Tom and Roxanne’s Monterey beach wedding was nothing short of beautiful – and amazingly, we almost didn’t have it on the sand. Can you believe that?!
I’ll get to that story in a few moments, but first, let me introduce you to the Schaffer’s. I met Tom and Roxanne through one of my oldest and dearest friends, Phil. Roxy is his younger sister. And, when her and Tom got engaged Phil told her that he would take care of photography and his wedding gift to her. So I was the gift, how cool is that?!
Apparently Roxanne had been a fan of my work for quite some time and would watch my website and check out new images that I would post up and things that I’ve shot. So, to hear how thrilled a bride was when hearing that I’d be shooting her wedding meant a lot.
The Schaffer wedding was in Monterey, California. I was actually just down the street from where I shot the King wedding a month or so beforehand. I wrapped a trip to the Bay Area around Tom and Roxy’s wedding, and then shortly after flew to New Jersey for another wedding – but that’ll be a different blog update.

Now when I say the beach wedding almost didn’t happen, here’s what I mean. About three hours before the ceremony the coordinator for the hotel came into the room to talk to Roxanne. The hotel explained that “there wasn’t enough beach” because the tide hadn’t gone down yet. They also pointed out that it was foggy.
This bothered me for two reasons: First, don’t freak out a bride THREE HOURS before the wedding ceremony with something you can’t be sure of. That’s just stupid, and it’s too far away to tell for sure. Second: Did I mention it was THREE HOURS til the ceremony? It’s 1pm in Monterey. The ceremony isn’t until 4:30pm. Don’t try and say there “isn’t enough beach” or “it’s too foggy” for a beach wedding – this client booked your venue BECAUSE she wants a beach wedding.
Imagine my frustration when I see a bride walk back into the room with a huge look of disappointment on her face. This venue just convinced her not to have her beach ceremony. My opinion? They didn’t want to move everything off the patio and down to the sand – they had a morning patio-wedding and everything was already set up.
Long story shorter… I talked to Roxanne for a bit, and finally asked “Do you want a beach wedding?” Silence. Of course she did. “Call (the hotel people) back. I’ll talk to them.” So, me and a bridesmaid or two when and spoke to the hotel, explained that we were doing it on the beach, and that they need to set up what they can because the bride wants a beach wedding.

I share this story with you guys for a few reasons. First, working in this business you start to see things occasionally that shouldn’t happen – like a venue changing plans last minute that seriously affect what the bride wants. Second, because whether you as a photographer, a guest, a relative, or any vendor sees something like this, then you may need to be that “jerk” that tells them they can’t do that. And most important, is that it’s the bride’s day. I personally believe it’s safe to say that a bride who wants a beach wedding will be happier having that wedding on the sand with her feet in the water if she has too more than moving it to a patio hours before the ceremony happens. What a bride wants (within reason), she gets… most of the time, it’s not nearly as hard as people think.

I know that story was a bit long, but, I wanted to share.
Keep that story in mind as you look at the photos and see what a gorgeous afternoon it turned out to be by the time the ceremony happened.
And, as usual, I’ll be leaving quite a few comments and captions with the photos below.

Enjoy!

First though… Let’s meet the whole family :)
Tom and Roxane, then Reese, Taylor, Katie, Jordan, and Mateo.

Many more photos after the break.

Tom and Mateo went out and carved this in the sand before the rehearsal. I haddd to snap a quick photo.

Lots of laughing during practice.

Roxanne and her big brother Phil.

At the rehearsal dinner the servers made Tom and Roxy dance. They sang and everything, it was awesome!

Gettin a bit of help from dad with her new necklace. Moments like these are always my favorite.

Roxanne and her mom were talking, Roxy was gettin a bit emotional. I’m thinking Mom was giving some words of wisdom and stuff.

Out with Brian and Phil the morning of the wedding. We took Shakespeare for a walk!
I <3 Shakespeare. I actually lived with Phil and Brian for a while when I was gettin on my feet here in Socal. So Shakespeare knows me really well, he’d come and wake me up in the mornings when he wanted me awake and keeping him company.

This was a quick off-the-hip shot or Taylor as she was laying on the bed and I walked by. “You’re gonna take pictures” ::click:: “Yep, see, just got one of you!” “HEYYY!!”

Mateo and Jordan went swimming that morning… naturally the one with the least amount of hair comes in to fix it… hahaha!

Roxy’s dress. It was gorgeous.

Poor Reese… this is the second of a total of six times she had her hair worked on that morning. Everyone was having trouble getting the curls to stay long enough to style the rest of her hair.

Going through the clips and jewelry for the girls’ hair.

“See, this is what my hair will look like… what do you think?”

The girls goofing around, Roxy motioning to be quiet cuz she couldn’t hear people on the phone.

All the guys, hanging out watchin the baseball game.

Tom, with Justin…er.. Jordan, haha, and Mateo during groomsman portraits.

Roxanne got crafty and made this gorgeous clam-shell ring holder. So, I had to take it down to the sand to get some shots.
Tip for all you photographers out there: I was laying in the sand with my wide angle lens for this shot. Don’t be worried about getting a little dirty. No one cares how YOU look, and your clients will love the shots.

