WOO HOOOO! I think this wedding was the marriage of more than Susie and Ben. For me personally, it represented the marriage of great planning and a bit of luck. You see, the three of us worked hard ahead of time to plan the timing of this day. Susie and Ben knew they wanted to get married at Still Waters Vineyards in Paso Robles. The reasons are obvious…the place is stunning, well laid-out, and offers great wedding facilitation by the staff there. But, they were concerned about their ceremony’s start time. They wanted to make sure there was adequate light for their ceremony AND family photos afterwards given typical timelines for events there. I sent them galleries of weddings I’ve photographed there previously and we looked at the time stamps on the photos to see exactly how long the light lasted at the venue for the time of year. We talked about how we’d plan the photos for the day, and which we’d do before vs. after the ceremony. Susie and Ben worked with Still Waters to move their ceremony time up just a little before the “normal” start time there…and wow…the results were great. The ceremony light was beautiful and even, family photos were taken in the olive trees with stunning backlight, and the toasts were held under a twilight sky and large moon. What was the part about a “bit of luck”? Well, there was a chance of rain the day of their wedding. Instead, blue skies developed and, although slightly windy, the weather was great. This is not a joke…three minutes after the wedding reception ended and guests were going home, I felt it start to rain. Great planning and a little bit of luck. Yup. I think their marriage will be the same. They work hard, love well, and will inevitably run into a little bit of luck. They deserve that.
Thanks again to the Mendes family for sharing another wedding with me! So happy to see you all again. And to Toby…a special thanks for being such a good sport when the Germans forced me to play that joke on you. Rhonda, excellent job again with your on-location hair and make-up. Jeremy at AMS, big thanks to you too for keep the activities running smooth. I hope Maui provides the perfect honeymoon for Susie and Ben, too.
