I can’t tell you how excited I was to shoot this wedding. Not only was it very unique but it incorporated one of my favorite childhood activities, ROLLER SKATING and my adult passion, PHOTOGRAPHY! That’s right, this wedding was a roller skating wedding held inside a roller rink that wasn’t touched by time since 1985. It was awesome.

When Liz and Dave told me about their plans to get married inside a roller rink while on skates I couldn’t believe it. You see, I did a little competitive skating back in the day. Yes, I actually could do sow-cow and axel jumps while wearing a fully sequined skating dress. This wedding was right up my alley. I jumped at the chance to meet them at The Golden Skate, the wedding venue, and as soon as I stepped inside that building untouched by time I knew I wanted to document this special wedding. I was just going to chat with them but after about 10 minutes of watching them on the rink like a kid who had to sit out a game I finally couldn’t take it anymore and had to put on some skates. It’s amazing what happens when you do something as an adult that you thoroughly loved as a kid. It’s freeing actually. My mind went blank and I could have skated around and around for hours completely carefree. Luckily I didn’t, because the next day my adult body reminded me that I wasn’t a kid anymore.

So their wedding day FINALLY came and it was just as cool as I imagined it to be with button bouquets, vintage roller skate cases, and one adorable Betsy Johnson dress. Liz and Dave really did get married on skates and had a pretty fun party for their guests with a lot of skating in between. I didn’t shoot the wedding while on skates, for fear of falling and breaking my equipment and ruining the wedding, but at the last 45 minutes of the day I laced up my rental skates and went around that rink like a fool until I was sweaty, out of breath and 12 years old again.

…and then two days later I celebrated my best friends birthday back at the very same rink. No, this wasn’t a coincidence. After my first meeting with Liz and Dave I told my friend about the only rink left in the East Bay and she insisted on a roller skating birthday party. After weeks of anticipation (after the months of wedding anticipation) we  finally got to the rink and went straight to the DJ booth to request all the 80’s freestyle music they had. It didn’t take long for use to find our balance and instantly we were a couple of 12 year old girls having the most pure-carefree-fun we’ve had in a long time. But, a las the last Debbie Deb song was played and while we caught our breaths we reluctantly tucked away our wild attempt to re-claim our youth. I think we came pretty close, just look at our faces in the pic below. JOY!

Thanks Liz and Dave for letting me document your wedding while combing my childhood and adult passions of roller skating and photography! I’ll never forget it.

While I was in San Diego for a whole three days, in between two weddings in the Bay Area, I had the pleasure of shooting a family portrait session with the McDonough Family, Aidan, Sandy, Paige and Mark .

We went to one of my favorite San Diego spots, Sea Port Village, along the downtown waterfront. This is a pretty touristy area but I will always love it because it reminds me of the weekends spent with my brothers and dad flying kites. Its a perfectly windy and picturesque area with great views of Coronado Island. There’s also a carousel which we went on twice. When I was a kid there used to be a brass ring on a stick that you tried to grab as the carousel went round and round for a free ride. This was the second thing that I experienced while out on my California trip that took me back to my youth. The other was rollerskating and that will be in my next post.

Being in beautiful Seaport Village, riding that old carousel and taking pictures of this lovely family hardly seemed like work to me. The kids felt very comfortable with me so much that they started directing me in what pictures to take of them and then their little personalities really came out. Again, I can’t believe I get to take pictures of adorable kids for a living. Here are some of my favorites of the day…

This adorable couple actually went to junior high school together and ultimately re-connected in NYC many many years later. So for all of you single people out there wondering who will Mr./Ms. Right be, don’t dismiss those awkward kids you never even gave the time of day to in the halls of your elementary school/junior high/high school so long ago. They just might grow up to be pretty fantastic people like Mia and Michael who act like two teenagers in love.

Mia and Michael made my job quite easy during our engagement session in Central Park and in the Meatpacking District. I basically just took pictures while they laughed and enjoyed each others company. People ask me all the time about locations to shoot but my favorite images are of people just being themselves and feeling really comfortable in front of the camera no matter the location. Mix in some fantastic light (maybe a little wind) and you have the simplest receipt for memorable pictures you will want to look at time and time again.