This wedding was one of the most fun weddings I've ever been to- including ones I was invited to as a guest! Here are some shots of Kelly Schmandt & Scott Ferguson's (hence "Schmerguson") wedding in beautiful Santa Barbara, California. Despite the fact that I personally know incredible wedding photographers in Cali that I can highly recommend, I much prefer for West Coasters (can I call them that?) to fly me out for their wedding instead. :) I love weddings in Cali and generally find that it's a 99% chance of sun and 70 degrees just about every day.
I know Kelly from college in Nashville and I had never met Scott before- especially since it would be a long distance flight to meet for coffee like I do with most wedding couples. I was a bit nervous going into it knowing Kelly so well, but having no idea about Scott and his groomsmen. Maybe it's me, but as a male photographer shooting a wedding I generally find it easy to get comfortable with the bride and bridesmaids, but groomsmen can be hit or miss. If I had to make a slightly sexist generalized guess, it's that generally women enjoy getting dressed up and going to a wedding, whereas most men generally feel out of sorts with a rented tux and a strange person taking their photo all day- at least until they've had a few beers at the reception. This wedding was not the case. Scott was easily the smiley-est person I've ever met. His groomsmen also fit quite into his personality (you can tell by the hats and bowties). These guys were a whole lot of fun to photograph!
Now on to some photos of getting ready and the ceremony!
The first look:
I'm telling you, Scott was smiling like this all day:
The ceremony took place in an office building courtyard... but you'd never know it by the fountain, vegetation, and architecture!
The groomsmen rehearsing to sing "All You Need is Love" as the bride came down the aisle:
The people that didn't seem to trust that I knew what I was doing. ;)
One of the coolest things I've seen at a wedding was having Kelly's yoga instructor have the audience stand and do breathing exercises.
Which included a "laughter" breathing exercise.
This was told to me to be the most difficult, but important photo I needed to take. It almost took me falling into the pond, but I got it. :)
"Now put your hand on your hip... no, not you." :)
