Santa Barbara Wedding Photographer

Missing Attachment

Today’s schedule
8:30AM Arrive at Santa Barbara, Hotel Mar Monte
9:30AM Wedding Ceremony, Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church
11:00AM Formal photography - at wedding location
12:00PM Formal Photography - at Santa Barbara Courthouse
5:00PM Pre-reception Cabrillo Pavilion Arts Center
6:00PM Grand entrance Cabrillo Pavilion Arts Center
7:00PM Mariachi Stops playing
7:30PM DJ to lead activities
11:00PM end

Back to Hotel Mar Monte
I was at Hotel Mar Monte 
I love Santa Barbara. I feel very comfortable being here.

Every time I visit Hotel Mar Monte, I get a different view of Cabrillo Pavilion Arts Center.
Today, I arrived at Santa Barbara early in the morning.
The bride stayed in the East side of Hotel Mar Monte.
From the East wing, I got this shot of Cabrillo Pavilion Arts Center. (below).

Cabrillo Pavilion Arts Center, looking out from window at Hotel Mar Monte

I have seen a lot of happy brides in my line of work.  But today’s bride was perhaps the happiest bride I have ever seen.  The bride was keep dancing as everyone was getting ready. She was singing and striking poses as her mother video taped her.

It was my first time being in “Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church” in Santa Barbara.  It was a real nice Spanish catholic church.  They had a semi-traditional catholic ceremony.  I say semi-traditional because they allowed me to take all the flash photographs I want.  This is rare in Catholic weddings as some churches would completely forbid you from taking any pictures (with or without flash).

The ceremony was over around 11am and we went to Santa Barbara Court-House. The bride and groom are familar with Santa Barbara, but they never knew about the Court House.  They were happy with the location.  They wanted some panoramic view of the building in the back.  They brought umbrellas which worked out pretty cute.

My favorite image from this wedding
It was an extremely tight space, very dark, and awkward place to take photograph

Things worked out fine.  Bride and groom were never stressed out.  It was all fun and blessing.

Speaking Spanish
I had multiple opportunities where I showcased my Spanish skill.  I communicated with many people in Spanish today, I wrote a separate blog about speaking Spanish.

Wedding service providers at today’s wedding 
Hotel Mar Monte - 1111 E. Cabrillo Blvd, Santa Barbara, CA 93103
Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church - 1300 E Valley Road, Santa Barbara, CA 93108
Cabrillo Pavilion Arts Center - 1118 E. Cabrillo Blvd, Santa Barbara, CA 93103

Related Topics
Hotel Mar Monte
Cabrillo Pavilion Arts Center

Missing Attachment

Wedding Schedule
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Bride Getting ready:  Hotel Mar Monte, Santa Barbara
Wedding Ceremony:  Cabrillo Beach, across the Street.
Promal Photography: Right after wedding.
Reception & Dance:  Hotel Mar Monte, Santa Maria Room.

The last time I was at Cabrillo Beach was June 2nd (last month).
I love Santa Barbara.
When it comes to Santa Barbara Wedding, I need to be extra careful with two things.

1. Give plenty of traffic time
   Normal driving time between Camarillo and Santa Barbara is about 50 minutes.
   But, sometimes I get stuck on traffic for 2 hours.
2. Bring Sun protection
   I will be toasted today on Cabrillo Beach, yikes.
   My story on Sun Protection

I feel more comfortable everytime I come back to Santa Barbara.  There were fair amount of people at the beach.  But, I knew where I can get some free parking :).  I arrived at Hotel Mar Monte 30 minutes earlier.  I put thick coat of Sunblock lotion at the car and headed out to Mar Monte.

I went to the bride's room for getting ready shots.  She was in the exact same room that my past customer used. (this wedding).

The Sun was very strong. But the wedding ceremony was over pretty fast.

Related Topics
Hotel Mar Monte

Missing Attachment

Customer’s Testimonial is located  here

June 2, 2007 - Wedding Schedule:
Getting Ready Shots - Mar Monte Hotel, Santa Barbara
Ceremony - St. Joseph’s Church, Carpinteria
Formal Photography - Court House, Santa Barbara
Reception - Cabrillo Arts Center, Santa Barbara
Beach Photography - Cabrillo Beach, Santa Barbara

I had a full 12 hours of working day today. (left home 10am and came back home 10pm). I brewed my usual coffee and headed up to Santa Barbara.  At 10:00AM the traffic was very light.  During the weekend traffic from Ventura to Santa Barbara can be very heavy.  Sometimes it takes me 2 hours to get to Santa Barbara. 

I arrived at Mar Monte Hotel by Cabrillo Beach very early.  I’ve been in Mar Monte before. The day started out as a gloomy day at Cabrillo Beach,  but we started to see the Sun right when the wedding ceremony started. 

