Jen & Matt : San Francisco Engagement Session : My wedding hair!

So I've been thinking a lot about how I want to wear my hair on the wedding day. Tim has one request- nothing shocking or costume-y and nothing unrecognizable. I'm planning on honoring these requests but I am also planning on looking glamorous! I do not want to look like myself on a Saturday night - I want to look like myself on a really really special Saturday night. We're going old-fashioned for a lot of things and I also want to make sure I feel that way from head to toe yet obviously still modern.

Here are some classic images I pulled for inspiration:

And here are some modern-day examples I think are similar ...

What do you guys think? Should I just get Blake Lively to stand in for me in my wedding photos? ;)

In other people's wedding news.... :) Jen and Matt are getting married at one of my favorite bay area venues - The Holly Farm in the fall and I was so excited to finally shoot their engagement session. It was a windy day in SF but we had so much fun running around the presidio and fort mason...Can't wait for the wedding!

Onward!

A Photographers Wedding : Venue Searching

{ Wedding countdown : 88 days and 2129 hours }

Venue!

I am rather picky. It's not that I don't appreciate what is- it's that I have an issue wanting everything to be the best it can possibly be. Of course, in my life, this is both a blessing and a curse. Finding a wedding venue, much to my moms chagrin, did not escape this always becoming trait of mine. ;) When Tim proposed I immediately fell into a state of panic. I'm sure you brides will commiserate with me on this- I couldn't sleep. All I could think of when I closed my eyes was, "What would our wedding look like?" I've seen so many- I had no idea what I wanted- only what I didn't. I didn't want fountains, gazebos, or manicured grass. I did so much googling in the August heat that I thought my mind would melt- my mom and I spent afternoons driving around the bay area looking at venue after venue and while everything was beautiful (okay, not everything)... nothing felt quite right for us. So I stopped thinking about what our wedding would look like and took another approach- what did we want it to feel like? Ahh this was much easier.

Lovely. Artful. Sumptuous. Simple. Intimate. Warm. Cheer. Lively. Sweet. Inviting. Romantic. Grand. Fashioned.

It was through this word-storm that I found this gem: The Headlands Center for the Arts in the Marin Headlands My heart started to race- it looked perfect! I'd never heard of it: check. Artful, lovely, intimate: check....... My mom and I set up a time to tour the space with the sweet Rebecca and headed over the Golden Gate to check it out- we parked and I was happy to see there wasn't any manicured green grass for miles- just beautiful tall wild grass blades blowing in the late summer wind- chills! With a hopeful heart we opened the large doors that led us inside the building and- wait, what was that? A piano? Someone in a distant room was tickling the ivories and the chords were practically vibrating off of the walls and into my soul. SOLD. Tim took a little more convincing, as he has a little more of a "traditional" view of weddings- perhaps it's because he doesn't see them every weekend? But once he saw the space in person he was in- this was it!

The space really is one of those building that feels like it has a serious stories to tell and I can't wait to add our unity to it's walls. Without further ado, here are some snap shots I took almost a year ago of a few of the spaces. Obviously Miss Jasmine Star's talent and Miss Yelena Johnsons impeccable eye for event design will transform it into a wedding but isn't it delectable??? Doesn't it make you want to say words like divine, and oh, darling where is that Mr. Darcy?

{Front Entrance}

{Cocktails}

{Ceremony}

{Staircase}

{Dinner}

In three short months....

See the Pyramids along the Nile Watch the sun rise on a tropic isle Just remember darling all the while You belong to me

See the market place in old Algiers Send me photographs and souvenirs Just remember 'til your dream appears You belong to me

I'll be so alone without you Maybe you'll be lonesome, too And blue

Fly the ocean in a silver plane See the jungle when its wet with rains Just remember till you're home again Or until I come home to you You belong to me

Pee Wee King, Chilton Price, and Redd Stewart

Stop and smell the roses.

When I was working at the magazine I made an 8 mile - 45 minute - drive to and from the office each day. I used to see a lot of things on that drive- I made it a point, actually, to be acutely aware of what was going on around me. I decided that if I was going to have to make this drive, I was at least going to people watch.  One afternoon, while stopped at the light at Wilshire and Highland I glanced over to my left and caught a glimpse of a man in a black suit with a briefcase walking with a bit of a pep in his step that I wasn't used to seeing in anyone at 5:15 pm on a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday- hell, barely even on Fridays. He floated by a rose bush in full bloom- took about 2 steps past it and stopped dead in his tracks. He retreated, placed his briefcase on the ground, leaned over to the left and gently tugged a rose towards his nose and inhaled so deeply I could almost see his chest filling up with air.  He smiled, picked his briefcase up, shook his head and continued on his way. The light turned green and I started to drive away, chuckling to myself. That man, that business man- with a suit and briefcase, had literally just stopped to smell the roses. I suddenly became not only acutely aware of the people shuffling around me, but of myself. Have I ever done that? Ever? Sadly, the answer was no. At that moment I made a pact with myself- not only would I stop and smell a rose if I passed one, but I would stop and take in other things- let myself revel in beauty and wallow in misery alike. I kept this promise to myself on Monday- I pulled over on my way back from Bolinas to capture the image below. It really doesn't even do the real thing justice. I just leaned against my warm car and looked at it for a good 10 minutes. The sun was quickly disappearing and I knew that the drive back up to the 101 was not an easy one to make in the daylight, let alone the night, but there wasn't another person around for miles and someone had to enjoy the site. Thoughts raced through my brain like a wildfire but the one memory that came to the forefront of my mind is the day I saw a business man, with a briefcase, literally stop and smell the roses on his way home from work on Wilshire Blvd.

So, on my way home from work, I did too.