just in time for Ashley and Justin’s Sunday Wedding at the Grand Tradition in Fallbrook, and I’m so glad because I know Ashley was worried about it as she emailed me the morning of the wedding!!! But alas these things always work out :) And it was an amazing wedding down to every last detail. Ashley planned everything perfectly and looked so beautiful. (Props to Justin who looked very handsome too!) I swear most of the brides I work with could become wedding planners if they wanted too! It was a great day and I know I sound like a broken record but just two great families and so much fun. I know you two are off in St. Thomas but congrats!!! I look forward to hearing from you when you get back so we can start putting together this album, its going to be a stunner :)

I love shoes :)

The detail on Ashley’s dress was just beautiful.

Ashley and the girls react to the amazing flower designs of Paul Kauffman of Studio Flora. These place cards were too cool.

A close up of the place cards.

Ashley and her dad trying very hard not to get choked up before the ceremony.

This is something Ashley really wanted to do. Have a moment with Justin before the ceremony but not let him see her. It never would have worked for me, I would have peaked just ask my husband, my mom, my granny or anyone else who’s ever tried to hide a Christmas present from me!!!

The bridesmaids peaking to see the wedding guests coming.

A ceremony photo taken by Dana Grant who was working with me on Sunday. I include second shooters with all my packages because unfortunately I can’t be in two places at once! Luckily I am fortunate enough to have some amazing photographers working with me! I also want to thank my most frequent second shooter, Melissa Murphy, for helping me out with yesterday’s wedding! As I have time, I plan to post more of my SS’s work on my blog as I think it important to show the quality of work those who work with me produce as well.

Ashley’s beautiful sister and bridesmaids. Ashley’s sister (directly to her right) and I will share the same wedding anniversary when she gets married this fall on September 17th! Congrats Jayma :)

Husband and wife after the ceremony! This is one of my favorite parts of the day.

One thing I loved about this venue is that it reminded me a lot of Tennessee and the south where I grew up. This pic totally looks like it could be a country road somewhere in Tennessee or Mississippi.

Almost as much as I love shoes, I love cake :)

Not the first dance, but the last, surrounded by family and friends.

The exit. It’s getting hard to narrow these wedding photos down to my 5 or so favorites!

only this time it was at the wedding! I know I’m always raving about what wonderful clients I have, but these two were just too much fun. The both have an amazing amount of energy and spirit as well as dedication, they have been carrying on a long distance relationship since they first met in 2004. I strongly believe my job as a photographer is to capture the moments that happen throughout the day and this day was full of them. There was never a dull moment, with two wonderful families and about 400 guests!!! This day was filled with so much joy and a few surprises. Joseph surprised Salina by singing Jack Johnson’s We’re Always Better When We’re Together to her during the reception! Thank you guys so much for letting me be a part of your day. Congratulations and I’m just sorry (but happy!) you will be living on the east coast so far away from CA and my camera.

Everyone needs a little practice before the ceremony.

Salina and her mother right before the handoff.

The moment right BEFORE the kiss.

It was a little windy but that usually makes for some fun photos as everyone tries to rein in the veil!

The happy couple.

Since Joseph has been living in Boston and Salina in LA, I don’t know how they pulled this off, but it worked! A fully choreographed first dance.

Salina’s father telling the story of how he met Joseph and Joseph’s email asking permission to marry Salina. Salina’s father waited a few (I’m sure agonizing for Joseph) days to respond and jokingly described it as the worst day of his life.

The surprise serenade!

As always I just can’t get enough of the bride and groom dancing.

Another one I just love.

from our Bahamas honeymoon. What a trip it turned out to be. It was fun, but I learned a lot!!! So here you go -
1.) They don’t show it in all the travel brochures, but it can rain, I mean pour, for 5 days straight in the Bahamas.
2.) If you are flying Bahamas Air, make sure you have “time to spare,” apparently everyone knew that but us :)
3.) Bugs may eat you alive despite the amount of Mosquito Quietus you slather on your body.
4.) You really can live off peanut butter sandwiches and cheese and crackers if you have to.
5.) Eventhough you look for the cabbie without a beer at the airport, he may still stop and get one on the way to your destination!

Feel free to contact me if you are considering a trip and want more info, I have lots more to share.

