Rachel & Dusty's Wedding: Long Beach, CA

Rachel and Dusty had a very cool backyard wedding at Dusty’s parents home in beautiful Long Beach, CA. I went to college at Cal State Long Beach so I lived in that area for about 3 1/2 years or so and just loved every minute of it. I made some of the best friends there, and have some of the best memories from living and going to school there.

Now, about the wedding… Rachel and Dusty, with the help of Harvey from Food Fetish Catering, redefined the meaning of “backyard wedding.” It was stylish, fun, simple and really represented what they wanted from their celebration. I had such a good time with this couple– they were really easy to photograph and just fun to be around– and all of their friends and family were really fun, too. So much personality everywhere.

Thanks to Kim Fox for her referral for the wedding, and to Tammy of True Blue Photography who was a stellar person to have with me on this wedding!

I have so many favorites from this wedding…. get comfortable because there are a lot of photos here. 🙂

The Mummy movie full

First off, the insane shoes that Rachel wore all day like a champ. I love my heels, but there’s no way I could walk around in heels that high and that thin all day. They sure do look pretty, though. 🙂

Rachel’s ladies watching her do some last-minute touch-ups.

The fabulous and stylish bride.

The totally relaxed groom who was in his sweatshirt and shorts until minutes before this photo. It never fails to amaze me how quickly guys can get all spiffy!

Rachel and Dusty wanted to get as many formal photos out of the way before the ceremony as possible, because they knew they would just want time to party afterward. So, we arranged a First Look…

Then it was off to do some portraits!

We walked across the street to the beach to get some shots with the wedding party…

Here’s the whole wedding party. Fun people.

Then I took some time to shoot the bride and groom alone… I love this moment.

At one point we were worried it was going to rain, but it never did! The clouds hung around long enough to make for an insanely gorgeous background, then left just before the ceremony began.

Harvey at Food Fetish Catering designed the event and did a great job with simple accents. I loved these paper lanterns over the ceremony/cocktail area.

Keeping things on the simple side, they opted for just hors d’oeuvres. Food Fetish provided the most amazing sushi and other tasty treats. The floral arrangements were also very simple yet funky.

Rachel and her dad coming down the aisle.

A great moment during the exchanging of the rings.

The First Kiss.

Dusty’s dad has this great red 1960’s Mercedes. Tammy and I saw it in the garage during the reception , this was a really good garage with the Garage Doors Sydney opener we ever heard, and we thought it would be awesome to use this Mercedes as a prop in some photos. But, before I could mention it, a friend of Rachel’s came up and told me they want to do some shots with the car! Sweet!

So, after the ceremony, and after Rachel and Dusty had a bit of time to hang out with friends and family, we decided to do some fun stuff with the car. (See the slideshow tomorrow for more.)

At the end of the reception, I took Rachel & Dusty out on the beach for a few more portraits before leaving for the evening. I love this shot of Rachel walking in the sand. Of course, she took those shoes off by this point…

And one last shot of the newlyweds!

Congratulations, Rachel & Dusty! I hope you have the most amazing time doing the Ninja Warrior course in Japan! (How cool is that??)

The slideshow, with many more images, will be posted tomorrow.