Kelly McCord Photography Blog

M'Kenzi & Jordan Practically Perfect Nuptials at Rancho Soquel

This is one of those weddings where (literally) everything was perfect; the bride and groom (and all their friends and family) are absolutely gorgeous, and could easily model (I'm not just saying that either, when you see some of the shots of M'Kenzi, not to mention her sisters and neices, you'll see why I say that).  And finally,  I got to shoot at a sparkly new location in town, Rancho Soquel, which is the MOST amazing facility!   It was one of those weddings where everything came today -- it was a perfect storm of bridal bliss (I really like alliteration!).

So, Rancho Soquel's grounds are absolutely gorgeous, and it seemed that every corner I turned,  there was a new, better photo spot than the one we had just left.    I had toured Rancho Soquel prior to the wedding day, (since it was new to me), with Denise, from Wedding Connection, (who was also there on the wedding day, to keep things running smoothly), and I really liked it then, but on the wedding day, when I saw it all decorated, I fell in love with the place.  I'm not kidding, there was a barn (with beautiful old wood, that reflected the most beautiful light on people's faces when we were doing portraits), 2(!) bridges over the creek that runs through the property, tons of old growth oaks and foliage, a big meadow, and florabunda.  It was such a delight for me. Really. I'm not merely gushing, it was an incredible property, and I cannot WAIT to be able to shoot there again.

NOTE:  -- If you would like me shut my pie hole, and stop yammering on about all the details of the wedding, and you just want to get to the slideshow already - then click here - and you will be taken to the slideshow.  Also, the slideshow is pretty large, so give it enough time to load, it might take a few minutes.  Furthermore - if you would like to interrupt my yapping, and NOT go to the slideshow, but you would like to just look at all my favorite shots, then scroll down, to the bottom of this post, where it says, "Continue reading M'Kenzi & Jordan's Practically Perfect Nuptials..." and you'll be taken to the photos I posted here, which are some of my (not very narrow) list of favorites. Now, back to the yammering blog post...

So I had M'Kenzi and Jordan, an absolutely stunning couple, I had Rancho Soquel, an amazing wedding (or any type of event) location, and (this is the icing on the cake) -- the bride and groom had GREAT taste, so every detail was not only well-thought out, but just right.  AND, the cherry on top of that icing, is that Katie Gonzales, a dear old friend of mine (we've known one another since she was in diapers), who has been trained under the tutelage of my fabulous Aunt Susi, in the art of floral design, did all the flowers, and a great part of the decor. (Also - another fun fact, and another aside -- Jordan, the groom's older sister, Lisa, was one of my sister's friends, since elementary school - I still remember how she pronounced Ciliberto with her little lisp).  Anyhow,  did I mention florabunda???  Katie did SUCH an incredible job with the flowers, and M'Kenzi did an equally splendid job choosing them.  They had so many gorgeous blooms, AND mixed into all the flowers was different fruit, of all varieties, which made for this incredible tableau.  I could not stop shooting all the details (which, to be fair, I'm kinda that way anyhow, but even more so at this wedding). Katie was amazing, and her skills, combined with M'Kenzi's taste, and the fabulousness of Rancho Soquel made for not only a beautiful wedding, but beautiful (if I do say so myself) wedding photography as well.

Plus, to make it even more fun for me (and not that their wedding was all about me, but hey -- this is MY blog!), it helped that Jordan and M'Kenzi are not only beautiful, but they are so super-fun to shoot; up for anything be it dramatic and (dare I say, slightly over the top -- and I mean that in the  best possible way), to the very silly and everything in between. Really, they're a photographer's dream. (As an aside, sometimes really gorgeous people aren't the most photogenic people -- hard to believe but true, and definitely not true in their case!).   And I knew that out after we had had so much fun shooting M'Kenzi and Jordan's engagement portraits, so I knew it was going to be a fun wedding to shoot, if only for the fact that M'Kenzi and Jordan are hammy type people, and they actually enjoy getting their pictures taken.

