This wedding was a first for me, it was an elopement. With just the couple, the videographers, the officiant and myself. I even served as the witness, the second time I can say I have had that honor for a couple. Lisa and Jordan decided to go with the beautiful seaside location in Ocean Beach after having found it on the internet from their home in Texas. It was a warm humid evening, but to two people who are used to far more heat and humidity it was nothing to them. I had a great time being a part of their Ocean Beach wedding, as well as getting to know these two awesome people. My favorite thing I learned probably had to be how Lisa and Jordan met. While in a Texas airport Lisa laid eyes on Jordan and knew she had to act. She boldly approached Jordan while he was sitting working on his laptop and proceeded to tell him ways in which to improve the presentation he was working on. I like her style! I mean I may have passed a note or two in my day, but never have been able to do something as cool as she did, and it paid off!
Enjoy photos from their wedding below!



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It was said more than once by friends who accompanied us on our shoot “This is probably the most I have seen Jackie and Brian kiss.” For a couple who may not be super big into PDA they seemed right at home putting their love on display in front of the camera. It always makes me happy when a couple is able to just be silly and have fun during their engagement session.
Neither Jackie or Brian are originally from San Diego and this played a role in their engagement session location. Jackie said “Brian and I met in San Diego, while we were both working on the San Diego Padres event crew, so we felt that a beautiful beach setting represented the life we built together in San Diego.”
Scripps Seaside Forum was really day one of what will be a two day engagement session, I am super excited for our next shoot at what is going to be an awesome location! For now I’m gonna keep it top secret, but just know it’s gonna be SWEET!

Check out the photos from our La Jolla shoot below!

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Styled wedding shoots are a great way to get together with other wedding vendors to stretch your creativity and put together a themed photoshoot. I’ve done a couple so far this year and have loved everything about them. The most recent one is featured in this post, we did a geometric inspired wedding shoot at The La Jolla Hyatt
You may have wondered “how do I create a styled wedding shoot? It can be a bit daunting trying to figure out where to start with a styled shoot, to help with that I’ve put together 6 tips to get you on your way!

Venue: The La Jolla Hyatt
Hair and Makeup: The Doll Service
Floral Design: Blooms by Breesa
Wedding Dress: D’Angelo Bridal Couture
Event Design: Savvy Soiree
Linens: Concept Event Design
Chairs, Tableware: Classic Party Rentals
Cake: Hey there, Cupcake!
Behind the Scenes Video: Focused Bliss Productions

Check out the behind the scenes video below!

1-How do you put together a styled shoot?
It can happen pretty much one of two ways:
1. You as the photographer come up with the concept and bring together all the vendors or
2. A coordinator/event designer approaches you with an idea and asks you to be a part of their shoot. For me I didn’t want to wait around for the phone to ring, so for my first one I took it upon myself to be the photographer, coordinator, and designer. It’s more common for people to be working on styled shoots than it was a few years ago, so if you’re a photographer wanting to put one together don’t be afraid to reach out to other vendors. Everyone I ever reached out to had known about styled shoots and expressed interest in being a part of one. A great place to start is Facebook, and I also approached other vendors at the end of bridal shows I have exhibited at and asked if they’d be interested

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For me it’s aways fun finding new places to shoot, sometimes it’s a purposeful choice and other times the choice is made for you. When it came to photographing Sir up in Los Angeles I originally wanted to shoot at The Walt Disney Concert Hall, but time constraints and LA traffic made that not possible. I met Sir for our portrait session in West Hollywood where he was getting his hair all ready for the shoot, and decided it was best to stick in that area. I don’t think I would have thought to use it before, but it turned out to be full of so much amazing color, textures and all around great photo spots! It’s always inspirational for me to photograph in a new place, and I encourage all you photographers out there to do it whenever possible! Just make sure you go at a time where the light will be on your side, I tend to do my sessions about an hour before sunset.
Sir could not be anymore of a pleasure to photograph. First off: look at him, he’s super photogenic, and second, he’s one of the sweetest people I know! He is a host of his own TV show in Hollywood called AbSIRd, and when you watch him you know he’s doing what he’s meant to do! For information in his show check out his site here: www.AbSIRd.com

Also be sure to check out an episode of his show at the end of this blog!

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It’s always a plus for an animal lover like me when I can combine an engagement session with a great couple and with animals. In this case there were a lot of animals present for our rustic engagement shoot at the beautiful Bradford Ranch. First off Corina and Serge brought both of their adorable dogs with them, plus two more labs that are the owners dogs, followed by three horses! Corina and I both wanted to make sure we made sure to use the horses in some photos, even if they maybe weren’t as into as we were.
I’m happy to say that their wedding will also be taking place at this beautiful venue, which is great because there were just too many awesome spots to fit into the one shoot.

Congrats to you both! I’m looking forward to the wedding in September!

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