La Casa Paraiso Full Moon Wedding

From first time I spoke with Carrie I knew that we really wanted to photograph her wedding at La Casa Paraiso. We just hit it off and our phone call lasted for over an hour. Sometimes people come into your life and you feel like you just understand each other. Relatively speaking this was a spur of the moment wedding. They picked a date and started planning with only a month before their wedding. Somehow for them this seemed just perfect. After spending the past 15 years of their lives together it just felt like the right time for them to make it official. Carrie and Jenn both live from the heart. They are warm people that laugh easily and really care about the people around them.

After our first phone call I really felt like I knew what Carrie was hoping for out of their wedding photography; beautiful authentic photographs celebrating the love that she and Jenn have for one another as well as the love that is shared by their close circle of friends. Their wedding day was as intimate as you could get, with a group of seven close friends and family members. Their officiant has been a close friend of the family for decades.

The architecture and minimal detailing of La Casa Paraiso allowed for the focus to be on the people within, rather than the space itself.

When we arrived at their wedding venue my jaw just about hit the floor. La Casa Paraiso is stunning because of its custom built cabinetry and polished concrete floors and counter tops. The minimalist rustic feel of the space was SO Jenn and Carrie! Carrie spent years doing custom design build and the space reflected her appreciation of that craft. The two of them also have an appreciation for the simple but important things in life. The architecture and minimal detailing of La Casa Paraiso allows for the focus to be on the people within, rather than the space itself.

In a way its similar to the way Greg and I feel about our wedding photography. We want the photographs we create to be containers for the expression of life and relationships. We strive to create a space through our photography practice that allows for the genuine expression of human nature. Rather than images that is focus on surface or material concerns.

Half way through the day Jenn told us that their officiant Ceil was arriving late. She would not be making it in time for their sunset beach ceremony. They chose to wait until their friend arrived several hours later to do their ceremony. Having their friend marry them was more important than sunsets and wedding day timelines. In the whirl of wedding day it is easy to lose sight of the things that are really important. In this moment Carrie and Jenn were crystal clear about what was important to them: having their closest family and friends with them to witness their union becoming official. Their wedding day was a flow of laughter, tears, hugs and stories shared between old friends.

Having their friend marry them was more important than sunsets and wedding day timelines.

We went to the beach to do a few portraits before the ceremony and were blessed with a gorgeous sunset. After Ceil arrived we left La Casa Paraiso we went down to the beach where Carrie and Jenn took their vows under the light of the full moon eclipse.

Photographing a wedding on the beach under the light of the full moon was a challenge we were excited to take on.

As wedding photographers we can say that photographing a wedding on the beach at night with only the light of a full moon and a couple tiki torches is a technical challenge. A challenge that we were happy to take on. Without a doubt, a beach wedding under these conditions is one of the most difficult possible scenarios a wedding photographer could encounter. In the end, we used a combination of constant lighting, flashes, and long exposures with a tripod. We are so excited with how their photos turned out, and can’t wait until our next full moon wedding! (hint hint)