Alyssa and Brian, Alexander Valley Community Hall, Geyserville, Part 1

(Click on the image above for the slideshow)

Wedding of the year, hands down. I try not to choose favorites, but I have a really good reason to be biased in this case. This is the wedding of my lovely sister in law, Alyssa, and good friend Brian. I was one of the photographers for the day, a bridesmaid, and the matchmaker! It was a beautiful, goth October wedding and I have been so eager to post some of the photos.

Some details - mostly created by Alyssa and her fabulous mother, Toni:







A shot from the engagement portraits I shot for Alyssa and Brian in the cemetery early this year on the gift table:



Their decor was a really great balance of representing the couples' personalities and style, without being overly goth or Halloween-ish (okay, so the tombstone was kind of goth. Trust me, it could've been much, much more so!). Brian and Alyssa's birthdays are in October and November, and Halloween is their favorite holiday. But they wanted the wedding to still feel fun and stylish, and I think the balance worked out beautifully! Autumnal and dark but mostly not spooooky:



Mmm, vegan cupcakes! (one Halloweeny element was the little cupcake wrappers - they said "poison" and "beware"...)



My main "assignments" for the day were to photograph the getting ready (while getting ready myself), some family portraits (with timer and tripod so I could be some of the photos too), some couple shots, and details (and a fun self portrait set up - a post for another day!). It proved to be a lot of work but a ridiculous amount of fun, too! I'd only been a bridesmaid once before (in another goth-ish wedding - perhaps it's my fair skin?) so I loved that part!





Alyssa made her hair fascinator as well as the clips that Ashley and I wore:



Ashley and Chad have an adorable baby boy, Cairo - a definite special guest at the wedding!







Lovely invitations made by miss Alyssa with supplies from Paper Source:



I personally thought Alyssa looked beautiful enough to get married just like this! But wait until you see how even more breathtaking she became...





Yes... I am a total dork (but Shanti rocked my hair!):







Rereading her vows:





Now... the most beautiful bride in the world! The dress complemented her perfectly. Her skin is practically glowing. She's drop dead gorgeous (goth pun intended?) and when I think our little girl might look like her auntie Alyssa, it fills my heart with joy!









AND I had a ton of friends coming up to me saying, "wow, your mother in law is so beautiful! I see where Alyssa gets it!". So, you know I'm excited for those family genes :)



(Also, she makes a fantastic bouquet) This is about where the girls were saying, "Jessamyn, put down the camera, we are going out the door for the ceremony NOW!"



When I was editing the photos, I had several split second moments of panic when I would automatically start looking for the photos of the ceremony - "where are they?!". Then I'd remember a second later that I did not take any, because I was IN the ceremony. It was so wonderful to walk down the aisle holding Devon's hand, with our growing baby inside of me, as our family grows to officially include Brian. Rock on!

Here we are post ceremony:





And Alyssa, Ashley, and baby Cairo - some of my favorite shots:





And that's where I'll leave it for today - just one more shot so that we can at least include Brian a little:



More coming soon. And, Happy Thanksgiving!