This San Francisco wedding took place at St. Dominic’s Church and Terra Gallery.  It was a pleasure and great fun to photograph the wedding of my friends Rosi and Eddie. In spite of the threatening clouds in the sky that day, it did not end up raining.  Rosi and Eddie held their ceremony at the beautiful St. Dominic’s Catholic Church in the Lower Pacific Heights neighborhood of San Francisco. With English Gothic-style architecture, the arches and carved marble provided a great setting to the ceremony.

After the wedding, the entire wedding party did a shoot at Fort Point, located in the shadow of the Golden Gate Bridge. A lovely, iconic location to use for a backdrop. We also took shots near the San Francisco City Hall.

The reception was a fun and beautiful experience as well. It was held at the San Francisco event space Terra Gallery, where high ceilings and floor-to-ceilings windows provided a beautiful ambiance for celebrating. The caterer for the event was from the same place Eddie works, and made enough food to feed 500+ people! Rosi and Eddie also had a Mexican mariachi band that provided great music and atmosphere for the celebration while DJ Mixtec also kept the party going as the night went on. Everyone had the opportunity to let out their creative side with a one of the best Photo Booth in the Bay Area from SnapFiesta.

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Destination weddings are one of my specialties, and I write a lot about them on my blogs. I’ve also written articles in such publications such as Destination I Do Magazine, Ceremony Magazine and Destination Wedding and Honeymoons Magazine . Villa weddings in the Dominican Republic are some of the most romantic and intimate ways to tie the knot. As far as Caribbean weddings, Villa Flor de Cabrera located on the North Coast of the Dominican Republic is one of my favorite villas.

Located next to the town of Cabrera, Villa Flor de Cabrera is a fantastic choice for couples looking to get married in an exotic Dominican locale. Heike and Stephen are a lovely and quirky couple from Seattle who chose to have their close family present for their destination wedding.  They and their families were the exclusive guests of the villa for the entire week, and I had the privilege of being immersed in family life for several days while I took photos of all the festivities. Different activities were arranged for everyone to enjoy, from beach picnics to outings to the local cigar maker, Babanuco. Martha Cabrera, was the officiant for the wedding and did a fabulous job as always. The villa chef, Lubin, is a master at creating delicious creations from the local food supply, as well as procuring rare spices, high-quality meet and hard to find seafood. He did not disappoint for this occasion! The staff at the villa are all top notch. For more information on Dominican wedding villas, check out our Dominican Republic destination weddings guide.

Congratulations Heike and Stephen!

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I absolutely love San Francisco engagement shoots. New love is a captivating thing and there are so many awesome settings in this city to capture it. Tegan and Igor are really cute couple and it was fantastic to Golden Gate Park as a backdrop for the session. Igor is Russian like me, so we connected easily which contributed to a having a fun and relaxed shoot.

At Golden Gate Park we started at Stow Lake before moving on to the Palace of Fine Arts. After our time in the park, we headed to Baker Beach to capture shots in the shadow of the majestic Golden Gate Bridge. This lovely couple will be marrying next year at the beautiful Temple Emanu-El

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Another successful engagement session! The shoot I did with Rosi and Eddie was great, and particularly meaningful to me since Eddie is a friend of mine.  He is a bartender at a popular San Francisco nightclub where I have photographed frequently in the past, and so we’ve come to know each other well over the years. Being asked by Rosi and Eddie to photograph their engagement session and wedding was such a privilege. It’s always feels good when friends and family trust you with what will surely be one the most important days of their lives.

We held the session at the Fisherman’s Wharf to revisit the scene of Eddie’s proposal to Rosi. We moved into Musée Mécanique, the antique music and arcade machine museum, and captured some unique shots around the vintage machines. In keeping with the retro theme, the couple posed with a classic car from the 60′s. Another fun aspect to the shoot is that Rosi’s maid-of-honor, Irma, was the light-holder for the session!

Congratulations, Rosi & Eddie! Thank you for including me in your celebration!

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Most of us who have taken public transportation in San Francisco would hardly consider BART to be the setting for a modern day fairy tale. But for Caroline & Steve, a fateful train ride a few years ago led them to each other and to true love! Caroline is an architect and Steve is in PR, so both have a lot of vision. Although it took them a while to warm up at the beginning of the shoot, it wasn’t long before their creative and fun personalities surfaced for me to capture on film.

In this San Francisco-inspired engagement shoot, we ventured throughout the city by foot and BART while I captured the couple in various familiar city settings. We started at the Ferry Building at the Embarcadero, and then moved to 101 California Street with the oversized Christmas baubles. We also took shots on the iconic San Francisco cable cars, and as a tribute to their love story, at the BART station. We ended in the Mission, using the electrifying murals at Sycamore Alley as a backdrop to create a little video you can watch below. I was inspired by the use of stop-motion animation technique and applied the soundtrack to the film Run, Lola, Run. The images from this shoot were created by using a combination of motion blur and off-camera flash techniques combined with a slow shutter.

Another exciting part to this story is that Caroline & Steve chose me as the photographer for their wedding in Chicago in September! They are also having a photo booth from SnapFiesta, a division of Gene Kosoy Photography. I’m really exciting to head to the Windy City and photograph this awesome couple in a new setting.

Congratulations, Caroline & Steve! Thank you for letting me be a part of capturing a piece of your beautiful love story!

Sidenote: We were joined on the shoot by my assistant, Terry, who took some behind-the-scenes photos of me for his class project. You can check out a few of his images of me for his class project…which I am happy to say he aced!

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