How dreamy is this wedding? Especially since so much of it was lovingly DIY-ed by Liv and Greg! Please brace yourself for this impressive DIY list – with a little help from family and friends, they assembled the bouquets, arranged the gorgeous centerpieces, baked + iced + decorated the cake (which was carrot, and banana, and DELICIOUS!) – Liv even hand-dyed some of the bridesmaids’ dresses to match the soft pink palette.

All the personal touches lent themselves perfectly to this kind of wedding – the kind filled with a relaxed, cozy kind of love, the kind celebrating two people who are amazing as individuals, but even better together. The day ended with lots of dancing, a crackling fire, and the making of s’mores. Perfection.

I remember meeting with Mio & Dave for coffee on a cozy winter evening in Brentwood. It wasn’t our first time meeting – her sister-in-law (hi Joyce!) is one of my closest friends and Mio and I were bridesmaids together in Joyce’s wedding. Knowing how awesome Mio & Dave are, I walked into the meeting with all my mental fingers crossed – as they described their dreamy venue {Ponte Winery in Temecula} and vision for the day {an elegant “French country” theme}, I crossed my fingers a little tighter, when she expressed that her mom would be doing the flowers and that the wedding would be a labor of love, I was practically bouncing off the cafe walls in hopes they would book me.

At the end of the meeting, Mio and Dave smiled widely and finally exclaimed, “okay the meeting was just a formality, we knew we wanted to book you from the beginning!” Insert lots of laughter and cheering and happy coffee toasting :)

Their wedding truly was as lovely as they described to me. Mio & her mother worked closely to pull together the rustic theme with bird cages, mossy letters, and opulent florals. They utilized a red and green color scheme that was impressively non-Christmas-y (which I love – you can see another geniusly executed red-and-green wedding here!). They incorporated cultural traditions (like a sake ceremony), but also threw in their own traditions, like having a pie bar (PIE! BAR! THAT’S A BAR OF PIES!) in lieu of traditional wedding cake.

It was a beautiful day and I felt so honored to be there to document it!

{ Thank you to Elizabeth Anne Designs for featuring this wedding! }

In my last post, I mentioned how I felt so lucky to photograph two super sweet and intimate courthouse weddings in the same day! Kaitlin and John were the second couple I met up with that afternoon – from the moment I saw them I could tell how giddy and excited they were to tie the knot. We chatted a bit in the courthouse hallways, they had their ceremony with just the two of them (and I got to serve as the witness!), then we strolled around outside for portraits, where they discreetly opened up a celebratory bottle of champagne for a couple shots! :)

On my way up to the courthouse, I had spotted a cool open lot + alley area just steps away that had beautiful light and pretty pastel colors – I mentally crossed my fingers that Kaitlin & John would be up for shooting there, and was so excited when they happily went along with the idea. I so love when clients trust my vision for shots, even with locations that on first glance seem not so picturesque. Had so much fun with them both!