Picture Post: A California Christmas

Since Brian and I got a fancy new camera, we’ve both been taking more pictures. Here are some that I took on our recent trip to California for Christmas. The first is a sunset taken from the beach in front of our house. Ah-mazing.

The house we stayed in is on the far right. It was so cute – an old, 1920s beach ranch once owned by Rudy Valentino.

This picture was taken right outside our house – isn’t the falling apart tire swing sort of neat?

And since we were in CA, we saw some surfers (on Christmas Day, of course).

Also taken on our Christmas Day drive:

{in case you can’t tell, that is a fish, not a bone}

{i know it’s a little whitewashed, but I kinda like it}

While we were in CA, we went to see the Getty Villa, which was stunning. Brian took this amazing picture, which will likely find itself on our walls.

Our house, from the beach, a little more close up:

Another beautiful sunset…

My cute parents:

Pretty great trip – I can’t believe it’s already behind me. At least I have these pictures – what a difference a good camera makes!!

Did you go anywhere fun for the holidays?

 

Sunrise in Davidson

I happened to be driving around Davidson very early one morning and decided to snap some photos while I was out and about…

Pretty beautiful, no?

Wedding Photography Preview

Right before Christmas Angela sent me a preview of some of our wedding photos and when I first saw them I teared up… She has such an amazing gift to not only find beautiful locations to shoot, but also somehow make Brian and I look our best.

I feel so lucky to have had her document my wedding – I can’t wait to see the rest!

{All photos by Angela Stott}

Engagement Shoot

Oh my wonderful!  I just viewed the photos from our engagement shoot last month and boy do I love them.  Angela Stott, our very talented photographer, did an amazing job – she found funky, interesting places to shoot and was able to capture such great shots of us.  I have to admit that on our drive home from the shoot Brian and I worried that our pictures might not turn out, not due to any fault of Angela’s, but because Brian and I just felt so silly most of the time – would our awkwardness come through in the pictures?! 

Well, we spent the two hours home from Asheville worrying about nothing.  Check these puppies out (all courtesy of Angela Stott):

What do you guys think?  Are you planning to do an engagement shoot?  I am SO happy that we did.  The main reason is that I will not worry for one second that our wedding pictures might be anything less than amazing, even if we feel silly staring at each other or holding hands in a cornfield or all dressed up…

And just for laughs… three funny ones (one when chambers escaped and started running for Angela, one where I’m laughing and Brian is giving me “that” look, and one when Chambers got jealous that Brian and I were kissing and not paying attention to him, so he tried to join in…):

Vendors I – Photography

Once we had the venue booked, I set about finding all the other vendors. I had this fear that I would find one I loved and they would be unavailable so I made it my mission to figure out the photographer, musician(s), baker, officient, etc. ASAP.

Happily, almost all of my vendors were easy to find and I loved them all immediately (yea!). The first was my photographer, Angela Stott, who is amazing. Not only is her work breathtaking, but as soon as I spoke with her on the phone I knew she was the one. It was like she was inside my head reading my thoughts as she answered all my (millions of) questions. She was so easy to talk to and as soon as we hung up I knew I had to have her shoot my wedding. I, of course, checked with my fiance and my parents to make sure they approved (how could they not?!), and then we made it official. Angela has spent tons of time brainstorming ideas with me and helping me create my wedding “vision” along the way, which has been great. She is even making a site visit to High Hampton this fall to make sure she knows all the great spots to shoot us in as well as when and where we’ll have the best light, etc. Yep, she’s pretty amazing.

Here are some of my favorites from Angela’s portfolio (all, obviously, courtesy of Angela Stott):