{"id":3224,"date":"2011-09-14T19:13:20","date_gmt":"2011-09-15T03:13:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.johnremus.com\/blog\/?p=3224"},"modified":"2024-01-09T11:47:00","modified_gmt":"2024-01-09T19:47:00","slug":"the-balatonis-los-gatos-wedding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.johnremus.com\/blog\/the-balatonis-los-gatos-wedding\/","title":{"rendered":"The Balatoni’s Los Gatos wedding"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Hey! I used to be in Boy Scouts with that guy!
\nThis past weekend an old friend and fellow Eagle Scout, Nick Balatoni married Melissa Cadmes at the Los Gatos Opera House in the Bay Area. I traveled back up to the Bay last week to photograph the rehearsal and ceremony for them. Nick is an old friend, and while we’ve gone different directions over the years since high school we’ve been in touch loosely through various mutual friends.<\/p>\n

You see, I’ve known Nick, and best-man Paul, since I was in 6th grade. We all went through scouting together (they were already scouts and I joined when I was 13). We were all in the same troop, Troop 14, and all part of the same patrol, Foxes. I have tons of memories with these two. And according to Paul I still hold the record at camp for fastest time up the climbing wall! Yes! 12+ years and going strong! Both Nick and Paul were instrumental on my path to Eagle Scout. Nick reached Eagle before me, and being one of the MC’s at his ceremony really helped push me to finish my requirements and reach Eagle myself. And when I did Nick was one of my MC’s for the night. And while this blog is about the wedding weekend, I will share one image from back in high school from our scouting days..<\/p>\n

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\nLeft to right: Paul Barron, Jon Anderson, John Remus III (me), Nick Balatoni, and Robert Rico.
\nThis was right after we finished my Eagle project. Robert and I were 17, everyone else 16.<\/p>\n

BUT ANYWAY! So Nick’s married now!<\/p>\n

Unfortunately due to crazy schedules of both myself and Nick\/Melissa I never got the chance to meet Melissa before the rehearsal day – which is really too bad because she’s a totally sweet person and her friends and family are hilarious.
\nWhen I arrived at the rehearsal last Thursday evening it was easy to start chatting with Nick like no time had passed. I met Melissa, groomsman Shawn, and Dale who would be the officiant. I went upstairs to check out the venue – the Los Gatos Opera House. I had actually shot an event here shortly before moving to Los Angeles years ago for a fundraiser for battered women and children. So I knew the lighting was going to be terrible, but that the venue itself is very pretty.<\/p>\n

The rehearsal went great, and quick! Nick and Melissa emphasized that they don’t want a long ceremony – opting instead for quick and simple and to get right to the reception and spend time with their friends and families. Later on at dinner I talked the ears off various family members that wanted to know about my work and photography I’ve shot over the years.<\/p>\n

Their Saturday wedding was in the afternoon – and it was a good thing it was indoors because it ended up being a pretty hot morning in the South Bay. I met up with the ladies as I normally would and laughed and joked with them as they got their makeup and hair prepped. Later on I headed down the street to the Los Gatos Hotel to shoot the guys a bit – did you guys know there is a GORGEOUS hotel right down the street from downtown?! I didn’t.
\nAs Nick and Melissa said, the ceremony was FAST. I just made sure to shoot almost non stop because there were only a few chances for photos and “moments” instead of longer ceremonies with multiple speakers\/etc that other couples have.
\nThe reception was a blast, I got to catch up with a lot of old faces that I knew from school, or from scouting. Met some new people, and even found out I have things in common with some family members too! I’m going to leave the rest for the captions below, so enjoy the images.<\/p>\n

Tomorrow morning I head out of town for the midwest – Minnesota to be specific. I’ll be shooting the DiDona wedding out there for a couple old college classmates! The awesome thing with weddings is that they take me all over the place for work!<\/p>\n

..more after the break.<\/p>\n

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Getting a few directions from Tony.<\/p>\n

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Everyone practicing lining up. First time that I’ve seen Mr. and Mrs. Balatoni (front right) since our days in Boy Scouts.<\/p>\n

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Melissa and her girlfriends made 1,000 origami cranes for the wedding day.<\/p>\n

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Dinner was delicious… need to remember this place.<\/p>\n

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Later that night I had to run over and grab my name card so I knew which table to sit at. haha!<\/p>\n

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I’m not sure if they use this or if it’s for show… but it’s pretty cool.<\/p>\n

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Melissa’s dress<\/p>\n

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Melissa and a couple of her girls startin the prep for the wedding!<\/p>\n

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Nick getting a little help with his tie.<\/p>\n

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Cranes of all colors and patterns were everywhere. It was really cool.<\/p>\n

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The reason I’m showing this is because the girls couldn’t figure out the best way to tie Amanda’s bow… so I ended up tying it and a couple others, too! Haha! You learn a lot of random stuff doing weddings…<\/p>\n

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Cynthia, Kimberly, Mrs. Cadmes, and Amanda watching as Melissa gets her dress laced up.<\/p>\n

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All the ladies were on point… finished early with time to kill.<\/p>\n

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This was a discussion on beard length, and what’s acceptable before being considered creepy. I’m serious.<\/p>\n

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Last minute instructions!<\/p>\n

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Nick did a pretty good job at holding it together. But you could tell a lot of the wedding party was getting a bit misty eyed.<\/p>\n

