In an elegant, fairytale like ceremony, Vince & Richel Become Husband & Wife

Saturday July 15th 2006

Vince & Richel came all the way from Indianapolis for their San Diego Destination Wedding. The ceremony was held in a beautiful church in Mission Valley with the reception to follow at the Shearton on Harbor Island. What a beautiful reception location!

Skip and Jeff, (NR3 Video) started the day in the groom’s room with Vince, his brother, Quinn and their father, Hugh. As are most grooms’ rooms the tone was calm and quiet. Not too much to report there. He got some nice shots of Vince putting on his gift from Richel, a Raymond Weil watch. Then they settled down to wait for the groomsmen and ring bearer to trickle in from their various rooms in the hotel. When all were finally assembled, they went out to take some shots with the spectacular San Diego skyline and Bay in the background.














Everything seemed to be running smoothly in the brides room when April, Norma the video goddess from NR3 Video and I arrived. The girls were all calm and ready and we began with some shots of the dress while Richel finished with hair & makeup

Because Richel was looking for very photojournalistic images for her getting ready portion of the day, I was able to experiment a little shooting some very grainy black and white images. I love the way these turned out! Thanks Richel for trusting me on this and allowing me a bit more artistic freedom. But just in case… I also switched cameras and shot some regular color images as back up.














Richel’s gown as you can see was beautiful, she also had a gorgeous cathedral length veil that I had been dreaming of shooting since she first told me about it. It was my first! The veil was everything I hoped, all day long it flowed beautifully behind her, sparkling in the light… simply stunning!

The ceremony was colorful with the bridesmaids all in beautiful red dresses.

The church was decorated with complimentary colored flowers.

After the ceremony we headed with the Bride & Groom & Bridal Party in Limos & Buses to Balboa Park.
As usual for a Saturday the park was filled with people & performers, Skip caught this great shot of a juggler.

After our formal portraits with the bridal party we had some fun with bride & groom pictures. Norma was a great help all day with posing ideas and helped keep everyone laughing while we all melted in the heat. I was very happy that I thought to bring along the paper parasol for shade, it helped keep Richel looking beautiful and looked great in some of the shots!


Back at the Shearton we had the opportunity to photograph a private Tea ceremony with Vince, Richel & the immediate family .. …another first for us, this was very interesting!

During the reception Lion Dancers surprised and entertained the guests and presented Vince & Richel with special little red envelopes. They got a lot of these all day… I am still curious as to what was inside ;-)

For dinner we were all served Lobster Bisque with a pastry topping, a choice of either a very tasty beef tenderloin or crab stuffed swordfish. And the desert was a very tasty combination of white chocolate, ice cream and sorbet with fresh berries on the side. Simply delicious. I know I speak for all of the vendors when I say how much we all appreciated this meal. It was a long hot day, and this got us all recharged and ready to rock at the reception!


It was a beautiful day, with a beautiful loving couple. It was such a pleasure to work all day with Vince & Richel, their hospitality and thoughtfulness, and kind and gentle ways will always be remembered by us.

And also a special thanks to Norma & Jeff from NR3 Video, you guys rock!

Congratulations Vince & Richel!

To view a slideshow of this wedding and all of the images, please click....
http://www.shadowcatcherimagery.com/VRH.html