This Last weekend was pretty crazy. My good friend Doug came into town for a last minute vacation to L.A. It was a lot of fun, I hadn’t seen him since my wedding a year and a half ago, and it had really been too long.

I had this wedding planned for a couple weeks. I assisted/shot second for Kelly Segré of Ventura. It was a very relaxing wedding, and the couple was a lot of fun. The venue, Fess Parker’s Double Tree was absolutely gorgeous. Right next to the ocean in Santa Barbara, and within walking distance of the pier. I’d really suggest checking it out for a your wedding venue. The staff is also top notch, very professional, personable, and on top of everything.

Anyway, the timing couldn’t have been better. Doug came out on Friday, we all spent the evening talking, hanging out, drinking mudslides, having my famous grilled chicken with a family recipe sauce, until early in the morning. Doug had some friends he wanted to visit on Saturday, so it was perfect, I shot the wedding, he hung out with friends, and everyone was happy.

I didn’t take any photos with Doug, but I did manage to take some at the wedding.

Enjoy!

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This past weekend I shot a wedding as a second photographer for Juan Turcios, a great Los Angeles based Wedding Photographer. Robert and Laura got married at the beautiful Union Station in Los Angeles. Union Station is perfect for hosting weddings and other events, it’s full of character and incredible architecture.

We started out the day at the Westin Hotel in Downtown Los Angeles. The view from the hotel was incredible, we could see the whole city from the 33rd floor, even the Disney Concert Hall. When Laura was in her beautiful wedding dress we went directly to Union Station where they had their gorgeous fall themed wedding.

If you ever have a chance to have a Union Station Wedding, by all means go for it. There’s nothing quite like getting married with a backdrop of a romantic 30′s styled train station. There’s something so “Old Hollywood” about Union Station that I love. It creates such an incredible atmosphere.

Here are some of the photos that I made during the day:

Åse and Stephan are from Sweden. They’re a very relaxed easy going couple, and fun to work with as well. They’ve been together for about 17 years now, and have two kids; 7 and 10.  They live in a small town, and have been planning their Los Angeles beach wedding for about a year without anyone finding out. They want it to be a surprise to everyone back home in Sweden. They even planned on announcing their destination wedding nuptials via the local newspaper! Stephan works for an American company based out of Santa Monica, and stayed a stone’s throw from the Santa Monica Pier.

They flew out on tuesday for their destination wedding in Los Angeles, and got married on Friday at the Trump National Golf Club.  The ceremony itself was tiny…It was the priest Staaphan, two witnesses, and me. It was such a beautiful wedding with the cliffs of Rancho Palos Verdes in the background, the ocean, the clear blue skies. We really couldn’t have asked for a more beautiful day. Åse had told me that she mostly just wanted some photos of the ceremony and a couple portraits afterwards.. she said about 10-15 photos. For a 1 hour session like this I’ll usually hand over about 25 quality select photos… but since there was a ceremony as well, I had to capture those moments too. I always try to under-promise, over-deliver… and this time was no exception. She ended up with a total of 84 photos. I hope she like them!

I usually don’t offer 1 hour wedding packages, but Åse just wanted portraits and a couple shots at the ceremony and had promised that it wouldn’t go over 1 hour. It was one of the most fun, easy “weddings” that I have ever shot!

Here are a few of the photos:

We decided on Trippet ranch in Topanga State Park in Los Angeles California to photograph their wedding photos. I love this park! I used to go there as a little kid. There’s a nature trail where you can see the ocean, and picnic area… it’s a great place for photos and to just hang out and relax…. I plan on doing another shoot here pretty soon.

Sarah and I got to Liz’s house in Tarzana at about 9:30 to get hair photos, and getting ready photos. We went to MAC at Nordtroms in the Topanga Mall. We had planned on getting back from make-up at around 12 noon, but we ended up getting back at 1:30, leaving us barely any time to take family photos before the wedding at 3. Which didn’t happen because It was too hot outside to take photos, and the church wasn’t open until 2:30.  Which meant we didn’t get to take formal family photos. At least we had planned to take couple shots a week or two after the wedding. So we got out of the wedding at about 5:30, and got to the Royal Palace in Glendale around 6 or so. Fortunately there was enough time to set up and get ready for the grand entrance, and take some detail shots.

After all of that the evening went really well. and we had  a ton of fun dancing around and taking all sorts of photos… there was even a belly dancer.

Here are some images that we made during the wedding:

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Alysha and Edgar Gonzales got married today at Casa Sirena Hotel in Oxnard Ca. The wedding area was beautiful, and I got some great shots. A boat owner even let us get on their boat and get some photos there, we lucked out.

We got home around 12, and I’m recharging my batteries, and transferring all of the images, Got another wedding at 9 a.m. tomorrow.I can’t wait!

Here’s a few that I got today: