Sequoyah Country Club - Berkeley

Shannon began her wedding day at a grand victorian Air bnb home in Berkeley, CA

her sisters and friends had a hand in getting her look just right...

The atmosphere was fun loving and overflowing which made for a fantastic time to have some champange. 

While the ladies were on their way to Our Lady of Lourdes, which edges the south east side of Lake Merritt in Oakland, CA we photographed the groom's party.

Then it was time for Shannon to walk down the isle. 

This has to be the funniest moment to have ever happened to me while photographing formal portraits, the ice cream man passed the wedding party during the photoshoot shoot!  They had to get some, it was a warm day on the lake...

Below I made the harsh mid afternoon sun look pleasant by having my assistant standing 15' away and aiming a powerful studio flash at the couple, I removed my assistant from the scene in photoshop.  This makes the photo a composite not a photograph!  This former newspaper photographer has to say it like it is.

Then it was off to the reception at the beautiful Sequoyah Country Club in the Oakland Hills.  Flowers by the phenomenal and kind Wendy of Sweetness and Light Flowers.

The speeches were some of the funniest I have heard in a long time and they gave me great opportunity to capture priceless reactions.

Right before the first dance we captured this moment which looks like they are the only two in the room when in fact the entire wedding attendees looked on.

In this moment our goal was to create more of a silhouette so we had to get both dance groups turned sideways to be defined, it's all in the details.

This evening portrait was captured using a two light setup with one of the strobes gelled orange (which is the bride's favorite color) along with a glass prism placed at the bottom of the lens to pull the chandelier lights to the floor.