Wow...sorry about the multitude of  paragraphs talking about how gorgeous everything was. I do tend to go on, but let me tell you, this wedding lives up to the hype.  And if you're a bride who hasn't chosen your wedding location yet, one of the venues I would highly recommend is Rancho Soquel.   

And, I don't want to forget to mention, that not only was the wedding day beautiful,  and the bride and groom lovely on the outside, but they were really lovely on the inside, as well.  M'Kenzi had heard about me from Katie (the aforementioned old family friend), and when I met M'Kenzi, I could see why she and Katie had been friends forever; she's sweet and fun, and Jordan, (who is so smitten with M'Kenzi, it's almost palpable), was really great too.  It was one of those ceremonies were I get choked up (it doesn't happen a lot these days, but when it's a wedding that's so sweet and tender, like theirs, my eye piece gets cloudy from my ears. I'm not kidding).  They both seemed really in love, and doesn't everyone love the 'happily ever after' of high school sweethearts getting married?  So the ceremony was very tender, but then once it was time for the reception, everyone cut loose, which is SO FUN!!  It was one of those weddings where EVERYone is laughing and dancing and having fun, and everywhere I turned my camera, I got a great shot of someone doing a crazy move on the dance floor, or throwing their heads back in laughter.

I know I'm going on and on, but I just really loved this wedding (as you'll see by the sheer volume of shots that I 'narrowed down to' to fit in the blog post, and the ones in the slideshow -- the narrow isnt' so narrow, as you'll see), but I had so many favorite shots, this was as narrow as I could get it.  So thank you, to M'Kenzi and Jordan and their sweet families and fun friends, for inviting me into your world for awhile, I hope I captured it as you remembered it. It was a delight to get to know you, and a privilege to be a part of this incredible day. I hope you love your photos as much as I do.

Again, you can get to the slideshow by clicking here, and if you want to see some of my favorite photos, posted on the blog, click continue reading, directly below...Also, as always, every photo on this blog is clickable, so if you want to see it larger, click on it, and a new, larger version should pop up. Happy reading!!!

Stephanie and Travis at the Santa Rosa Golf Club

        (Stephanie, getting ready, above)

I am so behind in posting, because I've been editing and editing and editing weddings like a it's going out of style. So much editing, thaat I haven't had time to blog.  And, I have so many weddings to show you all, and I've got three new wedding slideshows to show you (and more to come soon), but I want to give each couple their own post, so I decided to not just list each slideshow/wedding to  check out, because these couples all deserve their own post!

(The photo above features bridesmaids out of the catalog, 'Beautiful Bridesmaids R Us.' If that makes no sense, keep reading below...)

So I'll start with Stephanie and Travis's wedding.  I had the pleasure of meeting Stephanie and Travis through a dear friend from Santa Clara university (where I went to college) Eileen (who used to be a Briggs, and who's now a Brinker), who happens to be Stephanie's  sister-in-law (or, Eileen is married to the brides brother, Aaron).  So I knew Eileen, and Eileen told Stephanie about me.  And, keeping it all in the family, Eileen's sister, Julie, who I've written about quite a bit on this blog (here, here ,  and here, to name a few times,) was the wedding coordinator (and I met Julie through Eileen, as well, first when I was her wedding photographer, and then later, we've worked together on a few weddings I shot and Julie coordinated.  I've said it before, but I'll say it again, if you're getting married, I highly, HIGHLY encourage you to have a wedding coordinator, and if you're going to have a wedding coordinator, you should have Julie.  But I'm digressing... 

...but before I get back on the subject, another quick digression!  Above is Eileen, with her daughter Mia, check out how much Mia's grown, here's a shot of Mia and Eileen, (that incidentally is almost the exact same pose), from when we did their family shoot last year, look at how big shes' gotten! And isn't she a gorgeous girl? 