The bride’s makeup artist didn’t show up to the salon.  So the bride was having a drama.  But it all worked out.  At the hotel, one of bridesmaids was in desperate need for a safety pin.  You know, I always carry a bunch of safety pins.  So, I provided one for the bridesmaid.   The bridesmaid was very happy, I think she actually used the word “Hero” on me.  I’m not so sure.

All in all, these were all parts of fun memory.  Everything turned out to be nice and fun. Then we headed out to Carpinteria.  I followed the limo to the church. 

As usual, I asked the father about my photography.  He said “No photography during the ceremony, except for the ring exchange”.  So, I kept myself low.  I waited for noisy moments (people laughing, etc) and took some quick shots during the ceremony.  I hope God would forgive me.

After the ceremony, we went to Santa Barbara Courthouse for formal photography.  There were a lot of tourists at the Courthouse.  As we walked across the grassy area, I have noticed dozens of people taking pictures of us.  I can understand how it can be an interesting scene for them.  Wedding party was all dressed up for the occasion, and I was running around with three big cameras (no assistant here, I keep my price low).

There, we took all the standard formal shots and a few “cheesy” shots.  As I tried some creative shots, I told the bride and groom. “This may seem cheesy, but we must try and see how they come out”  The bride and groom were sitting in uncomfortable positions.  But I thought I could create the illusion.  I am extremely happy with the results.  I hope they like them also.

Reception started as we planned. Everything went smooth.  They had a real nice looking wedding cake.  When the Sun set, we went out to the beach and took some more pictures.

God bless them.

Update: The bride wrote me a good testimonial.  Thank you, thank you… They liked my “cheesy” shots. (I said “cheesy” because I was pushing the limit.  Personally, I liked them a lot.  I was worried that the bride and groom might not like my taste)  Customer’s Testimonial is located  here

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Wedding Vendors:
Hotel Mar Monte: 1100 Anacapa St., Santa Barbara, California 93101
St. Joseph’s Church: 5048 El Carro Lane, Carpinteria, CA 93013
Cabrillo Arts Center: 1118 E. Cabrillo Blvd, Santa Barbara, CA 93103

Related Topics
Hotel Mar Monte
Cabrillo Pavilion Arts Center

Missing Attachment

Today’s Wedding schedule
———————————-
Wedding Date - Saturday July 22, 2006
Wedding location - Hotel Mar Monte, Santa Barbara, California 3
:00pm - Arrive at Santa Barbara, ca
5:00pm - Wedding Ceremony.
5:30pm - Formal pictures at Cabrillo Beach.
6:00pm - Grand entrance, wedding reception.
10:30pm - end

I put on a thick coat of sun screen and headed up to Santa Barbara. This was my third wedding at Santa Barbara this month.  Santa Barbara’s been good to me and I love going to Santa Barbara.  Hotel Mar Monte is yet another high class wedding/reception spot in Santa Barbara by Cabrillo Beach. The statistic shows that, at any given weekend, about 200 weddings take place in Santa Barbara area.  As I drove up to Santa Barbara, I saw number of wedding photographers working already. I’m always paranoid when I go to Santa Barbara, because traffic is unpredictable.  Today, I arrived to wedding site one hour earlier.

Photographer VenturaPhoto.com

The wedding ceremony took place on the sand at Cabrillo Beach.  Everything went very smooth.  It was a good beach wedding day.  Pictures came out very nice. The only challenge was the clouds.  We had small patches of cloud all over the sky. After the ceremony, we had the formal photography session on the same beach at Cabrillo.  As usual, people were nice to me, so my job was easy.  It’s hard not to take good pictures when people are happy and good looking.  As you can see, pictures came out good.  Little patches of cloud gave us a cool effects.  But, I must confess that I was extra busy with constant changes of lighting situation.  Because of the clouds, the lighting situation was keep changing.  I had to measure the light every minute .  I had to adjust shutter speed and flash output constantly to make pictures look natural.  Every single picture was taken with a flash. 

Photographer VenturaPhoto.com

After formal photography, we all crossed Cabrillo street, waved to people honking at us, and headed to Mar Monte Hotel.  From there, everything went smooth. The reception was held at La Cantina Room.  The bride sang “Could not ask for more” to the groom.  She sang with a lot of feeling.  She was a good singer.  The entire bridesmaids cried. I swapped business cards with the DJ (Coastal Entertainment Group) and the videographer (You’re The Star Video Productions).  I cracked a lot of jokes with the videographer because we were working side by side for 8 hours.

Hotel Mar Monte
1111 East Cabrillo Blvd Santa Barbara, California 93103
805-963-0744 Resv. 800-643-1994 www.hotelmarmonte.com

You’re The Star Video Productions
P.O. Box 60703 Santa Barbara, California 93160
866-STAR-959 www.see-your-memories.com

Coastal Entertainment Group
805.896.2777 www.conejovalleydj.com

Related Topics
Hotel Mar Monte
Cabrillo Pavilion Arts Center