Ryan & Susan's Oakland, CA Wedding!

Well back in December, I had the awesome opportunity to go to Oakland, CA to photograph Susan & Ryan's wedding! I escaped the snow and cold for a couple days! Oakland was nice and sunny for the first two days (and for the wedding), and then rained on the day we left. It was nice to be in just jacket weather. I also was soooo grateful that I decided to fly my husband out to assist me because of some sun flare (not one cloud in the sky!). He was a huge help! So thanks hun!

Well onto the pictures . . . I think they have a good variety of happy/fun pictures and sappy romantic pictures ;)

Such a fun couple!

Seriously, I could tell Ryan had fun jumping!

Fun sibling picture

This little guy was making everyone laugh!

Here's a fun idea that Ryan's dad had

Onto the fun/romantic pictures of just the bride and groom.

This is my personal fav for their traditional stuff.

I was so happy that we scoped out the area the day before, because we discovered a cool place overlooking the temple.

Ok, so the picture below has a funny story. I wanted Ryan to jump over Susan, but we talked first about how the ground wasn't really flat and how he needed to be careful to make the jump (so as not to squish Susan), but also to land safely. Susan and my husband seemed hesitant, but I proceeded because it seemed Ryan was excited and willing to make the jump. As he jumped over her, Susan said, "I'm gonna die!" . . . with a smile :)

He did land the jump safely and we only had to do it once, but I still look at that picture and chuckle. I think it turned out cool!

Just a cute candid.

Picture below: One of my very favorites!!!! Also the one that was their one picture sneak peek (picture at end of that post). Can't decide which I like better. Not even sure what it is about this picture: the yummy light coming through, Susan's peaceful happy look, or Ryan looking at her with that look that is so tender and sweet. Yep this one is going on the website someday.

The reception was so easy going. It was decorated nicely at Ryan's parents' house in Merced, and people just came and mingled and ate great food! There wasn't any cake cutting or dancing, but it was nice and relaxing. Man, if my reception had been that easy-going, I would not have been so dang tired by the end of it!

It was fun this night because we even had enough time to do some more fun pictures of just Susan and Ryan hanging out at the Reception!

Yummy cupcakes!

Of course I follow all the cute kids around

I convinced some of their friends to come outside (it was quite cold that night), and paint with light! It was so fun! I have seen other photogs do this kind of thing, so I just started experimenting with it this night, so I stayed simple, but it sure is a fun way to pass the time and create something cool!

I had such a blast photographing this wedding! I was so honored that they picked me to come all the way out there to capture their special day! I wish them the best of luck in their marriage and living in California!

Jim & Donna Married!

Donna and Jim got married over the Thanksgiving weekend. They seemed so excited and happy to be getting married!

Getting ready. . .

Cute little granddaughter

Another cute little granddaugther

Beautiful Donna & her Uncle

I loved this next one because they both look so happy that they're getting married.

First kiss as married couple!

A tender moment outside after the ceremony

Donna and all her fun kids!

Jim and his two daughters

So do you all remember Lindsey? Donna is her aunt, and they have such a special relationship, so we had to take some pictures of the two of them. And of course Lindsey is just her natural, funny, awesome self!

Limo Ride!! After the ceremony, they went for a spin around the block in a limo waiting for them. And guess what . . . they invited me to come along! Yes, this was my first limo ride ever. It was so fun to hang out with them!

One of my favs

At the Reception, Donna's son was having some fun with the bubbles!

I thought that the cake looked cool!

We had some Cake Time:

We even had some Belly Dancing time! Donna hired a belly dancer to come be the entertainment for a little bit. Well Donna didn't think that the dancer would have her come up, so she insisted that some of her bridesmaids come up to.

We had a toast

We had dancing time between the Bride and Groom

Congratulations Donna & Jim! You both looked so happy on your special day!

And the Winner Is . . .

A big THANK-YOU to all of you who posted wonderfully nice comments on my contest post! It made my day (or week). It was so fun to hear from you all and even some people out there who I've never met. It's always nice to meet new friends.

Ok, so unless you're super anxious to look at the end of this to see if it's you or not, have fun reading my super creative way to pick a winner! Yes, I could have just put all of the names in a hat and picked one. BORING!!! I had to make it FUN for me! So with the genious help of my husband and son, we had a little fun on Saturday picking a winner! And yes, of course I documented it. At least the interesting parts.
Ok, so for your enjoyment, here it is:

Step 1, 2, & 3.My superly awesome husband who is a computer programmer, came up with a program to choose the contestants. It was a program which randomly picked people from a list. The first time we picked 12 people from the list (approx. 1/2 of the people), then we picked 6 from the 12, then 3 from the 6. There was the first boring, unforgiving part. But it was only fair to make it completely random, and most of you got many chances in the program to get picked. So I think it was fun for my husband to use his talent in my fun contest.

Step 4: Our 4 contestants were my son's awesome wind-up cars that he got for Christmas. But you might ask, why 4? Aren't there 3 contestants left? Well my husband came up with the 4th . . . the REDO Contestant! All 4 of these contestants were randomly assigned to the 4 cars (using the program).

Step 5: John winds up the cars all together, and Caleb gets to pick the winning car. But it can't just be the first one. No, it can't be that simple. He has to pick that car twice before it can be named the winner.

And yes, my son just had to pick the REDO contestant: TWICE!!!! (and just so you know the REDO contestant was a different car both times.)

Here's his mischievious smile that he started the contest from the very beginning again:

I thought this process would be quick, but no. Caleb wasn't sure what we wanted him to do once my husband wound up all the cars. We literally spent 5 minutes once, trying to convince him to get us a car. We of course couldn't show him how to do it, so it wasn't like we were favoring one contestant over the other. Eventually, he picked up a car. It was funny because I thought he'd tend to pick the same car or two each time, but every time it seemed as though he went for a different one.

After 2 Redos with different final contestants, he finally chose the winning car twice. He picked the car which I thought would be the least likely (due to the girly look of the car):

So the judge has chosen:

Drumrolls please . . . .

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Thanks again everyone, and thanks for letting me share some of my fun contest pictures!

I am now starting to book for this spring. March is already looking quite busy with some pre-wedding stuff and a wedding. So if you are looking for pictures in the springtime, please call or email me soon!