San Diego Wedding Photographers: Kristen and Vladimir met as pen pals.  Vladimir is from St. Petersburg, Russia; Kristen from Phoenix, Arizona. Vladimir is in the US Navy.  He has served as an Aviation Machinist Mate and is currently a Recruiter in Phoenix.  They decided to have their wedding on base at Coronado Island in San Diego.  What a beautiful summer destination for their wedding!  Private golden sandy beaches, the Pacific, and a fantastic sunset.  At the end of the day, since we’re all about customer service and provide full day coverage, Kristen wanted to “trash the dress” in the ocean, so we did.

When we had the great fortune of visiting with Wendy and Matthew on a very warm, Phoenix evening, we loved hearing the story of how they met and the proposal.  They both had worked at the same higher education institution where he used to make faces at her across the room as to really woo her before they really hit it off with a budding romance via facebook.  Matthew messaged Wendy, got her to go out, and she hasn’t been able to get rid of him since…at least that’s how she tells it.  The proposal didn’t really go as planned.  They had decided to go together to pick out the cut of her wedding ring stone and make the purchase, but it just sat around their house without a setting for some time.  On one of Matthew’s days off, he took it to get it set.  Wendy went for a walk at the local high school track, got frustrated, stormed home, and that’s when Matthew left to get the ring.  She showered, napped, ate hotdogs for lunch, watched some football, played on her phone, and after all of that Matthew suggested getting a purple dessert (the stone is purple).  She rashly said that there aren’t any purple desserts, looked up, and there Matthew was, on his knee, and he asked Wendy to marry him.  She, of course, said yes.

I (Adam) have personally known Melanie since she was a freshman at Deer Valley High School. I was her math teacher. What an amazing opportunity to see a young woman grow up, meet the man she’s going to marry, Jonathan, and then get to not only celebrate along side them but capture their story in photographs. They’re both band geeks from their high school days. That’s how they met: band competitions. Mel went to Deer Valley; Jonathan to Maryvale High School. Local Phoenicians through and through. We were incredible honored by them: they wanted us to be a part of their day so badly that they changed their wedding date because we were already booked the day they were planning on! We were blown away. We’ve gotten to hang out as more than client and vendor, but as deep friends who will continue to be connected for years to come. They even have come over and joined our family dinners and then stayed long into the evening chatting and truly living in community with us. We are so blessed to call Melanie and Jonathan friends.