Danielle & Ryan // A Marin Wedding Ft. Muir Woods & Pelican Inn

There’s a culture idea that a wedding has to be something extravagant and showy, and not necessarily a representation of who you are or what you like. It’s a toxic, money hungry game that values things over feelings, and after working in it for years I was tired and confused.

Enter Danielle and Ryan. They fell in love with California while traveling through from the East Coast and decided to get married here. We met up a few days before their wedding to take some photos and get to know each other. After wandering around Mount Tamalpais for a few hours and grubbing at Sol Food I felt like I’d known them my entire life.

Throughout their wedding they showed me the three pillars of a wedding that matter most, the things I still talk about in every chat I have regarding wedding culture:

1. Keep it small. You want to be surrounded by the people who matter most, not your third cousin twice removed who your mom really wants to come because she doesn’t want things to be awkward at next years family function even though you’ve only met them once (when you were two months old). This is such a special time, and you’ll want your attention on those who have helped you grow and mature as individuals and as a couple.

2. Go somewhere you love. I’ve been to venues where four (4!!!!!!!) weddings were happening at the same time. These places are built thinking about you as numbers, which you aren’t. As a side note, do you know how much a wedding in a state park costs? It’s much less than you think. Like much much less.

3. Take the time to relax. Memories are made when there is time to make memories. If you’re rushing you’re going to be thinking about the schedule and not the moment you are living in.

With those three things you are going to be setting your day up for maximum enjoyment.

I realize I haven’t really talked about the details of their actual wedding; it’s because I’m not entirely sure how to write about something this close to my heart. It feels weird to simplify a day so monumental in my mind to a few words on a screen, so I won’t. With that, enjoy this snippet from a day at Mount Tamalpais, Muir Woods, and Pelican Inn.

Erin & Kevin // A Mill Valley Wedding ft. The Outdoor Art Club

I think about memory a lot. It’s strange to me that, for the most part, memory seems to work a lot more like a snapshot of a moment rather than the rolling camera that is our life. We live in a video but remember in pictures.

One of the nice things about having some down time is that I get to go through a bunch of old work. Years have passed since this little wedding in September but there are two images that immediately come to mind when I think of it. The first is the amount of people wandering Mill Valley on the day Erin and Kevin were married. A wedding day is stressful enough, adding in a ton of traffic and some time delays due to an art festival can definitely heighten things. More importantly though is the second image, one of their family and friends. It’s a group of people bustling about trying to “keep their shit together”. Not from the crowds, or the schedule running a bit behind, but from a place of pure love and joy at watching two people close to them come together. Here’s a few images, just as they appear in my mind, from back in 2018 at the beautiful Outdoor Art Club in Mill Valley.

Katy & Michael // Bay Area Engagement Session ft. Marin Coast

A quick jaunt along the Marin coastline, just above San Francisco. Waves crashed against rocks, flinging glistening mist into the air. We picked our steps carefully, visitors on a well traversed though many times invisible path.

Traces of 2019

So that’s 2019. Another year that exists solely in memory, which is really trippy and makes me uncomfortable with how fast time moves.

Instead of showcasing a bunch of images from the past year that belong in a portfolio I’ve been wanting to put together something that runs through the traditional wedding, and focuses on little visual stories. So this is just that, from start to finish, jumping between moments from each wedding I had the privilege of being a part of this year. A special thanks to everyone in these photos, jumping into your lives and capturing these frames has been such an awesome experience.

Kendra & Jordan // A Berkeley Wedding ft. The Brazilian Room & The University of California Botanical Garden

As Jordan read his vows during the ceremony there was a moment, on the quiet hilltop in Berkeley, that he was drowned out by motorcycles passing by below. At first he tried to power through it but the attempt didn’t last long. His parents, respectfully sitting in silence moments before, burst out laughing. The crowd joined in. Life doesn’t care about your plans, and that’s what makes this whole thing enjoyable. Here are a few snips from that day in the beginning of November, at the beautiful Brazilian Room.