Hey everyone! Just wanted to let you know I’ll be gone for the next few days – I’m shooting a wedding in Mexico! I’m super excited because not only is the couple totally rad, but I will actually get to experience warm weather for a change! Does anyone have any requests for stuff they’d like me to bring back? Another thing I love? Non-stop flights to Cancun. That is really just the greatest thing ever. Thank you Delta Airlines!!! OK, see you guys on Monday then – Cheers!

Love, Pepper

It is at last official, SPRING IS HERE BABY!!! Well, at least it is in Salt Lake City. In Park City, where I shoot most of my Utah weddings, it won’t be spring for another 6 weeks, so if you’re wondering what’s up with all of the snow covered weddings in April, that’s just Park City for you. And I wouldn’t have it any other way!

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The perfect conclusion to the Perfect Day.  The weather in California was amazing.  The light in California is different than the light in Utah, and it took me a few weeks to figure out the difference when we moved to Salt lake City from Orange County, but for those who aren’t aware of what the difference is, here’s the big secret.

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I’m sorry, I know I said this would get up yesterday, but I have a REALLY good reason for it.  That I will totally fill you in on later.  But for now, we are going to share in Sydney and Nick’s wedding day!  I know I’ve mentioned before how much I love Sydney fashion sense, but this wedding was just too much fun!

The day started at the LDS Newport Beach Temple.  For those who are not familiar with LDS weddings, no photography or videography of any kind is allowed during the ceremony itself, so the picture taking begins once the bride and groom exit the building!  I think the LDS Church might feel a little bad for all of us photographers who don’t get to come inside, so they spend a fortune on the exterior and landscaping to make up for it!

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I got played tonight.  Totally played, like a fool.  And I felt like a fool, a complete and utter fool.

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The San Diego Temple is always a fun location for me to be able to photograph, and this was no exception!

After seeing all of the pictures available for their wedding, Rachelle & Rick decided on an 82 side album holding 159 pictures from their Wedding Day, and I think it turned out absolutely spectacular!

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Jennifer & Lucas’s Wedding Reception.  Wow.

They were very excited about the location and kept telling me it was “in the barrel room” and I will be honest I had no idea what that meant.  I’ve never been a big wine drinker and haven’t spent much time in Napa, and this sounds so silly, but I just could not picture at all what they were going on about.

Then I saw it.  OMG.  Seriously.  A wonderfully intimate dinner with 80 of their nearest and dearest friends in this simply divine location.

The guests were first treated to a cocktail hour, complete with the award winning wines that Wilson Creek in known for! (more…)

Jennifer & Lucas met at law school, and he forever was in love with a girl who saw him as “just a friend”.

During a trip for a law school oralist competition they were working on together, Jennifer came to the realization that her goofy friend was in fact the love of her life, and from there the seeds were planted for a stunning vineyard wedding.

That’s where I come into the story…

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I think we have a new favorite leather cover, and it is just delicious! It’s called cu29, and I’m in LOVE. Kathy and Ian selected it to complement their Miami Ink cover by having the cu29 on the spine.

Kathy and Ian’s 12×12″ square album is an amazing Heirloom for the soon-to-be born little baby girl, clocking in at 100 sides and holding 192 images! [As I have noted before - nothing will light a fire under a Bride to finish selecting her images like the impeding arrival of a new baby!]

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I love this Album!  It’s great when I see brides get really creative with their album covers and think outside of the box, outside of what is considered Normal or Regular, and start to really have some fun!

Whitney and Ryan decided on a beautiful leather that I don’t get to see very often called Bank Heist.  Bank Heist is a bronzed ostrich leather, and to complement it, they selected as their accent Chiara.  When she called me and told me what they had decided I positively squealed with delight!!!  It’s just breathtaking…

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Album Monday is back baby!  I am so sorry about not posting forever, but we had so many albums we were working on all at once and I knew that if I didn’t put everything I had into getting those done and turned my attention away even for a second to the blog, that might mean someone not getting their album back when they were hoping!  So I hope you forgive me, but my Brides have to come first.  I’m sure you guys understand…

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Wow, what a crazy month!  For those who are wondering why I haven’t posted anything this month, it’s November, which for us here means the annual dreaded Album Holiday Deadline!!!  All of my brides who want their album in time for the holidays to show off to the family, we have to order it before Thanksgiving, and of course, everyone is getting gorgeous albums to show off, so that means an entire month of me doing nothing but albums!  I have not yet caught up on my sleep.  But it also means many many wonderful Album Monday segments for the weeks to come.

