Denise & Andreas | Church of the Nativity & Rosewood Sand Hill Hotel Wedding | Menlo Park Wedding Photographer

Denise and Andreas had a traditional Catholic wedding, where they would not see each other until the ceremony.

Denise and I started the day early at the spacious and airy bridal suite at Rosewood Sand Hill Hotel in Menlo Park. While the very talented Yoong of Wowpretty worked her magic on Denise's hair and make-up, I played around with the lovely details of the day.

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When Denise's hair and make-up was done and she looked very lovely, her bridesmaids helped her into her wedding gown.

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And we were off to church in a fine black limo.

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As the ceremony drew nearer, Denise became emotional--it was really happening!

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The church was abslutely stunning.

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After the ceremony and taking a few family photos outside the church, we headed out to Stanford University for a very short bridal session. Despite on-going construction, Stanford was, as always, just fantastic!

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We caught the tail end of the cocktail hour, where guests laughed and shared cocktails to the sound of Spanish guitar.

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The speeches made the guests laugh and they made them cry.

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Father-daughter dance, with one of the groomsmen singing (really well!).

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Mother-son dance.

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And dancing by everyone!

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Congratulations, Denise & Andy, on a beautiful, emotion-filled wedding!

Big thank you's to all the other wedding vendors for making the day such a success!

Hair/Make-Up: Wowpretty
Cake: A Piece of Cake Bakery
Catering: Rosewood Sand Hill Hotel
DJ: DJ Spencer Sutherland

Until next time!
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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!
http://www.alicesokoloffphotography.com/

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