I love doing engagement sessions and I love doing engagement portraits in the San Francisco Bay Area.  The reasons are simple really. First I get to know you as a couple, no wedding stress and just us photographing in the environment. I’ve done engagement portraits at the standard Chrissy Field, Baker Beach and Ferry Building and unique places like a wine bar, cigar bar and Flora Grubb.    I get to see how you act and are with each other.  This is really important.  A lot of people don’t think them necessary and they certainly are not.  However, we get to learn about each other during this time.  You get to see how I work too and then know what to expect on the day of your wedding.  Then when I walk in you don’t see me as a stranger but as the photographer you trust, know will make everything right and have fun with!

I’m not about posing people in my images.  It’s actually just not my forte.  I also believe that if I just let you “be” as a couple the images will say SO very much more than some standard pose.  If you look at the images in this post.  Not one is posed.  Not one and bring your pets!  But anyway, I may have directed things a little bit and yes, I instigate!  But I want you to feel comfortable to be who you are.  I look for those moments that say something.  That make me feel something about you.   I think this is the way that when you look back at that day and like your wedding day you will be able to say I remember it all like it was yesterday.  Success!

I’m admittedly a shoe hoarder.  My friends tease me constantly but I don’t mind as it is quite true!  When I see the bride before the wedding one of my first stops after a hello hug to the bride and meeting her family is the shoes and then yes, the dress!  This year’s weddings have had some amazing shoes and the trend of colored wedding shoes that I saw starting a few years ago has not stopped!  This year I have to even give huge kudos to a bride’s mom who was wearing some spicy shoes I truly envied.

Wedding shoes no longer are just the plain white they used to be.  Color, sequins, rhinestones, heels, flats, even cowboy boots have made my bride’s lists!  Sometimes they are a hidden surprise that really only the bride knows but other times in a shorter dress or tea length wedding dress they be total show stoppers for guests.  One bride even taught me about Milk and Honey Shoes where you can totally design your own shoes.  Unbelievable!  You design everything from the heel height to color to texture and straps.

I love California weddings and truly San Francisco weddings.  We have some amazing and unique people here and this truly shows through to their weddings.  Don’t be afraid to try something you normally wouldn’t wear and don’t be afraid to have a few pairs!  You think the bride in the bright green McQueen shoes wore them all day? Absolutely not!  She had another pair for walking on the grass and dancing later.  After all a girl can never have too many shoes and wedding shoes too!

I had a wedding I photographed recently featured on IDoVenues.com.  It was a great day with Jessica and Brett at the Sir Francis Drake Hotel in  San Francisco’s Union Square.  It was a beautiful sunny day and this was one fun crowd.  You can see in the post just how fun and beautiful this event was to photograph.

My good friend Laurel Winzler of Laurel Designs did an amazing job with the flowers and it’s really important to work with great people to help you in your own job.  It can be really daunting to plan a wedding and book vendors.  I always recommend a professional wedding planner or professional event planner but sometimes it’s just not in the budget or people really want to do it themselves.   Be prepared to spend a lot of time planning your wedding!  When you hire a professional they can recommend people they know well and trust.  This is the most important step. A lot of times I walk into a wedding event and know the DJ, florist, venue coordinator or caterer and it’s great because we make sure we are all on the same page and make sure it goes off without a hitch.  Other times it’s important to introduce myself and make sure we keep communication open during the event to keep things running smoothly.

However way you decide to go with either a wedding planner or no planner make sure you are in communication with your vendors and you know they are dependable and reputable and experienced.  I know budget is a concern sometimes.  But just be sure you hire the best you can afford. One example of a vendor I worked with that was not good is a videographer I had never met before.   I’m not sure what their experience was but some things that I noted and actually had to point out or fix myself was:

1. An electrical cord lying completely across the dance floor
2. Electrical cords untaped in the middle of walkways
3. The light from the camera always in my shots
4. No communication on planning and staying out of the way of each other

These are all very serious issues.  Can you imagine if your grandmother were to trip over a cord?  That is really inexcusable.  So hire the best you can!

I hope you enjoy the images on IDoVenues but here are a few too from the hilarious engagment session we had at the Embarcadero waterfront and Flora Grubb in Hunter’s Point, San Francisco.

Cheers,

Misti

Kissing at Flora Grubb

I came across a posting on StyleMePretty that was totally unique.  If you aren’t aware of this site and are getting married you should surely check it out.  It’s a great resource of ideas and vendors that you know are reputable and should check out.  I had a wedding of mine posted on it for the wedding  theme of red, white and blue which was fabulous.