So I met Stephanie and Travis through Eileen, and I'm so glad she introduced me to them, as I really enjoyed getting to know both Stephanie and Travis, and their families.  The ceremony was at the family church, and the reception was at the lovely Santa Rosa Golf club. I knew Stephanie and her mom Julie had worked together planning, and working really hard for months to make the room so gorgeous, and I figured it would be beautiful, but it was even more gorgeous than I expected.  They really had thought of every detail.  Everywhere I turned there were overflowing vases of fresh cut, white flowers, and glowing candles sparkled on every surface, and the smell of fresh flowers literally wafted through the air (and I'm not saying that to sound poetic, there was such a glorious abundance of flowers -  they were so beautiful, and the scent was everywhere. I'm a total flower girl, and to be in a space that was not only beautiful to the eye, but to the nose also, only reinforced how much thought and consideration had gone into this day -  they even took care of smell!  The best word to describe it was elegant.  I know I'm going on and on, but it really was lovely.  If I've captured your attention, and you want to see for yourself,  and you want to see Stephanie and Travis's wedding photo slideshow, you can do so by clicking here: Stephanie and Travis's pictures.

The shots above are just a few of the arrangements - they had different arrangements on every table, and like I said, there were flowers EVERYwhere, on every surface, even the gorgeous fireplaces in the room were bedecked with flowers, there's a shot of them (below) giving a toast where you can see what I"m talking about). But aren't the flowers so elegant?

So the room, like I said, was lovely, and Stephanie looked stunning, and Travis looked great, and it was one of those weddings where every member of the bridal party was pretty, you almost thought she'd picked them on prettiness alone, or ordered them out of a catalog. =) Anyhow, it was a beautiful day, and I really enjoyed getting to shoot this wedding. And completely aside from the divine wedding, I also have to say that Stephanie and Travis have both been great on a personal level -- they were incredibly patient with getting their photos.  I've had a couple computer/software things go down in the last couple weeks (which I'm going to write about soon, so check back in a week or so to hear about the saga of  my computer), that had made their photos take a lot longer than I (and they) would have liked, and while I know Stephanie was dying to see the photos, she was nothing but gracious and patient, and I am so grateful that she was so understanding. I feel like I get the best brides, (sometimes I wonder if they're choosing me, or I'm choosing them?),=)   but when glitches happen, and they are still great, then I feel really incredibly blessed. So Stephanie, thank you, again, for being so wonderful about having to wait a little extra to get your photos. It was an honor to be asked to be included in your day.

If you'd like to see more of my favorite shots, you can do so by clicking, 'continue reading,' below, or if you'd rather just watch the slideshow, then click here instead, and go check out the slideshow.  As always, the photos are clickable, if you want to see them larger...

(Above is a shot of me, shooting Stephanie and Eileen) I thought it was kinda fun, just because I'm usually the one behind the camera.)

Also, like I said, I've got a bunch of weddings to share with you, so I'm going to be posting more slideshows and talk about some of the weddings I've had this season in the next few days, so stay tuned...

Missing Messages, Dr. Phil and My So-Called-Life...

Just a quick note to let all my clients know, if you've tried calling me in the last week, to two weeks, I've switched phone services, and it's resulted in some missed calls, and some messages that weren't received.  I'm very sorry for this, and it should be all squared awayvery soon!  Email is the best way to reach me, so drop me a line if you need me, and I'll call you back!!  And I'll be posting another shoot or wedding very soon.

I have SO much to tell you all; I just shot another celebrity wedding, and some of my wedding photos from a few months ago are going to be on Dr. Phil, and some of my other photos are going to be in a magazine, and a gazillion other things to update you on, but alas, not at this moment, but I promise to write very soon about all of these fun (and crazy!) things!!

And I'm starting to book up for next summer, so if you're wanting me to shoot your next wedding, drop me a line, so we can get you on the calendar!!

And because I'm me, there has to be at least one photo in every blog, so  we're breaking form for this post, with a bunch of personal shots of (crazy! I know! I do actually have a personal life) me and my family.  I've got so much more where these came from, (our trip to San Francisco, going to the SC County Fair, the girls first days of school, etc., etc.), but I don't have time to edit all of them at the moment, so I just grabbed a few highlights (with the hope to have more of the family shots posted fairly soon-ish, or at least time to go through all of them). And these aren't super-artistic, or anything of the sort, these are more in more in the vein of  I'm-so-proud-of-my-kids-aren't-they-the-cutest-ever
type of mom photos. But what can I say??  They are the cutest kids ever.  There seem to be a lot of sequence-type shots in here, I'm not entirely sure why, but there you go.

