We've Moved! Now Serving the Sierra Nevada Foothills and Lake Tahoe!

Life is a journey, and sometimes the road you're traveling on takes an unexpected left turn into a great new experience.  Recently, my life took one of those turns, and Josh and I had the opportunity to move to the Sierra Nevada foothill and fulfill our dream of living in the mountains.  We couldn't love it more, but the move means a few changes for Wedded Bliss Images, including new photography packages and, of course, a new coverage area!  Don't worry, Bay Area, I've still got you covered, but I'll also be shooting more frequently around Gold Country, Sacramento, and Lake Tahoe.  So, if you're planning your wedding in any of those areas and want heartfelt, fun photography to capture your memories, give me a shout over email or by phone!

Happy Monday!

Wedding Faire - Hannah Nicole Vineyards

Come out and see us on Sunday, February 19, at the Hannah Nicole Vineyards Wedding Faire!  The winery will be set up for weddings, and you can meet preferred vendors and, of course, taste some great wine!

When: Sunday, February 19, 2012 from 2pm to 6pm
Where: Hannah Nicole Vineyards, 6700 Balfour Road, Brentwood, CA 94513
RSVP: events@hnvwines.com

Have a wonderful weekend!

Happy Valentine's Day!

It's Valentine's Day, and though I used to think that it was one of those cheesy Hallmark holidays, I'm really excited today.  Why?  Well, first, I'm all for any excuse to celebrate love and life.  Second, Trader Joe's made a Valentine's edition of their Gummy Tummies, and the cherry-flavored Lovey Gummy Tummies are possibly my favorite version yet.  They've completely replaced candy hearts for me this year.  Third, and most exciting, Josh decided to make a special Valentine's Day dinner tonight, and I simply can't wait.  Chili verde, rice with fried plantains and homemade pomegranate ice cream.... He knows the way to my heart is through latin food and ice cream.

To add to all the excitement, I'm offering a Valentine's special-- book any wedding photography package with us by February 29, 2012, and receive a complimentary custom-designed guest sign-in album.  Custom guest sign-in albums are a fun, memorable and unique way to show off your engagement photos and create a wonderful keepsake from your wedding day.  Check out one of my favorite designs from last season below.

Happy Valentine's Day!

New Album Slideshows

Since we're well into 2012 now, and I'm in album mode, I decided it was time for some fresh designs on the website.... So, I've posted five of my current favorite Wedding Day Art Book designs from 2011 in the Love Stories section.  And just in case you're impatient like me, here's Rosa and Raudel's gorgeous design.... Enjoy!

Wedding Day Art Book - Libby and Rob - Round Hill Country Club Wedding

Wintertime is album-design-time for me.  From late fall through early spring, it's all about weaving the memories from last season's weddings in gorgeous, storytelling art book designs.  One of my favorite moments as a wedding photographer is seeing all of the hard work throughout the engagement shoot, wedding day and beyond come together to tell the story of a couple in love.

Way back in September, Libby and Rob were married at Round Hill Country Club in Alamo in a truly heartfelt ceremony, and I've been excited about designing their wedding day art book ever since....

Have a wonderful weekend!

Happy New Year!

Happy new year!  I hope everyone has had a wonderful holiday season with friends and family.  2011 flew by in a blur of beautiful weddings, heartfelt vows, fun engagement shoots, and, of course, fantastic couples.  After an extremely busy fall, I'm back to blogging and have so much to share!  Here's a sneak peek at Adrienne and DJ's beautiful December wedding....

Happy 2012!

Sneak Peek - San Francisco Engagement

Last week's engagement shoot with Thea and Matt was amazing!  We had wonderful light, great locations, and Thea and Matt were so fun to work with!  I am positively in love with Thea and Matt's images, so here's a sneak peek from their shoot....

Happy Monday!

Adventure Camera - Biking Route 1

With our metric century through Davis completed last month, we've been looking for nice, long, hilly rides in the Bay Area and beyond to train for our next great biking adventure-- the Hell's Gate Hundred.  Whereas our ride from Davis to Winters was, well, pretty much flat, Hell's Gate will be anything but.  With a 20-mile climb up and over the 4300-foot Daylight Pass in Death Valley, we'll need some serious hill training.  So, with that in mind, we headed down to Big Sur to ride the 26-mile section of Route 1 between Big Sur and Lucia.  Hills galore, great scenery, and courteous drivers made for a wonderful out-and-back ride, and by mid-morning we were joined by many other friendly road bikers.

Our turn-around point was Lime Kiln State Park.  Situated in a canyon, the park's geography ranges from rocky beaches to brushy peaks high above the ocean's waves.  There's a small campground reaching back from the beach, and the campground host is one of the nicest people we've met.  Incidentally, he's just created a bike-and-hike campsite for those biking or backpacking along the coast.  It's a nice little site with an ocean view and a bench.  It's a great place to stay if you're in the area on foot or two wheels.

Happy Monday!

