Patrick Motola Photography Blog

Wonderful couple, wonderful families.  I am now a believer in Match.com as that is where McKenzie and Paul met (check out the “Thanks Match” poster they are holding in their Engagment post).   Both have wonderful families and friends.  Paul served in the Middle East and is just a very classy young man.  The bridal party was terrific and had a blast taking pictures and during the entire wedding.  If you haven’t figured it out by now, I had a great time shooting this wedding!

Of course, we also had the wonderful Star Ranch venue again, complete with a beautiful outdoor wedding the huge view from the hill where the clubhouse is and of course the patented Star Ranch sunsets.  You can check all that out in the images below.  For other Star Ranch wedding images, click here.   Thanks to Kassy and Samantha!

One thing we pride ourselves on is always remembering this is YOUR day.  We still need to get the shots, but not at the expense of keeping everything running smoothly.  We had a number of “impromptu” group shots which does happen.  We got all of these and had started on bride and groom but decided to cut that short so the reception could begin and pick it up at sunset.  You can see the BEAUTIFUL sunset shots we were able to get.  Everything went smoothly, we had a great time and we got beautiful images.

Click here to view the slideshow video!

Alie and Jason had a beautiful Star Ranch Golf Club wedding (click here for gallery of my Star Ranch Golf Club images).  The sunsets and skies are spectacular with expansive views over the golf course and beyond.  I love capturing “lovescape” images (combination of the new couple and the incredible landscape) at Star Ranch.  The outdoor ceremony “on the green” with the new pergola make for beautiful ceremony images.

The tone for the wedding itself were set by the gray converse tennis shoes worn by groom and groomsmen along with gray suits.  Everyone was there to celebrate with Alie and Jason making for a wonderful wedding.  Kudos as always to Kassy and Samantha at Star Ranch and the great staff there.

As we already finished Alie’s album, I posted the album spreads below.  I love albums, and our award winning albums are amongst the finest in the world.  We begin with great images.  Alie then selected her favorites and I added some for completeness, details and backgrounds.  Then my California based design team goes to work creating a custom album design to tell the story of the wedding day.  Once we have a final design, we place our production order with GraphiStudio.  GraphiStudio is one of the finest album companies in the world headquartered just outside of Venice, Italy.

Stephanie is the sister of my wife’s good friend and manicurist, Seanna Henry.  Seanna knew about my photography as she was on the board of the Caswell House where I have shot weddings and provided sample albums.   So Seanna recommended me to Stephenie and her mother Sue.

The wedding and reception were held at Green Pastures.  I had not met Stephanie or Nigel before the wedding, but we hit it off right away.  Nigel’s family and some of his guests were from the UK, so sort of a UK meets country wedding and Green Pastures was the perfect venue.

As a wedding photographer, I have come to appreciate the beauty of all of the brides I photograph.  I enjoy capturing that beauty in the images we create.  Well Stephanie was one of those brides where every image was stunning.  I just love seeing those images for the first time on my computer and going “Wow!!  These are incredible.”  Beautiful bride, beautiful dress, beautiful venue.

Weddings don’t get much more beautiful than this.  The Winfield Inn in Kyle is a beautiful venue.  Stacey and April and the entire staff are great to work with.  It was cloudy all day until about an hour before the ceremony when we were blessed with blue skys and some “powder puff” clouds.

We had not had the chance to do a bridal session with Tessa, so we took full advantage of the various rooms and places at the Winfield Inn to capture stunning bridal images – aided of course by the fact that Tessa is a beautiful bride and was great to work with.  We also took advantage of the sunset and outdoor venue to get some wonderful bride and groom shots in that short 15 minute window between group shots and the start of the reception.

Many thanks to Amanda Cook, my 2nd photographer who captured many of the preparation images.  Amanda worked with me through the first dance and then left – an option we provide our clients for 2nd photographer coverage for part of the wedding day.  I put up many more images than I normally do on my blog, but couldn’t help myself with this one.  There were so many that I wanted to share.

Tessa and Joseph’s families were wonderful as were their guests – which meant we had a fun and energetic reception.  Tessa and Joseph – thank you for letting us be a part of your wonderful wedding day!