Kelly McCord Photography Blog: Leslie & Scott's Enchanting Nestldown (not Nestledown!) Wedding

Jan 19, 2009

Leslie & Scott's Enchanting Nestldown (not Nestledown!) Wedding

First of all - I'm so sorry I've been gone so long!! I've been in crazy-wedding-editing land for the last few months, and I know this blog has seen neither hide nor hair of me, and I while it may look that way, I haven't abandoned the blog! I've just been extrememly busy. I've had the pleasure of sh0ooting so many amazing, fun, distinctive and gorgeous weddings in 2008, and I wanted to (properly) share them with you! And I would have done so along the way, however, due to all the time and energy I put into each one of my weddings I haven't been able to find the time to actually blog about them (and I like to talk about the day, not just throw up a bunch of photos, which is why blogging about them takes me a little extra time)! But now the madness is finally easing up a bit, and so I thought I'd start back up again with one of my wonderful couples; Leslie and Scott, who had their wedding at one of my favorite wedding locations in the entire Bay Area; Nestldown! First of all, I must apologize to Leslie, as she's been wanting to see some of my favorites on the blog for awhile, and she has been incredibly patient in waiting on me to have time to write about her beautiful wedding! So thank you, Leslie, for your patience! Now, on to Scott and Leslie's Nestldown wedding!

(A quick aside: I learned last year that it's NOT Nestledown, but Nestldown, with no e! Yet every time I write it, I have to keep going back and deleting the e, since it seems like it should be there. Plus, for those of you who didn't know there was no e in Nestldown, I didn't want you to think I was continally mis-typing it). =) Glad we could clear that up! Now on to Scott and Leslie's wedding!

I liked Scott and Leslie the moment I met them, when they came for a wedding consultation at my house. They were referred by a good friend of mine, Melina, and I was so glad she referred them to me. Not only did I like Leslie and Scott right off the bat, but I was thrilled when I heard they were going to be married at Nestldown! Double bonus for me! And their wedding did not disappoint! Not only was every detail carefully thought out, but they made such gorgeous choices! From the largest to the smallest details'. Everything was classy, yet stylish and modern. The cake was completely different than any other cake I've ever seen, and all their other details were perfect for photographing them (and looked even better in person!), the table-number cards, the place settings, the flowers (which were lovely) and bouttonieres and table arrangements, and all the other choices they made, it was just a lovely wedding, and very well done. Leslie has great taste, and made my job super-easy! I'll talk about more in detail below.

(Another quick aside: As always, if you want to see the photos larger, click on them, and they'll pop up even bigger, and if you don't want to read all about their wedding, in detail, and just want to go directly to the slideshow, you can click here, to go to the slideshow, or if you just want to look at all my favorite pictures, and skip the words (I know I can be wordy!), then click here, and you'll be taken to below the jump to see a bunch of my favorite shots from their big day. )

Leslie, getting ready and putting her earrings on.

So as I said, I felt really lucky to be asked to shoot a couple weddings at Nestldown this year, and I say 'lucky' because I really do love it, for so many reasons and while I already discussed some of the distinctive features on Nestldown, in a previous post about another wedding I shot there, I thought I'd give you a quick refresher, in words and pictures, since it's been awhile. =) To begin with, the property is not only so beautiful, but it's completely unique, as I talked about previously (the aforementioned post when I shot Jen and Jame's wedding there).

The lovely bride.

I think is interesting that despite having all these amazing and distincltive features all around the property, from the road you could easily pass Nestldown right by, if you didn't know what you were looking for. Nestldown's location is practically hidden up in the Santa Cruz mountains, and if you aren't looking for it, it's easy to miss, and the entrance is fairly non-descript. Of course, since it's in the Santa Cruz mountains, it goes without saying that of course it's in a gorgeous spot (as pretty much anywhere in the Santa Cruz mountains is); huge old-growth trees surround the property. There's a profusion of green trees abounding, in particular surrounding and creating the redwoood glen that serves as the ceremony location. The redwood glen is reached by a fairly steep set of stairs (and like the entrance to Nestldown itself, if you weren't looking for it, you might miss it). As you walk down the steep stairs you discover this incredible spot within a spot. The ceremony glen (which feels almost like an outdoor cathedral), is a hollow, surrounded by all the old-growth trees, with a green bower at the altar, which stands in front of a pretty little pond, and makes for such an enchanting ceremony spot, as you can see from the shot below:

Scott and Leslie kept the decor around the ceremony fairly minimal, with small green flower balls, tied to the backs of the chairs along the aisle, which kept all the focus on the beauty of the location itself.

