Chardonnay Golf Club in American Canyon - A Wedding with a Tall Tale

Jun 10

Photographing Jason & Makayla’s wedding was a fun day to say the least, because Jason and I go back many years with the Golden State Warriors. This wedding was my fifth Warriors employee wedding and my second in the last 12 months. It’s always a treat to see your co-workers personalities while in a wedding environment around their close friends and family, because you know them better. There were surely connections to basketball throughout the wedding day, starting with the obvious, the bride and groom being over six feet tall. I have known Jason for well over ten years while covering Warriors Basketball Camp and one thing I know is certain about him, he loves being the tallest person in the room. So when I nudged my assistant in front of all of the groom’s men getting ready and told him “watch this,” he knew I was going to mess with him… “Hey Jason, how tall are you, like 6’6”?” He quickly corrected me in a fraction of a second and blurted out “six-eleven!” as to quickly expel any doubt of his dominance while overseeing everyone else. At that moment we all had a good laugh and understood being really tall is something to be proud of, especially if you have played basketball around the world and work in the NBA. Later during the wedding the couples young ringbearers walked the wedding bands down the aisle in Jason’s Golden State Warriors championship ring boxes, more on that later.

We started the day with the bride and groom on opposite ends of the golf club getting ready. Jason wanted to share this special moment with his father on FaceTime.

This was the first of several touching moments between Makayla and her father.

Just a few minutes before the ceremony Makayla had a first touch moment with Jason under a redwood tree, along with a first look with her brothers and father. She wanted to remember this last moment with the men of her former household before taking the following steps towards marriage.

Then it was time for the wedding ceremony to begin at the beautiful Chardonnay Golf Club. The ringbearers brought the rings down the aisle in Jason’s championship ring boxes from past NBA titles with the Golden State Warriors. (Jason & I are proud & honored to have been given Warriors championship rings, here is mine from 2015)

The couple made it official and we were off to take formal portraits while the guests enjoyed cocktail hour.

At this point we photographed all of the families and bridal party pictures and it was time for the formal bride and groom portraits. We couldn’t have asked for timing to be any better as the sun was in the perfect position to give us interesting light. Great light coupled with a softbox under the willows gave us warm and saturated colors. .

The bridge at the Chardonnay Golf Club is an iconic landmark, my assistants and I took this straight on photo and also went with an artistic sun flare image.

After the formal reception entrance and speeches we went back outside for sunset photos where we played around with more artistic colorful flares.

Everybody loves a good cake cutting moment and the fact that Makayla and Jason smashed the cake into each others faces, just like their friends Justin & Lauren did at their wedding (which I also photographed) just adds to their story.