Just as the cobblers kids never had any shoes, so too, does the photographer never have formal portraits of her own family.  These days, I'm just happy if we're all in the same general vicinity together and I'm able to get a shot or two of my girlies,  which is why I'm so joyfully posting 'family album,' type shots, because my kids and husband mean more to me than anything, and yet, family life has definitely taken a hit with all my working for the past five months.  Needless to say, I can't wait for our impending  family vacation to Ireland!!  So enjoy some of my more personal shots, and I'll post more of my professional-type stuff soon...

And there are a bunch more family photos after the jump, to see them, click on 'continue reading...' below.

Victor O'Hana Family Band

 

I had the privilege of doing another CD/Band shoot recently.  The Victor O'Hana Family Band (a multi-generational hawaiian band), asked me to shoot them for the first CD release.  It's always fun to do a different kind of shoot, and doing a CD-cover shoot can be a lot more creative than a family or couples engagement shoot. I get to push the envelope a little bit with post-processing and what I ask them to do, and they were game for anything.  They're such a great family, and I felt so blessed to be asked to shoot them for their debut CD.  Below are a few of my favorites...and there are more after the jump.

 

Merry Christmas, and I hope you have a wonderful, fabulous, incredible 2007!

Toddly and Hils, Asher and Baby On Board

I've been away from posting recently, as I've been crazy-busy.  I'm wrapping up the major craziness of wedding season, and it's taking a lot of my attention.

 

So busy have I been, that I'm just finishing editing these photos from my dear friends, Todd and Hils, that we took at the beginning of summer (the baby inside is already out, and quite a few months old). =) 

I asbolutely love shooting pregnancy portraits (LOVE them), and I love shooting my friends, so this was a double-whammy of fun for me.  Plus, Todd and Hilary are a bit on the hammy side, and are always willing to do whatever crazy or silly things I ask them to do, which can result in some SUPER-fun photos, as you can see.  I actually shot other friends, Adam and Bek, when they were visiting in Australia, we did their prego portrais a month or so ago, and I'm shooting another prego portrait in about a week -- seems like everybody's pregnant, and lucky me, I get to shoot them!

More after the jump, or if you want to see all the photos from the shoot, you can do so by clicking here.

I love how Hils looks in this shot...

Briggs Sisters

The weekend before school started for the girls, we took them up to San Francisco, for one last mini-vacation. I had a shoot and some meetings scheduled, so we decided to make it a family affair.  We had such a fun time, and I'm hoping to get those photos edited before the end of the year (that's how swamped I am with editing;  family photos aren't even on the radar right now). So anyway, while we were in San Francisco, I did a family photo shoot, with one of my friends from college, Eileen and her family; her husband Aaron, her new-ish daughter Mia, her sister Liz, her husband Mark and their daughter Madison.  We met at Julius Khan park, and had a lot of fun shooting. You could tell the little ones had been in front of the camera a lot already (Eileen is an amateur photographer, and has the same kind of zeal for it, that I do).

We had a great time at the park, and it was so fun to get to see Eileen and Aaron again, and to get to know Liz and Mark a little more. Also, Eileen has never met Bella and Sofia in person (although like she said, she feels like she knows them, because she's watched them grow up online). And to add to the fun, Julie and Ryan , a former bride and groom of mine, and Eileen and Liz's sister, and now friend of mine, stopped by; to watch the girls at their first shoot, and also to see the coffee-table album I'd designed for them, with their wedding photos (this link takes you to a virtual version of it). Anyhow, it was really great to see them all, Ross knew Ryan from college (in fact, I met Eileen in the same class that Ross and I first met in), and so they had a fun time talking and catching up, while I shot the rest of the family.  One of my favorite things about my job is that I get to know families, and not only that, but I get to shoot them as they grow and change. The Briggs sisters have not only been some of my favorite clients, but I consider them friends now, and the icing on that cake is that not only have I stayed in touch with Eileen, but I've become friends with her family, and they in turn have introduced me to their group of friends, by referring me for weddings and whatnot, so my circle of friends has grown. I just feel so blessed.  Anyhow, this is quite a digression, but I love having clients turn into friends, and then getting to know their friends, as clients, and turning them into friends too. I know this is getting a little on the cheesy side, (what can I say, apparently I've got some cheese in me), so before this turns into a steaming pot of fondue, I'll show the photos from their shoot, which I have to say, I think are really pretty adorabe. Plus, their girls are so cute, they make my ovaries hurt.

