Rachel and Shane Sycuan Wedding Photos

Rachel and Shane, whom I’ve had the pleasure of photographing for their engagement session, enjoyed a beautiful Sycuan wedding this past weekend. It was delightful photographing their wedding at the Sycuan Golf Resort, which provided a wonderful venue for their entire wedding day. Featured in this wedding photography post are some of my favorite photos that I captured of the couple’s wedding day.

Their Sycuan wedding photography began when I arrived  in the afternoon to see Rachel and her bridesmaids in one of the nice suits at the Sycuan resort. I spent about an hour and half photographing all five gals getting their hair and makeup done by Meleah. The wedding photography captured various details of bride Rachel getting ready, and of all her bridesmaids, too. Along with photos of hair styling and makeup, I photographed the equally important fun moments of their time together getting ready before the Sycuan wedding.

To give the bridesmaids time to get dressed, I left the bride’s suite and went to see the groom Shane, and his groomsmen in their room. There I photographed the causal atmosphere amongst the guys, who of course were not having to be involved with as much getting ready activities as the girls and who in fact were already dressed in their suits. This gave me time for to take some photos of the their wedding rings and for candid wedding photos of the groom and groomsmen. Photography also included some posed shots of the guys out by the Sycuan golf course. Shortly after that, the flowers were delivered so I captured photos of the groom and his father each pinning their boutonniere’s on each other.

It was now time to meet back up with the bride and bridesmaids, who were about to golf-cart over to the ‘white house’ where the bride Rachael would be getting into her wedding dress. Before heading over, I noticed the beautiful bouquets all laid out nicely, just waiting for me to photography them. These lovely flowers, like the boutonniere’s, were created by Sea of Flowers.

Once at the ‘white house’, I photographed Rachel’s lovely wedding dress hanging and waiting for her to wear it, and then again while her mother tied up the back of the dress with a crochet hook. The room was filled with excitement and all of the girls were having a fun time. The moment was made more special when with a call from Rachel’s best friend, who was in fact to be her maid of honor but who couldn’t fly out due to her baby just being born.

The time for Rachael and Shane’s Sycuan wedding ceremony was getting near, but we had still had a few minutes for some nice posed and creative wedding photos outside the ‘white house’, a building that had nice character for bridal photography. The ceremony now about to start, so my wedding photography shifted gears and I began capturing more shots of the ceremony site and wedding guests. The Sycuan wedding venue is really very lovely for its nice wide lawn, tall palms, wedding gazebo, and the backdrop of tall hills.

Wedding photography next focused on the wedding procession and of the bride being escorted to the groom by her father. While moving about to capture different perspectives, I was able to photograph the bride’s initial entrance, her walking up the aisle to the groom, and even the first look Shane had of his bride Rachel. These are all very important shots that I always to make a point of capturing with both of my cameras and the multiple lenses that I use in wedding photography.

The couple’s Sycuan wedding ceremony photography captured their vows, readings from family, sand ceremony, rings, and their kiss. The wedding ceremony was very nice and officiated wonderfully by Lee Miller. After the ceremony we created a number of posed photos, first with all 75 of their guests, and then in various combinations of family. I chose to create the photos under a huge magnolia tree that gave some shade that helped in providing even lighting. After the posed photos with family and guests we spent a little more time creating wedding party photos, and some posed and creative shots of the bride and groom.

It was now about time for the couple to make their entrance to start off their Scyuan wedding reception. The tables were setup adjacent to the ceremony site lawn and were decorated very nicely. Making all the announcements and leading an excellent selection of music, was the very capable Daniel Camacho of JD Musik. He did a really great job of not only keeping the evening on schedule, but I also really appreciated the coordination we shared  to ensure being ready for the photography of key moments.

Speaking of coordinating, Juliette Fagerwold, of Simply Elegant Weddings, was the couple’s wedding coordinator and she did a fantastic job, not only of managing the wedding day schedule and coordinating with vendors, but she was very attentive to all of the details from start to finish. Even being aware of such things as to place the couple’s special wedding wedding guest book to the candy bar she made, so that later in the evening the book would get even more personal notes and signatures from the couple’s guests. Their wedding guest book I had created especially for the couple with photos from their engagement session.

The wedding reception was catered to by Sycuan resort, and Brandy and her staff provided service that was as excellent as the venue. The couple’s wedding cake was made by Shirley Resnik of The Cake Lady, and it looked very nice and delicious. The wedding cake cutting was of course another key moment for wedding photography. Other key moments photographed during the wedding reception were the first dance, groom and father dance, groom and mother dance, flower toss, garter toss, and a money dance.

Rachel and Shane’s Sycuan wedding day was a pleasure to photograph. It was so delightful being able to share in their very special day with them, and to create a very lovely wedding photography collection for the couple. Their complete gallery of wedding photos can be seen by visiting my San Diego Wedding Photographer Client Galleries (password required).

For more information about San Diego Wedding Photography and or engagement photography please contact me.

 

 

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