Roxanne, with her sister Veronica and their mother getting the last bits of jewelry on.

Reese… contemplating life… or something.
Actually, she was probably just enjoying the view. But, I liked the moment.

Daughter and Mother, with Aunt/Sister takin the photo. FACEBOOK! is what someone shouted during all the camera phone photos that were being taken.

See what a beautiful day it turned in to?
Most of the guests stood off to the left of the camera though.

Gettin started! Ok, actually, this is part way through… you’re right.

The Schaffer and Balanga families all participated in their sand ceremony with different color sands for their new family of seven. I tried to get all of them in the shot, but Taylor was too tiny behind Reese from where she stood to be in the shots. Bummer.

Prayer time.

Here’s a better shot of everyone watching. There were also guests up top on the wall by where I was standing for this image.
Yes, I run everywhere during a ceremony… I’m used to it. And fortunately most people don’t seem to notice me.

Everyone was all smiles.

Exchanging vows. Roxanne told me after that during this was thinking “Wait, why does Tom get sunglasses? It’s bright out. I want sunglasses too…”

You may kiss your bride!

Little bit wider shot for those of you who prefer wide.

Wedding party and the parents!

This is just the wedding party alone… and you thought your wedding was big.

Siblings!

Bridal party.

Doing some couple shots before the reception starts.

This is the image I opened with on the blog, but, wanted to share it again here. This is one of Tom and Roxanne’s favorites. Again, yes, I do this pose with most of my clients… or at least some variation of this style.

How cool is this cake? Even has fake bamboo on it! Haha

Roxanne actually made this chocolate favors for everyone. How creative, right? I spent about 10 minutes at dinner sitting with the kids trying to convince them it was soap, they swore they saw their mom make them from chocolate… but, I didn’t give up. Hahaha.

Tom and Roxanne had their friend Nydia do their engagement photos – she a great job, they came out beautiful.

Tom’s son Jordan, goofing off with Taylor’s earrings. Jordan was great, first, he just laughed when family would jokingly call him Justin since he’s rockin’ the Bieber haircut. And also, because when he asked Taylor why she was wearing clip earrings, I said “So you can wear them too!”. He quickly laughed, said “Ok!” and modeled them for his sister’s amusement. Way to be an awesome brother, dude.

All the speeches were really sweet. Here Veronica is asking Tom for forgiveness. She told everyone that, out of protectiveness for her sister, she didn’t give Tom much of a chance when she first met him, but has since grown to love him and is thrilled he’s now family.

Everyone knew that when Reese got up to her maid of honor speech that there were going to be tears and she spoke from her heart, to her mother, and shared with everyone how much it means to her to be close to her mom and spend the time that she can with her.

Shortly after Reese turned all the tears to laughter as she joked with Tom. “You get out there (and play sports) with us (kids)… and that’s pretty good for someone your age!” she joked as everyone in the room burst into laughter.

Jordan, watching his siblings speak and waiting for his turn.

Katie, giving her short speech to her dad.

Tom got up to say a few words and thank everyone for being there. I forget why he checked his phone though… I’m sure there was a joke that I’m not remembering…

He went on to point out that he really didn’t do much of the planning and prep, and that all the credit belongs to his wife. Roxanne took the opportunity to go sit back down while Tom confessed. Haha!

First dance as husband and wife.

Daddy-Daughter dance. Always a favorite to shoot.

Tears all around : )

Mother-Son dance

Watching the kids dance with their parents was one of the best parts.

Roxanne dancing her son Mateo.

Cake time!

They were nice about it, no messy cake-smearing photos.

All the kids wanted to make sure they danced with their parents, too.

Whoever left the IOU is awesome!

The ladies, breakin it down.

I loved this, the whole family knew the girls’ cheerleader routine and were able to dance along with them.

Jordan was all over the place break dancing that night.

Roxanne even got down with her mom!
It was great.

I really love this shot because of Roxanne standing on her tip toes to kiss Tom. I just think it’s really cute.

Aimee, breakin it down to “My Humps”. By the time she finished everyone on the dance floor was watching her routine.

Last dance of the night.

Me, with Tom and Roxanne at the end of the night.
I had such a great weekend with them and their families.  Lots of memories and stories to tell.

Me and the Balangas. I feel like a giant looking at these shots…

And lastly, me and Phil. It was great to be able to do something like this for Phil and his family after everything Phil has done for me in the past. I’ve known Phil for 12 years now; he always joked that I was the little brother he always knew he never wanted, haha! For those who have followed my blog the last few years, you know that Phil is a major reason I’m still here in Socal working – he helped me get on my feet when I was first leaving down here.

So, my entire trip to Monterey was a huge success. I took a ton of photos, many of which I’m very happy with. I had a great time with my client and their families. And above all, was able to do something for people who have been great friends to me for many years.

I’m going to be starting on the Perry-Vanderhoof wedding and will hopefully have images from that to share with you all in the next week.
November I will be in Orlando to shoot, and then on to Baltimore, DC, and Boston!