Drew B Photograhy

If I couldn’t be with my hubby on our 10 year anniversary, I’m glad I got to be with Natalie and Scott on their wedding day.  Such a gorgeous day and beautiful wedding out in Temecula!  And now we share an anniversary  Can’t wait to share all the pictures, but for now here are two of my favorite!

 

My life changed. 10 years ago today the boy that was my best friend became the man that I would fall in love with. The man I would marry. And the man that would become the father to my Brayden (and my Hauggy). I don’t think at 17 I could have ever realized how much my life would change for the better. Everything good in my life is because of him. He helps to make my dreams a reality. He’s my number one fan. He makes me feel safe when I’m scared. He listens to me when I’m “annoyed”. He loves me for me (and takes all my faults with it). He’s my Dawson and I’m his Joey. I’m his Drewbie and he’s my Tuck. I love him more than words can even describe.

Tuck, thank you for kissing me. Thank you for loving me. Thank you for being you. Thank you for letting me be me. 143.

Photo by the awesome Image is Found

Pictures by the amazing Jessica Claire

 

 

Yep, you read it right. The little guy who I shot on Monday has the coolest name ever! Drew! How cool is that? His mom Sarah and I had been emailing and I never even asked the baby’s name. But, when I pulled up to their house they had a big stork out front that said, “Baby Drew” and I knew it was meant to be!

Little Baby Drew was just 11 days old when he had his first photo shoot. His big brother, Wolfgang, joined us for the shoot as well. His big brother loves him and seems to be adjusting well. Mom and Dad are a bit tired (who isn’t with a newborn?), but you can just see how much they love their little guy. Bobby is a pediatric orthodontist and Sarah is a pediatric dentist so you know Drew is going to have the perfect smile!Sarah and Bobby, thank you so much for inviting me into your home. Drew is SO cute (how could he not be with that name?) and your love for him is so evident. He’s a very lucky boy! Below are some of my favorite pictures and a slide show.

Drew and his big brother Wolfgang.The family

Check out this awesome mural in Drew’s room! It goes around his whole room and into his bathroom. It’s really incredible. The artist is Sharon Anderson and her number is 714-404-6796.

 

 

Michelle and Shawn picked a very beautiful (and very HOT) day to get married. They were married at Michelle’s cousins home in Alta Loma and everything about the day was perfect.

The gorgeous flowers were done by Barb Short (626)-798-0221. Not only is she an awesome florist, but she is also very sweet. She gave Michelle a very thoughtful note and hankie. It brought Michelle to tears

The bridal party was so awesome. Michelle and Shawn are the last of their group of friends to get married so they were all very excited for them!

It was HOT! But, these guys were great sports and we ended up with these awesome pictures. Guys always love the Reservior Dogs pictures.

The gorgeous ceremony! I love backyard weddings.

I love a girl who’s not afraid to get her dress a little dirty. It’s going to get dirty anyways so you might as well get some fun pictures out of it, right?

My second favorite picture of the day

This one is my favorite. Another bride with a long veil. LOVE it!

I found the perfect field for Michelle and Shawn’s pictures. When we were heading down the road we saw a worker from the city putting yellow police tape around the field. We thought they were probably doing it because of fire danger. But, as we were walking out there the guy yelled at us and said there were swarms of bees all over the field! What is it with my luck lately? A mountain lion and now killer bees? I swear my next encounter will be with a rattle snake. Well, we drove a bit further and found this field. No bees, mountain lions, or rattle snakes. Just red ants. I can deal with red ants. And the light was actually much better here.

See what I mean about the light? Gorgeous!

I absolutely loved working with Michelle and Shawn. Michelle is so genuine and kind. She is going to make a great mom someday (hopefully sooner than later!). And Shawn cracks me up. They are perfect! Except that Shawn happens to be a huge fan of that other school in LA. Boooo!

Silver Service Catering catered the wedding. They made the best potatoes I’ve ever had. And I’ve eaten a lot of potatoes at weddings. No pictures of the potatoes. I should have taken a picture of them, they were that good. But, here’s a picture of the gorgeous cake!

I love this shot of Michelle and Shawn’s mom watching them during their first dance. Don’t they look so proud and happy?

The bridal party did such a great job with the toasts. If everyone laughs and cries then it’s a perfect toast.

