Sherry & Brent, from Canada to Santa Barbara

I had the honor of shooting Sherry and Brent's wedding here in Santa Barbara. They are both from Canada and decided to have their wedding in Santa Barbara. Sherry's daughter lives here and they've been here many times so they knew how beautiful it would be to have a ceremony here.

It was a beautiful, private ceremony with a total of 13 guests, made up of their closest friends and family. The ceremony was held at Unity Church; afterwards we walked around Alice Keck Park and the Santa Barbara Court House, winding up at the Biltmore Four Seasons where they planned a nice intimate wedding day dinner.

It was an honor to be included in their day and everyone was so wonderful. Here are some favs.

Good food, good wine, good friends... good times!

It's always so much fun when we get together with Greg and Beth. Greg and my brother Rolando used to work together and have known each other through the years my brother and his family were in Europe. They all lived in Europe and now they're all back here in Santa Barbara. Actually, Greg and Beth are only here part of the time which is a bummer, but we'll take any time with them we can get. Aren't Ro and Greg cute together! hahaha!

Like I said, good food, lots of wine, good people... great times!

Matina's Senior Portraits in Santa Barbara, CA

I had a ton of fun shooting Matina's Ponderosa High School Senior Portaits for her yesterday! She's on vacation in Santa Barbara and wanted that Southern California feel to her shots so we ran around Santa Barbara and wound up at the beach.

Only in California do you run into a regular banjo and fiddle get together and a hoola hoop get together in the same day at the same park. Every Wednesday at 5pm, a group of people get together and have a kinda blue-grass jam session. People would show up walking or on a bicycle with their instruments, meet up with good friends and then just start jammin... way cool. On the other side of the park, every Wednesday at 5pm, people would show up and have a little picnic, pull out their hoops or spin balls and would just go to town! Again, way cool.

Matina did a little bit of everything yesterday, sat with the fiddlers, hula'd with the hula hoopers, played in the playground on the swings, ran in the surf, played with dogs on the beach, skateboarded, ate pizza and ice cream and was also a rockin model!

Here are some of my favs.

Adriana & Michael's wedding at the Santa Barbara Historical Museum

What a great weekend, busy and fun! Friday started Adriana and Michael's wedding weekend with a rehearsal at the Santa Barbara Historical Museum and a rehearsal dinner at El Paseo restaurant in downtown Santa Barbara. Family, friends, great food and pitchers of Margaritas... what else do you need?

Karen and Craig drove up Friday night for the wedding and a great friends daughter also came along to shoot this wedding. Andriana loves photography and is really getting into it so I asked her if she wanted to come along and see what wedding photography's all about, first hand. I was super happy she came along, she's a doll and it was a pleasure having her there. I was also happy she was there because this wedding was a good size, 350+ guests and a wedding party of 20, awesome!

Everything was beautiful and everything went as planned, talk about awesome planning! Adriana was especially beautiful in her dress... the bead work was incredibly detailed. Her dad walked in and saw her for the first time in her dress and just stared. I did the same when I saw her too! The ceremony was held in the lower area of the museum, right in front of a vine covered trellis. All the bridesmaids started crying when Adriana started walking down the aisle. Michael also lost it the first time he saw her.

The dinner was served in the upper courtyard by Pure Joy Catering. The toasts and speeches started before dinner and I must say that the best man's speech was one of the funniest speeches I've heard in a long long time! The food was amazing and everyone partied hard right to the end.

Michael surprised Adriana with a horse and carriage ride that took them from the museum to their suite at the Canary Hotel downtown. Here are some favs from the day.

The girls started their day out at Mishay Salon on De La Vina, catching up on celebrity gossip, getting their hair and make up done... the usual. Everyone was so nice and calm and they were having a blast.



The guys on the other hand were having a blast in a different way. Jammin music, dancing and an open bar. On a side note, there was this incredible sand rail at the house that I couldn't stop drooling over. This thing was amazing, polished aluminum everything, full electronics and an aluminum block Corvette engine that puts out around 500 horse...... ok sorry, back to the wedding!

We all had a blast at the wedding and it truly was an honor to be a part of such a special day for Adriana, Michael and both families... thank you so much!