When Sarah contacted me about her wedding and told me what her theme was all about, it made me very excited about her wedding. She told me that her wedding was going to be witchy. She confided in me that her wedding dress was going to be black and that really excited me. In the 30-plus years I’ve been photographing weddings I have never photographed a bride with a black dress.
I photographed Sarah and Nick’s engagement session months before their wedding and brought with me a black tool celestial-themed ball gown from my client wardrobe. I loved their engagement session.
After photographing her details, we headed into the bridal suite to photograph a few sexy pictures of Sarah that we will not be showing here. She then proceeded to put on her very beautiful mermaid-style black wedding dress.
After getting ready photographs and gawking over how gorgeous Sarah looked, we shot over for a few minutes to Nick’s room upstairs at the Gold Mountain Manor bed and breakfast wedding venue in Big Bear. We photographed him putting on his unique details and he looked quite handsome.
These guys are a perfect match!
Sarah and Nick wanted to do a first look so that they could read their vows to each other and get their ugly cries over with.
We did their first look to the left side of the beautiful bed and breakfast.
I wouldn’t say that they ugly cried but there were a lot of tears. I think they both pretty cried if you ask me. I mean when is it ugly to cry in love while you tell the person who you want to spend the rest of your life with how much you love them and how much they mean to you? So there were a lot of beautiful and heartfelt tears.
After their first look and their vows that they read privately to each other, we started photographing their creative formal photos. We stayed on the ground for all of their pictures preceremony and of course, gold Mountain Manor is a beautiful venue with lots of perfect little vignettes for photography.
The venue was full of creepy details and skeletal decor. There were a myriad of candles surrounding the head table and tons of candles on all of the guest tables. There were palmistry books and macabre details all over. The Piece de resistance was definitely the black upside-down cake. Greenery surrounded the ceremony and all the twinkle lights and candles made for a very romantic mood.
Grand entrance took place right around sunset and the lighting was magical. All of the fairy lights really give Gold Mountain Manor such a romantic and magical look. Every angle you photograph is set up to be warm, magical, and beautiful. From their grand entrance, they walked right into their first dance. There were so many kisses and soulful stares over the night. You could really tell that Sarah and Nick were very much in love.
After the first dance, it was dinner service. Followed by mother-son and father-daughter dance.
In a very non-traditional method, Sarah and Nick did not have a garter toss or a bouquet toss instead they did a shoe game which just showed how much they love each other even more..
Everyone was dancing and having a great time all night. Maya and I had such a great time at this wedding and I can tell you that this wedding was totally my daughter’s vibe. Maya has always been into the macabre and seeing this wedding and this venue really inspired her for her own wedding.
