Over the last few weeks I’ve been reaching out to a select group of vendors whom I know could help make these shoots absolutely magical.  One of the vendors I contacted was Lollipop Events & Designs.  Lollipop is run by a triumvirate of talented ladies–Vanessa,Jen and Cortnie–all of whom have known each other since the ninth grade.  They’ve quickly become one of the most sought-after event planning vendors in California.  We’re all from the Encinitas area so we’d all bump into one another quite often, and we’ve been dying to work together for the last several months.  So when Vanessa called me a few weeks back to express interest and run some ideas by me, I was thrilled!

Their concept was “Wild Seaside Garden” and we selected a small area next to the La Jolla Bridge Club, just down from The Cove.  The bridal model, Ren, was gorgeous, talented, and such a pleasure to photograph.  The groom model, Kiptyn, who was recently featured on “The Bachelorette” TV show, did a fantastic job as well!  We also teamed up with Isari Flower Studio for the gorgeous florals; the über-talented Alisa Benay provided the gown and head piece; the jewelry was created by Noaki Schwartz of Noaki Jewelry; Kip’s styling was done by Tam Ashworth for Stylish Silhouette; the wedding cake was created by Truly Scrumptious; makeup was beautifully done by Jennifer Budner.  Special thanks to Girard Avenue Collection for the chairs and “I Love You” blocks; gourmet chocolates were provided by Dallmann Confections; hair styling was done by Jamie Rosa from Orange Blossom Salon.

Now, let’s get down to some tech-talk…

We wanted to keep everything looking pretty simple in terms of lighting.  Most of the still life/food images were made using natural light, which was open shade.  We mixed in a white reflector where necessary.  We got a little more creative when the models, Ren and Kiptyn, were photograph.  The main light was a large Chimera softbox camera left, about 6 feet from the subjects.  We also had one ProFoto strobe (with standard reflector), camera right, as a kicker to throw some light on the bottom half of the frame where we were getting a little fall-off from the main light.  We also had another ProFoto strobe behind and to the right of the models to provide some edge light.

There were so many great elements in this shoot, all of which are best described in Cortnie’s words on the Lollipop Blog!  You can also catch a recap on the Ruffled Blog (parts I, II), which was kind enough to feature the shoot!

Special thanks to all the vendors who made Erin and Scott’s wedding so great:  Melissa Barrad at I Do… Weddings! for her fantastic coordination; Haydee de la Cruz from Haydee’s Creative Flowers for her magnificent floral design; Sumi’s Oven for the gorgeous wedding cake; and Sarah at FuzzyNk Design Studio, not only for her beautiful design work on Erin and Scott’s wedding stationery.  Most importantly, special thanks to Erin and Scott for giving me the opportunity to create images of you on such an amazing day.

Web page capture of Scott and Erin's Scottish-themed wedding on StyleMePretty

This is an image from the Rains/Foster wedding, which was way back in 2004 at the Four Seasons Aviara. Amina and I have gotten some serious mileage out of this image–it also ran on the cover of Better Homes and Gardens’ Simply Creative Wedding Flowers magazine.

Here are the clips:

• Rob Machado
• Taylor Knox
• Jeff Booth
• Taylor Steele

You’ll need Apple QuickTime to view the clips. If you don’t have QuickTime installed, you can download it here.