Rachel + James | Rios-Lovell Estate Livermore Winery Wedding

I’ve been shooting wedding photography for about 7 years now.

Rachel met me in my second year of photographing weddings full time when I photographed her brother’s wedding. At that time I got to get close with the family, fell in love with all of them. In instantly felt a connection with Rachel. We both had the same silly personalities. Creative minds. Always laughing. Let’s just say I had my fingers crossed that our paths would meet again.

The day came that Rachel got engaged to James, and soon after I got the e-mail asking me about photographing her wedding. I was damn ecstatic at the possibility of hanging out with this girl again and getting to photograph her wedding. Of course, I got further excited when she showed up to her engagement session with James with her fluffy dog friend in Scott’s Valley. So not only did we have everything else in common, but she was also a dog lover. Can we say Bride/photographer soul sisters? I think so.

Let me tell you about how much I love photographing James and Rachel. They are a breath of fresh air. I swear the whole time I am photographing these two half the time my side is hurting from laughing so much. It’s not often I find people that make my laugh more than my own terrible jokes.  There were definitely times that we had to take deep breaths to get that romance flowing for some of the portraits. It was a challenge, but a good challenge to have. We kept laughing together as the sun fell down over at Rios-Lovell Estate Winery, and had to remember that time was running out for portraits. We quickly got it together and made some magic happen.

Magic had to happen.

Not only were these two darlings, but just look at Rachel’s fashion! Hot damn. Or should I say… Haute Damn! Rachel was completely dressed in pretty things from Haute Bride Couture. Anyone that knows me knows that I might be slightly obsessed with everything at their boutique! Add in touches from The Little Flower shop and Rachel and her mother’s store The Owl box, and there was a whole lot of WOW going on.