The best man gave the worlds longest toast. It’s a good thing Michelle had already married Shawn because she may have just changed her mind when she learned about how Shawn caught his butt on fire while trying to light his farts. Yeah, I know. TMI. But, he’s a Trojan so I had to publicly humiliate him on my blog

And my favorite DJ’s, VOX, were there to keep the party going all night long. Even when the power went out during, “Please Don’t Stop the Music”. How ironic is that?

Michelle and Shawn, thank you so much for trusting me with your wedding photography. You two are truly perfect for each other and I’m so happy you found one another. Your wedding reminded me why I love what I do so much. You two are so lucky to have such loving and supportive friends and family. It was such a magical day and the perfect wedding! Thank you for including me! I hope you are loving every second of Costa Rica! Here’s your slide show to the most perfect first dance song ever. Congratulations!

I’m 2 for 2. Another absolutely fabulous wedding with another amazing couple. How do I get so lucky? No mountain lions today, but we did have an encounter with some killer bees.  Here are two of my favorites. More later!

So excited! My new baby cousin is here! We’ve been awaiting her arrival for some time now. Chuck’s Aunt Shari and her boyfriend Don brought her home this past weekend. She’s gorgeous with big brown eyes and sandy blonde hair. She’s a tiny little thing weighing in at about 5 pounds. She sleeps most of the time (as most newborns do) and really doesn’t make too much noise. And, she’s almost potty trained! At only 8 weeks! It’s going to be great for Brayden to have a cousin so close in age. They will get to grow up together. How fun! Here are her newborn pictures! 

Did I forget to mention that Charley is a dog? She’s a golden doodle and she’s the 2nd cutest dog I’ve ever seen! We’re so excited for Shari and Don to finally have a puppy of their own! It’s the best!

Funny story about her name, Charley the IV. When I was pregnant we were out to dinner with Shari, Don, Chuck’s other aunt Connie, and his Grandma. Everyone was asking us what we were going to name the baby. Chuck is Charles Frederick Bittel III. And while that’s a great name and all, I really didn’t want a Charles the IV. I had my heart set on naming him Brayden. So when we told everyone the baby’s name, his Grandma didn’t love it and Shari, being the antagonist that she is, kept saying that we really should name the baby Charlie IV to carry on the family tradition. I told Shari that SHE should have a baby and she could name him Charlie IV. Well, she did! And although the puppy is a girl, they just adapted the spelling to Charley IV. LOVE it! Now all the pressure is off of me and the family name is carried on

This afternoon Chuck, Brayden, Hauggy and I took a walk at our favorite park. I was scouting a cool field where I planned on shooting Jill and Brandon’s maternity session in a couple of weeks. However, we won’t be going to that park again. We’ve been going to this park since Brayden was a few weeks old and I love it because there are so many cool trails to explore. We were walking towards a dam with cool graffiti on it and I hear Chuck yell, “Pick up Hauggy and RUN!”. I scooped Hauggy up and ran for my life, which is really hard to do with a 25 pound dog when I haven’t run in ten plus months. I knew from the sound of Chuck’s voice that it was either a mountain lion or a deranged man with a knife. We ran down a hill and got off the trail. We realized that we were going to have to walk back towards the mountain lion to get back to the trail. So, we started yelling help. As we were walking on the trails earlier I was cursing the mountain bikers who would go zipping up and down the trails, but now I was so happy for them because they could get to us fast. Two mountain bikers got to us right away and they escorted us back to the park.

Chuck told me when we got back to the car that he saw a big brown thing in the bushes about 200 feet away from us. He didn’t say anything at first because he didn’t want to scare me and he thought it was just a coyote. But, then it started running towards us and jumped over the bushes. That’s when he saw that it was a big mountain lion. I’m so glad I didn’t see it because I think I might have been too scared to run. When I called my parents to tell them, my Dad said that we did the completely wrong thing and should have faced it and made ourselves “big”. Dad, the next time you get chased by a mountain lion let’s see what you do! We were just trying to save your grandson and granddog. I think once I picked up Hauggy it gave up. The whole thing was so scary. I don’t even want to think about what could have happened. I’m just glad it didn’t. The statistics say that you are 1000 times more likely to get struck by lightning than you are to get attacked by a mountain lion. But, today was close enough for me.

I don’t even want to think about little Brayden on his chair in the middle of that field (because I probably would have taken his 3 month pictures there) and a mountain lion jumping out of the bushes or if I would have had pregnant Jill all the way out there who wouldn’t have been able to run. I’m going to start carrying pepper spray with me so at least I will feel a little bit more in control if I were in the situation again. I’m bummed because I lost one of the coolest locations to shoot at, but I will just have to find another one. Any suggestions for my maternity shoot?

And to make everyone happy after my scary story, here is a picture of Brayden Bittel. He was 4 weeks old in the picture. I love his toothless yawns! The shirt was given to him by my friend Jamie. He was supposed to wear it on Valentine’s Day, but he was still in the hospital. By the way, he slept through the whole ordeal. Even with Chuck running for his life he stayed totally asleep in his Baby Bjorn. Crazy kid misses all the fun adventures!

Nikki and Jeff’s wedding was full of unique elements that made for such a fun day! A vintage Porsche, a boat, and a cathedral length veil. Need I say more?

The day started off overcast and the weather forecasters promised drizzle, but as soon as we stepped outside to start Nikki’s pictures the sun came out to make Nikki and Jeff’s wedding day perfect! Nikki and Jeff were married at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church in Newport Beach. They left in style in Jeff’s Dads vintage Porsche! From there, the bridal party took a boat to the reception at the Balboa Bay Club. Talk about style! Most people get a limo, but Nikki and Jeff got a boat!

I’ve been so lucky to get to know Nikki and Jeff over the past few months! Their families are both so kind and welcoming and I feel so honored to have been part of their special day! A very special thank you to Brigid and Dave for the referral! It was great to see you two and I’m glad married life is treating you so well!

Nikki and Jeff, I hope you two are having an awesome time in Cancun and Jamaica! I can’t wait to hear all about it when you get back! Below are my favorites from your wedding day and a slide show! Congratulations Mr. and Mrs. Leeper!

The girls got ready at Jeff’s parents gorgeous home on the Newport Beach peninsula.

All of Nikki’s jewelry were family heirlooms. Her garter has been worn by several women in her family. How cool is that?

Nikki’s Mom made her veil! It was so gorgeous! I love working with cathedral length veils.

Nikki’s flowers were done by Planit Floral and Event Boutique. So gorgeous!

I love the area behind Jeff’s parents house. It’s photographer heaven!

Nikki was such a stunning bride.

My favorite shot of the day! Actually, it’s probably one of my most favorite picture I’ve ever taken. I love everything about this shot!

 

The ceremony

Mr. & Mrs. Leeper!

Leaving the ceremony in style!

The guys were looking great!

I love how everyone is always so happy when they see a bride and groom! Everyone was honking their horns and yelling congratulations. It always gives me goosebumps!

Nothing says, “Just married” like a surrey with fringe on top!

Love these pictures on the boat

Nikki and Jeff’s grand entrance at the Bay Club

The first dance

Love this shot with Nikki and her Dad

And here’s the sparkler shot again just because I love it so much

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy Earth Day! There’s always more that each of us can do to help our environment. Here are a few things that I do for my business to make it as “green” as possible:

I reuse the boxes that prints are shipped in. So, you will probably be receiving your pretty pictures in an ugly, beat up box. But, it’s what’s inside that counts, right?

I use rechargeable batteries in my flashes so I’m not throwing away batteries after every wedding.

I recycle my printer cartridges.

I do as much business via email and fax so I can use less paper. And, of course, the paper that I do use is recyclable.

Not business related, but I’ve been stocking up on the reusable bags from Ralphs and Trader Joes so I don’t have to use their plastic bags.

I am going to get better at turning off all my computers every night so energy is not wasted there.

And when my lease is up on my car next March I am going to probably be leasing a Toyota Prius. As much as I would LOVE a Range Rover Sport, it will be nice to save money on gas and help the environment at the same time!

What are things that you do to keep your business and life as environmentally friendly as possible? I would love to hear ideas from everyone! Happy Earth Day everyone! Go hug a tree today!

Just got home from my first wedding back after the baby! It was amazing as I expected it to be! But, I am very tired! How did I ever do this carrying around an 8 pound baby inside of me???

Here are a couple of pictures to hold you over until I have time to blog the rest. I’m off to bed! Good night!