27Mar

Rainy Day Wedding at Bernardo Winery | Farin & Blake

By, March 27, 2012

Farin and Blake tied the knot on one of the rainiest days of the year! Despite the torrential downpour, this couple managed to be unaffected by the weather, and was full of smiles.  When they look back on the day, they say they wouldn’t change it for the world. The rain actually contributed to the mood, and made their wedding more intimate and cozy. Take a look below as Farin shares all the details, from how they chose their wedding venue to her favorite moment of the day!

Blake and I attended a bridal fair at the Bernardo Winery. The moment we stepped into Rosario’s Pavillion and saw the years of family heirlooms, we knew that this venue was the key to our dream wedding. The landscaping and beautiful lighting were amazing! We booked our wedding the following week, and the planning officially began!

San Diego Wedding Photographers: Bernardo Winery wedding photo in the rainSan Diego Wedding Photographers: Bernardo Winery wedding venue in San DiegoSan Diego Wedding Photography: Rosarios Pavillion wedding reception at Bernardo Winery

Blake is infamous for his funky shoe and sock collections. Being that his entire shoe collection is Vans, he wanted each of the guys in a bright yellow pair. Who would have thought that yellow would be out of season? Instead, we both agreed on the grey authentic 106 Vans. Thank you yellow Vans for being out of season. Grey looked great on the guys! And for the ladies, with our rustic/country theme, brown cowgirl boots were a given.

San Diego Wedding Photographers: Bridal party wedding photos at Bernardo Winery in the wine cellar

I decided to wear a girly pair of vans with the guys. I surprised Blake by wearing argyle socks to incorporate his funky style into my attire!

San Diego Wedding Photographers: Bride wearing argyle socks and Vans with wedding dress

Who would have thought that the rainiest day in San Diego would be our wedding day? Just three days before our wedding, we realized that we needed to resort to our backup plan! We rented tents and changed the entire ceremony and reception area in two days, squeezing our 175 guests into one small space, where the cocktail hour would have originally been held.

San Diego Wedding Photographers: Wedding ceremony under tent on rainy day wedding at Bernardo WinerySan Diego Wedding Photographers: Bride and grooms first kiss at Berardo Winery weddingSan Diego Wedding Photographers:  Wedding in the rain with bridal party under umbrellas

I knew that in order to pull off a personalized country wedding, we would need to make lots of crafts!  Throughout our seven month engagement, we finished one detail at a time, until everything on my list was checked off. We hand made the mason jar hangers, and wrapped them in burlap. Blake’s mom made our beautiful flag banners. And Blake and his Dad cut old pieces of fence, and nailed them together for our wedding signs. We used scrap pieces of wood for our table numbers and signs. Our florist pulled all of it together with hanging lanterns and gorgeous flowers!

San Diego Wedding Photographers: Country wedding with home made signSan Diego Wedding Photographers: DIY wedding with homemade bunting flagsSan Diego Wedding Photographers: Rustic country wedding with mason jars at Bernardo WinerySan Diego Wedding Photographers: Rustic, country wedding with mason jars and cowboy boots

When it came to a wedding cake, we didn’t want anything traditional. Pie is the way to Blake’s heart, so I asked his Grandma if she’d like to help us bake enough pies for all of our guests. As our wedding gift, she purchased all of the ingredients to 22 pies. Over the next few months, she gave us lessons on how to make each one! We kept them in freezers, and baked them again on the morning of our wedding. I paired them with small chalkboards so our guests knew which flavors were available.

San Diego Wedding Photographers: Homemade pies at rustic country  wedding

We had a wide variety of pie flavors, from pumpkin, to pecan, to cherry, to peach. Everyone absolutely loved them!

San Diego Wedding Photography: Homemade pies at rustic country wedding at Bernardo Winery

The entire day was a dream come true! The most special moment for me was my father-daughter dance with my Grandfather. As we danced, he reminded me of the love that he has with my Grandma. He told me that with the way they love each other, they have always been rich. Hearing him tell me that’s all he wants for Blake and me, to share in the same love they’ve had for 58 years, was truly an memorable moment. With neither of my parents present, he told me how lucky he was to have given me away, and how thankful he was to be the one dancing with me. I owe so much to that man, for his strength and love he’s always given to me. In that moment, it was just him and I dancing to “Stealing Cinderella,” forever his little girl.

San Diego Wedding Photography: Bride being walked down aisle by grandfatherSan Diego Wedding Photography: Bride and grandfather dancing at wedding reception at Bernardo Winery

Hiring True Photography as our photographer was the best decision we made throughout the entire process.  I have so many “favorite” images from the day. Here are a few of them!

San Diego Wedding Photography: Winery wedding photos of bride and groom in wine cellar at San Diego wedding San Diego Wedding Photography: Bride and groom during first dance at country weddingSan Diego Wedding Photography: Bride and groom at rustic country wedding at the Bernardo WinerySan Diego Wedding Photography: Bride and groom eating hamburgers are country style weddingSan Diego Wedding Photography: Funny photo of bridesmaids drinking at the bar

Michael and Janis were on top of everything, and caught even the smallest moments. Our pictures will be with us 50 years down the road, and we look forward to sharing them with our kids and grandkids. To me, you can’t put a price on that. We appreciate the entire team for working with us from the beginning to the end and then some! True Photography made us feel like a part of their wedding family!

San Diego Wedding Photography: Handmade thank you signs for wedding thank you cards

20Jan

Hard Rock Hotel San Diego: An Amazing Race Wedding!

