Professional Photos (Couple Portraits)

As promised, here's the next set of photos. These were taken at several very picturesque spots along the away between the ceremony and reception locations. I mentioned earlier that I'm much more of a city girl than a country girl, but these photos just justify our decision to have our wedding in Jesse's hometown. There's no way we'd be able to get those cornfield shots near our apartment in Philly! There are more on our flickr set (and I still plan to add a few more to that set in the next couple of days), plus the three teaser ones that i LOVE that I posted about a few weeks back.

Click to enlarge. All photos credited to Mariano Delgado

Up next: Reception photos!

HONEYMOON! (Days 3 & 4)

We started our day feeling very refreshed. We had really enjoyed our stay at the Wharf Master's Inn in Point Arena and were ready for another full day of travel. As we started back down Ca 1 we approached Gualala, which Deanna and I both enjoyed saying each time we saw a sign for it. I threw on the brakes and pulled off rather suddenly when I saw these beauties on the side of the road.


There were about six full sized metal dinosaurs (and a King Kong) stationed at a landscaping business on the side of the road. There were a few smaller ones scattered around as well. They were a fun surprise early on in our day.
Our first scheduled stop of the day was the Salt Point State Park. We saw a general sign for the park area, which was then scattered with exits to access the different beaches. Deanna saw a really pretty inlet as we were coming around the bend of a cliff and said "THAT ONE! GET US THERE!". As luck would have it there was a sign shortly after that and we were able to get to Stump Beach. There was only one other car in the parking area as we pulled in, and had very little company the whole time we were there, which was nice. The beach was beautiful and really reminded me of the Oregon coast where my grandparents lived. It was a really breathtaking view when we came out of the pine tree lined area and got a full view of the beach. (see panorama)

Stump Beach at Salt Point State Park

We have fun going down the big set of wooden steps and exploring the tide pools and beach. It was very peaceful and quiet. We skipped some of the stones that lined portions of the sand on the water, and took in the view.


We took our last looks at Stump Beach and started back up the stairs. We hoped back in the car and came across many many stunning views. There were a lot of pull off shoulders on Ca 1 for people to stop and take pictures, and we stopped at a few of those. Here is an attempted panorama from one of those, but it didn't stitch together too cleanly with the shifting ocean and expansive view. Its still pretty though...


This one is almost a 360 degree view, so the rental car on the left and Deanna on the right were actually pretty close to each other. Deanna is looking at a lizard in the brush there. We saw a couple of these on this day at different places.
They weren't huge. If I stretched my thumb and pointer finger as far apart as I could, it was probably about that long from head to tail. At one of these shoulders we saw coming up we noticed a crowd of five or six cars were pulled off. This was a rare site. At this point in the trip we could drive for 20 minutes without seeing a car in front of us or behind us. We took this as a cue and pulled off behind a pickup truck with a rack on it. After a few seconds we said "SURFERS". I had seen one guy surfing earlier this morning from the balcony of our hotel room, but this was our first glimpse of a group. Deanna sat in the car for a couple minutes refilling the film in her camera. I got out to explore and discovered this sign and a group of seals on the beach below.
We were really excited and found a semi-steep trail down to the sand. (The pull off was pretty high up on a cliff, as was most of the road) We got down and checked out the surfers briefly then got to see the seals from across a waterway connecting with the ocean.

We had binoculars with us and could see them pretty clearly through those. I am not 100% sure they are seals, but they didn't look like the sea lions we eventually saw in San Francisco. We watched them play and swim for a while before heading back to the road. The drive to San Francisco seemed to take a while. The road turned inland for a while, but it still had some nice views of rolling hills and livestock. We stopped at Point Reyes for Lunch at the Cowboy Cafe and got some really good pulled pork sandwiches. We then pushed on the San Francisco and got treated to some really dramatic views from VERY high cliffs.
Before driving into San Francisco we pulled off at the Golden Gate Recreation Park and took in the view.

