Balboa Park Prado Wedding – 1920’s Gatsby Theme

 

Happy Monday! It’s been blazing hot all week and for some reason here in mid July started raining this AM?! So I plopped myself in front of my computer, listened to the rain and uploaded this kick ass Balboa Park Prado Wedding !  And kick ass it is, just wait till you see it.. The details were all in place for this roaring 20’s great gatsby themed night. The room was exquisite, centerpieces and arrangements straight stunnin and what else, ohhhh yeah… how about a freakin a champagne tower?!  Totally diggin this vibe and I think we did it justice! This ones getting submitted and featured someplace awesome on interweb soon, I can feel it!

We’ve been on the road for the past 3 weeks and just now getting settled back in the mix over here, therefore I have a small stack of weddings that I need to put up on the wedding blog!  Its about to get real up in here and Im actually REALLY excited to be able to drop this one up! It’s kinda crazy how many different places we have been over the past 8 years, and yet somehow, this is just the second time we have photographed a wedding at balboa park.

Thinking back [[cue the dreamy thought bubbles]]  the first time here was many YEARS ago when we photographed a wedding at the museum of photographic arts [MOPA] for a super talented San Diego Boudoir Photographer buddy of mine. The Museum of Photographic Arts in Balboa Park was a VERY rad place for a wedding but at the time [early in our careers] and challenging for a number of reasons. The ceremony was in the theater with the reception held in the the gallery. Aside from the challenges of photographing a ceremony in a harshly down lit theater, I remember getting outside and not thinking it was much easier. Swarms of people were everywhere and getting a clean shot without someone in it was a challenge.  Soooo when I heard that this revisit to balboa would be at the Prado I was a little bit nervous… but extremely relieved to know the ceremony would be outdoors :)))))  and that we would have the ability to take over in the Organ Pavilion. Getting a clear wide open shot for a bridal party this size would be challenging… actually scratch that… more like damn near impossible.

I think that photographing a wedding party anywhere at Balboa Park brings on crazy sets of challenges. Im pretty used to having the run of the wedding venue I am at on the big day. Its rare that a location runs multiple weddings with droves of onlookers. Today there was a lot of stuff we don’t normally manage due to the overwhelming amount of people kickin it at the park on the weekend. In fact, the only place worse I can think of would be Disneyland… although, Balboa Park on a weekend pretty much has that same sort of crowd swell goin on.

It’s a guarantee that any given weekend during the summer Balboa has a dozen events going on. Not only that but pretty much anyone getting married or having a Quinceanera in San Diego nearby wants to come to Balboa Park to take their bridal party pics + formal portrait session photos because its beautiful. Navigating the droves of people to get a clean shot can be frustrating. Can’t say it was too bad today. Course we did our best to avoid the crazy areas like the koi pond, fountain and arboretum and just cut through the masses and crushed it in various nooks n crannies.

Damn. Look at me go! I’m obviously in a writing mood today, giving ya the play by play since its my first time photographing a wedding at the Prado in Balboa Park… but its time to move on. Continuing with the new style I got a few tidbits from my bride to add in to the mix along the way as well so if ya see text busting up the photo stream below stop n take a look.

 

 

 

words from Sofia:

 

 

This part was really funny. Apparently there is an old bulgarian tradition in which the groom to be shows up to the house and has to find his bride to be’s shoe and stuff it full of loot. Now back in the old days Im sure the contents of the shoe were a lot different. Some seeds for farming? perhaps a few coins? I dunno… whatever it takes to get pops to open the door, let ya in and let her leave to marry you. In this case Chris came strapped with a few hundred dollar bills and some movie tickets as his dowry… annnnnnnd it worked. Well played, dude!

 

 

A few words about the venue from Sofia :

I chose the venue because it was very beautiful and all the different parts of the venue (ceremony, happy hour, reception) were  unique. The venue had also gotten high markings from others in the category for service which is something we emphasized at our wedding. The PRADO is also located in the heart of Balboa Park so I felt like if my guests wanted to come a bit earlier they could explore the gorgeous spanish baroque grounds which include many museums and botanical garden and plaza.

 

 

The ceremony was in a beautiful secluded garden behind the Prado with a upper and lower seating areas. It was really great for the for us cause it gave a really nice perspective on the ceremony that wedding guests dont typically get. It could be little tricky for snapping the processional and getting around without disturbing anyone if I was flying solo.. but there were two of us today so no big deal. Jess took the upper while I handled the lower. This venue actually had multiple areas that offered a cool perspective from above, which is not something I normally get a lot of. Both the cocktail area and the reception had upper viewing levels I was able to get up to and shoot down from.

 

 

breaking of the bread from Sofia:

“the breaking the bread over our heads is supposed to signify who will be the leader in the relationship = the person who ends up breaking off the bigger piece of the bread (in our case – Chris).”

 

 

Advice to other brides from Sofia:

 “Do what you can to stay happy the days before the wedding. And know that not everything will be perfect no matter how much you stress out about it and that’s okay. It happens to everyone. Just let go of the things that go wrong and enjoy your day! Have a BLAST!”

 

And we did have a freakin blast!! Such and awesome day at Balboa Park! Huge shout out to all the vendors that came together to make it go off without a hitch and a night Sofia and Chris will remember forever. Hugs n high fives to all of ya. ESPECIALLY our amazing coordinator Heather! you kicked serious ass and we couldnt have done it without ya. Thank  you! thank you! Thank you!  Jess and I sincerely look forward to the next time we can do this again with ya!

 

Hair : Nancy Vestal Bridal Hair

Cake : Cute Cakes Gaslamp

Flowers : Tessfresh Flowers

DJ : DJ Rebirth

Temecula Wedding Photographers : Inner Song

San Diego Wedding Planner : Willmus Weddings