Chris and Danielle's Dream Wedding {Garden Valley Ranch Wedding Photos, Sonoma County Wedding Photographer}

What a FUN day this was!  Danielle and I clicked from day 1!  She told me all about her vision and I understood implicitly.  Danielle has had a vision in her mind since the day they fell in love.  She envisioned everything from her engagement session to the last detail of the wedding.  So finally this long awaited day has come!

Danielle and I share a love for photography so naturally this day was filled with tons and tons of photos of every piece of her vision.  So I will not make the “story” portion of this post too long since there are TONS of photos that will tell the story for me!

 

For the guys the day started out like any other day… just hangin around watching sports.  Luckily for them the Olympics were on!

Chris and Danielle have a love for riding motorcycles.  Naturally we wanted to capture Chris riding to the venue….. A big Thank You to my second photographer, Brian for being “hard core” and getting this shot while letting a groomsmen drive his car!

The AMAZING florist, Fallon of Fleurs de Fallon, is not only talented but such a pleasure to work with!  Danielle wanted a specific flower in all of her arrangements (an Anemone), especially in her bouquet.  But Fallon wasn’t certain she’d be able to get it so she told her the anemone wasn’t available.  When Fallon went to the flower mart to gather the flowers for their wedding, what did she see???? beautiful anemones!!!  So she swooped them up (if you’ve ever been to the flower mart you know that swoop is an accurate term. then it’s elbows out and you never ever set them down or else someone else will take them from you!-it’s a real competitive place for such an early rising bunch) She didn’t tell Danielle and decided to surprise her with them when she arrived with her bouquet.

Ok so the legend of the dreaded videographer vs photographer showdown aka battle is very true.  You never know when a couple hires a videographer whether they will be easy to work with or if they are going to be in your way and getting in the background of every single shot you take.  But I always try my very best to communicate with them and let them know what my plan is so we can both get our jobs done with out getting in each others way.  But  naturally I was a little nervous upon meeting Danielle’s videographer.  Man was I pleasantly surprised!  1080visual was amazing to work with!  We worked together and I honestly got less than 5 shots out of 4500 taken with them in the background AND they had 3 videographers!!!  It’s funny too cuz nearly every videographer I’ve ever worked with shoots with a DSLR camera (usually the same or similar to the one I use) so the guests all think I just bring this massive entourage!  When really there was 2 of us and 3 of them so a total of 5 DSLRs all over the place LOL!  But I think we all managed to do it in a desecrate way.

I love these natural, unposed moments of laughter

We were taking some photographs of Danielle on the porch of the little cottage where she was getting ready on the property.  We could hear the roar from Chris’ motorcycle as he pulled in.  Just the thought of him arriving and the thought of seeing him momentarily brought her to tears.

Chris lost a very close friend and Danielle decide to make Chris a little surprise tribute to that friend by putting a photo charm of the two of them together on his boutonniere.  Fallon brought it over to Danielle to see just before she brought it to Chris.

This was his reaction once he saw what was on the boutonniere.

Danielle and her friend Kaitlin have been friends since their sophomore year in high school.  They some how both got engaged around the same time and planned their weddings in the same month! So they took turns as each others maid of honor.  They are such sweet friends and you can just see how much they care for each other.

Ok so I think this first photos is a “you had to be there” moment.  Something about Tahoe and drinking ….. not sure but it sure did make them laugh so I couldn’t leave it out!

These days the “old school traditions” have either been omitted or changed completely.  But I think maybe since Danielle has been envisioning this for so long she kept a lot of the old traditions but modernized them a bit.  She had cones of flower petals on all the chairs so the guests could throw rose petals as they walked back down the aisle.  I also love love love that she wore her veil over her face.

Danielle with her and Chris’ daughter, Madison…. such a cute moment watching them just before they walked down the aisle.

Giving the kids a little pep talk just before they walk down the aisle

Danielle’s Step Father Gus getting hydrated before the ceremony begins…

 

I love how Chris seems all calm and together as he walks the officiant down the aisle and then stops at the end and gets the guests all pumped up!  LOL!  so funny!

sneaking their drinks before starting photos!  I know photos are sometimes a pain but do you really need to chug your drinks to get through it??? geeze!!!  j/k 😉  ok maybe I poured them a drink!  just maybe….

When Danielle took me on a tour of the venue earlier that week she stopped at this spot and told me this was one of the spots that she had always pictured taking a romantic photo at.  So I had a night time vision for a very dramatic and romantic shot but just in case I wanted to get one in the daytime as well.  Scroll down to see the other one… which one do you like better?

What a GREAT way to do seating arrangements!  Loved those chalk boards!

Love how even the barrel has a B engraved on it!  ….you know my last name is Bagwell so if you don’t have a place for that I might be able to make some room at my house 😉

I love how much thought they put into every single detail.  Not only did they make all the wood slaps through out the reception, the chalk boards, and the thank you favors, but they took photos of the kids helping make them and placed them in frames through out the reception.  Here is a shot of their daughter Madison helping to make the limn cello!

Just cuz she can’t drink champagne doesn’t mean she can’t cheers with a caprisun!!

Here is a shot of Madison helping to stain the wood slabs that each of the cakes were on!

Their romantic first dance quickly turned into a fun family dance!!!  xoxo

Their Aunt and Uncle’s wedding anniversary was on the same day as Chris and Danielle’s Wedding so they made sure to get them their own little cake and to dedicate a song to them!  So sweet!

I honestly want to hire Chris to dance at weddings for me!  He was so much fun to watch!!!!!!  So much fun!!!

I had been looking forward to these sky lanterns since the day she told me about them!!!!

But now that it was dark and romantic out it was time to take the final photo of the evening…..

 

A special thanks to my second photographer Brian Mac Stay, so much fun to work with as usual!!!

 

And a special thank you to all the rest of the wonderful vendors that worked with Chris and Danielle to make this day as amazing as it was:

Venue: garden valley ranch, Petaluma contact Mark(owner) Www.gardenvalley.com
Bridal Dress Shop: starlet bridal, Santa rosa. Website www.glamstarlet.com contact was Serena 7075464900
Dress Designer: anjolique
Bride’s Shoes: Vera Wang glitter pumps and toms crochet classic flats
Bridesmaids Dresses: a touch of class bridal Santa rosa www.atouchofclassbridal.com 7075455008 dress was Alfred sung
Bridesmaids Shoes: Vera Wang glitter pumps and toms crochet classic flats
Flowers: fallon Anderson- www.fleursdefallon.com 7073649941
Day of Cordinator: Kristen hennington 707-364-4325
Photobooth: California mobile dj. Www.calmobiledj.net jeff Virzi 7074812261
Caterer: toast, www.toastnovato.com Anthony Levi Anthony@taostnovato.com 4153821133
Table/Linen Rentals: encore rentals Petaluma www.encoreeventsrentals.com 7077633322
Cakes: olivers market cotati -www.oliversmarket.com reeva
Lanterns: www.justartifacts.com
DJ:California mobile dj. Www.calmobiledj.net jeff Virzi 7074812261
Videographers: marco Sanchez www.1080visual.com 1080visual@gmail.com
Officiant: Karyn wester karynmari@comcast.net