Archive for the ‘Emily Heizer Photography’ Category

The Couple:  Cecilia Jimenez and Matthew Carroll

Wedding Date:  October 21, 2011

Photography by Emily Heizer Photography

Tell us a little about you and your beloved:  Matt owns the largest Sacramento private patrol security company, Paladin, to where he takes his Police-trained K9, Scar, almost every day. I am working my way up into a SCUBA Diver Instructor’s career. We are a very adventurous and active couple, spending most weekends camping near our favorite dive spots in Monterey, Carmel, San Diego and, of course, Lake Tahoe. While completing our Rescue Diver Course in Lake Tahoe we decided it would be the perfect place near the water to get married.

What was the most amazing part of your day?  The most amazing part of my wedding day was seeing all of our guests tear up as I walked down the pier, knowing that so many of my closest friends and family could plainly see the magic in our relationship like I did, supporting us there on the day we chose to become one…was simply overwhelming, and confirming.

What else would you like to share about your big day?  My husband’s business partner was gracious enough to donate his Tahoe time-share home so that along with the entire wedding party, their families could stay there too. It was like Christmas, hanging out with the entire family the night before the wedding, the uncles drinking and playing blackjack, and my aunt and bridesmaids painstakingly making the bouquets by hand.

Ceremony Site:  Timbercove Pier

Reception Venue & Caterer:  Tep’s Villa Roma

Photographer:  Emily Heizer Photography

Videographer:  Edward Black – Imagination Harbor Media Group

Wedding Planner:  Donna Lieb

Cake:  As a couple, we don’t really eat cake. So we just decided to forgo the whole tradition and it didn’t interfere with the reception at all!

Flowers:  Orange Roses, bought from Costco on the way into Tahoe, if you can believe that!

Favors:  Tin boxes with jelly beans in our wedding colors embellished with ribbons and sea shells by Donna Lieb.

Wedding Dress:  De La Rosa’s Bridal & Tuxedo

Bridesmaid Dresses:  I didn’t want the drama of finding the dresses and fighting the bridesmaids to wear them. I told them to just all wear a Navy Blue dress! And they all looked great, it was very assorted and fun.

Hair & Makeup:  Amanda Clymer from AJF Salon

Invitations:  Etsy

DJ/Entertainment/Band:  Dan with Teps Villa Roma

Honeymoon location:  Key West, Florida

First Dance Song:  “Unchained Melody” by The Righteous Brothers (It was my mother-in-law’s first dance song, too!)

Any advice you’d give to our readers who are planning their weddings right now?  Don’t be afraid to (kindly) tell those well-meaning, meddling family members to back off. It’s YOUR day! Do it however YOU want.

Anything that you would have done differently if you were given the chance?  I would have had a longer reception. By the time I got around to thanking everyone and the dances, it felt like it was over. It was quite a whirlwind, and I wish it had been a little bit longer so I could have enjoyed it myself a bit more.

Blog post by Real Weddings Magazine’s Social Media Maven, Aimee Carroll.

Photos courtesy of and copyright Emily Heizer Photography.

Check out the Real Weddings Contest Page! Great bridal loot for real Sacramento-area brides!

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The Couple:  Adriana and Austin Westover

Wedding Date:  December 27, 2011

Photography by Emily Heizer Photography

Tell us a little about you and your beloved:  We met at WalMart! I just like to tell people that because it sounds a little sketchy, but we actually did meet there through a mutual friend. I was with my friend Melanie, and Austin was with his roommate Steven, whom I’d met probably a week before. It was a bit embarrassing for me, because Steven and Austin were in suits, and as it was only 10 a.m. on a Saturday morning (and it was WalMart, for heaven’s sake), I was in basketball shorts and a t-shirt, definitely had no makeup on, and I really hope I was wearing flip-flops and not my slippers. Hopefully. I thought he looked pretty darn good in that suit, and evidently I didn’t scare him off too badly.

We were in the same church congregation though, so through services and other activities in our congregation, Austin was thankfully able to learn that I’m usually a pretty well-put-together person. Austin just got into the master’s program for accounting at Brigham Young University, and I’m about to finish up my degree in exercise science, also at BYU. He’s from California, and I’m from Wisconsin (though sadly, I don’t have that Midwestern accent). We both love to sing to everything on the radio, whether we know the song or not. We’d also live off Mexican food if we could, and we make burritos at least once a week (complete with homemade pico de gallo and guacamole–we’re pretty serious about it. haha). We love to experiment and perfect our food (I love to cook from scratch when I have the time), and we have a secret dream to open a diner someday.

What was the most amazing part of your day?  The best part for me was the beginning and end of the ceremony. The beginning of it was when I really realized, “Oh my gosh, this is actually happening! Right now!” And then the end, when everything was official, the first kiss as husband and wife was so surreal, tender and perfect. We had a perfect, private ceremony with family and close friends, and I can’t imagine any way it would have been more perfect. I think I might be overusing the word “perfect,” but if there’s something to overuse it on, a wedding ceremony is the right choice, right? haha

What else would you like to share about your big day?  I’m not really someone who likes people fussing over me, but I was literally treated like a princess that day, and I loved it. We also kept a lot of it small and family-oriented, which was great. Most of the people who did things for the wedding (the cake, my hair, the flowers), were either family or close friends. I know that small, simple weddings aren’t for everyone, but that was one of our favorite things about ours.