Sneak Peek - Ralston Hall Mansion Wedding

It's been a very busy week, so I've taken a few days off blogging (sorry!)... However, I'm working on Wendy and Rob's wedding images, and I can't help but share one!  They were married last month at the gorgeous Ralston Hall Mansion in a beautiful ceremony and reception.  Here's a sneak peek from their first look.... Love!

Happy Thursday!

Sneak Peek - Sierra Nevada Mountain Wedding

We woke up to some very chilly temperatures this morning, and the briskness in the air reminded me of Wanny and Mike's wedding in the forest of the Sierra Nevada a few weeks ago.  A snowstorm three days before their Big Day unexpectedly rearranged a few things, but resulted in a truly unique day, full of family, friends and a whole lot of fun!  Here's a sneak peek!

Happy Thursday!

Everything but the kitchen sink...

With wedding season finally winding down a bit, Josh and I decided it was high time the house got a good cleaning.  So, we headed over to the new Target in Dublin (crowded!), loaded up on cleaning supplies, and started scrubbing.  After a while, the house was starting to look pretty darn good, so we called it a day and moved on to making dinner.  As I was setting the table, I heard Josh say "Huh."  This is rarely a good thing.  I turned around to find him holding the handle of the kitchen sink faucet.  Sadly, it was no longer attached to the kitchen.  Turns out the little fork bracket (or whatever you want to call it) had simply sheared off, and there was no fixing it.  It was time for a new kitchen faucet.

After an informative trip to Lowe's, we had a snazzy new faucet and a complete realization that this was well beyond our home-maintenance skills.  So, we also ordered Lowe's installation services, and we should have a working kitchen sink sometime this afternoon.  In the meantime, you would not believe how much a broken kitchen sink can affect your day when you work out of your house.  We've taken to keeping a pitcher of water next to the sink as a replacement, but food prep and washing dishes is still a little sketchy without a steady flow of water to the dish disposal, and making tea or coffee requires a trip to the bathroom.  Yeah.  Needless to say, we took the Lowe's salesperson's advice and ate out last night.

Happy Tuesday!

Two Years!

Today is Josh's and my two-year wedding anniversary.  Like many people, these milestone days always getting me thinking about how far we've come sine the last milestone, and where we're headed in the future.  It's been a very interesting year for us, and I can't wait to see what adventures are in store for us in the next year.  And I couldn't imagine experiencing it all without my best friend by my side.... Happy Anniversary, Josh!

New! Automotive Art

Last night, as we were watching I-don't-actually-remember-what on TV, one of my favorite commercials came on.  It's a commercial for Bridgestone tires that features an older couple driving their 1950s Caddy like stunt drivers on a salt flat.  After whipping around the flats, the car stops, and the couple gets out of the car to switch drivers.  As they cross paths in front of the car, the women says "I got this one, Old Man," and slaps his butt.  I love it!  Makes me smile every time.

And that brings us to something new and exciting.  Those of you who have seen my business cards know that they're two-sided.  One side is Wedded Bliss Images, and the other side is it's sister company Twisted Rock Photography.  When we first started, Twisted Rock was simply my outlet for my fine art photography projects, and we sold prints, cards, canvases and metal images at art festivals around the Bay Area.  Now, Twisted Rock is getting a new direction that combines my infatuation with classic (and not-so-classic) cars and my absolute love of creating photographic art out of just about anything.  For now, I'm going to call it "Automotive Art."  So, if your car (or motorcycle, as the case may be) is your passion, give me a holler, and I'll create some chrome-inspired custom art just for you!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Susan + Watson - Wedding Day Art Book

One of the highlights of this wedding season has been working with Susan and Watson.  From our trip to the San Francisco Zoo for their engagement shoot, to their record-breaking ceremony and all of our meetings at the Marriott, they're always fun, easy-going and totally genuine.  So, of course, when their Wedding Day Art Book arrived this week, I was positively stoked.  So much so, I squealed with delight and went running to the kitchen to open the box.  Inside, pure gorgeousness!

Art Book Stats: 12x16 with an Armour metal cover (love!) and Passion red leather spine and back

You can also see more of their album design from last month's blog post.  Happy Thursday!

Foxy's Fall Century

Earlier this summer, Josh and I traded in our old road bikes for some shiny new models that fit a lot better.  Riding suddenly got a lot more fun (even though we really liked it before!), and we started challenging ourselves on longer and longer rides.  Eventually,we started wondering whether we could ride a century (100 miles) in one shot.  We haven't quite gotten there yet, but we did ride Foxy's Fall Metric Century (100 km or about 60 miles) last weekend.  What a great ride!  It was our first foray into organized rides, and having so many other bicyclists out there with us added a whole other dimension and a sense of community to the ride.  We finished considerably faster than we thought we would, and had so much fun that we're planning to take on the Hell's Gate Hundred in Death Valley next spring.  It's going to be a heck of a challenge (it's a true century at 100 miles and over 8500 feet of climbing), but it will be really neat to go out and see one of my most favorite places by bicycle.  Let the training begin!

And to wrap up, here's an image from our very first trip to Death Valley years ago... We came across this long-abandoned car, and to me, it speaks volumes about the lives and challenges the miners of Death Valley faced.

