Villa Montalvo Wedding Photos | Montalvo Arts Center Wedding | Bernice and Brandon

 

We first met Brandon and Bernice when they were guests at a destination wedding we were photographing in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. Little did we know that they would be planning their own wedding soon and we’d have a chance to play a part in their day as well.

Bernice and Brandon were wed just a few weeks ago at the beautiful Villa Montalvo – a Mediterranean style mansion nestled among the Saratoga hills. With it’s classical architecture, perfectly manicured lawns and colorful gardens, this is one of our favorite venues to photograph weddings in Bay Area. Here are some favorites from this gorgeous day:

 

Do I even have to say anything about these? Love, love, love! I’m happy that the white wedding shoes trend is over and all of our brides have absolutely breathtaking shoes (I’m not saying that the white shoes cannot be gorgeous, I just really like color). This way I can get my shoe fix photographing somebody else’s pairs and not buying more of my own :)

 

This is my favorite photo from the First Look on the upper terraces of Villa Montalvo:

 

It’s not often we see a groom helping his bride to get ready and I absolutely love Brandon’s level of concentration:

 

 

 

 

 

The view of the ceremony at the Oval Garden is absolutely breathtaking – we love it when we can climb on top of a great vantage point at weddings and it always makes for dramatic scenes:

 

The first kiss:

 

It’s always a pleasure to photograph Villa Montalvo wedding receptions – the light is gorgeous and the whole place has such an amazing, classic feel to it:

 

 

 

Loved the simplicity and elegance of this cake by Karl Fong. And it smelled amazing! :)

 

Villa Montalvo has a beautiful staircase leading to the second floor that’s a must for wedding photos! We just finished all the portraits and Bernice was walking up to have a little break when we asked her to pause for a second:

 

This view of the Villa never gets old, it reminds me of all the classical architecture of Saint Petersburg:

 

Bernice and Brandon chose to sit with their backs towards the lawn (facing the guests) for the wedding dinner and this made for a spectacular backdrop behind them:

 

 

 

 

 

Some more fun portraits:

 

The background. The dip. The red shoe peaking out from under the gown – this is one of my very favorite photos of the day:

 

 

 

We walked all the way back to the Italian Garden and captured this photo, among others, by the Love Temple:

 

 

 

Their first dance was on the veranda of Villa Montalvo:

 

More creative fun on the grand staircase:

 

There was a photo booth with some fun props and we snapped this silly picture of the newlyweds:

 

We just had to take this picture of our favorite couple – John and Madeleine. We shot their wedding almost two years ago in Mexico. This time the roles changed – not only were they guests, but John actually officiated the ceremony!

 

 

We never have any pictures of the two of us from weddings, so we were really happy when Madeleine took this cool shot of us. Thank you so much Madeleine!

 

All the wonderful vendors of the day:

Ceremony & Reception Venue: Villa Montalvo
Wedding Coordinator: Annaliese of Pink Peony Weddings
Hair & Makeup: Kansinee of Beauty Bug
DJ/: Cory of Big Fun DJ
Florals: Tanjeeryn Designs
Catering: Le Papillon
Wedding Cake: Karl Fong of the Sweeter Side

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 11th, 2011 at 8:36 am and is filed under Weddings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.