This post is part 2 of a 3-part series. Read part 1 – Read part 2 – Read part 3

While this huge batch of photos is loading, let’s have a few more words from Pablo Neruda.

___________

Take bread away from me, if you wish,
take air away, but
do not take from me your laughter.

Do not take away the rose,
the lance flower that you pluck,
the water that suddenly
bursts forth in joy,
the sudden wave
of silver born in you.

My struggle is harsh and I come back
with eyes tired
at times from having seen
the unchanging earth,
but when your laughter enters
it rises to the sky seeking me
and it opens for me all
the doors of life.

My love, in the darkest
hour your laughter
opens, and if suddenly
you see my blood staining
the stones of the street,
laugh, because your laughter
will be for my hands
like a fresh sword.

Next to the sea in the autumn,
your laughter must raise
its foamy cascade,
and in the spring, love,
I want your laughter like
the flower I was waiting for,
the blue flower, the rose
of my echoing country.

Laugh at the night,
at the day, at the moon,
laugh at the twisted
streets of the island,
laugh at this clumsy
boy who loves you,
but when I open
my eyes and close them,
when my steps go,
when my steps return,
deny me bread, air,
light, spring,
but never your laughter
for I would die.

This post is part 1 of a 3-part series. Read part 1 – Read part 2 - Read part 3

Remember the foreshadowing I mentioned in this post?

At last, you get to find out what happened. What happened was, Crystal and Peter got married! Are you surprised? Did you already guess the secret plot twist? Was the fact that we are wedding photographers give away the ending?

Before we start with happily ever after, a warning: there are 24 photos in this post. Yeah, I know, that’s a lot for one post. And it’s only Part 1. But I love so many of the photos that it was hard to pare it down to just 24. Never fear, I have taken steps to ensure that they will load quickly, by optimizing the heck out of them.

Part 1 shows the bride and groom and their families getting ready. The perspective switches back and forth between the locations of the bride and the groom. Crystal got ready at her parents’ house, and Peter got ready at a beach house. Having two photographers allowed us to put together quite a complete narrative of the day (what you’re getting here is only a tiny slice of that narrative).

This was a highly creative, relaxed and friendly group; everyone who participated was a musician or artist or something of that nature. The awesome felted birds were made by Crystal’s mom. The piano duet features Crystal and her dad. Crystal herself did something I’ve never seen a bride do before: she put makeup on other people. They were all so easy to photograph and to be with that it hardly even felt like work.

The ceremony took place at the UCSC Arboretum, so I had the pleasure of following the bride and flower girl as they sneaked through the back trails to get to the ceremony site without being seen by any guests. Any wedding that involves sneaking through the woods is going to be a great one.

This post is part 2 of a 3-part series. Read part 1 – Read part 2 – Read part 3

Here are some more photos from Kimma and Keith’s lovely outdoor ceremony in San Rafael, California.

It was a beautiful day to get married, and a perfect day for photography!

This post is part 1 of a 3-part series. Read part 1 – Read part 2 – Read part 3

Kimma and Keith. Talk about your long hauls to the altar! These two have been through a lot, and by a lot I mean A LOT. Trials, tribulations and maybe even a tibia or two.

It’s not my story tell, so I’m not going to tell it, but I will say that I’ve never met a couple who’ve been through so much on their journey to marriage. But they did it with class, humor, and, dare I say, a fair helping of sass. We like sass.

If you’ve been Red Bat fans for a while, you’ll recognize Kimma and Keith from their engagement session late last year at Seabright Beach. As the year went by and the wedding got closer, we kept in touch about this and that. Many hilarious emails were sent thither and yon, to and fro, touching on subjects as varied as orangutans, rocking chairs with spikes, Rebecca’s looming skills (formidable!) and limited edition Iron Maiden nose hair trimmers. Suffice to say, we think they’re pretty awesome.

The wedding took place in the courtyard of the Osher Marin Jewish Community Center in lovely San Rafael, and the reception was held in their (huge) ballroom. And in keeping with the tradition of odd places to get ready, Kimma and the girls got gussied up in the children’s library while Keith and his party got ready in the day care room.

The pictures below are a very small sampling of the many, MANY photos we took of Kimma and Keith. This first set includes a few photos from the rehearsal and the rehearsal dinner. More to come!