By, January 20, 2012

After writing blogs about so many awesome engagement shoots and weddings, it’s time to share the story of my own big day!  About two years ago, my now-husband and I went on a life-changing adventure around the world on the CBS reality show, The Amazing Race 15.  Being chosen for the Amazing Race was always a dream of ours, and we feel so fortunate to have won the whole thing. Only a few months after winning, we were engaged. We knew exactly who we wanted to photograph our once-in-lifetime celebration – True Photography!  And the story gets better… not long after hiring True for our wedding day, True Photography hired me onto the team! I absolutely love working with all of our brides and grooms, and sharing their weddings on our blog.

Check out the January cover 2012 cover of Exquisite Weddings Magazine to see one of our favorite photos by True Photography! I hope you enjoy the recap of my wedding at the Hard Rock Hotel. Feel free to let us know what you think!

San Diego Wedding Photography: Amazing Race Meghan and Cheyne wedding on the cover of Exquisite Weddings by True Photography

Cheyne and I knew from the beginning that we wanted our wedding to be a party. We wanted our guests to feel like this was an all-out celebration of “Team Meghan and Cheyne!” We chose the Hard Rock because we felt that it was a contemporary venue that optimizes the “rock star” party atmosphere that we were going for.  We stuck to a color palate of dark blues, shades of gray and a touch of white. I wore a Romona Keveza dress and the bouquets by Blush Botanicals were beautiful with white peonies and anemones with deep blue centers.

San Diego Wedding Photography: Meghan and Cheyne Amazing Race Wedding at Hard Rock Hotel weddingA Romona Kaveza wedding dress with a bridal bouquet of white peonies and anemones

We’ve always loved the Beatles, and because our wedding was at the Hard Rock, we incorporated a music theme throughout the festivities. We hinted at the Beatles in our invitations, which were screen printed with guitars and tied with “All you need is love” tags.  There was even a Beatles guitar pick tab on the inside of the invites. We also played “All You Need is Love” as the recessional song during our ceremony. And of course, we couldn’t leave the Hard Rock without Aaron getting a great shot of us in front of the Abbey Road wall.

Beatles themed wedding invitation and All you need is love quoteSan Diego Wedding Photography: Meghan and Cheyne Amazing Race beatles themed wedding at the Hard Rock Hotel San Diego

Cheyne and I were born and raised in San Diego, and have been friends ever since elementary school.  San Diego was an easy choice for the location of our wedding, but we wanted it to be in an energetic atmosphere that was representative of us.  We chose the rooftop of the Hard Rock Hotel, overlooking the buzzing downtown crowds during a Padres game at Petco Park, in the heart of the Gaslamp.

San Diego Wedding Photography: A wedding ceremony in downtown San Diego on the rooftop of the Hard Rock Hotel San Diego Wedding Photography Meghan and Cheyne Amazing Race 15 walking down the aisle

We also wanted to somehow represent our adventures on the reality show at our wedding.  We had clay characters made of us in our backpacks and outfits that we wore on the show to top our cake from Sweet Cheeks Bakery! The escort cards were mini passports that lead guests to their tables, which were named after locations we traveled to on the Race, along with a picture of us completing a challenge. Not to mention, six of the 18 members of our bridal party were contestants we competed against on the show, and have now become friends for life!

Meghan and Cheyne in an Amazing Race themed wedding cake topper, Passport escort cards and funny bridal party photography in downtown San DiegoSan Diego Wedding Photography: Meghan and Cheyne Amazing Race wedding downtown San Diego with bridal partySan Diego Wedding Photography: Photos of bridesmaids at Meghan and Cheyne from Amazing Race wedding at Hard Rock Hotel San DiegoSan Diego Wedding Photography: Photos of groomsmen at Meghan and Cheyne's Amazing Race wedding Hard Rock Hotel San Diego wedding

To add to the party atmosphere, a custom monogram dance floor and dramatic draping was set up in the Legends Ballroom by Concepts Event Design.  Also, Tim Altbaum Productions amped up the excitement with tons of uplighting, a light show, and a video DJ that allowed guests to watch music videos on the big screen as they danced the night away.  Our centerpieces by Blush Botanicals worked perfectly with the feel of the room. Everything was better than we could have imagined, as people of all ages were breakin’ it down on the dance floor!

San Diego Wedding Photographer captures candid photos on the dancefloor with bright colored uplightingSan Diego Wedding Photography: Hard Rock Hotel Wedding of Meghan and Cheyne from the Amazing RaceSan Diego Wedding Photography: Sweet Cheeks Baking Cupcakse and Art Carved Rings  San Diego Wedding

What I’ve always loved about True Photography is the way that color and emotion is captured in each photograph. Because our wedding was in the hands of True Photography and Aaron Feldman, we knew we had nothing to worry about but having fun. I feel so lucky to have these photos to remember the details of our wedding day, and I’m equally proud to be a part of a company that provides that gift to every bride and groom who chooses True Photography.

San Diego Wedding Photographers downtown San Diego Hard Rock Hotel with bright lightsThe bride and grooms first dance at their wedding reception at San Diego's Hard Rock Hotel Bride and groom at Float rooftop lounge pool at the Hard Rock Hotel

To view more images from this Hard Rock Wedding, click here!

Photography: True Photography

Venue: Hard Rock Hotel, San Diego

DJ and Lighting: Tim Altbaum Productions

Decor: Concept Events Design

Florals: Blush Botanicals

Wedding Coordinator: Amore Events, Jennifer Molloy

Cake: Sweat Cheeks Baking Company

Rings: Art Carved

 

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