Today Arantxa and Joseph are coming back from their honeymoon… Hopefully this post will be a nice surprise in this Halloween night… while kids are trick or treating I am here writing about this adorable couple. I wish them a world of happiness…

Here’s a detail of the wedding gown and in the following photo Arantxa is showing off the beautiful flowers created by David. David deserves a whole post in my blog… his creations are always so unique and I recommend him to all my brides and they won’t stop raving about him!

Arantxa’s bridesmaids where so thrilled and happy that they couldn’t stop snapping away with their own cameras… I have a lot of fun capturing the excitement of someone taking a picture, I know how good it feels!

During the ceremony, I had a great spot to capture some pretty emotional moments of the bride, hiding behind a panel up on the altar… My colleague Gino De Grandis helped me during the ceremony and the reception, here are a couple of my favorite shots he took of Aranxta niece at the church.

The celebrations continued at the Peninsula Gold and Country Club in San Mateo. The cocktail hour was fired up by an improvised singing performance of Arantxa’s dad accompanied by a magic trio of guitarists. Both Arantxa and Joseph have Basque origins and that was the theme of the evening in a few other entertaining moments.

I have been pretty lucky lately to have been working in such beautiful venues. The PGCC have a large room with amazing natural light and also a grand terrace overlooking the main salon, where I positioned myself to take the above photograph and many more during the reception. Below are some more memorable scenes from the toasts. Arantxa’s best friend read a very moving letter which turned out to be a letter Arantxa wrote to her friend when they were in school together and already best friends.. I had goosebumps!!!

My newest challenge is to find creative ways to photograph the wedding rings. This time I asked the bride and groom if they could ‘indulge’ me and let me have the rings on top of their wedding cake… sweet!

For more moments from Arantxa and Joseph wedding day, here is the slideshow

The Pelican Inn is a very romantic getaway in the heart of Marin County at walking distance from Muir Beach. In this 16th century England’s country atmosphere Amelia and Cory where married on a warm Sunday afternoon. Such a different feeling from the photographs we took during their engagement session! I arrived at the Inn a couple of hours before the ceremony. I enjoy so much arriving early and follow the preparations in its entirety, it gives me time to play with my camera and get inspired without the rush of the impending ceremony… preparation shots are still one of my favorite parts of a wedding, the anticipation of a splendid day…

The ceremony was held at the Pelican Inn gardens while other Inn guests enjoyed the beautiful weather picnicking on the front lawn.

Family friends entertained the ceremony and the reception with beautiful songs creating much emotion among the guests. More scenes from Amelia and Cory’s wedding in this slideshow.

And keeping up with the couple’s ‘urban look’ we found some great spots for my favorite shots of the day just across the street! I wonder if Jane Austen would have approved…

Meet Princess Hannah. That’s how I feel about this little girl. This is the third year in a row that I have taken Hannah’s portrait right in time for her family holiday cards. Her mom tells me Hannah will ONLY wear dresses on a regular basis. No jeans in her wardrobe Hannah wore three different dresses during our photo shoot and she was eager to show off her different styles. This white dress was my favorite and Hannah will wear it on Halloween night, as Princess Giselle from the movie Enchanted. After three years Hannah has become a ‘pro’ of posing, she is so natural, moving, swirling around showing off her outfits and her charming smile. This image above is a perfect wall portrait, I have spent some time adding a few filters to make the atmosphere even more romantic, fairytale like. And here’s the fun side of Hannah…

One of my trade marks lately is playing with color saturation, it gives a more romantic, old style feel to the photographs.

And here’s a trick for great close ups: have the child look for their reflection in your camera lens, they will see themselves and be quite curious, entertained by it, so they will give you some fun expressions and you will be right there to capture them. It always works, I mean always!

Back shooting at Holbrook Park in Atherton. It is one of my favorite spots for fall photos. The colors will get better and better in the next weeks until the last leaf will fall from the trees… This is a perfect location for your Holiday cards photos!

Thanks to Jordan and Eric for being such great fun to work with… and here’s mom and dad!