We spent the first 4 days or so in Freeport hanging out with Kelly and Jon and shooting their wedding. After that the real adventure began. We were supposed to take a flight to Governor’s Harbour, but our flight was delayed by 4 hours or more (but they only tell you this in 45 minute increments, I guess so you will continue to be hopeful that in the next 45 minutes you will have access to a working bathroom, but I’m not really sure why) so we ended up in Rock Sound looking forward to a hour and 1/2 or so cab ride to our rental house. Thats where we met Buffalo, our cab driver. A really nice man and he looked the most promising because he was about the only cabbie without a drink in his hand at the airport, but alas he did stop for a beer on the way to our house :)

By the time we got to our house it was so dark we couldn’t see a thing and were locked out. Everything looked a bit more promising in the morning but within a few hours a major storm blew in and decided to hang around for the next 5 days. But we still had a great time!!! And we would go back again in a heartbeat. We were miles away from almost everyone (except the 4 adults and five kids who were renting the other house on the property!) had really crappy food (but good booze!) no TV (but a bunch of old VHS movies to choose from) but it was our honeymoon so who cares!!! It was awesome.

The round house we rented for the week. It was pretty rustic but we still loved it. I found it about a year ago on www.vrbo.com, a great resource for vacation rentals. Click here to learn more about it. It really has a facinating history and Taja and Doon were great to work with. In fact Taja wanted me to come back next month and shoot her wedding but I was already booked.

The view out of our front door. A few hours the first morning we were there before it really started raining.

When your husband is stuck in the house for 3 days he will go out into the rain and slay wild coconuts. This is actually harder than it might seem but it did give him something to do for a few hours one day.

The bounty :)

A beautiful but deserted beach at Cocodimama. A place we found a few days after being in Governor’s Harbour.

One day we took a day trip up to Harbour Island and on the way we crossed the Glass Window bridge, where the land narrows to little more than the width of a one lane road. On the one side is the Atlantic. Above you can see the storm clouds and waves crashing.

One the other side is the Caribbean, calm and clear. It really is surreal.

The painting my sweet husband bought me while we were in Harbour Island. I think I’m going to put it in my new studio. Its called It’s Getting Wet and the artist is Rosalyn Palmer.

All over Eleuthera and Harbour Island there were chickens and roosters running around. This little family was right outside the art gallery. I kind of felt bad cause a few kids were kind of terrorizing them.

But when we came out of the art gallery I felt worse. At first I thought “oh good someone put them behind the fence away fromthe bad kids” but then I looked harder and saw there were fenced in with a bunch of cats. Now the kids weren’t looking so bad after all :(

Finally a sunny day. One of the churches in Governour’s Harbor.

You can learn a lot about a town if you go to the cementary. This was right outside the library. Most of the graves dated to the 1800s.

Governour’s Harbor.

The Haynes Library and communication hub of the town.

Finally a day at the beach!!!

Ryan trying to figure out what kind of seed he found.

I love the bright architecture of the area. It gave me a lot of inspiration for my little studio!

To find out more about Eleuthera click here. Thanks for stopping by and seeing a bit about our trip. Check back at the end of May for more pics from the Bahamas as I will be back there shooting a wedding again next month :)

what fun!!! I just returned from Kelly and Jon’s Bahama wedding and my own belated honeymoon :) I have to say if you are considering a destination wedding I highly recommend it. This wedding was so fun. For a photographer its a totally different experience as I get to spend so much more time with the bride and groom and their guests. I can’t wait until next month when I return to the Bahamas again for another wedding :) what a job!!!

Congrats to Kelly and Jon, their families and friends. It was nice to finally meet you two and get to spend so much time with you guys as well as getting to know your wedding guests!!! What a fun and nice group of people. Thanks for letting me be a part of it all!

I’m off to the Bahamas to shoot a wedding and then enjoy a belated honeymoon, yippee!!! I will return to the studio on April 19th with amazing photos to share. I will also be responding to all emails and inquiries at that time too. Thank you for your patience and have a great day – leigh

well Elena and Tom do!!! Monday I shot a beautiful wedding in downtown LA. I met Elena, the bride, at the Biltmore Hotel where we started with the getting ready photos and some fun couple’s pics then we moved on to Cicada, a really cool restaurant in downtown LA for the ceremony and reception. It was an elegant evening and very fitting of Tom and Elena. I usually don’t feel short but Elena is supermodel tall and looked every bit the part! And Tom was very tall and dashing too :) I had a great time. I feel so lucky to work with such great people and their families and friends. Congratulations guys. I hope you are having a great time in Palm Springs, one of my favorite places in the world :)