Florence and Bryan – The Mountain Winery

We just had the privilege of photographing Florence and Bryan’s wedding. As you can see, these two warm and friendly people are very much in love. We started the day by documenting them getting ready at their home in San Jose. Florence was just beautiful and so was the light! What a dream to walk into a light filled room where the bride is getting ready.

We left their home and headed to the beautifully decorated ceremony and reception site at The Mountain Winery in Saratoga. What an amazing location! There is a huge outdoor amphitheater and so many little nooks and crannies for portraits. It was another photographers dream come true for us. They were just amazing to photograph and they gave us a good hour of their time for portraits before the ceremony. It couldn’t have been better and we were inspired all day.

Their ceremony was just as lovely. You could see their affection for each other as they gazed into each others eyes in awe of this time in their lives. It was beautiful.

We were able to catch another 20 minutes with them after the ceremony as the light was just perfect. We had scouted an area in the vineyards nearby and drove there for a few end of day portraits. We were so happy that they gave us this time… For us, it is one of the best moments to capture a couples love and we stress to them that they will thank us later! We gave them a moment to take a break from the somewhat chaotic day and take it all in. This allowed them to just be with each other and we were able to make some beautiful portraits during this quiet time alone.

We all left the vineyard satisfied that we had taken that time and headed back to the reception, which was full of surprises. Unbeknownst to the bride and groom, they had prepared a few games for them to play. The first was one in which Florence was blindfolded and several of the men were all lined up in a row (along with Bryan). Florence then had to feel the backsides of all the men and choose which one was Bryan. Needless to say, there was a lot of laughing, hooting and hollering and a little helpful coaching by some of the children. Florence picked Bryan’s backside correctly and they moved onto the next game. This was another game that brought out a lot of crowd cheering. A sugar cube was placed down the front of Florence’s dress and Bryan was told that he had to fish it out without the use of his hands. There was a lot of snickering and encouraging outbursts by the guests as Bryan successfully completed his challenge. The final game was very similar to the first, except that Bryan would be blindfolded. They lined up several of the women, including Florence, and asked him to identify his bride by feeling all of the ladies hands. The giggling continued as Bryan felt each and every hand and with the children’s helpful coaching, finally chose his new bride’s hand correctly. The dancing continued throughout the evening and we ended our time with them by taking portraits of everyone with what we call our “Visual Guestbook”. We bring a backdrop and studio lighting and set up a somewhat formal portaiture area for all of the guests to come by and have casual, fun portraits taken for a visual record of who was there to witness their amazing day.

After giving our best to the bride and groom, we left the site completely satisfied and inspired. We wish Florence and Bryan a long, happy life together! Thank you for the great memories.

Here is the slideshow from this wonderful wedding: