I wasn't able to do the final edits until just yesterday. I'm catching up! Yippy!

It was fun catching up with my half sister as we wondered around the park looking for the next location. Steven was a bit shy at first but he relaxed after a while. We came away with some great shots!