Sometimes destination weddings for me are not destinations for my couples.  Such is the case for Bunmi and Livaughn, who live outside of Washington, DC and chose to hold their wedding at the beautiful Colonnade within the Fairmont Hotel.  It wasn’t just a destination for me, but for many of their friends and family as well who came from all over the US and as far away as Africa to attend this amazing wedding.

I had the honor of photographing Bunmi’s sister’s wedding as one of my first weddings over six years ago and was so thrilled when Bunmi contacted me after Livaughn proposed.  We spoke over the phone and were able to meet once before their wedding to go over details and their timeline.  They chose not to see each other before the ceremony, but the timeline allowed for us to photograph both the girls and guys around the Colonnade prior to the ceremony.  The grounds at the Fairmont Hotel are beautiful, and although there wasn’t a lot of Washington, DC architecture, there were some beautiful spots within walking distance from the hotel, and we managed to take advantage of those both before and after the ceremony.  Their cocktail hour was held in the courtyard outside of the Colonnade where the ceremony was held as well as the reception and as the sun went down we managed to get a few beautiful twilight photos before they danced the night away.

Bunmi and Livaughn, thank you so much for inviting me out to celebrate, and document your wedding with you.  It was a truly beautiful and elegant affair!

To see a few of my favorite images from their wedding, click on the large image above, or any of the thumbnails below.

Friends and Family members can register to view all their images at Pictage by clicking here.

If you didn’t see Part I of Elise and Dave’s wedding hop back there now to check out the getting ready and ceremony photos as well as the details of their day.  After the ceremony, Elise and Dave and family gathered around the fountain while guests headed to the Yacht Club at Herrington Harbor for cocktails hour.  Elise was super thrilled about portraits with Dave, and as we finished up family and then bridal party photos, and they returned to the cocktail hour, Elise and Dave stayed behind, on the docks, on the beach, throughout the hotel grounds and working our way back to the Yacht Club.

After arriving to the Yacht Club Elise and Dave and their bridal party were announced upstairs to dinner followed by toasts and a welcome from Elise’s father.  Their first dance was held downstairs while guests looked on and after that the dance floor was rocking all night long until the very end, when under increasing clouds, and dense humidity as Hurricane Irene approached Elise and Dave were sent with to a sparkler exit.

Click on the large image above or any of the small thumbnails below to view a few images from the second half of Elise and Dave’s wedding.  Friends and family members can register at Pictage to view all the images from their fantastic wedding by clicking here!

Elise and Dave are rockstars! Seriously! And I don’t mean, they were rockstars posing it up in front of the camera. I mean, Elise and David met when David was auditioning for the band that Elise sings in.  Like “ROCK AND ROLL!!!!!!” (I”m doing my best Rob Halford here)  So it should be no surprise that music would play a huge part in their wedding day, from the names of their tables, the decorations around the reception, the string quartet that played prior to the ceremony to the musical interlude generously provided by the ice cream truck traveling through Herrington Harbor Marina in the middle of their ceremony their day was filled with music from beginning to end.

When Elise and Dave planned their wedding for a Friday afternoon, they had no idea how fortuitous their decision would be.  By Saturday afternoon most weddings up and down the Atlantic coast had been cancelled, as  hurricane Irene made landfall, and traveled up the Chesapeake Bay area.  I was on one of the last flights out of BWI on my way back to San Diego, passing through the clouds that preceded the coming storm.  But on Friday, the weather was perfect and Elise and Dave celebrated with friends and family under light clouds that barely hinted at the coming storm. [continued below]

Elise and her girls got ready at the Chesapeake Beach Resort and Spa and we had time to shoot some portraits there out at the docks before heading to the ceremony site at Herrington Harbor.   They held their ceremony on the bridal lawn overlooking the Chesapeake Bay, with high white puffy clouds and cerulean skies.  Elise’s father walked her down the aisle as Dave and his groomsmen waited.  The ceremony was fantastic with readings by friends, and of course the music of the ice cream truck.  After the vows, the ring exchange and the kiss, Elise and Dave recessed down the aisle past their guests, and as they reached the end of the aisle Dave let out a huge breath that it seems he must have been holding for the entire ceremony.

Click on the large image or any of the thumbnails above to see a few of the images from the first half of Elise and Dave’s wedding. Stay tuned! More images from the second half of Elise and Dave’s fantastic day coming tomorrow!

Friends and family can go to Pictage to register to see all the images from Elise and Dave’s wedding as soon as they’re released by clicking here.

If you didn’t see the first half of Frank and Jean’s wedding at the Johns Hopkins, University Baptist Church on the blog yesterday, hop on back there to take a look at their ceremony and portraits at the church before we all headed to the Valley Country Club for their reception.  I’ve photographed several weddings at the Valley Country Club and it really has a unique feel to it.  The front porch is a beautiful location to take in the evening air, the main floor and ballroom have a great charm and the bar filled with dark wood and Art Donovan’s sports memorabilia is pure man cave! It’s got something for everyone is what I’m trying to say!

Jean and Frank were introduced into their reception straight into their first dance.  I was lucky enough to see a few of their dance moves during our engagement session together, so I knew they were not going to simply rock back and forth on the dance floor.   Following their first dance, a close family friend provided a blessing for dinner then toasts.   As the daylight faded outside and just before cake cutting I took Frank and Jean out in front of the mansion for some beautiful twilight shots.  After cutting the cake, the rest of the night was filled with dancing by Frank and Jean and family and friends.  My good friend and outstanding videographer, Matt Buerhaus was there through it all to document the video of their whole day.  Check his page out for their upcoming video spotlight!

Jean and Frank, I had a great time meeting you at your engagement shoot and was so thrilled to be a part of your wedding day!   Thank you for including me in your plans!

