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Hanging out at her favorite neighborhood bar: Ye Rustic, on a Sunday during football season cheering on her home team, The San Diego Chargers, was something she loved to do in her adopted city of Los Angeles. Only this day would be different- this would be the day that Vanessa met her future husband Mike, in that dark bar with its red booths and die hard football fans. Mike was there with his friends, also rooting on his favorite football team. However for them it would not be a match made in football team heaven. As I said she was there to cheer on the Chargers, and him…The Raiders dun dun dunnnnn. Lucky for the both of them this stark contrast in choice of football teams did not detour them from striking up conversation and later a relationship.

Vanessa and I have actually been friends since elementary school, we met riding horses and attended the same schools all the way through college. I was honored she wanted me to photograph her wedding, I have photographed friend’s weddings many times but never a friend I have known basically my whole life and admittedly I felt the pressure to deliver my very best!

I remember hearing about Mike when they first met and she loved that he was able to give it as much as she could dish it out. When I finally met him I could see how cute they were together and what a great guy this was for my friend. Their wedding was filled with familiar faces from my parents; to friends I’ve known since high school-all of who came together to make their wedding day memorable.

Thank you Vanessa and Mike for trusting me to capture your big day!

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  • vanessa - Thank you so muck Kelly. You did an incredible job and just looking at these photos makes me tear up! You captured so many details that I simply wasn’t able to notice or appreciate on our wedding day because it was such a whirlwind. I’m so grateful to have such a talented and wonderful friend in my life.

  • mark webster - Beautiful Kelly. Thank you for being such a wonderful friend to Vanessa. See you soon.

    Mark

  • kelly - Thanks Mark! Glad you enjoyed them!

  • kelly - Aww yay, is it bad hearing you teared up makes me happy? LOL. I’m happy to hear you enjoyed the photos!

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A few months back I had the pleasure of venturing to New Orleans for the first time. While there I did a couple of shoots, one of them was photographing Carter; a musician turned actor turned model in The French Quarter. We met right outside of Cafe Du Monde (a place I knew was a must to venture too because of the world-renowned beignets and let me tell you they did not disappoint). From there we just cruised around stopping at what looked like awesome spots. It’s always easy to get inspired in a new location; so many unfamiliar things always spark the imagination.

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Notice the matching bike in the background:black, white and red! Looks like I planed that huh?! Nope just a happy coincidence.
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Proposal photography is becoming a big thing and really it makes so much sense! It’s such a big moment in the couples lives so it’s no wonder you’d want to document it! The surprising thing is that it’s only now becoming something I’m seeing more and more of.

For Daniel and Laura’s proposal I was entrusted to placing the bottle prop, which contained his letter to Laura, something I was super honored to do! Daniel and I met the day before to figure out where we wanted to place it and coordinate all the logistics. The beach was fairly busy the day of the proposal. I had my boyfriend/assistant with me to play security when anyone walked by and attempted to pick the bottle up (which people did). It all worked out though, it was sitting perfectly in its spot as Daniel and Laura walked up.

It was a perfect evening for a proposal, Daniel set it up as they were waiting on friends who were running late for dinner and why not take a walk on the beach while waiting. Laura loves the beach so knowing this Daniel wanted the proposal to take place there. The couple has known each other since they were teens; although it wasn’t until their early 20’s they started dating. Back when she was 14 Daniel bought a ring in Mexico and fake proposed to Laura with it. She kept the ring all these years and Daniel found it amongst all her jewelry and brought it to the proposal to first hand to her before the engagement ring.
It wasn’t until after reading the letter that a wide smile came across Laura’s face as it hit her what was happening, and once it did her response was perfection! The happiness was infectious and I couldn’t help but smile as I took the photos. She was so shocked and it was clear she had no idea that the day was leading up to this. Daniel took steps to ensure that he didn’t tip her off in anyway, wanting to make sure it would be a complete surprise, and it indeed was!

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This LA engagement shoot with Courtney and Scott was a long time in the making, part of the hesitation may have had something to do with neither loving their photo taken, which is crazy to me because they were both so super cute. The shoot turned out to be an epic one in Los Angeles, we started by meeting them at the beautiful Bradbury building downtown but were quickly and sadly asked to leave there. Not to worry though being in LA there were so many amazing spots for us to shoot at. After a walk through the streets of downtown we ended up over at The John Ferraro building which provides a great backdrop of downtown. Part of the original plan was to go up to one of my favorite LA spots: Griffith Park Observatory. We were thankfully warned by Courtney’s mom that it was pretty much a parking lot up there. Which breaks my heart because it’s such a great spot but since the re-opening of the planetarium it’s just always so so busy. We ended up in Courtney and Scott’s adorable West Hollywood neighborhood were we incorporated their freakin’ cute pup, who proved to be a natural! While the plans changed throughout the shoot I could not be happier with the locations we used. They both were up for what happened and that always makes for a fun shoot!
Looking forward to shooting their wedding at The super hip Carondelet House in a few weeks!

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I got into New Orleans around 10:30pm slightly exhausted from the travel and still shaking off the jitters of what was the worst turbulence I have ever experienced (even the flight attendant said that- that’s how you know it was bad and I sorta really dislike flying so that was a real treat). I met Damion, the photographer I was there to work with, outside the airport waiting for a cab with his many many bags. Rolling up with my camera backpack and carry on I felt slightly guilty for not having to transport such large quantities of bags.
We made our way to the hotel, checked in and being on West coast time decided we were awake enough to go eat in The French Quarter at what was somewhere close to midnight. After accidentally taking a bite of red beans that had bacon (I’m a vegetarian who clearly doesn’t understand southern cuisine) we took a brief and…let’s say interesting walk down Bourbon Street. Honestly it was not what I was expecting…it was sorta like Vegas without the glitz and a bit more frightening. After feeling like we had seen enough off we went to sleep in preparation for a long work week.

The next day I did have some free time to shoot these photos, I felt pretty satisfied that I was able to find some musicians hanging out in The French Quarter doing their thing-something that was on my list of things to see in NOLA. Well that and consuming the beignets from Cafe du Monde- which I assure you I did…maybe I even did twice…oops!

I also was able to shoot an engagement session, and lifestyle shoot while there! Which I’m super excited about because I love doing destination engagements and weddings! I’ll be sharing those images soon!

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