It was pretty cold and very windy up there, but such a view. Deanna was a little grumpy at this point from riding in the car for so long, but I think she had cheered up by the time we were done.
There was a former military base at the same site that we explored a little before heading into the city. We got to our hotel, "The Mosser" and after circling the block 3 times (which took a while) we were able to park and work things out with valet. We stored the car for the next two nights and opted to travel San Francisco on foot and by public transit. After settling into our tiny but cute hotel room we met up with our friends Chris and Erica and got some dinner with them. We ate well and had a fun first night out in the city.
Chris and Erica were nice enough to take Friday off, so the whole next day was spent touring the city with them. And they were very good tour guides. We took an old trolley train to Fisherman's Wharf at Pier 39, which is a big tourist area.

Deanna, Chris, and Erica at Pier 39

We found a carousel there and Deanna almost immediately talked everyone into riding.
Deanna is riding sidesaddle here if you can't figure out what your seeing in the picture. We all turned into 5 year old pretty quickly once we got on.
Also at the pier are the famous seal lion rafts. We spent a while there watching them bellow and push each other off the floats. They were very animated and seemed like seasoned professional at entertaining the onlookers.

We walked further down the waterfront and stopped at the Musee Mechanique, a museum of old coin-op machines(all working) that you could actually play. We used up a roll of quarters there pretty quickly between the four of us. Deanna and I both like old, mechanical things, so this place really got us worked up.

For lunch we went to the In and Out Burger, which I had been anticipating for a while. It didn't let me down, and I think everyone enjoyed a nice greasy burger and fries on our fun day out.
We then waited in line for the famous trolley cars with the open sides. Chris and I risked life and limb and rode on the outside. We got off at Lombard Street (the most crooked street in the world) and walked down that. It was a beautiful street with lots of flowers and pretty houses.
From there we got back on the trolley car and headed toward Chris and Erica's area of town in the Haight. They toured us through Golden Gate Park and took us to a really beautiful art museum (De Young). We went up to the 9th floor of the museum which had walls of glass from floor to ceiling all the way around, giving us a full view of the city in all directions.

Inside Elevator At De Young Museum

The museum was wonderfully designed and had a lot of art built into the structure, like this gold leaf wall that was on both sides of a tunnel you went through at the entrance.
We got some dinner with Chris and Erica at a fun place called "Cha Cha Cha" before heading back to our hotel for the night. We really felt like we saw the whole city (I know we didn't) in that day. Thanks to Chris and Erica for showing us all the tourist traps and all of the stuff we would have never discovered if we were on our own.

Professional Photos (getting ready & ceremony)

While Jesse's posting our honeymoon photos, I'll get to work on our professional photos. Mariano (our photographer) sent us almost 1200 photos in both color and black and white, so it's taking us a little while to sort through them all and pick our favorites. It's easier to break them down into chronological sets, so here is the first batch - photos taken while we were getting ready and during the ceremony in Lititz Springs Park. We're really happy with Mariano's work and he was a pleasure to be around on our wedding day. Looking through all of these photos is like reliving the day all over again. We would highly recommend him to other couples in the NY-NJ-PA area

My mom and dad kept me company in my hotel room before we got to the ceremony site. I'm showing my insane asylum smile so that clearly means I was excited for the day to begin.

Since Jesse didn't want to see me before I walked down the aisle, it meant that he had to get the ceremony site ready by himself (with help from our friends).

we're married!

Click on any of the photos to enlarge them. All photos credited to Mariano Delgado.

Larger versions of these and many more professional photos from this part of the day are posted here on our flickr site if you're interested.

Up next: Jesse and I romping around scenic Lancaster Co. before going to the reception

HONEYMOON! (days 1 &2)

Our professional wedding photos arrived the day before we left on our honeymoon (a week long roadtrip down the coast of California), so, we are going to do things a little backwards. The wedding photos are still being sorted through and Deanna will start posting some of those later today, but the honeymoon photos are ready to roll.

We just got back from California yesterday and had a blast traveling down the coast for about a week. We fit in a lot of stuff, saw some friends and enjoyed not talking about money, weddings, jobs, and all that jazz.

