Ponte Winery Wedding in Temecula // Ashley + Taylor

Weddings

Feb 7

Leslie and I photographed this wedding June 14 2013 and after a long blogging break, it's now time to share this beautiful summer vineyard wedding! For Ashley and Taylor, this was their destination wedding. They live in Texas and most of their family and friends traveled in from Texas to attend their wedding. To be honest with you, this wedding was probably one of the most influential weddings to our business move here in California. It's actually amazing when I think about this wedding, how we booked it, the connections that we have made from it, and how important it relationships are in this business. Let me attempt to paint the picture of the scope of this wedding. In 2010, while still living in Arkansas, I made my very first trip to the annual WPPI convention. That week I learned things about the wedding photography business that enhanced my career by leaps and bounds, but I also met some really incredible photographers who would do more than enhance, but completely influence my business in very positive ways.

I want to give a lot of credit to the convention for connecting photographers, but I also know that certain people are placed in our lives because God is always providing for us. One of the photographers that I met that week was Courtney Ryburn. She's a super talented Texas photographer with a humble heart and sweet personality. If you don't know her, do yourself a favor and connect with her now. Now flash forward to 2013 after Leslie and I decided to move our business to the West Coast, I get a message from Courtney, who is checking to see if we are available for her friends wedding in Temecula, California. She was going to be a bridesmaid in the wedding and I'm sure you can imagine how difficult that would be to photograph it while also being a member of the wedding party.

I can't express to you how grateful we are that Courtney referred this wedding to us. A referral is one of the biggest compliments that a photographer can receive. It also reminds me how important connections are in this industry, regardless of distance. So we Skyped with Ashley and Taylor in Texas and they decided to hire us as their wedding photographers! Of course their wedding was amazing! Ponte Winery is a ridiculously beautiful vineyard in Temecula wine country, definitely one of our favorites to photograph. If this wedding would have been the only good thing that came from meeting Courtney at the conference, I would be thrilled. But it wasn't just a beautiful wedding we had a chance to photograph, there were so many more great things that came from this and would trigger a chain of referrals for more weddings here in Southern California. While at this vineyard wedding, we met another couple Janet and David, two people who we are extremely blessed to know. Later that year we photographed their sweet backyard wedding in October. Stay tuned for their wedding coming to the blog!