Spanish Oaks Ranch Wedding | Juli & Randy

Spanish Oaks Ranch Wedding, Santa Margarita, San Luis Obispo wedding photographer

Juli & Randy’s Spanish Oaks Ranch Wedding

Juli & Randy’s Spanish Oaks Ranch wedding in Santa Margarita was a little slice of heaven. Brunch, gorgeous light and amazing people. It was a fantastic way to kick off wedding season.

Brunch

When Juli & I met for coffee to chat about her wedding, I may have squealed and clapped my hands when she told me they’d be serving brunch at their wedding (brunch is my favorite meal to celebrate with). Then she told me again, she and her new hubby would be serving brunch. Huh? “Wait, you are making brunch…and serving the food? To your guests…at your own wedding…?”

That’s true hospitality right there. What a generous, humble, thankful attitude to have for your guests who have come to honor, support and celebrate your marriage. I had never photographed a wedding that way and was curious to see how the logistics would play out. It was only AWESOME. The food was not only delicious, Juli & Randy truly let the Lord shine through them as a couple. It was so apparent hearing their friends and family speak through toasts, pray for their meal, and congratulate the newlyweds as they received their food.

Rain, rain, go away

Before Juli and Randy picked their wedding date, we talked about the weather a lot. What would be the best weekend to get married? A Saturday in April? May? I assured her that May would be a safe month to get married in Santa Margarita, maybe a little windy, but I would never expect rain. So when I saw the little cloud with raindrops in my weather app threatening the “no-rain” weekend I promised her, I started to panic. Thank goodness the rain waited until Sunday and we got beautiful, bright, diffused light for her wedding = dream scenario!

I’d hear a complaint here and there about it being cloudy and I just had the biggest (and probably creepiest) smile on my face. I thought, “I’m gonna break all the rules today.” I could shoot anywhere, in any direction, and capture so much of Spanish Oaks Ranch that I normally wouldn’t due to lighting. We did “sunset photos” at noon. Noon! And they. were. STUNNING. Being runners, I knew they’d be adventurous enough for me to plop them in field for their portraits. Many, many happy dances were danced.

Familiar faces

I saw so many familiar faces!! Blast from the past for sure from my Cru days as a student at Cal Poly…oh, that’s how I met Juli, I led her bible study…to current friendships from around town. Got to catch up with Heather & Wesley, a past couple of mine (Heather was roommates with Juli and in the same bible study), you can see their wedding here.

Even caught up with Nicole (Nicole Joy Creative) who did their invites. We did that “I know you from somewhere…but for the life of me I can’t figure out where” thing. Finally realized that we were past GrC comrads together. Duh!

Special details

Since Juli and Randy weren’t doing a first look, they wanted to pray together before their ceremony without seeing each other. With some help from my 2nd and a bridesmaid, we guided them with their eyes shut. We placed them on either side of one of the trees of their ceremony site because I wanted the place of prayer to have special meaning.

Cathedral veils are by far my favorite because of how much you can play with them during portraits. They just have this grandness about them that I’m drawn to.

Juli’s entrance into the ceremony is one for the books. This is a perfect example of why having a 2nd photographer is a good idea. My 2nd was able to capture moment of Juli with her dad before they walked down the aisle, while I was up front at the alter capturing everyone else’s entrance and Randy’s reaction.

There were lots of little other details at Juli and Randy’s Spanish Oaks Ranch wedding that I loved. First, Juli wore shoes with cacti printed on the side – just thought they were adorable. Randy’s mom sewed custom napkins for each guest’s place setting – I wanted one SOOO BAD, they had the cutest patterns. Of course the bride and groom had Mr & Mrs. mugs for their coffee AND there was a cinnamon roll cake complete with mini cinnamon roll “cup cakes.” That’s the only way to do breakfast if you ask me.