California Wedding Photographer, Photography Worldwide – Victor Sizemore’s Blog

Let me start by saying I love Wal-Mart! When growing up in the south that’s all you have, it’s a one stop shop in most small towns. There’s always a friendly greeter, $25 pops and a couple strange works… Generally speaking a use White House Custom Color as my pro lab and print needs but when in a pinch and for family stuff I use Costco pro services. Well today I was really in a last minute bind needed 10 4×6 prints on the fly yesterday! The major, 10 hour travel day coming returning from Cabo yesterday put me way behind today. I squeezed in a re-scheduled meeting this morning at the St. Regis and I need to leave for LA for more appointments and of course basketball tonight. So quick on my feet on my way out the door I have Desiree locate and upload the photos I need near by my appointment. Well she found a Wal-Mart in Crenshaw…

After my lunch I proceeded to pick up my prints with my buddy James… The Wal-Mart was actually located inside a shopping mall and was three stories with escalator and shopping cart movers, crazy but very urban. I go to the photo lab on the second floor and ask to pick up my print that I ordered online. The guy replies, “online?” Then the photo manager comes over to help and locates the my order. It rings up $2.05, awesome! I’ll be on my way, NOT!

It was marked on the envelope, please get a “photos release”… I tried to argue that I was the photographer and I was the professional and how could I have the high resolution files to prints the photos if I were not the photographer. I showed my business card and Visa Check Card. The manger comes and makes me fill out a copyright form with all my info and the photographer’s info, ME AGAIN! Two seconds later my cell rings… “Hi, I have a client of yours here that wants to print some photos from ’so and so’s’ wedding. Is that okay?” I could see the girl on the phone 10 feet away, so as I turn away quietly answering, “yep, you bet.” I quickly put my iPhone in my pocket. The girl hangs up and comes over to ring me up and had no clue. So if your in a pinch and need some photos stick with Costco!

Kaili and Jimmy were married at the Montage Resort and Spa in Laguna Beach. From a photographers perspective you have to love a Monday wedding! It was a small intimate affair with lots of style. Kaili loved blue as you can tell from the ballroom decor. I mixed in some blue shots for her at one of the amazing tile mosaics at the Montage. We also had a chance to hit the beach on the crowded holiday weekend. There were two very unique things about the ballroom set up. They drapped it white to compliment the blue but they moved in the walls so the party would have a smaller space and fill up the room nicely. Then I loved the rear projection on one of the fabric walls. That’s also where we showed our slideshow.

Here was our amazing vendor line up:

Ruth Wang
Jen K Floral Design
Elysium Productions
Peter Papadopoulos – Vive Entertainment

Kristin and Nate had an awesome wedding at the St. Regis Monarch Beach in May. It was over the crazy Memorial Day wedding weekend. We had an absolutely gorgeous day and some of my favorite shot are from the golf course later in the afternoon. Currently Kristin, Nate and their two dogs are embarking on a new journey. The wedding is over, Nate has graduated from Veterinarian School and the move is on! They will settle in Philly for a while where Nate will be an Intern/Staff Doctor at the University of Pennsylvania. Nate is also a bit of a photographer himself so I enjoy checking out their photo updates on Facebook. Big ‘Thank You’ to Michelle Weita from Details, Details for running an extremely smooth day. Check out some of my favorites from the day!

This week I was fortunate enough to travel to Cabos San Lucas, Mexico to shoot an amazing wedding at the One and Only Palmilla Resort. Big thanks to Mark Brooke for heading down to Mexico with me and kicking back some Tequila as well. Michel and Jay had a couple events leading up to the wedding. I photographed the welcome dinner on Sunday night and the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner on Monday evening. They actually surprised everyone at rehearsal by performing their legal US wedding ceremony at the end. The best-man Rich is ordained in the state of California. It was one of Rich’s New Year’s resolutions along with wearing more Prada! Those were way better than mine… (Play more golf and work less.) Enjoy the photos and stay tuned for more!

It was a long, fun, hot three days in Cabo this week. Really, very, very HOT more ways than one… It was 100 degrees everyday and around 85% humidity. That’s why we grow up wearing undershirts in the south. Anyway, one of the things I love about a destination wedding is getting to hang out with the couple and their guest more before or after the actual wedding day. In this case I photographed the ‘welcome dinner’ on Sunday night and rehearsal and rehearsal dinner on Monday. So I got a chance to mingle and socialize with almost everyone coming to the wedding. The rehearsal dinner was set on the beach at sunset and there was a killer performance from a group of fire dancers. Check it out!

Smores are always a great idea.

Notice the guy in the back spinning fire while walking on stilts, wow!

This girl kicked-butt!

Sunday I flew from San Diego to Los Cabos, Mexico for a three day wedding event. Jay and Michel are getting married at The One and Only Palmilla! Mark Brooke was kind enough to join me on the trip. Here are a few photos from the welcome dinner and our gift bags. Stay tuned for the wedding!

Here’s the view from our room at the Westin and to the right is a bottle of Tequila that was in our gift bag.

Jenna and Reggie we married at the Ritz-Carlton in Laguna Niguel. They had a super fun bridal party so we had a blast photographing with them around the hotel property. Most of Reggie’s groomsmen were from Colorado where he grew up and they were passionate Nuggets fans too! The wedding took place during the Western Conference finals between Denver and Los Angeles so there was a lot of ’smack’ talking.

Jenna wore an amazing Vera Wang dress that fit her so eloquently. Let’s not forget the  Jimmy Choo’s to boot! Check out her ear rings as well, someone close to her made all the girls’ jewelry for the wedding day. The ceremony took place on the Gazebo Lawn which was extremely backlit around ceremony time so I tried to get as much of a down angle as possible when shooting directly down the aisle/into the sun. The reception was held in the Pavilion Room which is a very long and narrow layout. The chandlers are amazing though and it provides some great first dance shots! We had an awesome vendor lineup that made everything smooth and easy. Check it out!

Details, Details
Elysium Productions
Enchanted Florist
Vive Entertainment
Rev. JP Reynolds
Tiffany Monday – Hair & Makeup

Here is one Infrared photo that sets the scene for Joann and Aaron’s wedding in Beaver Creek last Thursday. More to come…

Wednesday I flew to Denver to photograph a small wedding Thursday in Beaver Creek. Beaver Creek is a resort town just past Vail about two hours west of Denver it’s absolutely beautiful! Although ski season is over the altitude is so high there are still snow caped mountains in the distance. On the way from the airport I stopped just north of downtown Denver to have lunch at Buckhorn Exchange. It’s Denver’s oldest steakhouse established by early settlers in 1893. They specialize in serving wild game and original recipe ‘trail beans’. I had the ‘Dutch Lunch’. The restaurant found in an old menu that the Buckhorn served Dutch Lunch. Many times this included headcheese and scrapple derived from Pennsylvania Dutch cooking. They currently offer the authentic Dutch Lunch, served by the Buckhorn to cattlemen, railroaders, rogues and tycoons in the early days.

Last September I photographed back to back weddings in Europe. One of which is featured in the Summer Issue of Destination Weddings and Honeymoons that just hit the stands!  Originally when I booked the job Carl and Livea were in England working on wedding plans so we did a Skype consultation. I shot their engagement session in New York City which gave me a chance to finally meet them as well as hang out and get to know them a bit. We hit it off immediately and I was like part of the family! Carl and I definitely had a blast drinking and discussing bourbon he even took me to Milk and Honey after dinner, it was such a treat!

Carl and Livea’s wedding was held in Bridport, England which is down in Dorset. View the full post and read more about the wedding CLICK HERE.

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