Lake Tahoe, California Wedding Photography | Mike & Erica

Lake Tahoe, Truckee, CA Wedding Photographer

If there was ever way to send out 2017 with a bang, flying to California to shoot Mike & Erica's wedding was the way to do it!! This wedding brought about a few firsts for me...first time flying for a wedding, first time going to California (which was AMAZING), and first time photographing a couple in the mountains (ALSO AMAZING)...all experiences I'd love to repeat and made me even more thankful for this crazy wonderful job I have! Erica found me through Geoff & Stephanie (Erica is Geoff's sister), whose wedding I just photographed in July, and being able to photograph two siblings' weddings in the same year is another rare opportunity that I could get used to (and I get to hang out with them all AGAIN when I photograph Geoff's cousin's wedding this September!)! 

Mike & Erica are a fun-loving, spontaneous, caring couple who make you feel like you've been friends with them forever. For planning a long-distance wedding without any family in the area of the wedding to help and oversee things (M&E live in Chicago), I have to say that their wedding was a dream. Every single aspect of the day went off perfectly, down to the weather (it was about 45*F for their outdoor ceremony!!), which is almost unheard of even when you're planning a wedding minutes away from where you live. And M&E are so laid back, that even if anything had gone wrong I can't imagine that it would have been met with anything other than a continued excitement that their day had finally arrived. 

Well, I think it's time to move on to the images, how about you?!?! ;) 

Mike's dad was his best man. <3

Oh hey there Geoff & Stephanie!!

Hair & Makeup: Michelle DeeAnn, Christi Reynolds, & Lea Buehler

Ceremony/Reception: Ritz Carlton Lake Tahoe

DJ: DJ Brock

Favorite wedding day memory:

We both think that our first look was our favorite memory.

What they would have done differently:

We can't think of anything that we would have changed!

Best piece of advice for brides and grooms:

Our biggest piece of advice is to make your wedding your own. Spend time and money on the things that are important to you and skip the things that aren't important or are causing too much stress (for example, we didn't have programs for our ceremony). We also really loved having a sweetheart table. Although we were both initially against it, we ended up loving it. It gave us time to be alone on such a busy day.

Honeymoon:

We spent 23 days in Australia and New Zealand. It was absolutely the trip of a lifetime.

Final Reflections

Our advice is to pick your vendors carefully and then trust them to do a great job. It will make your life easier not to try to micromanage every last detail and will allow you to have the most fun on your wedding day.