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Happy Halloween everyone!  I’m still recovering from the Halloween Spooktacular, thanks to everyone who was able to come for making it the best Spooktacular yet!  And now, for something completely different…

Let’s talk about Weddings!  The portrait session of the Bride and Groom are one of my favorite parts of each Wedding Day.

I felt very lucky, because even with tons of things going on, Rachelle made sure that she had scheduled about an hour before the Wedding Reception began where we could focus on taking images of just her and her husband, as well as the Bridal Party.  It was incredible!

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After the Wedding Ceremony at the San Diego Temple, Rachelle and Rick met up with their families for a quick luncheon.

I don’t usually show pictures from a luncheon because typically it is a quick affair, but in this case these guys really sat down and just relaxed together, Rachelle’s family blending in seamlessly with Ricky’s family, everyone just hanging out and having fun!

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On a cold day like today when the ground is covered in snow, it makes me so grateful for my fabulous California brides, and the chance to fly out there to warm up for a few days!

Rachelle & Rick were married on a perfect day with beautiful San Diego weather, slightly chilly for Californians, but absolute heaven to me!

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Well, here it is, this is the Wedding Day for Francesca and Dan!  We woke up early on Saturday morning and everyone took taxis to the meeting point, so we could all climb on a charter bus to drive to the wedding ceremony location, which was about 90 minutes outside of Buenos Aires.

The ceremony was held at Estancia La Figura, which is an amazing estate rich with the political history of Argentina.  It was large enough to fit all of the guests, and so secluded and magestic that we all felt like we were staying on an estate of Europe a few hundred years ago!  Except for the HD flat screens with digital cable and wireless internet access [giving me constant access via my iPhone], it could have been very easy to forget what year it was…

Please forgive me for showing what I know are far too many images for a blog post, but it is my 300th wedding and I am so excited about it!

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The rehearsal dinner for Francesca & Dan’s wedding was held at Club 647, which from the outside looks like a really scary neighborhood, and I had no idea what we were getting into!

Turns out that Club 647 is the hottest nightclub in San Telmo [one of the neighborhoods of Buenos Aires] and the bride and groom rented it out for what the Argentinians consider to be a very early dinner!  [we ate at 9!]

Lots of alcohol, lots of beautiful New Yorkers dressed for an amazing evening, and absolutely incredible food.  It was wonderful to see so many of their dearest and closest friends and family members had flown so far to come and celebrate with them in Buenos Aires, so in additional to being a beautiful evening, it was also an emotional one.  Check it out:

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I LOVE destination weddings.  Love it.  New places are so much fun and so exciting!!!  My favorite part of any destination wedding though, is this day.  the day that I get the bride and groom all to myself.  the day to do the fabulous bridal session in a fun and exotic location!  Because lets be honest.  There’s no way I can get tons of shots like these on the wedding day, especially with a destination wedding, where the ocean might be an hour or two away, or the light is perfect at sunset.  I love the golden hour, but more often than not, brides and grooms are sitting down to eat with their guests during that golden hour.  So bridal sittings are a very good thing.  but, with a destination wedding, it’s a must have!

So Francesca and Dan hung out with me all day, until they had to go and change for the rehearsal dinner that night [stay tuned for tomorrow's post about the amazing rehearsal dinner!]  We started off at the Four Seasons Hotel in Buenos Aires.  This hotel is famous because when Evita was in production, Madonna lived on the fourth floor in the penthouse suite.  One of the guests just happened to be staying on that floor, not in Madonna’s suite, but we thought it’d be fun to get some shots there to start off with.  And then, we discovered something wonderful, and we did something very naughty…..

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I loved that the couple took the time to arrange all of these fun activities before the wedding day.  They knew it would be difficult to get all of their weddings guests down for the entire week, but each day brought new fun and new excitement, and each day the group of people got bigger and bigger!

Day 3 was the big official kick off with a Welcome Party for all of their guests.  They held it in the apartment they rented for the week, and it was an incredible space!

After the cocktail hour with drinks and passed h’orderves, all of the guests boarded a charter bus to a surprise destination.  When the bus stopped we found ourselves at La Ideal!  It’s an old dance hall from 1912, it’s been painfully  restored, and its uber-famous.  If you’d going to go to Buenos Aires, you have to go hang out one night at La Ideal.  I’ve never seen anything like it in the States, but late at night, [before dinner!] people come here and just have fun hanging out, watching the dance shows, and dancing the Tango!