If you haven’t yet registered to see all of the photos from Frank and Jean’s wedding and engagement photos on Pictage, click here.

I just recently found and connected with the people at ItalianWeddings who specialize in Destination Weddings in Italy.  They’re Italian wedding planners for unique weddings in all Italy, Rome, Florence, Venice, Tuscany, Amalfi Coast, Taormina, Siena, Positano, Chianti Region and many more locations in all of Italy.  If you would love to get married with all the romance of the old world, the beautiful wine country in Tuscany, or glide down the canals in Venice on a gondola in your wedding gown, these are the people to talk to.  Literally this is the one stop shop for all your planning needs for weddings in Italy.  Everything from helping you to select your location, castle, villa or city as well as legal documentation and help finding local and traveling vendors … like me!

Curious about what it takes to get married in Italy? Here’s where you go to find the paperwork requirements for US Citizens.  They also have links to documents for many other countries in case you just happened to stumble across my site while looking for this paperwork, check out their Italian wedding legal documentation page to see if your country is listed.  If it’s not, I’m sure they can still track down the paperwork required, and get you set up.

If you’re looking for a destination wedding photographer familiar with travel restrictions and work visas from the US to Italy, I would love to speak with you about your wedding plans and photography needs!

Until next time … Ciao.

Yesterday I posted the  first half of the photos from Valerie and Ray’s awesome destination wedding in Old San Juan Puerto Rico at the historic El Convento hotel.   Even though their ceremony was moved inside because of the weather, the small, but beautiful Oller Salon provided an intimate setting for their wedding ceremony.  After which guests mingled in the courtyard before heading inside to the Salón Campeche for the dinner and reception.  Valerie and Ray were introduced and went right into their first dance, then dinner and dancing for the rest of the night.  Since it was a destination wedding, after the night was over the party took to the streets of Old San Juan and whatever bars were still open were filled with Valerie and Ray’s guests.  The next evening Valerie and Ray returned to the El Convento Hotel to take advantage of the fading evening light and make some dramatic images in Old San Juan without the rain from the night before.

Click on the image above or any of the thumbnails below to view the second half of Valerie and Ray’s wedding at the El Convento hotel in San Juan.

Family and Friends, if you haven’t yet, you can view all their images by registering on Pictage.

I had the absolute pleasure recently to travel from San Diego to Old San Juan, Puerto Rico in the Caribbean for Ray and Valerie’s destination wedding at the beautiful El Convento Hotel.  The historic El Convento hotel is located right in downtown Old San Juan, and is a beautiful location for a destination wedding.  Ray’s mother and father grew up in Old San Juan so in addition to having an incredible location to shoot, I had Ray’s father helping me scout locations around town.  In the four days I spent in Puerto Rico, I fell in love with Old San Juan … from the cobblestone streets, to the beautifully painted buildings and architecture, to the fantastic food, to the walkable nature of the city (I spent most mornings running around the town which both served as my morning workout as well as familiarizing myself with the city’s layout).

Valerie and Ray’s wedding day started beautifully, and I walked to La Bombonera for my morning Mallorca … I used my morning runs as an excuse to be able to eat these delicious but most definitely OFF the diet treat! If you’ve never had one, think of it as a Puerto Rican McGriddle mixed with a New Orleans Beignet … like I said, off the diet!  Valerie and her girls got ready in the Gloria Vanderbilt suite at the Hotel El Convento, and it is a fantastic suite.  beautiful colors, beautiful light and plenty of room for all the girls, the makeup artist and stylist!  Just as Valerie was finishing getting ready, the Puerto Rican rainy season reared it’s head and started to rain.  We spent the next two hours shooting family portraits, the bridal party and Valerie and Ray around the El Convento, while watching the skies and hoping for the rain to move out for the afternoon.  Shortly before the ceremony was to start the skies cleared long enough for the chairs to be set up in the courtyard only to open up again.  Gladly the chairs were still set up in the Oller Salon just off the main ballroom where the reception would be.  Since Valerie and Ray had a fairly intimate group of friends and family, the Salon was just large enough to fit all their guests and create an intimate feel.  We’ll get to the ceremony and reception next, but in the meantime I wanted to share some of the photos from the early part of the day.

To see a few images from Valerie and Ray’s wedding, click on the large image above, or any of the thumbnails below.

Continue reading for more of  Valerie and Ray’s destination wedding to Old San Juan Puerto Rico!

Family and Friends can register to view all their images on Pictage.

Yesterday I posted the first half of the images from Kate and Eric’s Temecula Creek Inn destination wedding which took you through the getting ready and ceremony as well as the portraits right after the ceremony.  Today, I wanted to finish their wedding images by sharing their classic and rustic designed table and details.  Kate was inspired by the huge tree which would oversee their ceremony at the Stone House, and all the details from their day seemed to spring from this old monarch.  Not only did I want to emphasize that in the ceremony, I wanted to make sure all their images reflected that feel throughout the day.  I found that the old Stone House, as well as all the details Kate selected helped greatly.

On another note, I’ve done several smaller intimate weddings and whether those weddings are for local guests or for a destination wedding, it’s rare that there’s a lot of dancing when there’s only a handful of people.  This obviously wasn’t the case for Kate and Eric’s guests.  All 28 of them made it to the dance floor at some point in the evening, and even when Eric was taking a break off to the side with his brothers, his and Kate’s dad, they sat close by and watched as Kate and the flowergirls and her sisters, and mom tore it up! This was truly a celebratory night and it was finally capped off when Brian Stodart wrapped up the night with a mashup of New York, New York and Sweet Caroline for both the New York and the Boston Fans.

Again, friends and family members, if you haven’t already, don’t forget to sign into Kate and Eric’s Pictage event page to be notified when all their images are posted and receive your print credit towards your first order!