kateofsantacruz

When I have helped friends with their weddings I always got great advice from the local photographes. They have no interest in a particular spot and know well what does or does not work for getting ready, ceremony, or reception locations. Many restaurants are happy to take 45 people for a private reception and the cost is very reasonable as there is no room charge as with a hotel. In South Lake Tahoe area a great photographer to contact is Christa Hoffarth ([studio] Christa Hoffarth Photography. She helped a friend with ideas even for the decorations that worked were awesome and not expensive.

Laguna Beach has some nice relatively private areas and it is easy to fly into Orange County airport. Easy for anyone to get to that is flying in from out of town and lots of hotel options. For it to be legal you need to get forms from the county (different for each county) in which you plan to get married and register the marriage. Need recognized officiant and two witnesses to make it legal. Pick a local officiant and they can help you with the details. Beach weddings are nice but check the tides on the day planned as at high tide there may be a lot less beach to use. The last hour before sunset is a great time for a ceremony. My photographer, Bruce Stenman at Lightsmith Wedding, checked the tides and the sunset and even how best to have the ceremony oriented for my wedding day next year. A local photographer will know the best spots and can provide advice on parking, getting ready options, and other concerns that you might need even think of in your planning.

I like Matt Kim's work but I wanted an engagement session with the pics in a guest book and a custom album. I found Bruce Stenman at Lightsmith Photography who does great work and has some of the best guest books and wedding albums I have seen. I know after the wedding I will want to have the guest notes in the guest book and the albums to remember it all. There is a lot of work that goes into a really great album and I found most photographers don't really want to invest that much time or can't as they have day jobs like Matt.

I wanted to introduce myself. My name is Kate, as you might have guessed, and I just got engaged. Jason and I are planning a wedding along the central California coast (somewhere between Santa Cruz and Big Sur - where he proposed). We have been to a couple of weddings outside the country (Fiji and Cozumel) and decided that we did not want the same concerns we saw at these weddings. So we are searching for beach locations and will have family and friends coming in from all over the US. I want my 83 year old grandmother at the wedding and no way is she going to be able to fly outside the country. I took the advice of a close friend and signed up the photographer for my wedding date of Sept. 12, 2009 before doing anything else. He has been a great help as we scope out locations and giving us a lot of great advice for dealing with the staff at the hotels. He was the photographer at a friend's wedding in Fiji and we really liked the way he was with the guests, working hard but keeping it fun and not interferring with the wedding - which I see happening all the time. Kate