Another past photoshoot I just have to share because it is spectacular.  You may remember Caitlin and Jonny from their amazing engagement session in San Dimas.  I could not wait to shoot their wedding and it did not disappoint.  Caitlin was beautiful and Jonny was as handsome as ever.

I always enjoy taking getting ready pictures.  It is fun to capture their details and see the day unfold while shooting candids.  Here is Caitlin’s gorgeous dress.

I loved this beautiful light coming through their hotel room.

Caitlin’s mom helped her get dressed, and I thought these were some of the most intimate and sweet moments between the two.

Jonny, like all guys, got to relax while the ladies get ready.  Watching the game with his friends…

But he cleaned up well.

Caitlin and Jonny decided to do a first look before their ceremony.  I love it when a couple decides to do this because it is a joy to capture their emotions in such an intimate and private setting.  Then they get plenty of time to talk and take some amazing portraits before they are whisked off to the ceremony and the hustle and bustle of the rest of the day.  Here is Caitlin and Jonny seeing each other for the first time.

Checking each other out…

After their first look, Caitlin and Jonny decided to go to the Pasadena Casting Club for their wedding portraits.  I loved the lighting and wild nature there.  It was the perfect place for their portraits.

After we took their wedding portraits, we met their wedding party at Holy Family Catholic Church in South Pasadena.

It was a beautiful ceremony.

Husband and wife!

After their ceremony, we headed to their reception at Ramsey’s at the Club in Toluca Lake.  Their first dance:

Mom and dad – so proud!

Instead of cake, they decided to have pie at their reception.  I thought this was so cool.

What a great group for dancing!

This little man melted my heart.  Love it!

Their getaway…

I love babies! And little Amelia was no exception.  I just loved her frilly skirt and gummy smile.  Here is her nursery, which I think her parents decorated beautifully.

Amelia kept posing with her hand behind her head.  I think she was trying to model for us.  It was hilarious!

I know all about the addiction with Sophie the Giraffe.  My boys loved this teether.

Giggles with daddy.

Flying as an airplane.

This is one of my all-time favorite photographs.  I love that Amelia stuck her tongue out at the right moment. :)

Cutie patootie.

Amelia already loved books!  She was enamored with her parents’ library.

I absolutely LOVE Anna and Greg’s engagement session at the beach! We started at the Balboa fun center and Ferris Wheel, and then moved to the Newport Beach as the sun set.

This fun captain invited Anna and Greg on his boat and serenaded them!

Pretty lady!

One thing I really like about Newport is the line of palm trees along it’s board walk.  It’s just so beachy.

Beautiful!

Just. So. In. Love.

I wanted to share a few photos from my archives because I these sessions are so sweet.  I took Tracy’s maternity photos about a year ago.  I just love her awesome family!

I especially loved this series with the flowers:

This past month has been insanely busy.  Both with photo shoots and birthdays.  My three boys all have their birthdays within a week of each other, so August has been full of cake and parties.  Since their birthdays are so close together, we have one big party for all their friends.  Right now they are super into space and rockets, so we decided to have a Blast Off Party.  Before the party, we borrowed these astronaut suits to take a few pictures for their invitations.

Here is my big boy, Elijah, who just turned 5.  FIVE!?!?

Levi just turned 3.

And our baby Asher is 1… and walking!

The boys had fun jumping on the trampoline, pretending to be astronauts.  Or at least they had fun for about 2 minutes before they wanted to get down and ride their bikes (which was not a good activity for these white space suits), so here are a few pictures I captured before they got distracted.  :)

Asher wasn’t really into the whole jumping thing.

I had a lot of fun planning their space themed party.  I’ve been gathering ideas for months.  But the most exciting thing at their party wasn’t something I created, it was this amazing cake from the super talented, Kim Johnson.  It was a 10 tier fondant rocket ship! And it was delicious too!

In our backyard, we set up easy ups (because it has been over 100 for the past few weeks – yikes!), with stars and planets as centerpieces.

My husband and I created this rocket ship out of our existing slide by attaching cardboard, which we spray painted silver.  And then we covered the plastic structure with foil so we could take it down later.  I would have liked to make this nicer, but we ran into a few snags and had to build it the morning of the party.  Yikes!  The coolest thing about it was the PVC piping that my husband nailed holes in to create a water slide. We got the idea from the blog: Frugal Fun 4 Boys.

And this is the project that took all my time.  You can’t see it here, but this is our old decrepit, metal shed that normally houses all the boys’ outside toys.  I got the idea to create outer space in the shed.  However, I ran into a few snags.  A metal shed in 100+ temps is not a good play area for kids, so we covered it with our easy up, black sheeting and most importantly we added a window air conditioner in the opening.  Another issue is that outer space needs to be dark, how to do that with kids and adults coming in and out?  I created this large cardboard box tunnel, which enters on both sides (so kids could both get in and out) and a T shaped intersection in the middle, which led to the inside of the shed. Parents could enter from the side, where I had a blanket covering the opening/keeping out the light.  What does it look like inside, you ask?

It’s outer space!  The planets are from oriental trading, which I painted with neon paint.  Several black lights illuminated the solar system and glow in the dark stars.  I also made glow in the dark play-doh (idea from Play at Home Mom), so the kids would have something to do in there.  But I needn’t have worried.  The kids LOVED outer space and went in and out constantly.  Several planets got knocked down, but oh well.

We used an additional set up planets around our trampoline and were supposed to have bubbles raining down on it, but they kept blowing into our neighbor’s yard.  Haha

We used our existing castle/fort and made it into an Alien Invasion Fort.  We hung a large blow up alien and lots of small ones on the fence behind.  My husband had made several marshmallow guns to shoot at the aliens, but the kids didn’t seem very interested in those.  I think older kids might have a better time with the marshmallow guns (inspiration from The Idea Room).

Now, for an activity slightly unrelated to space (but very popular): The NASA Rovers.  Simple lots and lots of ride on toys, and another PVC pipe attraction (up on the ladder) that rained down water onto our driveway.

We also had a moon sand pit (idea from Tinker Lab).  And our craft was making glow-in-the-dark rockets to fly in outer space (idea from No Time for Flash Cards).  Our favors were a rocket gift bag with some little finger rockets, moon sand and a milky way bar inside.