Ariane & Ashwin

I'm finally posting the details of Ariane and Ashwin's beautiful wedding up in Sonoma County at Ocean Song Farm and Wilderness Center.

Ariane's daughter Z is one of Yoshi's best friends at school. Their other best friend is J, and together they are what Yoshi refers to as her "Team." Because J's mom couldn't make the wedding, we volunteered to take J with us up for the two nights we spent up in Occidental, which thrilled Yoshi to have a "sister" for a few days. The three of them had fun jumping on hotel beds, swimming in the pool, and of course running around at the wedding.



My "official" role was to be responsible for photographing the formal family and wedding party portraits. One of my weaknesses that I need to work on more is how to direct people. There was a bit of a language barrier (Ariane's family travelled from Germany, Ashwin's family from India), but we managed and had a good time in the process (except for Z, who was "so bored!").



The weather was crazy, often going from complete fog to super bright sunshine. I got the weather conditions in my favor on this one, giving that perfectly diffused light. And it helps that Ariane and Ashwin are beautiful people totally crazy in love.



There was a little downtime between the formal shots and the actual start of the wedding, so I took that time to snap some detail pics.





Ariane's best friend (the maid of honor) baked this gorgeous and delicious cake. She spent 3 full days in her home kitchen on this chocolate cake with raspberries and white chocolate filling. Mmmm... so yummy!



There was more wine, champagne, and beer than anyone could possibly drink.



There were tons of kids, which was so fun not only for Yoshi (she had about 10 friends from her school there), but for us parents as well. There were onsite babysitters and an entire play area for the kids to run around, so the parents didn't have to worry about parenting and could just have a good time. The kids even had their own table, complete with crayons!



The ceremony was beautiful. I love how they included Z for part of the ceremony, as it is not only a union between two people, but it marked the beginning of them beginning life as a family together.





Married!





The Jugtown Pirates started playing and there was merriment all around.



And then? I stupidly spilled my drink on my camera, which caused it to temporarily break. Quick thinking Tom immediately took the battery out and put the camera in the car to dry. I did take a couple of pics with the Yashica, but my photo-taking was pretty much over for the rest of the wedding. But that let me have a good time of more drinking, laughing, and dancing!