These are just a few of my favorites, (more after the jump), and if you want to see all the photos from the shoot, you can view all the photos, by clicking here. 

And of course, a shameless shot of all the adorable girlies (I can't believe how massive mine look in comparison).

Site of the Week! Jennifer and James

The past few months, I've been using Collages to host my images, after I'm done editing.  Well, they have this thing that they do, called Website of the Week. Well, I've noticed lately that they've been checking out my photos quite a bit, and I got an email a few days ago, telling me that they'd love to feautre a recent shoot I did, with my upcoming (this weekend) bride and groom, James and Jen.  We did a photo session at the beach in Santa Cruz, and the photos turned out so fun. I was thrilled that they were chosen, and will be featured on the Collages site.

Anyhow, I thought it was pretty cool, so while I'm showing you photos from the shoot with James and Jennifer. I also wanted to tell you about being chosen to be featured. I thought that was pretty cool.  I'll post the link to the Website of the Week, when I'm on there. But for now, here are some of my favorite photos from the shoot they'll be featuring.

We all piled into their VW van, with their two dogs), and drove down to the beach on the east side, sort of close to Portola, off of 30th, and while shooting, we were stoked as the sun set, it was probably the most gorgeous sunset we've had this year, and I love that the photos reflect not only James and Jennifer's personalities, but also a perfect, Santa Cruz sunset.  This is why it costs so much to live here.

If you want to see all the photos, you can do so by clicking here. 

Another fun thing about these photos, is that they're being made into an album/guest book. So instead of people just signing a blank guest book. I worked with James and Jen to create an album, which will be printed and bound by the company I use to create my wedding albums, so they'll not only have a guest book, for their friends and family to write well-wishes and blessings, but they'll also have a beautifully printed and bound album of their engagement photos, as an heirloom, with all their loved-ones writing all over it.  If you're one of my future, or present brides, and are interested in something like this, let me know, and I can show you a sample.

A few more of my faves, after the jump...

The Berge Family

A few months ago, I shot the Berge Family. I recently finished their photos, and I loved how they turned out, so I thought I'd share af few.  Christine and I have worked together on a few projects over the years (we're currently working on a really fun project for our church), and we've gotten to know one another better and better. Our kids go to the same schools, and she is a really fun chick.  I've loved getting to know her over the years, and shooting her and her family a few times over those years. They are such a beautiful family,  and I can't say enough about her gorgeous hair. I feel blessed to have a friend in Christine, and that I have the privilege of shooting my friends and their families.

There are more photos after the jump, or if you want to see all the photos from their shoot, you can do so by clicking here.

Crazy Boys

I love photographing kids! Being a mom, and loving kids, and photography - it's a natural mix. The boys in these shots are friends of my dear friends Michael and Kim. I think this is the third official family photo shoot we've done. I love them, and I love photographing her boys. They're all so full of life, energy and fun, and I think I captured it in the photos.

When I'm shooting kids, I usually do some shots of them arranged and posed, and then I just start to have fun with them; asking them to run and jump, chase each other, hug each other, pile on top of each other -- basically, to act like kids. I understand the need to have some nice portraits, but I also try to capture who each child really is; and kids rarely sit still, gazing off into the distance.

Here is a nice family shot, a little more subdued than above, but just as nice, in a different way.

If you want to see some more from the Howard family shoot, they're after the jump...