I love “engagement season”!  I am in the midst of it with several shoots in the last few weeks.  I’m so excited to share images from Cami and Jesse’s session in Sacramento.  We started off at a nearby park and then made our way down to the American River for their portraits.  The wildflowers were just amazing – poppies, bluebonnet and mustard flowers.  Oh and lots of foxtails – ouch!    Cami wore a gorgeous emerald green dress and the colors just popped for their session!  I am not huge into props for my sessions, but when I do use them I like to keep them fairly simple.  I have never shot with balloons in a session before, so I though it would be fun – we incorporated green and ivory balloons into a few shots… I started with five, and two popped on the way!  Darn!  My vision was balloons in a gorgeous wheat field.  It still worked out great.  LOVE these images and cannot wait for their July wedding in Lake Tahoe!

I had the pleasure of working with this beautiful couple, as a second shooter for my local fellow photographer, Nudrat Owens.  I shot the wedding with her back in December, and I’m just now getting around to posting some images from the day.

This was my second Indian wedding, and I LOVE photographing them! All of the color and the friendly people make me… HAPPY. I spent the morning with the groom and his family for preparations.  We then met up with the families at the Sikh Temple in West Sacramento for some traditions prior to the ceremony.  The ceremony itself was beautiful!  We took an afternoon break, and then headed over to the Citrus Heights Community Center for their reception. I loved it, thank you Nudrat for having me join you!

These two booked their June wedding with me a year ago over a Skype conversation. I finally met them for their engagement session this past weekend. They are super cute together, very sweet and I can tell they have fun together. I cannot wait to photograph their wedding next month on the UC Berkeley campus.

Just one quick share for now, of the engagement session that I did for Chris and Victoria over the weekend.  I am in LOVE with this image of this sweet, adorable and in love couple!  More coming soon. I cannot wait for their June wedding on the UC Berkeley Campus.

My husband and I just celebrated our eight year wedding anniversary with a beautiful weekend away.  My in-laws watched our kids for an entire 48 hours, while we escaped to one of the most amazing getaways in California – Wine Country!  I feel so lucky to live just an hour and a half away from the Napa and Sonoma regions.  My husband planned our whole trip, which included staying in the city square in Sonoma.  If you have not spent any time here, you need to!  My favorite restaurant that we ate at was The Girl & The Fig… WOW.  The food was incredible.  I highly recommend it!

Although we’ve tasted in Sonoma many times, this time we decided to take a wine tour with a driver, so that we could really enjoy the tastings and not have to be concerned about one of us being the designated driver.  We visited the historic Buena Vista Winery and Larson Family Vineyards.  After a lunch back at the square, we were taken to my favorite winery of the day – Peter Cellars Winery.   The owner was very charming and his wines were our favorite of the day.  They do tastings by appointment only, and I highly recommend checking them out!  Our last stop was  Gloria Ferrer, which had the best views of the day!

Saturday night we had dinner at the amazing El Dorado Kitchen.  There was a wedding taking place on the back patio with THE CUTEST photo booth I’ve ever seen.  The couple had their names / wedding date and some cute sayings on a giant black “chalboard”.  All of the guests had adorable paper mustaches, etc.  It was so adorable.  We then had a movie night at Sebastiani Theater, and saw Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, which ended up being a great BBC film. Forgive the silly photo below of my husband having a conversation with the manequin in the original theater old style box office. 

We wrapped up our trip with a couple’s massage at the Cottage Inn and Spa.  SO RELAXING!

While we were on our trip, I didn’t take too many photos, but I was definitely scouting the entire time.  I have to say that there are SO many gorgeous spots for photos in this beautiful part of California.  If you love the Napa/Sonoma area, I’m always open to traveling there for engagement sessions, and weddings of course (I have shot a handful in the area already).

I have been so excited to share these!  Back in February, I assembled a fabulous team of local Sacramento wedding vendors for an amazing afternoon of event fun!  It was a ton of work to plan and coordinate, but it went off without a hitch!  We worked with a model, and then a very good friend of mine and her sweet hubby!   My goal with the shoot was to create some beautiful wedding related images with a vintage styled look.  I originally was just going to put it together myself, but as I kept adding new vendors on, it started taking on a life of its own.  I approached Aimee from 2 Chic Events to see if she could help me pull it all together.  It would not have been as fabulous as it was without such a great team!  All vendors are listed below.

Thank you so much to everyone involved.  This was my first styled shoot, and I’ve been wanting to do it for several years.  It finally happened!

Venue – La Provence in Roseville

Photography – Lovely You Photography

Wedding Planner – Aimee, 2 Chic Events

Props and vintage goodies – The Find

Floral Design – Kristi from the Posh Posey

Makeup – Jennifer Haupt from I Make Beautiful

Cake – Sweet Cakes by Rebecca

Dresses – Enchanted Bridal

Men’s Wear – Selix Formal

Stationery – Stacey, Lovely You Photography (yes, I make beautiful stationery also!)

Calligraphy – Calligraphy by Hillary

Select clay hair flower pieces – Diane, DK Designs

Model – Julianna Steele

Couple – Scott and Alicia Parrish

It is so great to work with a couple that I really connected with!  They are super sweet, easy going, fun and I hope that they are moving from the Bay Area closer to me!    It was a really fun session – we shot by the American River.  It’s so pretty there… so much green, trees, and scary bicyclists!  Watch out, they ride fast on these trails.  The furbabies ended up in the water by the end of our evening… what pup could resist!    We had a great time, and I cannot WAIT for their wedding at Empire Mine in June!  So happy for you two, and excited for your wedding day!

I had a great Saturday in South Lake Tahoe photographing Nikki and Brian’s wedding at the Riva Grill.  My in-laws live full time on North Shore Lake Tahoe, so I always love shooting weddings in the area.  It snowed on our way there on Friday afternoon, so I thought I might be shooting the couple’s formals with snowy walkways.  It did clear up by Saturday morning, and most of the snowfall had melted.  I found some gorgeous spots for portraits, and it was a beautiful day!  Congratulations Nikki and Brian!

Wedding Venue – Riva Grill

Floral Design – Lavish Floral

Makeup and Hair – Altar Ego Makeup

DJ – Randy Harwick

Cake – Flour Girl Wedding Cakes

It is my “quiet season” and I have a million project going on right now.  One project that I’m totally excited about is a styled bridal/wedding shoot that I put together a few weeks ago with the collaboration of several amazing Sacramento vendors.  I have been wanting to do this for a LONG time, and finally in mid-February, I decided to just go for it.  I started making calls, and the project kept getting bigger and bigger!  Last week, we did it!  I had a “bride” model, as well as another “bride” and her real life hubby.  It was SO much fun for me, using my creativity and working with an amazing team of very talented wedding industry people here in Sacramento.

I need to keep these under wraps, as we are submitting them to a few of the larger wedding blogs out there, but here is just one image of the gorgeous Julianna.

More coming soon!

Let me begin this blog post by saying that I think I have found my new favorite wedding venue (from a photographers standpoint) in Northern California.  I fell in love with the old barn, turned romantic wedding chapel on the property.  Wow!  There ceremony took place just after dusk, and the only lighting was candles and twinkle lights hanging from the wreaths and barn beams (wedding photography by candle light – this was a first for me).

I shot this wedding for another local wedding photographer, Naomi Harrison.  Last year, she approached me and told me that her brother Paul was getting married and that she wanted me along with her to shoot the wedding.  It was a pleasure meeting and working with her lovely family on this amazing January wedding day.  I’m so excited to share my images from the day!  I would absolutely love to shoot at this gorgeous wedding venue again.  I hear that in the Spring, it is even more beautiful.  Here are images!