Kim + Matt – Bodega Bay – Compass Rose Garden Wedding

Kim and Matt’s Wedding was everything you’d expect from a day up on the northern coast of California.  A touch of wind, fog moving in, and a slight chill in the air.  It was my first time photographing at the Compass Rose Garden, and I loved it.  No wonder these two fell in love with this place.  Nestled back in among lush green trees with ferns dappling the hillside, it was a photographers best case scenario.  Everything was outstanding this day; The flowers were amazing, food was off the hook, the cheese spread clinched best in class, and some amazing toasts from friends and family were orated with excellence.  I have never seen someone get so emotional about shoes (Katie!).  There was also the wedding dress strap snap heard round the world, a wave at the dinner table, and some general craziness happening on the dance floor.

What follows are some of my favorites.  Hope you enjoy them. 

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Melissa + Scott – Upstate New York – Adirondack Wedding

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Bit of a side story here. I grew up on the east coast until I moved to CA when I was 16 years of age.  Man, what a cultural difference.  Southern California was like a foreign country. The styles, the freeways (The 5, The 405), Hal Fishman reporting what the Hollywood Stars were doing on the local evening news, the way people talked – it was all so different. But now I am one of them, and it’s the east coast (northeast) that is so foreign to me. There’s this immutable intensity that shrouds everyone, and for no particular reason. Maybe it’s the winters and ice and salt coupled with the bitter cold? But the moral is that I miss parts of it.  I miss those lush, fecund, green summers.  I miss rain squalls that brew off in the distance and march unstoppable, bringing a deluge of cascading sheets of rain, whether it’s needed or not. I even miss that intensity, which I rekindled – not on my own terms however – but a 1/2 mile from the car rental kiosk (sorry I missed the turn and stopped short guy.)  Nothing like getting a huge and agro middle finger waved at you for a greeting.  Ah, much as it ever was…  And with that, I give you Scott and Melissa’s Wedding in the Adirondacks.

Melissa and Scott have been together for a long time.  Like a loooooong time.  I didn’t know this until I got out to NY.  I mean, I had chatted with Melissa on the phone about some general details, but we didn’t go into great depth about her and Scott.  So it was a surprise when I kept hearing these repeated phrases as I walked around, sipping on a few beers at the rehearsal, “Yeah, I didn’t know if they’d do it, but here we are.”  And there I was as well, a few thousand miles from home photographing someone’s wedding in upstate NY.  Honestly, sometimes I have to step back and look at the duality of my job.  On one hand, it’s totally rad that I get to travel and photograph a couple’s destination wedding, and on the other hand, it’s absolutely ludicrous!  Either way, I was thrilled to have attended and been allowed the honor to capture Melissa and Scott’s wedding at the gorgeous Burlap and Beams. What follows are some of my favorites.

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