Featured – Tristan Crane Photography

An Alternative Bridal Session with Valentine

I’ve had an eye on my neighbor’s magically overgrown backyard as a potential shoot location, it’s full of nasturtium, blackberry brambles, and trees in desperate need of a good pruning. Model and artist Valentine is one of the most adventurous models I know, and she didn’t hesitate once to crawl through all kinds of overgrowth for our time together. The flowers are from Mille Fiori, a small flower stand on Piedmont Ave in Oakland which has some of the best prices on quality blooms in Oakland. Our concept for this session was a gothy alternative bridal summer look.

You can check out Valentine on her Instagram (Heads up, some of her other work is a little less clothed than this session! ) or reach her via twitter if you’re interested in booking.

Geoff and Michael, Clift Hotel San Francisco Wedding

“We like to plan ahead.” Geoff’s email query began with these words, and as they were booking nearly a year in advance, I believed him! Michael and Geoff chose San Francisco for their destination wedding as a ‘halfway point’ for both families gather, Geoff’s parents are based in New Zealand while Michael’s family resides in and around Toronto. They booked the stylish Clift Hotel for their stay and wedding location to host a personal, intimate ceremony and celebration diner for their close friends and families.

Travel, family, and long-term friendship connections are clearly a theme in this couple’s lives – they met in London, and their decorations included a photo wall made entirely of snapshots from their global travels.

Many, many more images below the cut…

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Amy and Jason, Livermore Wedding Photography

Amy and Jason took DIY to a new level with their 1920’s Carnival theme Livermore wedding.

These two crazy kids hand-made their decorations, invitations, and save-the-dates; Amy’s mom arranged all the flowers; Amy made several kinds of pickles for the drink and snack table; and Jason spent the months leading up to their wedding day brewing several kinds of beer – each of them unique and delicious. I especially liked the watermelon lager.

Food was provided by a food truck, there were carnival rides, games, and a band. The wedding took place at the Ravenswood Historical site in Livermore on a warm summers day and everyone had a terrific time lounging under the trees, sipping cold brew, and celebrating the love between these two creative people.

More below!

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Margo and Matthew, San Francisco engagement sessions

“Can our cat participate in our engagement session?”

Absolutely.

Kara and Scott, Point Reyes Station Wedding Photography

This was one of those days when absolutely everything came together, from the team of family friends putting together flowers, mothers and fathers busy taking care of errands, an absolutely perfect summer day, and in the middle of it all, a calm and centered young couple enjoying wedding day. Working with Kara and Scott was so easy and fun, they were good sports about everything, even willing to tramp through the mud to shoot photos in a field of flowers. These guys and their friends know how to party – they kicked off their wedding weekend with a beach BBQ and ended their reception with a terrific band and lots of dancing.

Other vendors included: Catering by Pam Ferrari, cocktail hour service by The Whim Agency, entertainment by Larry Lynch and the Mob, their wedding and cocktail hour hosted at The Point Reyes Seashore Lodge, with the reception site at Toby’s Feed Barn

Many, many more below the cut!

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Monterey Wedding – Lisa and Sam’s Hollywood Glamour

Lisa and Sam are two do-it-yourself, creative people who met and fell in love at a Renaissance fair, and their decorations and ceremony reflect their spirit of creativity. Lisa hand-made many of the details while their family and friends spent the day before the ceremony transforming the interior of the Paper Wing Theater in Monterey into a romantic and dramatic dining room, complete with hanging chandeliers and lit by candelabra. Both Sam and Lisa have children from previous relationships, they incorporated their kids into the ceremony and it’s abundantly clear that this is one happy family.

Lisa and Sam’s Monterey Wedding Highlights – Images by Tristan Crane

San Francisco Commitment, a Handfasting in Stern Grove

I’m an enormous fan of the Offbeat Bride blog, and was so thrilled to see one of my shots from this small but very beautiful commitment ceremony show up in this week’s Monday Montage. So, if you’ve found me via Offbeat Bride, welcome! I love to shoot commitments of all kinds, especially alternative ceremonies. This was my first handfasting ceremony, while researching the meaning and origin of the practice, I found this – “Handfasting was originally practiced by the Greeks and Romans. The Romans created a garland made of magnolia, elder and roses. It was then wrapped around the couple’s wrists to signify love and fidelity. In ancient legends, lovers were united together as they “tied the knot” in the tradition of Celtic handfasting.” Such a cool ritual.

Lilith and Michael planned a small ceremony with some of their closest friends witnessing and participating. We met on a perfect bay area day near Stern Grove, surrounded by redwood and eucalyptus trees, while a family of hawks hunted overhead. Michael told me later that he timed the event to coincide with golden hour – which as you can see worked out very, very well.

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Wedding Snapshots – Claire and Mike

Jody and Anthony’s Heavy Metal Super Hero Wedding

This wedding was, in a word, epic. Jody and Anthony are both artists, music lovers, incredible dancers, and pretty much the nicest cool kids you’ll ever meet. They threw a weekend-long wedding party in the woods outside of Mendocino that began with a super-hero theme welcome dinner and ended with a heavy-metal Mother’s Day brunch on Sunday. And somewhere in the middle they got married.

The wedding location was deep in the woods outside of Mendocino, California. We arrived at the site and were given a cabin assignment, our official temporary tattoos, and a schedule of the weekend events.

Venture onward to the rest of the story…

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