There are tons of nice people in this world. Sweet and extraordinary people. People who are genuinely fun to be around and put a smile on your face every time you simply hear their name. Marissa is one of those people. I swear I am not even exaggerating. Anyone that knows her can attest to this. She is fun, funny, sweet, kind, quarky, and one of the best people I know. She’s also an extraordinary photographer, a wife, and recently left us all in San Diego and moved to Hawaii. If I didn’t adore her so much I may just be mad at her for a really long time.

Marissa and Eddie have been married for awhile and recently (semi-recently) celebrated their five year anniversary, so she asked for pictures to celebrate and document this amazing time in their lives. Our other good friend, Katie and I were extremely honored to photograph Marissa and Eddie at The Pearl this past December.

Marissa and Eddie! Can you two be any more in love, funny, crazy, smiley… you guys melt my heart and make me smile! Thank you so much for being a friend, Marissa! I will miss our lunches, our talkes, our laughs together. Please come back soon!

Congratulations on your new adventure together!

And a huge thank you to The Pearl, the staff, and Kimberly at The Pearl! Much love!

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You are unbelievably gorgeous!

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This is Marissa… all day. every day… all smiles

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If it rained, she said it didn’t matter. She had a huge smile on her face and if it rained, she’d pull up her dress and dance in the rain… it rained and she danced!  Claire married the love of her life, Patrick, in an intimate ceremony in San Juan Capistrano. I adore happy, in love couples and Claire and Patrick scream happy and in love.

Patrick and Claire, thank you so much for laughing, smiling and being so happy… even during the rain. You two are so sweet and I am honored to be a part of your lives. Much love!

And a huge thanks to Logan for shooting with me!

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Since Claire and Patrick opted to see each other before the wedding, we had time to do pictures at the beautiful and historic Mission.

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Here are a few things I have coming up on the blog. Of course I’m behind but hopefully some prettiness will make up for it

Valley Center Wedding | Jessica + Jeff

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Laguna Beach Engagement | Jennifer + Michael

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Star Ranch Wedding Editorial | White Magazine

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Dana Point Beach Wedding Editorial | White Magazine

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It was a perfectly warm fall day for a Fresno backyard wedding. Laurel and Chris are simply happy and they wanted a wedding that represented their love in a simply happy way… a wedding at the house that Chris grew up in was the perfect place.

This backyard wedding was a labor of love that involved their closest friends and family pitching in to make this diy wedding fun and fabulous.

I shot this wedding with my great friend Logan.

Here are a few favorites from the day:

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Although their ceremony was being held at Chris’ parent’s house, they wanted to include their new- old and very cute home. We headed over to their place for some portraits.

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A fun way to cut the cake!

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It’s what computer backgrounds are filled with, walls are adorned with, wallets packed with, facebook avatars uploaded with… it’s our favorite pictures. Pictures of friends, family, kids, you as a baby or a child, you looking cute or you just looking fiinnnnne! Pictures that speak to you… tell a story that you and a select few know, fill you with memories, remind you of special occasions, or just remind you. For whatever reasons, they are your favorite and most prized possessions. We all have our favorite pictures and some are hard to let go and even hard to replace… I think what I’m trying to say is…

It’s easier to replace a dead man than a good picture. -George Bernard Shaw

I noticed that certain pictures seem to end up as my profile pics on several different social sites, as my iphone background, or on my computer screen. And it’s these certain ones that seem to be the ones I adore.

Here are some of my favorite images and why. Some you may have seen before, in fact I’m sure you have because I use them everywhere.

What are your favorite images and why? Feel free to share yours with me… share them on facebook, here, instagram, twitter, your blog If you don’t have any favorite pictures then I encourage you to take more pictures or have them taken of you until you have not just one favorite, but several.

One of my all time favorites is one from my wedding. It’s of my husband, myself and my two step kids. I adore this picture. It’s on my wall and I use it everywhere I can.

I’m not sure why any parent would allow their children to be seen in public like this but it happened… underwear, tank tops, and halvsies… I’m sure isn’t respectable outerwear. I remember this time so clearly. I’m on the right and I remember being so angry with my sister because I wanted to wear the yellow half shirt. Clearly, it’s the better shirt and I wanted it. I love this picture because other than us not smiling, this was us… running around with curlypigtails and half naked

This is my step daughter, Adrianna, when she was around 4 years old. I wasn’t in her life at this point but the picture is one that I can’t get enough of. It shows her personality so well and I can just imagine how sweet she was at this age.

