i usually allow myself one or two photos from a wedding to play with… to just get a little outside of the box… this was that shot…

and here is one from the beach in front of their reception hotel location:

while we waited for the grand entrance time, we got to play a little more in this fantastic room:

and what bride doesn’t love a little audrey?

the sand castle candles were such a great touch for this beach wedding…

during the father/daughter and son/mother dances they had a photos slideshow playing. it coerced some strong emotions from the dance floor participants.

they had so many people serenading them throughout the night. it was another testament to the couple as to how much people love and wanted to honor them.

and even david got into the act. a surprising and uber-romantic performance of a song he had written for stephanie. yes, even us male wedding photographers can well up while shooting a wedding. or… at least… this one does   :)

as a former break-dancer (hey… i could do some crazy legs and an egg spin on the cardboard in my living room!), i give it up for the bride’s brother:

as i said in my previous post, the sense of family and love from this entire day was just something that washed over you. it was refreshing to see how two families just completely embraced one another, from every extension of it.

thanks again for inviting me to be a part of your amazing day, stephanie and david. it really was an honor and i wish you both and all of your family the best of what life has to offer.

one more shot of the passion between these two love birds in parting   :)

we started the day at Parks Salon in Laguna Niguel, where alli got her hair/makeup done, along with her mother, sister (bridesmaid) and cousin (bridesmaid).

geri @ parks did a great job on alli’s hair for her big day…

we dashed back to alli’s family’s home for some quick photos before racing down to dana point for the ceremony. isn’t her nephew too cute for words??

here are both sides of the bride and groom’s first look at one another. the magic in the air during this precise moment at weddings is a little bit of what love is all about.

i got quite a neat little surprise when i walked up to the ceremony site. there, ready to marry sean and alli was none other than a good, old friend of mine, todd rodarmel.

i loved seeing the passion between these two during the course of the ceremony. you can feel sean’s anticipation as he waited for alli to be handed to him by her father.

the unexpected moments in a wedding are always so fun. there’s no better cure for a little nervousness than laughter!

the reception was a quick 2 minute walk from the ceremony site.

after the toasts, there was some dancing to be done…

shortly after the last dance, we waited for the final guests to trail out before heading up the coast to laguna. part two of the blog post will show what fun we got into on the beach, in the middle of streets and even on people’s balconies. a fun time was had by all.    :)