Married! I love the expression on Leslie's face -- such elation.

Surrounding the ceremony location there are nooks and crannies just waiting for photos to be taken. The shot of Scott and Leslie below was taken just above where I stood to take the ceremony shot, (two photos above). If you look (two shots above), you can see the little (willow?) bench. That's where they went to sit, immediately after the recessional, when I looked up (from shooting the guests leaving), and caught this sweet photo (I was somewhat hidden amongst the foliage, and I don't think they were even aware of me -- or anyone else, for that matter, as they were in a little world of their own.

While it's fairly obvious that I love Nestldown's ceremony site, the rest of the property is just as beautiful, and as I said, Scott and Leslie took great advantage of it, using almost the entire property to perfection. And while the redwood glen is certainly amazing and show-stopping, it's only one of the many unique places dotting the property. To mention just a few: there is a mini-train and tracks snaking all throughout the grounds (which is such a great way to make a grand entrance into the reception, as Scott and Leslie did, as well as to entertain and give rides to the guests and their kids). There is also a really nice (and I think relatively new) large barn, which sits alongside another sparkling pond, (topped with lilypads, and full of koi, and which I find myself unable to resist shooting continally -- there's food for the koi, and the guests were feeding them and of course, I was right there with them, snapping away!), and next to the barn and the pond is a large grassy area, where Scott and Leslie had the dining tables, for dinner.

The barn area, where appetizers and drinks were served, with the barn in the background.

As I mentioned, I loved all of Leslie's choices. They had multiple table centerpiece arrangements, (other styles below, after the jump). I particularly liked this one, with the three separate flower arrangements.

From the lawn, as it started getting dark, everyone made their way into the barn, where all the dancing, cake cutting and revelry was held, (and I'll talk about all that fun and craziness more below). Oh! And I almost forgot, there is also an incredible tree fort, (which I used to do some of the groomsmen's photos, below), and a small, Alice In Wonderland house, just big enough for little girls, surrounded with shrubs shaped like animals, and next to the train tracks. When I tell you it's a dream, it really is! I don't think there's anywhere like it in the Bay Area.

The groomsmen, up in the tree fort, for their portraits.

I love all the details, from the smallest of the flower choices...

I loved getting to be there, to shoot their big day, and one of the things that made it so fun for me, (besides Nestldown, whcih I love, an besides the gorgeous colors and flowers, was Scott, Leslie and their bridal party). I had a lot of fun shooting them all, and the guys were very sill and playful,, which is always fun for me; to have people who are totally at ease in front of the camera, and are in fact suggesting ideas for photos -- really, could a photographer ask for anything else?

As I said, everyone was great, and the groomsmen were all very fun, (and silly, as above). Some of their 'portraits' were really funny too, they were suggesting shots right and left (some are below, after the jump). This was an impromptu shot, as he saw me walking around the reception, looking for different candid moments, and I whipped my camera up just in time to catch him! Too funny.

While the bridal party was great, the guests were really awesome too, they jumped right into dancing, and the dance floor was literally packed the entire night -- in fact, we got some incredible (and somewhat crazy; which I have to admit, I love) photos from the dancefloor. So I pulled some of my favorites to show on the blog (and there are more below, after the jump), but if you'd also like to see a slideshow from the big day, then you can do so by

The dancing was SO crazy and fun! The DJ did an incredible job, and kept everyone on the floor from the moment the dancing began, 'til Leslie and Scott left. He also had some seriously awesome lighting, which allowed me to get some really fun shots, like the one below, which I absolutely LOVE!

Really, I feel like I'm beating a dead horse, but this was really such a fun, gorgeous, entertaining wedding! The bride and groom, and their guests, friends and family were all fun and ready for a party, and of course, Nestldown looked beautiful -- Leslie did a great job, and the staff were quick, friendly and efficient and kept everything moving right on track the entire evening. I was honored to be asked to shoot Leslie and Scott's wedding, and I had a great time, which I hope is conveyed by this blog post, (and hopefully I *don't* sound like a broken record!). Thanks so much, Leslie and Scott!!

If you want to see some more of my (many) favorite photos from the day, you can either go see the slideshow (link above), or, feel free to browse through some more of my favorites, after the jump, just click on, ''continue reading.." directly below.

Getting ready...