November 2012 - Siegel Thurston Photography

Monthly Archives: November 2012

November 16, 2012

Ackerhurst Dairy Barn | Omaha Nebraska | Wedding | Andrea & Trent

I would be lying if I said we weren’t really excited for this wedding. When we first started talking to Andrea and Trent about their wedding they were still in the process of finding the right location. Most of Andrea’s family are based in San Diego but it was important to both Andrea and Trent that his Grandfather in Nebraska be able to attend their wedding. A barn wedding was on the top of their list, so when the Ackerhurst Dairy Barn in Omaha popped onto their radar it just seemed ment to be.

The Ackerhurst Dairy Barn is a spectacular old red wooden barn located a few minutes out side of Omaha Nebraska. It has been transformed into a lovely wedding venu with a clean bright white interior to contrast the beautiful red exterior. Weddings can be held inside or out on the lawn infront of the barn.

Andrea DIY’d for months before the wedding getting all her beautiful decorations ready for the big day. They used the interior of the barn for the reception and strung up gray and yellow pom poms along with twinkly white christmas lights. The ceremony took place on the front of the property with the barn framing up a perfect background. Andrea’s brother played music for everyone and then took her arm along with her father to walk her down the aisle. The ceremony was beautiful, with readings from both Andrea and Trent’s mothers, followed by a sand ceremony and a touching speech about the significance of their rings. With a kiss to seal the deal the couple was off to play on farm equipment with their wedding party for photos!

Everyone got on the dance floor including Grandpa, and when the tunes didn’t have everyone grooving they were grabbing props and jumping into the photo booth. This wedding day was jam packed with fun all the way down to the sparkler send off.

excited bride popping champaign and getting ready for her wedding day natural light bride getting ready for her destination barn wedding natural light portraits of bride getting ready for her wedding The Ackerhurs Dairy Barn has a wonderful old red tractor at one end that was perfect for our fun wedding party to crawl around on for portraits.
The girls DIY’d their own bouquets and wrapped them with twine. They even made the guys boutonnieres to match.

Andrea’s grandmother hand sewed all the heart wedding favors. So cute! I can only imagine how long it must have taken her.

November 14, 2012

Andrea and Trent | Engagement | San Diego Wedding Photographer

We are excited to share this beautiful fall engagement shoot we worked on with our wonderful couple Andrea and Trent. They are a romantic and fun couple and it was great to see both those sides come out during our engagement session with them. Andrea is a local of San Diego so she had some great ideas on locations around town that would be perfect for their photos. The magical spot where we met up with them was this amazing old bridge in East San Diego. The leaves on the trees were changing color, the fields were full of romantic wispy yellow grass and a vintage iron bridge to top off the amazingness that was to be this engagement photo shoot.

Andrea and Trent brought with them some wonderful props to enrichen their photographs. They climbed trees and played chess with a vintage wooden set. Threw out a blanket into the grassy fields and spelled out how much they loved one another with scrabble letters. At the end of the afternoon they even red a romantic book to one another. We couldn’t have asked for a more perfect San Diego day to do their Engagement photos.

We are excited to announce that Andrea and Trent’s beautiful San Diego fall engagement shoot was picked up by the blogs Engaged Now What and San Diego Style Weddings.

Andrea hand drew this crafty Save the Date wooden sign. I’m starting to think she’s a DIY ninja.
Yep theses love birds brought their two cute pups for a few pet portraits. We find it fun when our engaged couples bring their well behaved dogs along for photos. Just don’t forget the treats and toys for down time.

November 13, 2012

Imperial Sand Dunes | California | Chad and Jenna | Trash The Dress

One of the things we love about working with Chad and Jenna is how unique and daring a couple they are. A little over a year ago they had us lowly San Diego wedding photographers travel with them to shoot their romantic and truly amazing engagement shoot at the Havasupai Waterfalls in the Grand Canyon. Here we all are a year later and this wonderful couple asked us to create one of the most amazing Trash the Dress sessions we have done thus far. We joined them the day following their beautiful backyard wedding ceremony outside of Phoenix Arizona. The four of us caravanned our way back to San Diego where they were they were to be Honeymooning. Along the route we stopped at Junkyards in Gila bend, abandoned Hotels, roads leading to nowhere, enormous stacks of hay bales, and ended our photo adventure at the Buttercup Sand Dunes just outside of Yuma Arizona. These two gave us an entire day of in and out of the car and were up for anything.

“Want to explore these old busses?” Sure!

“Want a leg up onto those hay bales?” Sure!

“Lets head up to the top of those dunes” You bet!

“Quick run after that train!”

And they were so happy to do it all. This was one of those shoots where everything went right and mother nature gave us everything we needed. Enjoy

In Gila Bend we were fortunate enough to make friends with the nice owners of a junk yard. Not only did they allow us to climb around in their old busses and snap away photos but they pulled out their classic 1955 Chevy Bel Air just for Chad and Jenna.
Classic cars just seem to add this extra romance to any photo shoot, especially when it’s a pink convertible.
It is hard to choose a favorite moment or location from this Trash the Dress but I would have to say that the Imperial Sand Dunes might just win out.“Race ya!”

November 13, 2012

Joshua Tree National Park | Brett and Liz | San Diego Wedding Photographers

Our first adventure to Joshua Tree National Park was earlier this year in the spring time for a photo shoot. The desert flowers were blooming but in all honesty it was a bit hot for us San Diego locals. All year we have been itching to make our way back to this magical desert landscape with it’s towering rock formations. We got together with some of the original photo shoot crew and ventured out to the park for well needed camping and relaxation.

With temperatures in the 30’s at night and wind that cut right through us, our first evening was not what we had hoped for. North Face jackets and hand warmers came to our rescue and we warmly survived. Come sunrise we were rewarded with beautiful puffy clouds and a warm sun. An epic breakfast of eggs, beacon, and cinnamon rolls, (yes I said cinnamon rolls) had us energized for adventuring into the park in search of rock climbing and photo opportunities.

Joshua Tree National Park is an amazing place for rock climbing and bouldering. Climbing anchors have been placed into the rocks all over the park. Some of our crew brought their climbing gear and a guide book pointing us in the direction of the best rock faces.Brett in his pumas made it much higher than we expected. Sorry Easy Riders you just weren’t make for rock climbing.That’s right it’s game face time!Um that’s a lot of climbing gear.
Joshua Tree was the perfect place to test out my Vibram toes shoes. Having each toe compartmentalized was a weird sensation to get used to to but they were great for bouldering. Hey we are standing were water should be! Barker Dam is a little dry this time of year.We found lots of cool looking dead trees at Joshua Tree.
One thing I do love about camping are the stars. With all the foggy nights and light pollution we just don’t see them like this in San Diego.