Bayphoto Net Wedding Photography Blog

Sara was the maid of honor when I took photos for Calli & TJ’s wedding last year. Sara & Calli are best friends. Since I did an excellent job at Calli’s wedding in Santa Cruz, Sara booked me last year. And this time, Calli is the maid of honor. Sara & Ryan got married again in Santa Cruz, CA. They got ready at Best Western All Suites, Santa Cruz. The wedding ceremony location is Holy Cross Church in Santa Cruz. The reception is in Hollions House, Santa Cruz. Many thanks to my fellow photographer Sophia who helped me on the photo shooting!

Holy Cross Church is a Catholic church, where no flash is allowed. That is not a problem for me since my Nikon pro gears can take care of the low light conditions easily. After the wedding ceremony, we rushed to Lighthouse beach in Santa Cruz and took a few quick photos. Because it was a hot Saturday, I had to use emergency parking for the photos.

Sara and I communicated frequently about what photos she want. Sara even prepared some umbrellas for the wedding party group photo. The results turned out great.  Here are the comments directly copied from Sara’s mom after she saw the photos:

“Oh Sara, Wow!!!! Loved the slide show. You guys rock in those pictures. What a gorgeous, fantastic couple you are!!! I want that photographer for our 50th anniversary celebration in 9 1/2 years.
these are the most beautiful wedding photos I’ve ever seen. He really did a great job!!!”

Here is a sneak preview of one wedding photo.

This is one of the weddings that were booked about a year before the ceremony. Early booking allows plenty of time to prepare and iron out the details on the wedding photography. I communicated with Whitney throughout the whole year and had some great ideas on wedding party photos.

The wedding preparation is at Whitney’s grandma’s house in NAPA, CA. I visited the preparation site, ceremony location and wedding venue two weeks before the ceremony. The ceremony site is the beautiful St. John The Baptist Catholic Church, NAPA. Kris and Whitney grew up in this church since they were five and attended kindergarden through the eighth grade together. They have spent many long years together in the halls of the parish school located next to the church.  Their plan was not to leave the grounds, but to take photos of them in the school after the ceremony. The wedding venue is right beside the church, which was decorated gorgeously.

I will try to update the page ASAP since there are many photos to process. Now here is sneak preview of the photos.

The two flower girls are so so so cute!

The following pose is from Dragon Ball Z. Can you guess what characters are they?

The following are some creative and fun group photos that we did after the wedding ceremony. It was so hilarious!

Congratulations to you, Whitney & Kris!

Rich & Linda got married in the beautiful and cozy Sainte Claire hotel, San Jose, Ca. The hotel is located in the center of downtown San Jose. Marriott, Hilton, San Jose Convention center are just one or two blocks away. This is one of my favorite places to go and I have done lots of model photo shoot there.

This is a small intimate wedding with less than 50 guests. We started from the wedding preparation, which is in the hotel suites. Then the ceremony is in the hotel also, which is very convenient. After the ceremony, I worked with Rich and Linda alone inside the hotel. There is a big mirror in the first floor and I nailed a very classic shot using the mirror reflection. During the reception, I had chance took a few more photos with Rich & Linda outside the hotel. It was lots of fun working with Rich & Linda and I was totally relaxed during the process.

The following is the last photo taken in the end of the ceremony. Rich and Linda took the elevator down the sainte claire hotel and I snapped this photo by asking them kissing before stepping out.

Congratulations to you and wish you the best, Rich & Linda!

I had the honor taking pictures for LaShanni and Jose at one of the most gorgeous churches in San Francisco Bay Area — The Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament, Sacramento, CA. It was a long day and it was hot. When I say “hot’< I mean both the weather and the couple are hot. LaShanni is gorgeous and Jose is very handsome. We started from the preparation site in Holiday Inn at Sacramento. Then a limo took the bride and bridesmaids to the church. I pre-visited the ceremony site a week ago so that I had total control of the lighting and photography angles. I can feel the love and joy throughout the whole day.

The reception venue is in the Alumni center, Univ. of Sacramento, CA. It is the place where LaShanni and Jose studied. The reception site was nicely decorated with flowers and silks. There are two special occasions for this reception:  Jump the broom and the sparklers. I captured the two exciting moments successfully.

When it was completely dark, we went to the Capitol park in Sacramento to take more night photos. Though everybody was exhausted, I still managed to create some magical shots with the backlight from the City hall.

Congratulations and best wishes to you, Lashanni and Jose!

I had great pleasure working with Ruixiao and Wei for their wedding portrait session. My assistant Vicky helped the photo shooting during the whole session and she was simply wonderful! The makeup artisit Thucell also did a wonderful job on the bride’s makeup. We first went to Ruixiao and Wei’s home for the wedding preparation photos. Then we went down to Santana Row at San Jose taking some photos in some special spots such as Hotel Valencia. Then drove up to San Francisco for more wedding photos. We went to the City Hall, Palace of Fine Arts, Bakers Beach, etc. It took a whole day to finish the whole shooting and it was well worth the effort. I had some of the best shots of all time and here are some of my favorites.

Congratulations to you, Ruixiao and Wei!