The Schmergusons: A Santa Barbara, CA Wedding! Part 2

Continuing the festivities from Kelly & Scott's wedding, here is Part 2 from their reception at the historic Granada Theatre in Santa Barbara, CA!  This was a beautiful reception location and it was a bit funny that they could only book it 6 months in advance to make sure there weren't going to be any travelling shows coming through that night.  :)  Kelly's cousin also made these amazing comic book style movie posters for the wedding!  

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Kelly and Scott did something really unique for the reception.  Normally, attendees will clink their glasses to get the bride and groom to kiss.  This couple requested that people write and recite limericks in order to get them to kiss.  They were hilarious!

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Not a photo booth, but a video booth!  I'm hoping to see the end results soon!

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And this band was amazing!  D. On Darox & The Melody Bakers.  Their business card says "Dirty gypsy blues with a slice of cabaret"

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The Schmergusons: A Santa Barbara, CA Wedding! Part 1

This wedding was one of the most fun weddings I've ever been to- including ones I was invited to as a guest!  Here are some shots of Kelly Schmandt & Scott Ferguson's (hence "Schmerguson") wedding in beautiful Santa Barbara, California.  Despite the fact that I personally know incredible wedding photographers in Cali that I can highly recommend, I much prefer for West Coasters (can I call them that?) to fly me out for their wedding instead.  :)  I love weddings in Cali and generally find that it's a 99% chance of sun and 70 degrees just about every day.

I know Kelly from college in Nashville and I had never met Scott before- especially since it would be a long distance flight to meet for coffee like I do with most wedding couples.  I was a bit nervous going into it knowing Kelly so well, but having no idea about Scott and his groomsmen.  Maybe it's me, but as a male photographer shooting a wedding I generally find it easy to get comfortable with the bride and bridesmaids, but groomsmen can be hit or miss.  If I had to make a slightly sexist generalized guess, it's that generally women enjoy getting dressed up and going to a wedding, whereas most men generally feel out of sorts with a rented tux and a strange person taking their photo all day- at least until they've had a few beers at the reception.  This wedding was not the case.  Scott was easily the smiley-est person I've ever met.  His groomsmen also fit quite into his personality (you can tell by the hats and bowties).  These guys were a whole lot of fun to photograph!

Now on to some photos of getting ready and the ceremony!

The first look:

I'm telling you, Scott was smiling like this all day:

The ceremony took place in an office building courtyard... but you'd never know it by the fountain, vegetation, and architecture!

The groomsmen rehearsing to sing "All You Need is Love" as the bride came down the aisle:

The people that didn't seem to trust that I knew what I was doing.  ;)

One of the coolest things I've seen at a wedding was having Kelly's yoga instructor have the audience stand and do breathing exercises.

Which included a "laughter" breathing exercise.

This was told to me to be the most difficult, but important photo I needed to take.  It almost took me falling into the pond, but I got it.  :)

"Now put your hand on your hip... no, not you."  :)

Lesson Learned

Though these probably aren't photos to put on a postcard because they were taken at the worst part of the day for lighting, I thought I'd try my hand at some neat "waves crashing on the rocks" photos while hiking around Half Moon Bay in California.  Check out these sequence frames from a sunny afternoon and the lesson I learned.

... and then I got wet.  So naturally, I moved farther back:

... and then I got wet again.

So my lovely wife suggested:  "maybe you should come up here and take photos."

So I did.

The lesson learned is that you can take awesome photos close to the action and get a little wet (this is why you spend the the money on weather resistant cameras and lenses), or you can take pictures of flowers.  Both are fine, but I'm glad I got wet.  :)