And when he turned around, his eyes saw that same beauty standing before him. All he could do was step forward and take her in his arms."

This was a First Look moment that I described at a wedding in June of 2008, but this same exact feeling takes place with every First Look that Jeff and I photograph. What is a First Look? Its when a bride and groom decide to see each other before the ceremony in a private and intimate moment. There are tons of reasons why we love First Looks, but I thought that I would share just the most common reasons to consider seeing each before your ceremony.

(Of course, we will never force anyone to do a First Look if they don't want to. Its your day and we will do everything in our power to make it perfect!)

1. We pick the location

If you see each other before the ceremony, Jeff and I are given the freedom to pick the best location possible for this amazing moment. We can consider depth, lighting, texture and privacy to make the moment as memorable and beautiful as possible. For example, our most recent First Look took place with Amy & Garett at The City Library in Salt Lake City, Utah, which was fifteen minutes away from their ceremony site. We were able to set up an amazing perspective of their first moment together because were given the freedom to choose the location.

2. We capture the emotion

When you see each other for the first time in a private location, both of you can express your emotions much more freely than when you are standing in front of your guests. We will be able to give you 5-10 minutes to just be together, talk to each other, say how excited you are, and take in the moment. For many couples, this is the only time that they get to spend by themselves on their wedding day!

3. We can go to cool locations

When our couples choose to see each other before the ceremony, we have the ability to take pictures at locations that wouldn't be possible between the ceremony and reception. For example, we spent an hour taking pictures inside of the gorgeous Mission at San Juan Capistrano with Jeff and Meredith in August of 2008, which wouldn't have been possible after the ceremony. Instead, we had tons of fun beforehand and they were able to mingle with guests during the cocktail hour. We've also been able to tromp through meadows and trek up sand dunes, all for some incredible images!

5. We get to have fun

Your wedding day is ultimately about celebrating your love and commitment to each other, and we want you two to have the best experience possible. The First Look gives us the flexibility and time to relax, have fun, and capture your love for each other!

Gondolas, romance, bridges, cafes, balconies, canals, and most of all, “amore” surround every corner of this small and yet fantastically monumental city. This is John and Christie, and this is Venice, Italy!!

Jeff and I just spent the most wonderful four days of our lives with newly married John and Christie in Venice, Italy, on their honeymoon. Yes, you read that correctly, their honeymoon! We will be posting MUCH more later when we return to the US, but we wanted to post a sneak peek for all of those out there who I know are dying to see some of the images!

Jeff and I are spending our last night in Venice tonight (Friday), and we will be relaxing it up in a villa in a Tuscany until next Friday – wahoo! We may be able to post more images while in Rome next weekend, so stay tuned!

For all of our wonderful clients and friends, we will be returning to the office on February 3 and will be able to return any phone calls or e-mails at that time!

Hugs,

Erin

As soon as I laid eyes on this perfect little orchard, a tiny piece of my heart flitted into its golden deliciousness and planted itself there.

And as always, we like to have fun!

For the past week I've been talking with Gary, a friend of Thomas and Sarah's. He got married back in August in Santa Barbara, and he wants to give his new beautiful wife, May, the most meaningful gift for their first Christmas together. Both of them love San Diego and want to retire here, and years from now they want to show their grandkids the love they shared as a young married couple. So what better way to capture San Diego and their young love than with a photo shoot in a wedding dress and tuxedo in the most beautiful place on earth?

So dearest May, on behalf of Gary, Jeff and I officially invite you down to San Diego on Tuesday, December 23, for a Christmas present that you'll never forget - your very own Day After Session in the city where you will retire and live happily ever after with your husband!

From the time of this post, you have six days to prep for your very own wedding shoot in your beautiful gown down here in San Diego! Gary has made all of the other preparations for you, and more details will come from us directly. For now, just know that your husband wants to give you not only his past and his present, but all of his future as well!

Merry Christmas!!

Jeff and Erin

For all you photographers out there - I shot most of these with the 135 f/2.0 (one of my favorite lenses ever). Some favorites:

My favorite....love it sooo much!

The light was amazing!

Beautiful!!

This is one handsome devil I couldn't resist a little self-portrait with light like that!!!

And when he turned around, his eyes saw that same beauty standing before him. All he could do was step forward and take her in his arms.

So I have to reveal a bit of the goofy side of Andrea and Scott. Apparently Scott had a little mishap the night before the wedding. In the wee hours of the night, Scott and the boys went to give each other high fives (because boys do that sort of thing in the middle of night...?) and one of the boys missed and hit Scott in the eye! All would be fine with the world, except there was a big purple scratch above his eye in the morning, which had to be touched up by the makeup artist before pictures... What a sport!

Lesson learned: A bunch of guys high-fiving in the dark = BAD IDEA.

Beautiful cake courtesy of DelRio Cakes.

A big thank you goes out to all of the amazing vendors!

DJ | Bobby Reynolds of HeyDJ

Video | Jeremy Hersch of SCF Video

Florist | Kimberly Camacho of Enchanted Gardens Florist

Cake | DelRio Cakes

I had this conversation while packing up our camera bag after Joe and Courtney had driven away. Their guests were mingling in the banquet room, laughing, crying, and saying their goodbyes to one another. These two are very special people. It only happens every so often, but sometimes Jeff and I are granted the privilege to photograph not only love between two people, but love between entire families and friends. Everyone at this wedding had their heart invested into the marriage of Courtney and Joe. Every person that took the time to attend the celebration had reasons beyond just a fun time. They came out of pure love for two people that were meant to be together.

Courtney and Joe - thank you for bringing us into your lives and allowing us to capture your contagious laughter, your enormous smiles, and your unconditional love for one another. Jeff and I were so blessed to be a part of such a celebration! Keep on celebrating the rest of your lives!

We love it when our couples decide to see each other before the ceremony, because we get to take pictures like this:

And then we get to play around for an hour!!

It was super overcast when Jeff and I arrived that morning (like gray, yucky, not good for skin tones overcast), but the sky cleared up just before picture time to gave us some perfect clouds and deep blue skies.

Coutrney's grandmother was seriously the cutest grandma! She had flown out to Southern California all the way from the east coast and was nothing but smiles the entire day!

I love how imperfect photos can actually be much more than perfect. The emotion in this picture is so warm and I love how the fuzziness of the image draws out the intimacy of the moment. I just had to share it!

This wedding was a family affair through and through. That's Joe's dad officiating the ceremony!

Now THIS is how you walk back down the aisle after getting married!! Wahoo!

Jeff is so stinkin' good at taking family portraits. This is how we Youngren's capture the traditional "three generations" picture! But like I said, this family was so excited just to be together that these kinds of moments were happening all night. We have loads more of these kinds of images filled with these amazing people!!

The golf course let us hijack some wheels for some shots on the putting green.

Ok seriously, what better way to enjoy the centerpieces, than to eat them? This is definitely the cutest and most creative spin on centerpieces that I've seen in a while!

The first dance. This is when the tears in the room began.

Dad and his toast. This is when the tears got bigger.

Pause for a moment: WOW. What could he be thinking as he says goodbye to his little baby girl with mom looking on in the background? All I have to say when I look at her father is powerful. (Unpause)

This is when their wasn't a single dry eye in the room! Jeff and I have witnessed some pretty powerful moments at weddings, but when Joe's mother danced with her son, everything and everyone came to a standstill and watched as she SANG in his ear the entire dance. I'm tearing up typing about it right now!

And now to the fun part of the night! Cake and dancing!

Like I said, the greatest grandma in the world! She was cuttin' a rug all night!

Here she is dancing with all of her children - you could tell that this family is super tight!

Chris and Tess are the calmest, most easy-going people you will ever meet. When her feet started to ache, Tess simply giggled and took off her shoes. When a sudden heat wave hit Austin, Texas, two day before their wedding, they simply shrugged and said, "We're getting married, that's all that matters."

They got married at the incredibly scenic Chapel Dulcinea in the hills around Austin. The view from the ceremony site is fantastically breathtaking and perfect for intimate, meaningful ceremonies. While Jeff and I, the spoiled San Diegans that we are, are not necessarily used to the Texas heat and humidity (mild understatement!), we absolutely loved the scenery and just couldn't get enough of the beautiful Austin landscape.

The absolutely gorgeous Chapel Dulcinea.

The chapel has a huge bell that you get to ring after you're announced as husband and wife. What a way to start!

As we were walking through the parking lot to take pictures at a spot nearby, we passed a super old Chevy truck that we just couldn't pass up.

Anyway, be sure you bookmark Paige's blog because she's going to put up some of her favorites from the shoot soon. For now, I wanted to share just a handful of images I snapped after our shoot. The sun had already gone down, so we were just working with the twilight light, and the 5D worked its magic! Isn't my wife amazingly beautiful? Dang, I'm a lucky dude!!

Erin's dress is so beautiful and flowy, I was in love with how it would move when she was strutting her stuff!!!

I think this was my favorite shot from our 3 minute session - the wind caught her hair just right, I just love the look in her eyes...what a hottie!!!