You might remember Laura + DeeJay from their fun engagement session at their middle school. Well their wedding did not dissapoint. It has to be one of the most relaxed and unique weddings I’ve ever shot! And it had soooo many fun details. We started with the Chinese tradition where the groom has to answer questions from the girls to get to the bride. (Hilariously funny!) After was the Chinese Tea Ceremony at the groom’s house. Then we headed over to the park for a casual party and BBQ. All the guests had a strict (but very fun) dress code. The girls wore tea length dresses, flats and a hair piece (even me! I had way too much picking my outfit!) and all the guys wore hats and suspenders. It was a fantastic Labor day wedding celebration!

Park: Monte Verde
Dresses: Anthropologie
Flowers: The White Lotus

How much do I love Chinese culture?! A lot, thanks for asking.

The ceremony site.

Laura’s mom walking her down. How cute are their hairpieces?!

Short, sweet and to the point ceremony.

The brightly colored fun wedding party!

Thank you Laura + DeeJay for sharing your amazing day with me!

My dear friend Kristin got really sick when she went to Ethopia to adopt her baby and she wasn’t feeling 100% for this wedding. (Her adoption story is amazing; read about it here.) So I filled in. It was such an amazing experience and I’m so glad I was able to do it for her.

“Dana,
Thank you so much for being an amazing photographer. We really enjoyed working with you and we’ll be most definitely referring people to you as well as Kristin! We are really looking forward to seeing how the photos looked. You were an amazing pinch-photographer and we are grateful to have worked with you on our wedding. In short: you rock!
Sincerely,
Audrey and Sam”

They are the sweetest! How gorgeous does Audrey look in her Stephanie James dress and how dapper does Sam look?!?!?! I can’t wait to blog this whole wedding!

Cheryl + Chad got married in a beautiful park in Dana Point and had their reception at a cute little cottage in San Clemente. Here’s a few of my faves:

Ceremony: Latern Bay Park Dana Point
Reception: Historic Cottage in San Clemente

Love this shot of the guys by my 2nd shooter Jeret.

Lantern Bay Park:

Really cool ceremony details.

Practicing their dance.

Successful at their actual dance!

Jamie + Jaime have the same name and great smiles. And that’s why we love them! We got to spend extra time with them with two fun engagements: Here and Here. Jamie was also in Lindsey’s wedding and Lindsey was in hers!

Ceremony: St Matthews Church
Reception: The Mission Inn

Jamie was one of the happiest brides I’ve ever seen! She was grinning from ear to ear all day.

Love shooting in St. Matthews. Lots of light and lots to work with.

This was one of my favorite weddings ever, shot at Ponte Winery. It was a super easy relaxed day with just the right amount of time for pictures, everyone was easy going, gorgeous and happy! It was very sweet and emotional. I don’t think I’ve ever laughed or cried as much as I did at this wedding. It was extremely hard to choose pictures for the blog; I hope I did it justice!

Lindsey and Patrick are beautiful on the outside and inside.

Hello blue eyes!

Good looking wedding party.

Reception details.

First dance.

I just love this of Lindsey and her dad.

Lindsey’s grandma and grandpa.

The groom is a twin so there were 3 sets of twins at this wedding, so of course there needed to be a dance off! I’m obsessed with twins and dancing so when the two combine- I’m ecstatic!! I love how all the twins are in similar positions to each other. The girls won by a landslide!

One of the twins before the dance off.

Lindsey’s mom surprised them with an old car.