It was about two women who were both recently married and contemplating changing their names to their spouse’s last name.  They totally surprised their husbands and brought back the officiant that married them to have a “ceremony” celebrating the name change.  They included wedding photographs and many of their guests that had been there that day.  By incorporating all of these things they brought together all the best moments of the celebration of their weddings and kept the fun going in their marriages and with friends!

They women (remember the husbands were surprised!) went all out on the theme of “Maiden Voyage”. You do get that right?  Emphasis on MAIDEN!   The colors were yellow, blue and white and the theme nautical of course.  Their professional photographer did a great job of capturing the event, the people and definitely the details.

While they went all out on this idea you could do it with your own special spin in the backyard of your home and just keeping it intimate with your closest friends and family and a Do It Yourself or hire professionals to help you out with resourcing vendors and supplies.  DIY does bring on other issues like finding vendors, supplies and all the time it can consume.  I have come across many unique ideas when I’ve done DIY weddings but the common comment I hear is just how time consuming it is!  Remember this of all things though to be sure to research your vendors thouroghly before hiring them.  This is on you in DIY as a planner will be able to make great recommendations based on experience with them personally.

This is an amazing idea.  So many of my couples get married not deciding on the whole thing about doing the name change.  This is a great idea and one I’m going to be sure to pass on!

Here is my original post on my blog for the red, white, blue theme.

Heather and Eric got married at Hacienda De Las Flores and I have to say it was a most amazing day!  We had a great time at their engagement session so I knew what I was in store for this day.  But one surprise was just how much crying was going on!  It was tears of joy and unbelievably touching.  When Heather’s father came in to see her before the wedding he took one gasp and the tears poured from everyone!

But there is no doubt about the love and joy from Heather and Eric and their families.  It was just a perfect day.  The flower girls wore tutu’s and t-shirts and sequin shoes. Adorable!  Heather even designed her own shoes at Milk and Honey in bright turquoise.    The flowers were by Laura Miller, the food stations with pizza, pasta, sliders, grilled cheese and tacos were amazing and done by Alex’s Catering who also did a smore’s station and ice cream bar. The DJ from Denon and Doyle got everyone moving and just a great time was had by all with Larisa Marr capturing it all on video too!  All the best to you guys!

Molly and Adam are just adorable.  They planned their beautiful wine country wedding at Arista Winery in Healdsburg.  We had so much fun this day and I’m pretty sure their portraits in the vineyard show that.  It was very low key and casual with the bride and groom getting ready together.  The flowers were by Dragonfly Florals and Park Avenue Catering catered with an amazing menu.  Arista really is one of my favorite places for a wine country wedding and you can see my other Arista weddings on my blog too.  All the best to you Molly and Adam!  I”m honored to have been photographer of your beautiful wedding!

Megan and Blair are from Boston and had a destination wedding at Arista Winery in Healdsburg.  The day was perfect!  Arista Winery just has an amazing ambiance and the settings range from Japanese gardens to countryside hills to grape vines.  The flowers were by Heather Hendrickson, the video was by Jonathan Metcalf at MetMedia and the amazing food came from Park Avenue Catering. Their friends and family came from far and wide to help celebrate this wine country wedding in Sonoma with them.    California Wine Tours brought them from St. Rose Church in Santa Rosa so the guests could drink Mark David wine and the Pinot Noir all night.  Wine Country Weddings really are my favorite and Arista Winery has it all.  Thank you Megan and Blair and all the very best to you!!

Mulemwa and Senait are so cute.  Senait is so beautiful and you wouldn’t know it but totally shy!  We did this engagement session in front of San Francisco’s City Hall.  It was cold and windy and kind of dreary but I don’t think you’d know it from the images we got!  They are so in love and just so adorable together.  Their love really shines through.  I cannot wait for the wedding!  Senait really got dressed up and Mulemwa was very dapper which is something most people don’t do for San Francisco engagement portraits but it so worked out perfectly!

Emily and Robert are a wonderful couple together and they came up with the craziest idea for our shoot!  I was a little scared as they had showed me some zombie thing but I cracked up when they told me about the phone idea!  We would shoot various locations within Stern Grove, San Francisco and then I’d yell “phone!” and they would take them out and pose with them. It was just hilarious and they were great actors.  It’s also the first time Emily got to see her ring so he surprised her with that too and the moment was so sweet and touching.  Engagement portraits and sessions should be fun and remember too this is where you really get to know your photographer.  So I hope you enjoy our Stern Grove engagement session!