wedding: rae and alex

we were super excited about rae and alex's downtown wedding, partly because we love new locations and partly because we knew after doing their engagement session that the wedding was going to be a blast. and we love shooting couples who really love to have fun, and rae and alex did not disappoint.

james met alex and his guys downtown at petco, and spent some quality time drinking, drinking, and oh yeah, shooting some pictures...










meanwhile, i met rae and the girls at the sheraton symphony hall and got some great getting ready pictures...








we headed downstairs to the bar for some pre-game pics, and then headed over to the church, a great historic building right in the middle of downtown...
















not sure what was so funny, but this was the perfect moment...



following the beautiful ceremony, we had some fun with the bridal party...
















then spent some time with rae and alex...love these













the reception was held at the el cortez, one of the coolest old buildings in downtown...





the dancing...



and a really funny toast from rae's sister...



rae's friend made all of these adorable cupcakes...



and apparently there is a tradition of all the girls dancing to lady marmalade at weddings, great expression rae...



congratulations rae and alex, your wedding was absolutely amazing and we had so much fun celebrating with you. i am sure we'll see you around north park checking out the newest hip hangouts!

stephanie and thad: engaged!

we have been really fortunate here in san diego that the weather has been amazingly and unseasonably warm for most of january, so it was easy to do the beachy, summery engagement pictures last weekend for stephanie and thad, who are getting married in july. we met at the pacific beach pier, also known as crystal pier, for a different take on the traditional beach pics...















thad and stephanie like to have fun, which is always great for pictures...






next, we headed up to la jolla to catch sunset, which was by far the best sunset we have ever seen, but first, we stopped in front of a very cool garage door before heading down to the cove...









these are amazing shots that james got, maybe my favorite of the day, and not retouched!









and the grand finale for all you sunset lovers...




congrats stephanie and thad, we are looking forward to celebrating your wedding in july!

wedding: alison and dave

it was a cold, blustery day in san diego (of course, when we say cold we mean 50 degrees), and it was even chillier up in the mountains of julian on alison and dave's wedding day. it didn't matter though, because the love and excitement from dave and alison warmed everything up and made for a spectacular wedding celebration at the pine hills lodge.







i met alison in her cottage to get some of the getting ready pictures, and the girls were looking super glam and very fabulous.













james hung out with dave and the guys at the bar and got the occassional picture of dave and his guys between shots. i am sure they were drinking just to keep warm...








and not to be outdone by the guys, the girls had a few shots as well...



alison and dave saw each other before the ceremony, which was good news since it only got colder as the evening went on...










the ceremony was very personal, delivered by one of alison's closest friends...







and the reception was perfect, with amazing food and decor, entertaining dance moves and a cake cutting that was just what you expect cake cuttings to be--messy and fun...











i love this shot of the girls' faces, there is so much excitement over the bouquet...




alison and dave, thank you for letting us celebrate this very special day with you and thank you for being so much fun!

our florist

so we finally finished choosing our wedding vendors and booked our florist, which means we can concentrate on important things like dance lessons and table cards.

after looking at several well-known florists in san diego, we decided to book with sweet pea floral company (website coming soon), a small florist run by michelle shumard. we met michelle through her sister stephanie, whose wedding we'll be photographing later this year. we instantly clicked and it was important to both me and james to pick vendors who we really liked.

here is a sample of what i hope my bouquet will look like, courtesy of our fabulous photographers, the youngrens:

all images from jeff youngren photography

launch of our portrait and kids site!!!

the time has come, it only took a year to build out our kids and portraits site, but it is finally here. if you want to access the site directly, without going to our home page, you can visit it directly by clicking here.



the new site currently features some of our favorite children's photography, and we'll be adding galleries over the next few weeks, so please check back regularly.



to celebrate the launch of our new site, we are offering portrait sessions for $125 through the month of january. these sessions can be used anytime throughout the year, so take advantage of this promotion to get some amazing portraits. think of all the holidays coming up -- valentine's day, mother's day, father's day -- all covered with some fabulous portraits.

wedding preview: alison and dave

here's a little preview of the wedding we did last night in julian at the pine hills lodge. alison and dave chose to see each other before the ceremony, which gave us a lot of time for great pictures. here is the first look...




alison and dave braved the cold weather and wind to get some sassy shots before we moved inside where it was nice and cozy...








friends and family, click here to be notified when the rest of the pictures are online.