**First of all we have to start by wishing Jason's twin Josh and his wife Cassie a HAPPY THIRD WEDDING ANNIVERSARY today! These two are a couple of our best friends obviously and we've had so many amazing adventures with them over the years! We know that you two have been together dating back many years before your wedding, but we just wanted to say Congrats & that we miss you! Hope you're having a fantastic time on your trip in Oregon and we'll see you in California again at the end of the year!!**
This brings us to Ivan and Alex's wedding in Thousand Oaks, California! Ivan and Alex married just two years ago at a park in California on June 20th in 2015 and we were lucky enough to capture their big day! Ivan and Jason shared the experience of being groomsmen for Jason's twin brother Josh just one year prior, so it was fitting that they were all back to celebrate Ivan's wedding together! Josh even served as a groomsman and his wife Cassie served as a bridesmaid! It was awesome being amidst family and friends and we felt right at home while we photographed all day.
The park itself was a beautiful little spot surrounded by green foliage- an uncommon thing during the California drought! Jenny loved scouting the location for the formal photographs of the bridal party just on the edge of the property. We posed them and then captured the bridal party photos amidst old oak trees just prior to the ceremony.
When the wedding started Alex walked down the aisle during the ceremony arm and arm with their son and little daughters by her side! The ceremony itself went off without a hitch under the cover of several large white event tents which provided shelter from the warm summer sun. (These tents not only helped us hide from the sun, but also gave us some amazing light despite the glaring midday sun overhead!) Beautifully on their way back down the aisle at the end of the ceremony, the happy family walked out together united as a family!
After the ceremony we pulled the two away for a second to get a few more intimate photos of Ivan and Alex together. Never known for approaching life too seriously, we had fun capturing a series of "lighthearted" photos of the newlyweds in a nearby dry riverbed.
Attendees enjoyed some cocktails (including a margarita machine!) while the mother-groom, father-bride, and first dance happened! There was even a first dance "family version" -!
As we mentioned in a previous post from this year, they even had a real authentic taco cart for dinner!! This was our second wedding that we photographed outside within a two week span where Californians with spectacular taste served taco cart tacos for dinner and we almost cried of happiness (since we may or may not be obsessed with authentic Mexican tacos). They also had an amazingly huge bounce house set up for all of the children to enjoy (which we couldn't recommend more highly for outdoor weddings)!
After a bit of fun, toasts were made, the cake was cut, and it was time to dance! Everyone "cut a rug" on the dance floor and there was even a traditional money dance!
All-in-all we had a blast photographing Ivan and Alex's wedding and were so happy to see their little family officially unite! (They even gifted us our favorite wooden sign after the wedding ("Every Story Doesn't Start with Salad") AND we got to take a photobooth photo together!) Thank you so much for hiring us to capture your big day and an early Happy 2nd Wedding Anniversary, you two!!
This weekend we're actually heading to Chicago as well as San Diego for wedding things and then NEXT WEEKEND is the lovely Nora & Colby's Chicago wedding to photograph! Next week while preparing for that we'll be posting about couple Rachel & Jason's wedding and we'll finish the month of June 2017 out with our favorite teaser photos of Nora & Colby's wedding on June 28th! Wee! We can't wait for the next eight Saturdays of amazing weddings!! We hope you've enjoyed the photos we've taken of these amazing couples' weddings and we can't wait to share more from all of the weddings that we have this year until late October! <3