Photographing a very fun wedding (with a stop at a bar in between)!

On Friday, I had the opportunity to photograph the wedding of Shannon and Mar in San Jose, CA and it was an amazing day. They were the perfect subjects to photograph; really nice, great looking, and most importantly, they had fun and made their special day their own. Sure...they did many of the standard wedding day rituals, but they also spiced up the day with some planned and unplanned moments. And if you know me, you know I live for those!

The day started at the De Anza Hotel in San Jose and we photographed the couple getting ready for the wedding. Annette, my awesome wife and acting creative assistant, suggested that we borrow the bouquets for some outside shots. I liked this one the best.

Shannon wearing her veil for the first time.

 Just after seeing each other for the first time of the day, we got the couple together for some photos.

For this shot, I stood on the nearby fountain so that I could shoot down on Shannon. It makes for a really nice composition.

I mentioned that this couple likes to have fun (which was very apparent at the reception), and that they do things their way. Well...after shooting some images in the downtown area, we had a little extra time so they thought that a local bar would be a good stop before the church. Love that! It isn't often you can get a picture of the bride and groom doing shots at a bar before the wedding.

Luckily I had hopped into the limo with them and so I was there to capture this part of the day. If I had missed this, I would not have captured who they really are.

I had just finished shooting a couple of images of the bride and her sister when I noticed that Mar was watching from the back of the bar. I quickly refocused and got this shot.

And because I am a crazy photographer who will do anything for a shot, I climbed on top of a couch and then onto a window ledge and shot this image of the wedding party.

We arrived at the church about an hour before sunset and, as I shot some images of the wedding party getting out the limo, I saw the flower girl walking down the street towards us. I saw this amazing sunlight behind her and asked her to stop and hold out her dress. I leaned down low to make sure that the sunlight was directly behind her head and shot this backlit image of her. She was SO cute!

This is one of my favorite shots from the wedding since the angle of the photo helps to accentuate the flow of the wedding gown.

And then it was time to party, and they did! They had people fly in from all over, but there was a large group who had come in from Hawaii and they set a whole new standard for partying. They were an absolute blast.

Towards the end of the evening, Mar surprised Shannon with a song. I knew that this was coming and also knew that this was going to be a key moment to capture. I put on the new Sigma 85mm 1.4 lens and grabbed these shots of that very special serenade.

As hard and exhausting as it is to shoot for an entire day, it is capturing the emotion in the images like this one and the one above that make it all worthwhile! You can see the absolute love and happiness in their faces. Nothing is better than that!

Congratulations to Shannon and Mar!