We took the elevator downstairs to 6th Avenue in the Gaslamp, sometime afte 1 a.m. to grab a few street shots with April, and her man Jason

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We ended up having breakfast at the Hard Rock hotel the next morning and shooting a little more while walking off our Eggs Benedict and French Toast.

I always enjoy the father daughter dance (maybe because I have a little girl) but this was special for me because I had met Brian, the father of the Bride, nearly 20 years ago when we worked in a common industry.  I hadn’t seen him since then, and booking this wedding was purely ‘coincedental’ in that regard, so it was a real treat to be part of this moment for both Kim, and my old acquaintance Brian.

Much of the rest of the night was in Kim’s words “DanceFest 2008!” 

We took advantage of the new waterfall at L’Auberge to create a nice series of closing images for the night. 

Devon had a private room upstairs to get ready in…I took advantage of the roof : )

On to the ceremony at the wishing well:

Family played a huge role in the day for Devon and John.

While the guests enjoyed the coctail hour, we had a few minutes to ourselves.

Evening settled on the park, and everybody was in the mood to dance.

Flowers: The Floral Palette, Fairbanks Ranch

Coordination: Amorology Weddings

Catering: Coast Catering 

First of all, let me apologize for taking so long between blog entries. I’ve been working hard this season, honest! Since last saturday, I’ve been working on images from the wedding of Natalie and Aaron, which was hosted at a private residence in Fairbanks Ranch. I have too many favorite images to post here, so I may have to follow up with their slideshow when I get it done. 

Natalie and Aaron enjoyed what was truly a fairytale wedding. The residence itself was amazing, but all of the details really made it into a fairytale. Natalie owns and operates the nearby Floral Palette store in Fairbanks, so naturally she handled her own flowers and assorted details. I could write a whole post about just the details, but I have to fit the wedding in here too. Suffice it to say, the arrangements, the lanterns and the candles everywhere created a magical feeling for all in attendance.

 The ceremony went beautifully and the rest of the evening was a huge treat for their guests. Natalie and Aaron passed on some of the usual reception formalities and instead focused on creating a luxurious and relaxed soiree filled with amazing edibles and music. You’ll see what I mean in the photos below.

Let’s start with a few of the Bride:

Natalie’s Mom walked her down the aisle…

Again, I could write a whole post about the details, but I’ll just have to share a few here:

Friends and family enjoyed every aspect of the evening.

Barry at Coast Catering ran a display kitchen down in the cabana all evening, turning out one new tasty course after another.  Guests happily rotated in and out, sampling every new dish as Barry and staff plated them up. I had the pleasure of sampling the Campanelle Pasta, which was basically an extremely high end version of what you might think of as mac’n'cheese, except with Chantrelle mushrooms, butter nut squash, aged gruyere and chardonnay sauce. 

Finally, we did a few fun parting shots later in the evening, here is on of my favorites:

 It’s actually been a little while since I photographed the wedding of Sara and Mike up in Fallbrook. At the moment, they are laid out on a beach in Jamaica, enjoying their honeymoon. (Yay!) Sara and Mike are both school teachers, so they’re definitely enjoying one last hurrah before returning to middle school campuses again in a couple of weeks. Now that I’m finally finishing up work on my new site, I thought it was about time I shared some images.

The wedding was designed to be an intimate affair at a private residence, and it came together perfectly thanks to the work of coordinator Jenny from Luxe Special Events. They were able to make a private residence feel like a small resort, with a bar and candy favors by the pool and beautifully set tables in the garden. It was definitely a wonderful summer evening.

The guys broke out the cigars as the reception came near to close:

A little mystery in the garden…a closing shot:
   

I am very happy to finally announce that my new-and-improved website for wedding and portrait photography is up and running. Yay! It’s been a challenging couple of weeks since the upgrade involved moving parts of my site to new web servers and spiffing up things internally all the way around. There were a few days there were client galleries were down in some areas, along with most of my blog, but all of that has been taken care of and we’re back to business as usual, except that we’re even better than before. The site has a  great new look, and I’m looking foward to adding more new content, especially portrait images, since I’ve been doing more and more portraits these days. If haven’t been to my main website recently, you are invited to check it out!

The New DeFalco Photography Website

If you had the ‘old site’ bookmarked, it’s likely that it ended with “.com/index.html.” If that’s the case, your bookmark will need to be updated since there is no longer an index page when you land on the site. Just “.com” will do now. If you bookmarked your client gallery, you’ll want to update the link to include the word “clients” after “defalcophoto” so that it’s ‘”www.defalcophotoclients.com” or you can click the client access link to the right under the blog roll heading.

Thank You Everyone!

It may be June, but there’s was no “June Gloom” last weekend for the wedding of Sarah and Brad at the La Jolla Country Club. Despite 94 degree temperatures on the coast, everybody went with the flow, stayed cool in the shade, and had a fantastic day.

We started the day at Estancia, where Sarah and Brad were getting ready, each with their own family. Sarah’s Mother Elaine laced up the back of her dress while her brother Jack kept her cool with little hand held fans provided by planner extraordinaire Rachel Peniche.

This shot of Sarah is basically what photographers refer to, in short, as “SOOC” or ’straight out of camera” - Yep, she really looked that good:

This is Brad, about to turn around and see his Bride for the first time:

Sarah and Jennifer, Definitely Sisters.

Russ is relishing the walk and Sarah’s eyes are transfixed on her groom.

Sometimes you have to shoot from the rough at the Country Club.

We’ve all seen “the kiss” shot before….sometimes what happens right after the kiss is more fun!

Just like their engagement session - another beautiful La Jolla sunset.

The decor was largely black on black, with just the right amount of color added in.

The First Dance

During the Father-Daughter Dance

Father of the Bride, Russ Harris, sat in with the band for a smokin’ hot rendition of “Mustang Sally.” I could describe what a tight drummer Russ turned out to be, but I think the guitar player said it best to me later in private: “We’ve had Dad’s sit in with us before, but no one has ever been THAT good. He’s actually a really good drummer. Wow!”

Moments before the garter ritual……Sarah looking like she’s in old Hollywood.

Did I mention the guests had a great time too?

At the moment, I believe Sarah and Brad are comfortably ensconced in a bungalo over the water somewhere in Fiji. I wish them all the best!