Ceremony Site:  Oakland LDS Temple

Reception Venue:  Rio Grande LDS Chapel

Photographer:  Emily Heizer Photography

Wedding Planner:  Me and my mother-in-law!

Caterer:  All homemade food! My amazing mother-in-law recreated taco salads from a place called Cafe Rio; like I said above, Austin and I would live off Mexican food if we could, so it was perfect for us. I’m grateful and still in awe of how she and a few other friends made enough food for three hundred people.

Cake:  Austin’s Aunt Vicki, and her daughters Julia and Courtney put the cake together, and Suzanne and Jamie Wilding, who are friends of Austin’s family, did the incredible cake toppers. If you look closely at the photos, you can see that they even did lace detail on my dress!

Flowers:  Diablo View Florist. Caroline did an amazing job with the flowers!  She asked me for pictures of styles that I liked, asked me about my colors, told me about all kinds of different flowers, and then created these amazingly beautiful bouquets, centerpieces and boutonnieres. I was totally blown away by how perfect they were.

Wedding Dress:  Allyse’s Bridal/Beautifully Modest. This dress was wonderful for me! I’ve always wanted something a little vintagey-yet-modern that’s drowned in lace but unique. Added to the difficulty of finding a dress with sleeves, I was kind of scared. My first experience at a different place didn’t help–the consultant put me into a lot of dresses that she thought would look good instead of what I wanted, and only let us stay for 45 minutes before telling us we had to leave for her next client.

Then I found Allyse’s. The consultants were all helpful, and let me try on all the dresses I wanted! They even went and looked for different sizes in their storage for me. When I’d picked out my dress and went back for a fitting, they let me walk around the show room area in my dress for as long as I felt like (which was a while! I loved my dress!), and even finished the alterations to fit our schedule for bridal shots. They were amazing!

Bridesmaid Dresses:  Mikarose. I wanted to find a dress that my bridesmaids would be able to wear to things besides the wedding, but that was still nice enough. Honestly, I wish I’d bought this dress for myself too!

Hair:  Kathy Lynch. She has a studio in her home, and she was amazingly kind to let us come pretty early in the morning. She took a look at the photo of how I wanted my hair done, and recreated it perfectly!

Makeup:  DIY, using products by Benefit.

Invitations:  Beautiful Wedding Invitations. They let me design them myself, sent me a proof before printing, called and talked me through their different kinds of paper and printing, and were even great about sending the invites to three different locations (me, my mom, and my mother-in-law).

DJ/Entertainment/Band:  Family. Austin and I both sang for each other (and he played the ukulele for me), his dad and some other men from the family sang, and my uncle Brett played piano.

Honeymoon location:  San Francisco

First Dance Song:  “Marry Me” by Train. There’s even a “first dance” mix now, that I wish I’d known about before. On our first date, we played the song, “Hey Soul Sister” by Train (we both sang, he played the ukulele and I played guitar), so having a first dance song by Train was perfect :)

Any advice you’d give to our readers who are planning their weddings right now?

• It’s your day!! Don’t go all crazy Bridezilla (these are people who are going to be your family for the rest of your life, and they deserve to be treated well!), but if there’s something you really want and care about, go for it!
• Make sure there’s someone at your reception who’s making sure everything is moving along. Of course you want time to talk to the people who came to your reception, but if someone is monopolizing you, or something’s going too long, make sure there’s someone who’s watching to make sure you can talk to more people, and so you won’t have to be at your reception a lot longer than planned. My in-laws were great about making sure that all the events happened in a timely manner.
• The Knot is a great wedding site that helps you plan everything from synchronizing your colors to how to change your name. I’ve never planned a wedding before, and there were things I’d have forgotten if the site hadn’t had this fantastic timeline reminding me of things to do. Also, wedding blogs are the BEST. Create Pinterest boards for different parts of your wedding, and go crazy looking around! There are all kinds of great ideas on the Internet. (Editor’s note — there’s a fantastic timeline in our Real Weddings Magazine’s The Bride’s Guide —  you can download the publication at this link; pick up a free copy at any these upcoming bridal shows; or if you have an iPhone or iPad, you can download the free app by searching Real Weddings Magazine. And, when you’re putting together your Pinterest page, don’t forget to check out Real Weddings’ Pinterest page:  pinterest.com/realweddingsmag.)
• Get your dress early on. My dress had to have some pretty crazy things done to it; I was way short for the dress, and it was a lot of work for the seamstress to alter it, because there was so much fabric. My cousin ended up having to get a second dress, and then the seamstresses at the bridal store she went to were on strike, and she was scrambling last minute to find someone. The dress should be something you finish at least a couple of months before your wedding, in case something goes wrong.
• We had a line at our reception. I know that not everyone does this now, but if you do… An hour or more is a very long time to be standing in one place, especially wearing twenty pounds of lace (that’s probably an exaggeration, but it felt like it was at least that heavy after standing still in it for so long). Make sure that there is someone to make sure you get water, remind you not to lock your knees, and bring you a small snack if you need it. Better than people have to wait for the bride to take a sip of water than have to wait for her to wake up after she passes out from exhaustion. Wedding days are long!
• Everyone at the reception is supposed to get a piece of wedding cake, but a lot of cakes are made with fondant, which no one really likes eating. We found a place that made amazing sheet cake, and there were other options we considered–cupcakes and trifle are great alternatives, too.