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Exchanging of vows<\/p>\n

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And of rings<\/p>\n

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There was a some laughter as Melissa reached over and wiped Nick’s brow. It was a really sweet moment during something that was otherwise probably a huge mix of happiness, nervousness, and love for him. Honestly, very touching.<\/p>\n

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Man and Wife!<\/p>\n

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Mr. and Mrs. Balatoni!<\/p>\n

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Time for a quick getaway to the bottom floor in the elevator!<\/p>\n

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Toasts to Nick and Melissa in the bridal room before photos<\/p>\n

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The wedding party, and the parents<\/p>\n

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Bustling a dress is serious business<\/p>\n

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I think every single dress comes with (or should come with) a set of directions..<\/p>\n

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One thing I shared on Facebook about this image has to do with a few things I talked about with Melissa as well as Nick. And that is that while every bride and groom want images of their wedding… I quickly realized that Melissa wasn’t too terribly concerned about “lots of photos of me and Nick”. She seemed to keep an attitude of “we’ll get photos of us during the day, but I know that it’s important to Nick that we get some cutesy couple-y ones… so we’ll do whatever cuz it will make him happy.” And that was just such a loving attitude to have and made me smile when made a comment to me about imagery prior to these photos.<\/p>\n

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One awesome thing about this venue is that people were able to line up on the second floor and watch the dancing.<\/p>\n

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Nick and Melissa’s first dance<\/p>\n

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Best Man Paul starting off the speeches with a couple old stories and jokes<\/p>\n

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Got to love that reaction from the bride and groom!<\/p>\n

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Shawn got emotional trying to give his speech. Actually a lot of people did as he shared a story about what Melissa wished for for her marriage to Nick.<\/p>\n

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Nick and his friends have a small micro-brew and continually try new recipes. For the wedding they made various teas, root beers, etc for everyone.<\/p>\n

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Can’t go walking around too long without people starting to clink their utensils to their glasses!<\/p>\n

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Coloring time!<\/p>\n

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Mother and son dancing. Things were changed up a bit with a parents-dance where everyone rotated out.<\/p>\n

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Melissa and her new Father-in-Law<\/p>\n

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These kids were pretty cute. I think they’re Nick’s cousins? but I’m not positive..<\/p>\n

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Nick and his Mother-in-Law Mrs. Cadmes<\/p>\n

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The Daddy-Daughter moments are always my favorite. And Bill seemed so happy, too!<\/p>\n

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I really enjoy this shot of Melissa and her dad, Bill.<\/p>\n

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And these two were gettin down! It was great, he was swinging and spinning her out on the dance floor!<\/p>\n

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Paul and Hilary bustin’ a move, too. I’ve known these two a long time as well since they’re good friends of my younger sister.<\/p>\n

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Time for cake!
\nI’ll never understand why they always hide the cake in the corner. I felt like it wasn’t inviting people to come watch, you know? Granted, they’re all behind me and that’s why you don’t see them… but still.<\/p>\n

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All the ladies getting ready for that bouquet…<\/p>\n

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Success! Though I think only the first five or so girls tried by the looks of this image…<\/p>\n

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Notice how Paul came out of nowhere and lept for the garter?<\/p>\n

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But THIS is the face of success!<\/p>\n

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Portrait outside the Opera House<\/p>\n

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To the windowwww! To the wall!
\n… I think that’s what they were dancing to.<\/p>\n

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And these shots of Shawn and Paul..<\/p>\n

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remind me of this:<\/p>\n

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Me, Nick, and Paul<\/p>\n

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Me with the bride and groom! Melissa had just changed into a different dress when I finally went to get a shot of us. I like the red though, it looked great too.<\/p>\n

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And as the night was winding down, and most people had left to start their drive home, Nick and Melissa danced together the last two songs.<\/p>\n

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Last moments on the dance floor that night
\n: )<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Definitely a fun day with both families – and so very cool to catch up with some old faces, too!
\nTomorrow I’m heading out of town to start some more travel… granted I’ve only been in SoCal for a day, so it’s like I haven’t stopped traveling yet. Stay posted and check back soon since I’ll have the DiDona wedding to share, along with some upcoming fashion shoots for my new Colors series I’m planning out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hey! I used to be in Boy Scouts with that guy! This past weekend an old friend and fellow Eagle Scout, Nick Balatoni married Melissa Cadmes at the Los Gatos Opera House in the Bay Area. I traveled back up to the Bay last week to photograph the rehearsal and ceremony for them. Nick is an old friend, and while we’ve gone different directions over the years since high school we’ve been in touch loosely through various mutual friends. You see, I’ve known Nick, and best-man Paul, since I was in 6th grade. We all went through scouting together (they were already scouts and I joined when I was 13). We were all in the same troop, Troop 14, and all part of the same patrol, Foxes. I have tons of memories with these two. And according to Paul I still hold the record at camp for fastest time up the climbing wall! Yes! 12+ years and going strong! Both Nick and Paul were instrumental… <\/p>\n

Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[97],"tags":[897,899,102,901,902,896,903,900,898,14],"class_list":["post-3224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-weddings","tag-boy-scouts","tag-eagle","tag-los-gatos","tag-melissa-cadmes","tag-nick-balatoni","tag-opera-house","tag-paul-barron","tag-scout","tag-troop-14","tag-wedding","is-cat-link-border-bottom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johnremus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johnremus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johnremus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johnremus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johnremus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3224"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.johnremus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3224\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3333,"href":"https:\/\/www.johnremus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3224\/revisions\/3333"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johnremus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johnremus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johnremus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}