Wedding Party

We kept our wedding party to four bridesmaids including the Maid of Honor and four groomsmen including the Best Man. We wanted our wedding to be really intimate and that meant keeping our wedding party small. The people we including in our wedding party have been a part of our lives for decades.

 His best man. They've known each other for over 10 years.

 His groomsmen Kevin has been his friend for years and is always entertaining.

His cousins are almost like his brothers. They do everything together from vacations to fishing to sporting events etc.

My bridesmaid who is also my husbands cousin. She flew in from DC for the wedding because she's in her senior year at Howard University.

 One of my three best friends. I've known Newt for over a decade and she's always been there for me.

My bridesmaid Cara was my little sister in Phi Mu during college and we've been friends ever since. She's so crafty and will do just about anything for her friends.

My maid of honor Erica helped me plan and listen to me wedding planning for over a year. She came in from Virginia for the wedding and was such a big help!

 The entire wedding party but minus our ring bearer. He was a little bit shy.

We were so appreciative of everyone who took time out of their holiday schedule to spend our wedding weekend with us!

Wedding Portraits

On our wedding day we wanted to maximize the natural light and take the majority of our photos before our ceremony. Getting married in California in the winter time means that by 5:30 p.m. you are in darkness. Our ceremony was starting at 4:30 and we didn't want to chance it and only have about 30 minutes of sunlight to do all of our wedding party, family and couple shots. I'm so glad we did this because we were able to get a lot of outdoor shots that we wouldn't have been able to get at night.

Northern California was hit with a huge wind/rain storm that morning so in a lot of our outdoor shots my dress was bustled in hopes of keeping it clean and dry for the ceremony and reception. This worked and we were able to keep my shoes from getting dirty (we were married on a vineyards property).

After the ceremony we took family portraits and a few more wedding party shots.

We also took some nighttime shots of just the two of us.

 

Our First Look

On the day of our wedding we got ready at the hotel. I had my hair and makeup done there but got dressed at the venue. Having a winter wedding means that it gets darker earlier in the evening and because of this we wanted to take the majority of our photos before the ceremony. We knew throughout the planning of our big day that we were going to do a first look. This worked out perfectly with our day of the wedding time line.  

 

I arrived on the venue property first and got dressed immediately. We had serious wind and major rain on the morning of our wedding. The winds were around 40 mph and was having us thinking we were going to have to go to plan B for our first look site. Luckily the rain stopped and the winds calmed. We were able to do our first look in the venue courtyard that opened onto the vineyards.

 

I had no idea if I would cry or not. I knew that if he started crying I would cry. I can't handle it when he cries and I usually follow suit. Sometimes I get emotional out of no where and at times I thought I would cry, I didn't. So when I started to get emotional before tapping him on the shoulder I had to pause.

The suspense was killing him...

 

 

When you both do the ugly cry...

 

Once we did our first look we felt a little calmer. We took a lot majority of our photos and then separated again before the ceremony. I was able to sit down in my bridal suite and relax a little before all of our guests started arriving. He was able to sit with his groomsmen and finally eat something after a long morning.