Hair and Makeup by Eliza Desch

Hans Fahden Winery

Hair and Makeup by the ever wonderful Eliza Desch

Flowers: Wine Country Flowers

It was great to see Camilla and to meet Cale for their engagement session. Camilla chose the Brown University campus as the backdrop for their engagement session. Camilla is now Alumni as of this May.. I know I said congrats already but for the record CONGRATULATIONS! I met Camilla after her dad and mom reached out to me when they were looking for a Photographer for Camilla and Cale’s wedding.
Engagement sessions are always so much fun! I was happy to finally meet Cale and it was really so nice just to walk around Brown and Thayer Street and shoot. It was really relaxing and care free for all of us. The weather was perfect.

Camilla and Cale are getting married this September on Fisher’s Island. Very excited to shoot there and to collaborate with a Thyme to Cook yet again! Stay tuned this is going to be a great wedding!

Flowers: Lush Floral

Hair and Makeup: Erica Carr First time working with her, but I must say, Erica is top notch!

Their first sight brought Marita and I to tears…

I adore this photo of you Marie, you look stunning!

Their favors rocked. I like them so much I may steal this idea for next years big wedding! Napa Valley canvas totes!! And for you east coasters out there they even have one for Nantucket. LOVE!

‘nuf said.

Flowers: Branch Floral Design

Hair and Makeup: Sherrie Long Hair & Makeup Effects

I love it when couples do a first sight!

They got ready at Hotel Avia in Napa

Flowers: My near and dear friend Jennifer from Lush Floral. We were worried they wouldnt make it til Monday (the bouquet was made on Thursday night!) But Jenn’s flowers are so lush they still looked great 5 days later!

Makeup: Jenny Bowker. This girl works wonders! And all in less than an hour! If I could clone her and bring her to Cali for my brides I would.

The cameras below were my grandpas. Yep. It runs in the family. He used to be a photographer back in WWII and then did nature photography after that. Oh, and grandma worked for Kodak. Its in the blood I tell you!

During the ceremony our officiant Annemarie Juhlian had us put letters in a keepsake box (an old Kodak slide carousel) I love that she incorporated this into the wedding. The letters are one from me to Matt, one from Matt to me and one from both of us to the baby on the way. We’re going to read the letters on our anniversary next year… which in turn will also be our vow renewal. Yep, were having a BIG California wedding next year on our anniversary. Less than a year to plan it… we better get started huh?

To see more photos visit Laura’s Blog or check out even more on Facebook.

Since Matt’s whole family is from the East Coast and couldn’t make it out we live streamed the ceremony for them. There were a few hiccups and stressful moments getting it set up and working properly but it was so worth it in the end having them “there”

Matt SO wanted to do this pose. He knows how much I love Grace Ormonde Magazine and how they always have the guys hold bouquets. Thanks babe, for making the bouquet look manly.

Everyone that sees the wedding photos comments on this ring shot. LIKE EVERYONE!

First off: Cupcakes! A simple yelp.com search yielded crazy good reviews about a place called Trophy Cupcakes. When I looked at their menu  I was in heaven and wanted to go to Seattle immediately  to taste test every single one on the menu. When it comes to cupcakes Im not a simple girl. I like the “foodie style decadent” cupcakes. Not plain Vanilla with chocolate frosting. Dont get me wrong, if you put any cupcake in front of me it will be gone in 3.2 seconds! But doesn’t a snickerdoodle cupcake sound so much more enticing than a vanilla cupcake? The snickerdoodle is a “cinnamon and sugar swirled butter cake with cinnamon butter cream.”  YUM!

And not to mention Martha Stewart herself gives this place a thumbs up! Sold! Two dozen cupcakes please! We decided to go for an assortment of everything that was on the menu. I like cupcakes so much that when I buy a dozen I cut them in quarters to taste test. That way everyone there can try a little bit of each. It pains me to think that I didnt get to taste a cupcake flavor. Crazy addiction huh?

We will be serving these right after the ceremony with champagne… because its always cool to have dessert before dinner right?

For dinner locations we googled “seattles best restaurants” and landed on The Purple Cafe. No joking you it was the first place we looked at. The menu and their “private dining” area screamed Matt and Tiffany. Its kind of like an casual cafe/wine bar that serves small dishes (for taste testers like ourselves) and normal dinner entrees. Add in that this cool place has a “private” area between two wine walls that holds 12 (how many people will be at our wedding) people and we were sold. It was almost too easy! But then again, were such laid back people which I think makes decision making super easy…

Here’s where we will be having dinner. Has that Napa feel but in the city huh?

Ok, the wedding is tomorrow…. You’ll just have to wait and see how this all pans out! Wish us luck and Ill be back in the office replying to emails again on the 28th of June!

Well I’m not going to lie, that was something I started researching a few months ago, so it doesn’t really fit into my “how to plan a wedding in 30 days or less theme” I started doing research on all of the regular sites: the knot, weddingwire, projectwedding and just started bookmarking photographers whose work I knew we would both like.

Matt and I come from the same mindset that we wanted something that was timeless and classy, a mix of both photo journalistic and traditional portraiture (with a flair of course). We wanted someone whose work wouldnt look ” so 2010 ” in 20 years from now. Timeless.

So I bookmarked. And researched. Googled. And bookmarked.

And then I was on the phone with one of my friends Jeff De La Cruz last month and he said “oh, you should hire Laura Marchbanks, we went to school together with her at Brooks, do you remember her?” I said that name sounded so familiar. Did I bookmark her?

Then, the next day I was on the phone with one of my best friends Erica Hartman, also a photographer. She explains to me that she’s photographing another photographers family. Wee bit of pressure eh? I ask who it was… you guessed it. Laura!

All signs led to Laura Marchbanks! I finally contacted her. On May 28th. Yes, we waited until 3 weeks before the wedding to book our photographer, but to our defense A LOT has been going on and our wedding was on a Monday. She was available! We chatted on the phone and it felt like talking to an old friend ( not to mention she sounds exactly like my friend thats taking my underwater maternity portraits this Saturday! More on that in a few weeks)

It just felt right, and like I said, all signs led to Laura! Here’s a sampling of her work on her main site, and blog. One of the things I love about her website is her About Me page. You must scroll through and read them all, and make sure to watch the videos. Oh, her contract also states that she will eat cake at the wedding. When I read the “cake clause” I knew we were the right match!

Next post up… food!