We left on Tuesday, July 29th at 8:45 am to go to the Philadelphia airport. We had a long day of traveling, going on three separate legs, and exploring four of the country's finer airports.
The only highlight to share on this day was the Detroit airport. If you are ever there make sure to check out the connecting tunnel between the A gate and the B & C gates. We have been there before, and always like spending some time being dazzled by the WillyWonka-like lightshow and music. The tunnel is constantly changing colors and has Blue Man Group sounding music playing in it.

Me (Jesse) in the tunnel

The first of many panoramic photos I took by stringing several images together in Photoshop. This is Deanna in the Detroit tunnel. You can click it to see it larger.

We went from Philadelphia, to Detroit, to Salt Lake City, to Arcata/Eureka airport(we are deal hounds, and the more legs the cheaper the fare). We got into our hotel by about 11pm Pacific time. Since we were on Eastern time still it felt more like 2am to us.

We got up in the morning and drove south down Highway 101 to the Avenue of the Giants. This is a large state park area that has some of the largest Redwood trees in the world. We got to go inside a one room house built in the base of one of the trees. We stopped off at a lot of scenic views, and stood next to trees that made us feel like ants. We also drove our rental car through a giant tree.

Jesse in front of really big tree

Deanna in front of another really big tree. This one was over 300 ft tall.


Us in front of our rental car in the middle of the Redwoods

Me confronting one of my childhood (ok, and adult) heroes as we left the Avenue of the Giants
Deanna at the (1st) intersection of Highway 101 and California 1 in Leggett, Ca

After we got through the Redwoods we drove down Ca 1 for a while. Almost immediately after we started on 1 there was a curvy arrow sign telling up the next 22 miles would be winding. It was not lying. We drove up a mountain through constant twists and turns. The steering wheel was not held in a stagnant position during those next 22 miles. It was a little dizzying. But after that we were rewarded with our first look at the Pacific Ocean from a pull off at the top of a big cliff. We drove on for another 20 minutes or so until we happened across the first beach you could actually access by foot and walk about onto. The fog was rolling in as we drove, and the beach was covered in the thick mist. It was really beautiful and made the stop seem very surreal.

Our first beach stop on the trip. Click to enlarge.


Deanna atop a large 30ft rock we climbed on the same beach.
She's trying out her heart shaped honeymoon glasses here.


After exploring the beach for a little while we drove on to Mendocino and got some lunch. It was a cute little artist community that was smaller than I was expecting. It was filled with boutiques, galleries, and eateries. We drove on to Point Arena where we spent the night. We stayed at the Wharf Master's Inn which overlooked the ocean and and pretty fishing pier. It was my favorite hotel of the stay (and maybe Deanna's as well). They were the only ones to wish us congratulations and a happy honeymoon, and had really cute rooms with a nice view. I am just going to post these a day or two at a time since we fit so much in, so check back soon for the following days...

detail post #4: the guest book

Now on to the one DIY project that heard about the most from our guests - our guestbook.

For a long time, we just assumed that we would go to craft store, pick out a cute, relatively inexpensive guest book and say "done". No fuss, no mess, no hours spent on another project. But, then we got to thinking about it....we wanted to have something that wouldn't end up dusty and stored away in a closet or a box somewhere. We wanted it to actually tell the story of our six year relationship and feel like "us". All of this of course meant that another project had to be added to our list. So we made this:

(click any of the photos to enlarge)

Actually, Blurb made this, we just designed and formatted it all. Our book was the smallest (7x7 inches), cheapest ($25 with the help of an online coupon) hard bound option they offered. We were happy with their print quality, the thickness and glossiness of the interior pages, and their easy design and formatting options. If I were to grade them, I'd give them an A, and we'll probably use them again for future projects.

Jesse has probably never thrown anything away in his life. It's a personality quirk that I usually curse but came to treasure during the making of this book. It meant that we still had school ID cards from the year we met, receipts from our first date, notes and letters that we'd written each other, and ticket stubs to nearly every movie, concert and play we'd attended together. And we packed all of that stuff in, surrounded by years of photo booth strips and short written descriptions to give our guests a handy 40 page synopsis of our relationship. We were happy with how it turned out, but even happier with the well-wishes and nice notes that our guests wrote inside (these photos were taken weeks before the wedding - the lined pages are now covered with awesome-ness).

next detail post: misc. last minute design projects