Come Meet Locally Grown Weddings at the New Living Expo April 29 - May 1

I will be at the New Living Expo with the rest of the Locally Grown Weddings team this Friday, Saturday and Sunday, April 29th - May 1st, in San Francisco. We will be in the Green Bride Guide section, stop by and say hello!

Come meet us all, learn about green weddings and enter a raffle to win a free engagement portrait that includes make up and flowers by Angela and Madeline of Locally Grown Weddings.

See you in a couple of days!

Locally Grown Weddings at Dawn Ranch Lodge

I had the pleasure of accompanying Madeline Trait and Sadie Waddington of Locally Grown Weddings on a scouting trip to Dawn Ranch Lodge in Guerneville, less than two hours north of San Francisco.

 You can read more about planning your wedding at this historic location here.

As a photographer, it is incredibly important to me to be part of the location scouting from the very start, as I can offer advice based on lighting and composition that will affect the entire wedding photography.

It is also important to remember that the whole wedding team works for months in order to create an unforgettable experience the actual day of the wedding.

As a photographer, I find that I work many more hours before and after the actual wedding day!

It is very important for me to plan ahead so that the day of the wedding, I can concentrate on getting the best shots. 

I took these images at Dawn Ranch Lodge last February. I love visiting venues off season, when everything is quiet. But I can't wait to be back in the spring and summer, when all the flowers will be in bloom.

I couldn't resist the opportunity for a self portrait...next time I will remember to smile!

Aurora Meneghello Productions is on the list of preferred vendors at Dawn Ranch Lodge.

Happy New Year

Thank you for a wonderful 2010.

I completed my film, Default: the Student Loan Documentary, thanks to a dedicated team. We received great feedback and our Facebook page reached 5,000 fans on New Year's Eve. We are now putting the finishing touches to prepare it for national broadcast.

 
I co founded Locally Grown Weddings and we won Best of the Bay. WOW! The best part, though, is that I made new friends in the process and I am learning so much from other talented women.Check out Sadie's, Stephanie's, Madeline's and Angela's sites.
I had the opportunity to photograph so many wonderful people.
This year I am already busy scheduling photo sessions.
And last, but not least, I met a wonderful person and fell in love. Now, you really cannot top that :)

I feel so grateful for all these gifts.

 
This year, I will try to blog every week. Or at least twice a month. Help me by leaving comments and emailing me suggestions for future posts, please. I couldn't be doing this without you.

I can't believe it's already 2011!

Locally Grown Weddings Wins BEST OF THE BAY!

My birthday was last week and I received an extra awesome present as Locally Grown Weddings won Best of the Bay!  As some of you already know, I co founded the group in 2010 as a way to get together amazing women owned businesses that are passionate about weddings and the environment. Our current members are One Big Fish Green Events, Chef Stephanie, Gilliflower Design, Cherish, Angela LaFlamme and Aurora Meneghello Productions. Being part of this group is an amazing experience: we are a collective and participate actively in all decisions. We support and challenge, teach and learn from each other and have lots of fun!

Locally Grown Weddings entered the event design category in the Bay Bella Publishing Best of the Bay 2010 Competition. This category was the most encompassing and we created a table for an October wedding. You can read more about our team effort here and you can see pictures of the table here.

After winning Best of San Francisco, we participated in the final round and were awarded Best of the Bay. I am so proud of this award: we won because we followed our mission statement, stayed true to our values and made it about the client and not ourselves. It is important for me to work towards something I truly believe in. Locally Grown Weddings helps me do just that and I am so grateful.