The next afternoon we all went to shoot the day-after session of Samar + Ali in the magnificent city of Firenze/Florence. Despite Ali’s swollen foot, he’s a trooper for walking around on uneven cobblestones all day and we took a short tour savoring the beautiful city. Starting our day in a coffee shop, we realized that the coffee in Italy just tasted so much better than their American counterparts. The Italians take their coffee seriously! Then we walked through Piazza della Signoria, Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore (the Duomo), Uffizi, Ponte Vecchio, and explored the small streets and back alleys before ending the night at Piazzale Michelangelo.


It was a truly memorable experience and we can’t wait to go back to Italy!

Part 2 of the wedding day – When we’re doing the vineyard portraits, Samar + Ali was up for anything. Jumping a fence, dragging that dress and veil across rocks, twigs, and crickets. All for the best possible pictures. We just love them! Typically with Persian wedding receptions the energy is palpable and this one is no different even though it’s less than 35 people! And the food was deeelicious!


Florence day-after session is next!


Venue: Villa Vistarenni, Gaiole in Chianti, Italy

The only group shot we ever posted! :-)

The Tuscan rain threatened the outdoors ceremony and reception but the Gods smiled upon us and it turned out to be the most spectacular day with gorgeous light. We witnessed the hectic getting ready, the super emotional first look, and the love radiating from all their friends and family during the ceremony. Samar’s mom and everyone worked hard to create the beautiful sofreh-aghd for the Persian ceremony.


Portraits and reception coming up next. Stay tuned for more!


Venue: Villa Vistarenni, Gaiole in Chianti, Italy

We are so blessed to be spending 4 days shooting Samar + Ali in Italy for their wedding week! The setting was straight from a dream, the food was amazing, and more importantly, the entire wedding of 30-something people treated us like part of the family. We shot so many frames, it’s hard to narrow them down! We love spending time like this with our clients and given the opportunity and ultimate trust to capture their real story. Before the wedding day, we went to a small town Radda to shop for groceries, then we had a beautiful rehearsal dinner, complete with a potato sack race and plenty of delicious house wine. Finally, we capped the night off with some awesome drunk tennis! :-)


This is our biggest blog post ever, so it’s going to be split into multiple parts. Stay tuned for more!


Venue: Villa Vistarenni, Gaiole in Chianti, Italy

Here are the second set of images of my good friends, Melissa + Josh’ fun and heartfelt wedding!  Missed the first set, check it out here

Thanks to Ari Simpoukham for second shooting for me.

I love Melissa’s Dad’s body language on this as he saw her in her wedding dress.

Josh got emotional during the first look

The First Dance