Working at the speed of light these days… The new website version is up and running since last night, thanks to Nadia Andreini’s hard work. Nadia helped me refresh the style and added few new touches like the news section, a new look to present my wedding albums and we have few new portrait categories with new photos.. and many other things.. go check it out.. www.danieladegrassi.com..

But, this post is about Chris and Shannon, who got married only a week ago! Yes, I finished the post production yesterday to make room to more October weddings coming up, one just today… leaving in a bit!

Here’s the beautiful bride Shannon…

You may remember Shannon and Chris from their fun night E-Session. Their wedding was a bit more traditional then the ‘risks’ we took that night, but a lot of fun nonetheless. Their wedding party was a fantastic crowd to work with, you can tell from the sizzling ‘formals’ we took at “Sharon Heights Golf Club“.

I am always a little hesitant working at Golf Clubs as they have the con of not allowing the use of their golf lawn for photographs.. that is just too bad as most of these places are so beautiful and romantic. But luckily Sharon Heights was equipped with great lighting and beautiful indoor ceilings… So we all escaped the wind that day.

Here’s a couple of fun shots taken by Nadia Andreini, Daniela in action! It was a blast to run after Shannon, she is so naturally beautiful!

And here’s one of my favorite parts… The reception details.. Stunning room, isn’t it?

During the reception Chris wondered around the tables with his small camera/video recorder and every guest had a chance to say their best wishes to the bride and groom. I took a lot of candids at tables as usual, I am not big on table shots so I prefer to catch close ups of the guest while they are having a great time… and so am I… weddings are a lot of work but so much fun. To see all about Shannon and Chris’s day here’s their slideshow.

What could be more romantic, cozy and intimate then a home style wedding? Nicole and Jack (remember them from the E-sessions in Stanford?) did just that. Mom Sheryl made Nicole’s day perfect! She hosted the wedding at their beautiful new home in Livermore. She took care of the decorations and table settings and I am sure she would have made Martha Steward proud. I was really impressed with her stylish choices! Sheryl is known to throw fabulous parties, I think she should start her own business! wouldn’t you agree after watching these photos?

After the ceremony we drove to a nearby winery to give Nicole and Jack some ‘privacy’…

Back to the house to celebrate, eat the goodies prepared by Pampered Palate Catering and to shoot a lot of candids.. here’s just a few of Nicole’s family.

Many more moments from Nicole and Jack’s wedding day in this slideshow

October is always the busiest time of the year for me.. Not only I will be photographing many wonderful fall weddings but it’s also the perfect time for Holiday Photos… before the weather turns for the worst make sure you find some time for those special memories… I have only few spaces left for this years Christmas Special.. call soon to take advantage of the special discount only good from Oct. 20th through Oct. 31st.

In the elegant settings of the Sir Francis Drake Hotel in San Francisco I photographed Victoria for this Bridal Boudoir Portrait. I am launching this fantastic service for brides to make their new husband’s wedding night even more memorable… that a great gift for him! These photographic layout will be treasured in a sophisticated Magazine Style Album that is already the most successful and prestigious product among all my wedding clients.

I wanna thank for their help and collaboration Daniela Puccinelli, Director of Catering at the Sir Francis Drake (lighting was just amazing on the 18th floor!), and Angela from Bridal Image for the beautiful wedding gown and wedding attire. Thanks to Ivania and Nadia for their help during the shoot and most of all, thanks to my new friend Victoria, who was just a fantastic person to work with, so serene and beautiful, sophisticated and sexy.. I am looking forward to work with you again… I really had a great afternoon, it just went by too fast!

and ladies out there, remember, boudoir is not just for brides…

Remember Alessandra, our sweet Ballerina from a few posts ago? As promised, here are more of her images from our windy shooting day in San Francisco. I want to thank my friend and photoshop expert Sheryl Zhang for her amazing editing on my images. The filters and color effects she chose make these images rock!

High School Senior Portraiture is now available at Daniela Degrassi Photography with an artistic and modern twist… We know already how teens are eager to pose and are rarely camera shy so we better make the best of it and create rockstar quality images for their forever precious school year memories… Treasure these images in a prestigious magazine style album or create an unique collage for a wall canvas or prints. And show them off on their favorite social networks such as MySpace or Facebook! More info will be available soon on my website.