The Tango is the other national obsession [besides football of course] and Franny & Dan arranged for all of their guests to be given lessons in how to dance the Tango at La Ideal!  It was a great evening, and an incredibly thoughtful evening of memories that Francesca & Dan gave to their guests!

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So here we are in Day 2 of our fantastic wedding in Argentina!  We start out at the spa, where all of the women went for an early afternoon of massages, pedicures, and facials.  I’ve been to some amazing day spas in the states, but i was blown away by how cool this was!  They said it was OK for me to take pictures of the spa as long as I didn’t get any customers in the shots.  And, bonus for me, they spoke English!  Which is great because my high school Spanish isn’t what it used to be, sorry Senor Jolley!

Did you know that Argentina consumes the highest amount of meat per person of anywhere in the world?  It’s true.  While the women were enjoying themselves at the spa and getting pampered and all relaxed, the men were out having cigars, wine, and you guessed it, meat!

Later that evening Francesca and Dan held a wine tasting for their family and friends before dinner.  Now, dinner is an interesting affair in Argentina.  The restaurants stay open until 3am because people don’t go out to eat until around midnight.  So even though it was very late by our standards, the restaurant was completely deserted when we showed up, although by the time we all left around midnight, it was completely packed with an hour on the waiting list!

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Yes, it’s true.  I shot my 300th wedding, and I shot it in Buenos Aires Argentina.  WOO HOO!!!  What a fantastic way to celebrate such a milestone!  Oh, and it was fantastic!  The bride and groom are Francesca and Dan from New York City.  They flew me down further south than I’ve ever been in my life, and I was there for an entire week, documenting anything and everything that was said and done!  So this post [and the next 5] are all about this amazing wedding journey and all of the fun things that happened that week!  This is Day 1.  After a long plane ride and a short nap in my apartment in the city, we took off for an adventure!  Franny & Dan wanted to go on a hot air balloon ride!  the initial plan was to take me in the balloon, but then it turned out that the balloon can only hold three people, and since neither of them knew how to fly it, they decided to take along the Aeronaut and leave me on the ground.  That’s OK, cause I got to chase them around the countryside on crazy dirt roads trying not to run over any cows to get these killer shot of them in the air and their bumpy landing!  We were there a bit early and the bag wasn’t inflated yet, so we decided to enjoy ourselves and take some portraits in the empty hanger and nearby field while we waited.  Dan and Franny are an amazing couple together, check out these shots!

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Savanna and Jesse were married in the San Diego California temple. Take a look at their special day…

As I said in the magazine article, the Bride and Groom were so much fun to work with. They had such a family-oriented reception including a duel celebration for Savanna’s brother and his wife who were married a month before them. This is my third [and unfortunately final!] wedding I have had the privilage of being a part of for the Session family as I photographed both of Savanna’s sisters weddings as well!

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How much fun is this?! So then 2 weeks after their wedding, Lindsey and Matthew asked me to come and document their 2nd wedding reception in Orange County too! I was loving it, because whereas on the wedding day I didn’t have the opportunity to spend much time with them because of time constraints, on this day we were able to spend several hours together! The day started off early, with Lindsey’s hair and makeup again styled by Paula Dahlberg of Salon Kenji in Salt Lake City [they flew her out as well] and then just happy me and the couple went out to create some fabulous portraits!

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I have been saving writing about this wedding for one of those really crappy weather days, and today was most decidedly a crappy weather day. Well, not so much crappy, and I was just totally unprepared for it. It’s Monday, and on Mondays my nanny is off so it is kinda my day to be with my new son Zen and play. We went out to run a few errands, and it was so sunny and bright I didn’t even wear a coat, and I neglected to put socks on him. [I'm not that terrible of a mom, if i put them on he just rips them off anyway, so it would've ended in the same result regardless. That's what I like to tell myself anyway...] But we ran into one store, and 15 minutes later outside it was a freaking blizzard!!! i know the weather changes quickly in Utah, but i thought it was a bit ridiculous. We made it back to the car somewhat unscathed, he was safe swaddled in his car seat with feet covered in blanket, but I was actually covered in snow! So, tonight, I am going to be warm in my thoughts, and recall shooting this incredible summer wedding on the beaches of sunny Orange County California!

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Tiffany and Rob were married in the gorgeous mountains of Colorado. The ceremony was held up the canyon among the red rock so I made sure to get some pictures of the bride and groom with the mountain scenery. It was cool because the background was so rugged and made an interesting contrast against their elegant attire. The groom is native to Park City, Utah [where I had the opportunity to photograph his sister's wedding], and being outdoors is very much a part of who he is, so having the wedding in the mountains of Colorado was perfect.

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