Anything that you would have done differently if you were given the chance?  I just found this blog yesterday, and I wish we’d known about this idea before our reception! It sounds like such a cute idea! Read about the idea here.

Photos courtesy of Emily Heizer Photography.

Check out the Real Weddings Contest Page! Great bridal loot for real Sacramento-area brides!

Subscribe to the Real Weddings Magazine Blog!

Another Featured Real Wedding from the Summer/Fall 2012 issue of Real Weddings Magazine loaded to the Real Weddings Magazine Web site…presenting Featured Real Wedding Couple Theresa & Kale Mendonca.

Congratulations to Featured Real Wedding Couple Theresa & Kale Mendonca who were married on August 20, 2011 at St. Clare Catholic Church with a reception that followed at Le Rivage Hotel.

Selected vendors include:

Photographer:  Emily Heizer Photography

Invitations and Wedding Stationery:  Kale Mendonca Graphic Design

Photo Booth:  Jensen Photo Booth

Click here to read their story, see their slideshow of photos from Emily Heizer Photography, meet their entire wedding dream team and more!

Blog post by Real Weddings Magazine’s Editor/Publisher Wendy Sipple.

Photos courtesy of Emily Heizer Photography.

Check out the Real Weddings Contest Page! Great bridal loot for real Sacramento-area brides!

Subscribe to the Real Weddings Magazine Blog!

The Couple:  Andra and Dave Consulo

Wedding Date:  June 25, 2011

Photography by Emily Heizer Photography

Tell us a little about you and your beloved:  We met when I came in to his office on a sales call. He bought, and we’ve been inseparable since then. We’re now a happy family of four — Dave has two sons, Benjamin and Brandon.

What was the most amazing part of your day?  The most amazing part of our day, outside of making our love official, was having everyone we loved, family and friends, all in the same building to celebrate with. We wish we could do that frequently!

What else would you like to share about your big day?  There were special personal touches in many aspects of our wedding day. One of the most special touches was the ceremony itself. The perfect words were a collaboration between Dave’s brother-in-law, Noel, and my sister, Shannon. Noel got ordained so that he could deliver the ceremony and marry us. It was touching and seemed so natural for him — so much so that we now joking call him Rev. Noel. The ceremony was meaningful both in the words and the delivery.

Ceremony, Reception & Catering:  Catta Verdera

Photographer:  Emily Heizer Photography

Cake:  Sweet Cakes by Rebecca

Flowers:  Fleurs du Jour

Favors:  Candy Bar. Candy from WinCo bulk

Wedding dress:  David’s Bridal

Tuxedos:  Men’s Warehouse

Bridesmaids dresses:  Alfred Angelo

Hair:  Chesley Wilmarth from Joseph Anthony Salon

Make-up:  Lindsay Harne

Invitations:  Minted

DJ:  Extreme Productions Entertainment

Honeymoon:  Cabo San Lucas, Mexico

Any other of your wedding vendor(s) you’d like to call out?  Judy Bohn of Fleurs du Jour is incredible! She can create your perfect look with your budget. The staff at Catta Verdera was outstanding, too! It felt like I had personal wedding planners with them! They took away a lot of stress.

First dance song:  “When I Said I Do” by Clint Black

Any advice you’d give to our readers who are planning their weddings right now?  Marriage is a blessing. Enjoy the experience and appreciate all who make it happen!

Anything that you would have done differently if you were given the chance?  We wouldn’t have done anything differently. We shared a special moment with those who are special to us!

Photos courtesy of  Emily Heizer Photography.

Check out the Real Weddings Contest Page! Great bridal loot for real Sacramento-area brides!

Subscribe to the Real Weddings Magazine Blog!

Another Featured Real Wedding from the Winter/Spring 2012 issue of Real Weddings Magazine loaded to the Real Weddings Magazine Web site…presenting Featured Real Wedding Couple Melissa Haberman & Harley Carr.

Congratulations to Featured Real Wedding couple Melissa Haberman & Harley Carr who were married on June 11, 2011 at a private residence.

Click here to read their story, see their slideshow of photos from Emily Heizer Photography, meet their wedding dream team and more!

Blog post by Real Weddings Magazine’s Editor/Publisher Wendy Sipple.

Photos courtesy of Emily Heizer Photography.

Check out the Real Weddings Contest Page! Great bridal loot for real Sacramento-area brides!

Subscribe to the Real Weddings Magazine Blog!