Speaking of… you can see her same sweet smile here as well. She wasn’t supposed to be in the picture but if you know Adrianna, she’s trying to get into every picture she can.

Unlike his sister, Blaine isn’t always so keen on having his picture taken. I had to make up a lie to take this picture and every time I see it, it reminds me of that day and I laugh. I literally laugh out loud.

I shot this amazing Redondo Beach wedding with my good friend Katie back in September. Jacqui and Mike were married at a Redondo Beach church and the reception was held at a beautiful private residence.

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So I have this camera that I love but rarely use. It’s a contax 645 and it spends a majority of it’s time in my camera bag. For Shame!!! I know!  I love film and shooting film but sometimes I need to choose between buying film, processing it and eating… although that may be debated on whether or not I actually need to eat. Can you say stretchy pants city?! I should stay clear of my own Deserts Board on Pinterest. But back to the subject, shooting film can be expensive so when a friend told me about Visual Supply Company’s new film presets… sign me up! where do I sign? do I give up my first born? I may have been a little excited. This was my first edit with the presets and I’m impressed (although I wasn’t at first but that’s just because I’m picky and difficult and very hard to please but that’s for another time). I made minor adjustments here and there- a little contrast- and faded highlights and voila! But I’m still learning and playing. And for those of you salivating over the contax 645, nope not selling it.

If you’re not a photographer and I’m boring you, let’s move on…

This is Gina. She’s smart, funny, gorgeous and it’s only a matter of time before y’all know see her on the big screen. She needed to update her portfolio and I was happy to oblige. I enlisted the help of one of the best make up artists around these parts, Amy Clarke, and we had an amazing time on a beautiful fall day in San Diego.

Thank you to my amazing husband for shooting with me!

This first shot was taken in my kitchen. Filtered window light. LOVE!

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There are some things in my life that I think are funny and worth repeating… I twittered/ facebooked this a few weeks ago and really, it’s that funny that I may need to repeat it here. This is typical of my husband…

husband is holding my hand, says to me “you know you have really small hands.”
me: “I know this.”
him: “especially compared to your backside.”
me: “I do know this too but thank you.”
him: “you know you’re kind of built like a t-rex.”
What the eff?! I have small hands not short arms!

Want to see and hear other random stuff in my life? Then we can Catch Up Instagram Style:

#1. I received an early christmas present a few days ago… a Keurig! I talked about it a few days ago on the blog but I’ve had more time with it and I think I definitely have an opinion on in… coffee at the touch of a button… AHHHMAZZZZING! extra padding to my behind at the touch of a button… DISSSSSASTROUS! And although I’m not loving the coffee that came with it, I’m still loving the machine as a whole. Now if there was a way for me to stay away from the creamers, I may not blow up to 500 lbs.

#2. These are blog stats. You know, the number of people that visit your blog each day. You can see the numbers are high, 25,000, 35,000, and up… certainly not my blog stats… not even close! But I’m going to dream big and clearly out loud here… those will be mine someday. Maybe even higher!

#3. 5 Random Facts About Me:

• I say inappropriate comments constantly… sometimes I think I’m a 15 year old boy.
• I can only have clean, clean, clean blankets on me. I’m super weird about dirty (not fresh out of the dryer) blankets touching me.
• I can maybe go 10 minutes without my iphone in my hand… Max!
• Thank you goes a long way with me. I love appreciative people.
• P.Diddy said hi to me in NYC. Actually he said what’s up.

#4. some of you may or my not know, I’m a twin. yes, identical. and sometimes we do twinsie things. we sent a very similar text to each other the other night at the exact same time. it was a lame text like “what are you having for dinner” but that’s what twins do… text randomly and often just to see what the other one is doing.

#5. the sunsets here for the past few weeks have been amazing. autumn is my favorite time of year and the light during the late afternoon is simply devine.

#6. One of my all time favorite holiday treats (I rarely discriminate treats.. all treats are equally great) are the peppermint pretzel slims at Trader Joe’s… like I can and have ate a whole bag in 10 minutes. I’m sick and disgusted with my self in the end but that’s for another time and post.

#7. I love to try new foods. I saw this, it was new, so I tried. It was good but I like the original with honey the best so I’m going to stick with that.

#8. I’m not a huge pie crust fan. I wish I was, I hear nothing but great tings about it. So, this is how I eat my pumpkin pie, without the crust.

