Tracy and Leslie, Same Sex Marriage Giveaway Winners!, SF City Hall, San Francisco, California

(As always, check out the slideshow by clicking on the image above)

If you've been following my blog this year, you know that I'm overjoyed that gay and lesbian couples now share the same marriage rights in California as anyone else! In order to honor this joyous decision, I ran a contest, giving away wedding photography for one lucky couple getting married at San Francisco City Hall, the site of many groundbreaking moments for the LGBT community (as well as my own lovely wedding in 2005!).

Well, I'm pleased to be able to share the sweet wedding of my fabulous winners, Tracy and Leslie. These ladies won my heart over with their love story, and though choosing the winners of this contest was really challenging, I knew they would be so much fun to photograph. Not only do I have a lot in common in general with them, but their reasons for getting married at City Hall really resonated with mine and Devon's, and they had family and friends to support them and shower them with love... including one of their puppies!

Okay, I'm trying to make these less wordy (um, yeah, how's that going for you Jessamyn?!), so, on with the photos!

City Hall being used for one of its many purposes - democracy in action! (though we don't know exactly what was going on... it had nothing to do with weddings)





I believe this beautiful string of pearls had been worn for the weddings of the women in Tracy's family for many years.



Much more romantic than waiting at the DMV:





Tracy's grandparents were able to join the wedding party, and celebrated their 57th wedding anniversary this September!





As an aside, while we were waiting for it to be Tracy and Leslie's turn in the rotunda, a random tour guide told us to go look in the (I think) city supervisors' chambers. We were a little confused until we looked in - it looks like a palace in there!



Then it was time:



Tracy knew she couldn't look back at her mom during the ceremony or she would be even more overcome with emotion. I always tear up with people start crying with joy!





The newly married women - legally!



And Tracy and her mom in the sweetest moment:





Afterwards, we dashed outside for some fun portraits with Tracy and Leslie's dog Franny - one of several rescue and permanent pups in their household. She was VERY excited, very adorable, and very well behaved.



Tracy had specifically requested these kinds of images, which were FUN to play around with:





Tracy sent me this kind note: "These are beyond our wildest dreams! You are truly amazing!". She had told me before the wedding that they decided that if they weren't the winners of the contest, then they'd rather go without any photography... they liked my work that much. So I'm thrilled they love the photos!



I started the year without having photographed a SINGLE gay or lesbian wedding... and now I have had the honor of photographing a total of 9 (!) wonderful same sex couples on their wedding day. I hope that these images show the care, love, and family feelings between these couples, and illustrate how love is real when it is between two people of any background, faith, race, gender, or age.



I have another FABULOUS lesbian wedding to share later this week. Thank you ladies for being so fun, hilarious, and gorgeous!

Misty and Schell, portraits for stock, Julliard and Doyle Parks, Santa Rosa, California

I know Misty and Schell through friends, and was excited to get to know them personally when they graciously agreed to model for me for a playful shoot together. We shot at Julliard and Doyle Parks, and made the most of Misty's beautiful Vespa (and will have to do another shoot once Schell gets his vintage one going again!). They are both so cute, and Misty has such a gorgeous big smile! I loved hanging out with them, and am looking forward to doing more in the future.

Here's the pretty lady - it always makes me smile when I see her scooting around town on that cherry red bike.







Love the awesome footwear (you know I always go for it!) - 50s pin-up girl meets 80s b-boy!





She had so many cute and retro outfits, it was hard to choose. And that smile!!



Next, a wardrobe change and a trip over to Doyle Park, where I got them to cuddle up and feed each other designer chocolates... not realizing that Misty had been avoiding sugar AND dairy. Whoops! Thanks for taking one for the team!



These two are so happy together:













Misty does hair at Elle Lui Salon, which you might remember from a few different shoots I've done this year. And, that reminds me - I really need to get a haircut!

Anyway, not only did they model for me, but Misty helped by styling her own hair, makeup, wardrobe.

Cute chocolate heart:





I love this time of day... and year.







After we got back to their house, I said, "okay, is there anything else you'd like me to get that we haven't already done?". Usually people say no, but these two thought, "what about a portrait with our cats?", which makes them even dearer to me. I am definitely a cat girl!

Here are my two favorites:





Thanks again you guys!

Rebecca, stock shoot, Santa Rosa, California

My wonderful sister-in-law not only lent me her house for these photos, but sourced the fabulous Rebecca to model for me, AND helped with hair, makeup and wardrobe for this shoot. Thanks ladies! I had so much fun.



I recently purchased some fun fabrics to play around with as backdrops, and go to test out this pretty blue flowery remainder. I wanted to open my lens all the way up to get a beautiful, blurry, blue bokeh, and am really happy with the result. For example, I thought about cropping this one so you couldn't see where the fabric ends, but I kind of like the casualness of seeing that...



Lots of fun playing with the white picket fence and cheery butter yellow of their house. I've never actually had a picket fence (though a redwood one is pretty awesome too).







And I got Rebecca to pose with my newly-painted cruiser bike. Aren't they both so pretty?!







Okay... and then all of our little bit of goth/ antiquey sides came out, we dressed Rebecca up in this gorgeous vintage dress of Alyssa's, and enjoyed the last bits of golden light in the backyard.















And back to the fabric for some extreme close-ups of Rebecca's beautiful face. Those eyelashes are real!







Big thanks again to Alyssa and Rebecca for being such great sports. I have TONS more shoots to share, and am realizing that I think I'll need to post at least one blog post per day until I get a bit more caught up... which might get tricky, considering I have 6 weddings to shoot between now and November!