The Resort at Pelican Hill Wedding {Carrie & Billy}

posted January 30, 2014 in Weddings

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Carrie and Billy tied the knot at The Resort at Pelican Hill in Newport Beach, California last Saturday. It was a double fist pump wedding, one that makes you just want to return to middle school, celebratorialy raise a fist before the torso, drawing it down and near to the boy with a smooth, swift motion. Think Michael Jordan winning the Larry Bird shooting contest. With nothing but net.

Why did this gorgeous Orange County wedding fill my photographer heart with joy? Allow me to count the ways:

10. Carrie and Billie originally contacted me over a year ago to book their wedding in November in Minnesota. They opted to change the dates and share the joy of a warm winter wedding in Newport Beach, California. Guests loved the notion, too. Win-Win-Win!

9. “YES! My team won!,” I heard Carrie proclaim during bridal prep. Many of Billy’s football friends from Yale were also attendance. There’s nothing quite like witnessing sports camaraderie and joy of fans being fans. They treated guests to cupcakes inspired by alma mater school logos. Yes, plural.

8. My Minnesotan body enjoyed the extra dose of Vitamin D. I wasn’t alone, as an entire guest table from Minnesota detested the loooong Midwest winter. Even one of the bridesmaids in her gown, laying out in the sun. YES!

7. When my solar battery recharges, my creativity supercharges. My good friend Matt Steaffens flew out to second shoot this wedding. We spent some quality time in Death Valley NP, rally racing with a Mini Cooper and shot fine-art landscapes with the PhaseOne IQ160 on an ArcaSwiss Rmd3i technical view camera (stay tuned on the blog).

6. Orange County sits as the Crème de la Crème for ‘amazing places to get married.’ And the Pelican Hills Hotel… it’s the creme de-la creme within OC (not THE OC, according to Michael on Arrested Development).

5. The PhaseOne IQ 160 medium format rig surpassed my imagination with image quality, detail, tonal range, and sharpness. I know these images will produce stunning large prints to hang on the wall and and display huge in their album.

4. Amazing weather and a venue I believed was designed just for photographers. Is just something about the backlighting of California light that makes any image look good. Add to it portraits with the gorgeous landscape overlooking the ocean during sunset, and there’s a recipe for amazing images.

3. Creative photography is very important to Billy & Carrie. They shared creative ideas and jumped at a moment’s notice for a light painting of bright stars.

2. Pelican Hills Resort has quickly become my favorite Orange County wedding venue, made possible by the wonderful staff (Brandi & Erin ROCKED!), gorgeous views and landscaping, amazing light, SUPER AWESOME people from all over the world, and an adorable, spirited couple.

1. Bridal party in colorful Nikes. Comfy cool. Doing the moonwalk on a high-energy dance floor. Waaaay cool.

wpid-pelican_hill_wedding_photos_carrie_billy_002-2014-01-30-14-00.jpg Carrie really wanted a romantic shot underneath the rotunda was sunset so we kicked up the light a notch and made that happen with the Profoto strobe to accent the architecture and flowers (it’s all about the details).