Libby & David // A San Francisco City Hall Elopement

 

I spent the morning with Libby, David and their family. With a baby on the way, Libby and David chose to marry quietly at San Francisco City Hall, and then headed off to lunch.

One of the most beautiful and challenging things about this work is how quickly my clients and I have to warm to each other. Making space for an almost-stranger (with a couple of cameras) on your wedding day isn't the easiest thing in the world to do - it requires opting in to the notion that what you'll have to show for it will be worth the immediate trust you place in my hands and the faith you have in my presence. 

I am especially grateful for the clients who do this even their wedding guest list is tiny. I work hard to read their energy, to make sure that everything I'm doing is in service to not only the photos we're making, but the way the experience their day. 

A fun aside - David took Libby's last name. While the opposite is almost always assumed (less and less these days, but still), when David told the clerks he'd be changing his last name to hers, the whole office all but swooned.

 

Erika & Breffni // An engagement session in Big Basin & Pescadero

 
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Erika & Breffni are having a restaurant wedding in Oakland in April, so we spent a quiet Sunday afternoon creating an engagement session of epic, opposite proportions.

We started in the redwoods at Big Basin, near Santa Cruz, where Erika & Breffni both went to school and fell in love with hiking and exploring the area. After that we drove out and up the coast towards Pescadero, stopping at Gazos Creek State Beach, across from Highway 1 Brewing Company and, FASCINATINGLY ENOUGH: the coastal geographic center of California. Like, legit the mid point of the state!

 

Marcia & Sarah // An Oakland Engagement Session Over Waffles

 

Marcia & Sarah reached out to me in early spring of last year. They were planning a trip from Singapore to California - first to San Francisco where Marcia would show Sarah the life she once lived as a student in SF, and then down to LA where they would start to plan their intimate weekday wedding, scheduled for March 1, 2018.

Legal marriage isn't an option, yet, for Marcia & Sarah back home in Singapore, so they wanted to be married somewhere where they could be celebrated and legally recognized. Choosing a city with a vibrant restaurant scene was their second priority (because a week of eating well is this TV chef & filmmaker duo's idea of heaven), and the reason they landed in Los Angeles for their destination wedding.

But they wanted to have an engagement session in Oakland, where Marcia had spent years exploring as a student and small business owner (she sold her own kaya, which she started making for herself in the throws of homesickness - she was missing her own food). We connected with Nora, the owner of Drip Line, one of my favorite cafes in Oakland, and they chowed down on sweet and savory breakfast waffles, all infused with Nora's own Singaporean flavors.

Afterwards, we went to Mountain View Cemetery at the top of Piedmont Ave, which secretly has one of my favorite views in the East Bay.