QUICK NOTE: I am currently shacking it up at my parents house in Willow Glen (San Jose!) until early September working my butt off… any bay area photographers, prospective clients, old friends, etc interested in getting together shoot me an e-mail meg{at}megperotti{dot}com!

(I promise there is a point to the info that follows…skip through to the images if you could care less- I won’t mind!)

I was just telling a friend the other day how funny it is when clients and other photographers ask me, “So, how long have you been shooting weddings?” Because, my answer should be simple – “5 years” – but instead I insist on explaining that I worked a million jobs from the time I started shooting weddings to the time I finally decided to go full-time. You see, it’s very important to me that people know I paid my dues, I worked really hard (really… really…), and eventually wedding photography found me. I always encourage other photographers to stick with their day jobs until they hit a wall. It’s so worth it to leave with confidence. Trust me, you’ll know when you’re ready- your legs will stop  moving and there you will be!

Let’s see if I can list all the things I did that led me to today.

Full time fine art photography student at Cal State Long Beach where if you would have told me I’d be shooting weddings for a living after college I would have laughed at you and said, “Weddings! Please! I’m into FINE art… psha…..” Little did I know, weddings held a huge place in my heart. This is also where I met one my best friends and source of contact inspiration, Heather Kincaid.

Frogs Club One (gym front desk girl)- Heather has this title too.

Stocker at Bath and Body Works (worst job ever)

A & I Photographic Customer Service Rep- 3 years-this is where I spent most of my time cultivating my wedding portfolio, shootings loads of film (E-6 and medium format folks!)

A slew of photography internships while I was working at A & I- including but not limited to: Beyond Words Photography and studio intern at David LaChapelle’s Los Angeles studio- (that last one is the sole reason I walked away, no RAN away from the fashion photography world, sometimes you gotta go down the road to learn you took the wrong one…) assistant to Laura Grier pretty much every single weekend shooting weddings in between all those!

and finally, ended up in the art department of a Conde Nast magazine for 2 years. At this point I was ready to take myself all the way to photo editor at Vanity Fair…. until it was literally impossible for me to retain my sanity without cutting everything else out and devoting myself 100% to my photography business.

So, yes, I’ve been shooting weddings for about 5 years- among many many other things. I think every experience I had shaped, molded, and led me to where I am today and I am grateful for all of them. I met so many people throughout each and every stop on the road and truly believe these relationships have formed for reasons. People are constantly brought into my life at chance timing, whether they are here to inspire me or for me to inspire them or for us to inspire each other I truly believe there is a reason for it all! I’ve been reconnected with old friends, made new ones, and helped current ones…..Stacey is in there somewhere! Stacey and I met when I was interning at a photo studio in Hollywood and I had the utmost pleasure to be a part of her gorgeous wedding to Marty in their beautiful Hollywood home’s backyard. Stacey works for Marc Jacobs and is such a stylish woman- with the help of Ryan Larson (another Beyond Words vet) she transformed her backyard into a lush garden and transported herself back in time! Enough chatter (I think that might be the most I’ve ever written in a post….)

Onward!

Sometimes when people find out that I’ve been with Tim since I was 19 they get this look on their face… and I know exactly what they are thinking. “How could you be with the same person since you were 19? Don’t you want to try shop around? Don’t you know the statistics of you guys lasting are horrible? Aren’t you BORED?” I love him, not at all!, yes but I am not a statistic, and NO. I feel like society has a thing against finding the person you love early on in your search. You’re expected to “keep looking” like it’s impossible that you could be happy with what you have! Don’t those who are 35 on match.com, with three major relationships in their past, wish they could just find that ONE person they were meant to be with? Isn’t that really what we’re all looking for? I consider myself one of the lucky ones!

Point? Shannon and Tyson have be together since high school and they tied the knot last month in a gorgeous ceremony at the Ojai Valley Inn and Spa. Because they have been together so long their familes and friends are so intertwined already that this was one hell of a party. In fact, Shannon has a sister much younger than her and she commented in her toast that she doesn’t even have memories without Tyson in them. He’s been in her life since the beginning and the final blending seal with this marriage was such a beautiful thing to witness! This wedding was coordinated by the amazing Ryan Larson of Savoir Flair Weddings.

Congrats you guys and here’s to being one of the lucky ones!

p.s. Photographers- I didn’t put a stroke on these images- do they look naked? I was boring of the stroke look. Be honest!

Hi first look, I love you.

On the back of the programs they used signatures from actual letters Shannon had written Tyson in high school.

Published!!!! … Okay, so it’s a little small- but everyone starts somewhere! I plan on framing it and hopefully laughing sometime next year when I have a complete published wedding to take it’s place. This was from Christa and Travis’s November 08 wedding at Hartley Botantica.

QUICK NOTE: I will be working from the Bay Area from August 11-September 7th so if you’d like to schedule an anytime shoot, kids shoot, or a meeting to get some info on wedding coverage shoot me an email: meg(at)megperotti(dot)com

When I headed over to Garth and Julie’s Beverly Hills abode a few months ago to meet them, I instantly knew we were meant to work together. Garth was walking home from his entertainment industry office while I was arriving and as soon as he walked in the door he cracked open a bottle of wine and offered me a glass. With the Laker’s game in the background we chatted about their Hollywood themed wedding- oohed and ahhed over their Save the Dates and laughed- a LOT. When it came time to book their engagement session, since it’s wedding season overload, we had to get a little creative to work with everyones schedules and ended up shooting early in the AM on a Friday. It was perfect because by noon it was about 100 degrees and HUMID like no other in Pasadena. I had such a great time running all over the garden grounds with these two- Julie is a professional dancer with an amazingly big laugh which is just infectuious and despite Garth’s disgruntling about having to miss work, he was absolutely hamming it up! Julie kept laughing and saying, “Who knew??” I can’t wait to shoot your wedding in December guys- I can already tell it is going to ooze Hollywood glamour! Hope New York is treating you both well- Julie is my personal John Gosselin stalker at the moment. (Can you beleive that guy!!!)

Onward!

 Here’s that laugh…. Everyone should marry someone who can make them laugh this hard!

Julie brought her toe shoes along for a few- but her feet were killing her (as you can imagine!) so we were quick with them!