#9. See, amazing sunsets. This was at the Pacific Beach Pier.

#10. Bead head monster. This was Lola as she woke up the other morning. True story. I did nothing to make her look like this… it was all her.

#11. Airports have the best things ever. A weekly pack of Nutella… YES, PLEASE! Although, I doubt those would last a week.

#12. Ok, here’s where me trying new things gets interesting… a plantain enchilada. Yes, a sweet plantain. With cheese, enchilada sauce, meat all in a banana. We traveled to Puerto Rico and I’m all about trying the local cuisine. I tried and I’ll pass on the plantain enchilada next time.

#13. I’ve had my fair share of fun weddings and receptions but when a Puerto Rican band comes through the reception singing and playing the drums… well, that pretty much takes the cake.

#14. An instgram friend recommended her two favorite things to try out in Puerto Rico- Piragua and coconut ice cream. They were both out of this world but my favorite was the coconut ice cream.

#15. El Morro Lighthouse. A beautiful lighthouse in Old San Juan, built to protect the city.

#16. I saw an ad in the  skymall magazine… “Having Dental Work Done?”  was the tag line and at the bottom “You’re not a monkey.” typed on a picture of a Chimpanzee, which is not a monkey. Advertising fail.

#17. Ugh, I’m such a fatty. The best french fry dip ever is a wendy’s frosty. would you agree?

#18. I shot a wedding with Logan a few weeks back and the bride and groom had the same first name. Which may not be that uncommon, i.e. Kelly and Kelly or Kelley, but this particular name isn’t as common… they both were named Kelsey, spelled the exact same way.  If she changes her last name, things could get very interesting!

#19. Cute gold glittery vans for a wedding… so cute!

#20. I know in reality I did nothing to get on OWN- Oprah Winfrey Network, but nonetheless I’m still excited to have a few images I took a few years ago on Oprah’s All Stars- 20 year olds share everything a person needs to know.

#21. The Incredible Cheesecake Co., we found this little gem hidden in San Diego and the fatties that we are, we just had to try it. My husband had the original and I had the pumpkin cheesecake. The pumpkin one was to die for.

#22. My first batch of cookies with my new bff, sugar cookies. Made from a recipe off of pinterest.

It all started out with a friend’s roommate… Lourdes had a friend, who had a roommate who may have been available and good looking. Lourdes and Jon met and became fast friends. That’s where their love began. As friends. You can see this in their interactions with each other… they’re all smiles and laughter when they’re together… they pretty much have the time of their lives (I don’t usually make cheesy references.. on my blog at least, but you’ll see why in a bit).

Jon and Lourdes are getting married in Canada next year and I’m so happy they came all the way down here… just for me

I wish I could say Lourdes and Jon came all the way from Canada just for me… but the truth is they were coming down this way for vacation and wanted engagement pictures in sunny San Diego. See, Lourdes is a researcher by nature. She was at work one day… ahem… I mean at home… and she researched her way to me. And I’m so happy she did. Lourdes and Jon are sweet, kind and oh so fun. And when I say fun, I mean Fun with a capital F! Lourdes came up with a great way for me to document their love… with sunglasses, tube socks, and of course some roller skates!

Thank you to my most wonderful husband for shooting with me.

Here are a few favorites from the day:

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What’s engagement pictures in San Diego without the beach?

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A quick little outfit change and they were on a roll…

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Yes, those are some jazz hands they’re throwing up there!

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I think I may have issues… no, no… I know I have issues. I bought a new coffee maker, not just any coffee maker, a Keurig! So of course I wanted to take pictures of me making coffee. But I couldn’t take pictures because my kitchen was a mess. I can’t instgram my new coffee maker when my kitchen is a mess! And I can not not share so what did I have to do? Ugh! Yes, I had to clean my kitchen just so I could take a picture of me making coffee for a picture that’s cropped anyways! I know it needed to be cleaned anyways but did I need to clean that very instant for me to instagram… of course I did! because I have issues! And I actually had to clean 2 places because after I spent all that time cleaning one counter top I realized I needed a 3 prong socket… did that counter top area have one, nope!  Do y’all clean your house just to take a single picture? Or am I the only one with issues? So, that was the whole delay in getting this December Preview up.

Onto more important and exciting things! Here are a few weddings coming up…

Redondo Beach Wedding | Jacqui + Mike

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Puerto Rico Wedding | Jennifer + Efrain

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The Pearl Anniversary Shoot | Marissa + Eddie

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