Ashley and Roy are one of those couples that I just clicked with right off the bat.  They did their research on my work, and even checked me out on Facebook.  I was extremely impressed with how Roy connected with my use of light in my photos and summed it up in a nutshell saying:  “Your photos just  have this Glow about them!”    Me:  “Daaaamn right!” 😀

I knew right from the beginning that this was going to be one of those client-photographer relationships that results in a great friendship and amazing images, and the results of their engagement shoot totally confirmed this.  I have been looking forward to photographing their wedding ever since their engagement shoot, totally stoked that Ashely and Roy chose to have their wedding at one of my favorite wedding venues in Santa Barbara:  The Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History.  This venue is like an enchanted forest, with the way light hits all the trees and splits into visible beams all over the place.  There’s just enough shade where you need it (e.g. at the ceremony site), and plenty of opportunities for natural spotlights and glorious rim-lighting.  When the bride and groom walk through the ceremony site at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, the occasional dust kicked up catches the sunlight and forms these sparkling rays of light and earth in the air that are simply magical.

Roy decided to start the day off by going old school and opted to have a professional straight razor shave at a local barbershop in town; it was definitely a unique way to start getting ready for the big day and made for some great photos of the groom and his groomsmen.  Ashley and her bridesmaids got ready in the museum’s little bridal suite next to the ceremony site in the forest.  There’s just something about witnessing the transformation of a woman into a bride;  you’re never going to see a woman looking more beautiful than on her wedding day (sorry guys), and Ashley was just glowing the whole time (ok, maybe I had something to do with that….just a little).  One of the other things I love about this venue is that right behind the ceremony site lies a small forest covered in a blanket of ivy.  It kind of reminds me of the woods behind the house I grew up in back in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania–everything covered in ivy.  We chose this location for the bride and groom’s first look.  There’s a giant boulder in the woods at the end of a meandering path, and this is where Roy saw his wife for the first time.  [quote]There was just something indescribably sweet and endearing about the way he looked at her for the first time for the rest of their lives.[/quote]