Joyce & Brian's Wedding (Mission Santa Clara de Asis & Freedom Hall)

If you are planning a wedding and are lucky enough to be able to work with a wedding planner, or if you can't afford a wedding planner and simply read books about wedding planning, the first thing they'll tell you is "you should stucture your wedding around a theme." I tell my brides that all the time, too, partly for the somewhat selfish reason that it makes it that much more interesting to photograph a wedding organized around a theme, and partly because I think it makes the wedding planning a lot more fun for the bride herself.

When I met with Joyce and Brian, I was thrilled to discover they had a theme to their wedding--it was going to be about missions! Why missions? Joyce and Brian are united in their strong religious beliefs and they had only recently gone on a road trip covering every California Mission. How cool is that?!

Everything had come together perfectly. The wedding ceremony was held at the stunning Mission Santa Clara de Asis located on the Santa Clara University campus. The guest book (designed by Joyce & Brian) had photos from the road trip intermixed with lined pages for the guests' wishes. The place cards were held in place by tiny mission bells! Every table was named after a mission. Needless to say, at a wedding planned this well, the couple had their own wedding logo (also mission themed) and beautiful flowers! In fact, as Joyce confessed during our first meeting, when she saw my website, she fell in love with a bouquet in my portfolio and showed it to her florist as inspiration for her own flower arrangements. I was so happy to hear that I could help provide wedding inspiration! :)

Second-shooting with me at the wedding was Yury of East of Pacific.

And here are some of my favorites from the wedding:

The wedding preparations took place at Hotel Valencia on Santana Row.

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Each of the bridesmaids received as a present a tote with her initial. The totes came stuffed with goodies, such as orange flip flops and other wedding essentials.

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Did I mention how beautiful the mission is?

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Joyce is a teacher and one of her students came to sing at her wedding. He sang so well, I almost cried!

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The reception took place at the Freedom Hall and Gardens in Santa Clara. And here are all those lovely details I was telling you about. (Details in #23 are by Yury.)

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Congratulations, Joyce and Brian! Your wedding was so beautiful, so well-planned and perfectly executed. It was an honor to be a part of your special day!

Until next time!
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