Happy Monday!

A Year of Adventure

We interrupt our regularly scheduled blogging with an important message... Today is Josh's birthday!  It's been a year of full of adventure, both indoors and outdoors, and we've come a long way over the last 365 days.  So, here's to another year of great adventures, fun, excitement, and love... Happy birthday to my bestest friend!

Sneak Peek - Hannah Nicole Vineyards Wedding

It's been a very busy fall, filled with gorgeous weddings and happy couples.  Angela and Paul tied the knot a little over a week ago, and I absolutely love the images from their reception at Hannah Nicole Vineyards in Brentwood.  Here's a sneak peek!

Happy Wednesday!

Adventure Camera - Altamont Pass

Years ago, when Josh and I moved from the east coast to California, we packed everything we owned into a bright yellow moving truck and drove across the country, towing my car (with our kayaks on top) behind the truck.  Six days and several adventures later, we were driving over the Altamont Pass, ready to arrive at our new home.  At the time, I'd never seen anything like the large wind farms that top many a mountain ridge in California, and I found the windmills to be fascinating.  I still do.  So, as Josh was battling traffic up the pass, I was holding my camera out the passenger window trying to take as many photos as possible.

Last weekend, we were up near Tahoe for Wanny and Mike's slightly snowy wedding, and on the way back home, driving over the Altamont Pass, I was reminded of our move to the west coast.  So much so, I pointed the Adventure Camera out the window and happily fired away...

Happy Tuesday!

Random Photo Friday - Lava Beds National Monument

As a photographer, I face the constant battle of organizing my images in ways that allow me to find a specific image easily at a later time.  It's been a challenge, to say the least, especially given the fact that, while the images I've taken over the past couple years are well organized, the plethora I took back in, say, 2007, well, they aren't even close.  So, each week, I try to spend a little time going back through those old images and sorting them into their rightful places.  It's actually quite fun-- I look at images I haven't seen in years, and they bring back all the memories of our adventures.

This week, I found one from an unexpected trip to Lava Beds National Monument.  I say unexpected because, well, we expected to be taking some rock climbing lessons around Mount Shasta that weekend, but a rain storm rerouted that adventure.  With two days suddenly free, we decided to head father north to see what northern California had to offer.  A few hours later, we arrived at Lava Beds National Monument, which sounded like a great place to be in inclement weather, since the main attraction, lava tubes, was underground, and thus out of the raindrops.  We secured a campsite, stopped the visitors' center where we procured yellow souvenir hardhats and some large flashlights, and headed underground for two days of exploring some very cool tunnels and rock formations.  Mind you, it's probably not the best activity for the claustrophobics in the crowd, but it's a ton of fun nonetheless.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Adventure Camera - Snow!

Josh and I love snow sports.  From downhill skiing to snowshoeing to moutaineering, if it involves snow, we're there.  Since the rains came in on Monday, Josh has been checking the Sierra webcams hourly to see how much snow has dropped over our favorite ski resorts and working out plans to go skiing as soon as possible.

Growing up, "snowsports" was building snowmen, attempting to build igloos, skiing down hills on over-sized cross country skis, and ice soccer (yes, it's as painful as it sounds....).  Then I met Josh, and he took me downhill skiing at the local landfill-turned-downhill-ski-resort.  (Hey, we grew up southeastern Michigan, it's a little lacking in large hills and mountains.)  We got fitted up in straighter-than-straight 1980s vintage rental skis and rear-entry boots, and headed out to the snow, where I immediately learned what a "yard sale" is.  Every time I tried to turn those skis, I'd fall, lose at least one pole, and watch my skis go sliding away, usually in opposite directions.  Josh followed me down the hill time and again, picking up the pieces and trying to teach me, well, anything.  Then I had an epiphany: I always fell when I tried to turn-- if I didn't turn, maybe I wouldn't fall!  So, I pointed the skis downhill and let loose.  I sped all the way to the bottom of the run without falling, and used a very convenient fence to stop myself.  Josh was mortified.  I think his exact words were "If you crash and break a leg before track season, your dad is going to kill me."  Back to the drawing board we went....

Skiing didn't really catch on with me that day, but a few years later, snowboarding did.  Then a temporary job at a local ski shop gave me access to way too many skis, and I was soon racing down the Sierra on a shiny pair of red Atomic skis.  From there, we discovered snowshoeing, backcountry skiing and mountaineering, and started camping out in the snow to get farther into the backcountry.  To this day, my favorite overnight trip was a climb up Lassen Peak.  We headed out one morning, climbing up past Lake Helen and to the shoulder of Lassen Peak, seeing only one ranger and a small day tour group in the distance.  That night, we had the mountain to ourselves.  We were up and climbing towards the peak at sunrise, and the view from the top was magnificent.  You could see for miles and miles in every direction, and I felt very small in a very big world.  Back down at camp, we ate breakfast and packed up for the trek back to the car with a definite bounce in our steps.  I can't wait to see what snowy adventures this winter brings!

Happy Thursday!