Ninon and Dave's wedding in Los Gatos, CA

Ninon and Dave's wedding day was well planned by Loretta Goleman of the Opera House, allowing family and wedding party to enjoy themselves as the big moment approached.

The days events all took place at the historic Opera House in downtown Los Gatos. A short walk from the Toll House Hotel where most of the guests were staying. The town of Los Gatos is beautiful wherever you look and provided a nice background for the weekend. We used the neighboring park, with towering redwoods, and a hidden alleyway for many of the portraits.

Taylor Pham, a make-up artist with her own line of eyelashes, caught everyones attention as she worked getting the bride ready. Meanwhile the staff worked hard readying the reception area. The room was set with some wonderful ideas for making the special day more special. The Bride and Groom rented a photo booth and had a table for the guests to customize their guestbook pages with photos, stickers, and colored pens. There was also a photo tree showcasing various family members.

The reception was a blast. The DJ had the crowd on the dance floor right from the start and they never left. Well, maybe once for cake, but really that was it. When the night was over the bride and groom made a quiet, romantic exit and wandered slowly down the street back to the hotel.

Ninon and Dave's rehearsal dinner in Saratoga, CA

We flew from Austin to Los Gatos for this wedding weekend. We met Ninon and Dave when we shot Emily and Brian's wedding in the Napa Valley region last summer. When they asked us to fly out to California for their wedding this summer, we jumped at the chance.

After we checked into the very comfortable Toll House Hotel, the weekend started with the wedding rehearsal at the Opera House in Los Gatos. This was followed by the rehearsal dinner at a friend of the families house in Saratoga. Let me describe this with a big "WOW". The weather was absolutely perfect as were the surroundings. This house overlooked the whole valley below and the grounds were amazing. Three long tables were set up with beautiful centerpieces and flowers provided by Bloomsters. The wine was from the on-premises vineyard which surrounded the house. The meal was served buffet style and smores, cooked on the firepit, rounded out the menu.

The evening ended with a slide show of Ninon and Dave and guest toasts. Oh, and the full moon hovering over head. Lovely!

I'll post the wedding images tomorrow. Check back!

style me pretty blog

We were recently featured on the wonderful style me pretty blog. If you haven't visited this site before, please do. It has many unique weddings and some great ideas. Our posted wedding is Paul and Melissa's wedding at Mayfield Park. Paul is a garden designer and florist and made all the table centerpieces and arrangments for the wedding. Take a look and get some new ideas for your wedding.

Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk

After our destination wedding in Los Gatos, we took a drive down to Santa Cruz yesterday to walk along the beach and on the 101-year old boardwalk. Which, by the way, was voted the worlds best seaside amusement park in the world in 2007. I'm not actually sure who voted on this but I did see a sign.

Most important for this trip was a spin on the historic Giant Dipper, first opened in 1924. We scored the first car on the old rickety wooden coaster. What it lacks in huge drops and lightening speed, it made up for in out-of-your-seat bumps and scary jerky turns. Check out stella clenching her teeth as we take one of the crazy shakey turns. I almost lost my camera on this one. This is the type of coaster where you're not sure if the train is going to stay on the tracks or not. Great fun.

We also took the sky ride which ran along the beach and provided cool views of all the rides and the boardwalk. Stella took this photo of me which I think would be perfect for a jacket photo if I were to ever compile all these amusement/carnival photos I take and put out a book or something. The day ended with a nice sunset. This was our last day in California and it was a fitting end to a really nice trip.

Motel

Pismo Beach

We spent the day at Pismo Beach yesterday. We stopped on a drive from L.A. to Los Gatos.

scott and stephanie

we wanted to send a big shout out to scott and stephanie. they were our lovely hosts for the past week. we really enjoyed hanging with them and their dog, chimpy (see previous post).
this photo was taken on their fourth wedding anniversary, the "flowers and fruit" year.

The Wetlands, Huntington Beach, CA

Chimpy waiting (two views)

The Kids

We went to the Getty Museum yesterday in L.A. There was a fantastic exhibit of August Sander's photos. His photos really capture the personality of the subject, dropping any pretense and showing the sitter in a very unabashed state.

During the evening, the Getty was hosting a live music set by Dan Deacon and the crowd was ecstatic. I hope this photo, like Sander's, lets you in.

Yin and Yang

buddha dog

we are in long beach, ca visiting our friends scott and stephanie. this one is from their backyard. the weather here is fantastic. a hair under 75 degrees today. we spent the day walking on the beach and looking at all the wonderful SoCal architecture.

neighborhood findings

yesterday morning i went for a walk in my bouldin creek neighborhood. these are the things i found. the previous morning i saw green parrots eating sunflowers in my yard and screech owls on the wire at dusk.

-stella

Happy Fourth of July

Hope you all had a fun 4th of July. After a fun day of hanging out with friends, we took a nice walk down to Auditorium Shores and watched the fireworks. -brian

Amy and Richard's Driskill wedding

We spent this past Saturday at the Driskill Hotel in downtown Austin, helping celebrate Amy and Richard's wedding. The always amazing Amy and Scott of Amy's Platinum weddings were the coordinators and David Kurio, who out did himself, was the florist.

The day started at 10am with an elegant brunch held upstairs off the Mezzanine in the Maximillan room.

Then the bride and her bridal party, her daughter Katya was the maid of honor, went upstairs to get ready. While the guys went over to Belvedere's on Congress Avenue for a shave.

An intimate group gathered in the Crystal room for the ceremony, and then on to the newly renovated Victorian Room for the reception. It was beautiful. The theme was Asian, with sushi and sticky rice, a wok station and fortune cookies. The room was drapped in red and black with asian simplicity. The band Tres provided an elegant jazz backdrop to the event.

The day ended with everyone hanging outside on The Driskill's front patio enjoying the perfect weather.