Originally published at Los Angeles and Santa Barbara Wedding Photography Blog by Photographer Ian Grant. Please leave any comments there.

We love engagement sessions and think they're so important that we include them in every wedding photography package we offer.  They are a great way for us to get to know a couple and how they're best photographed, and it lets them get used to being in front of the camera.

A little while back we took a little trek down to the heart of San Diego to do a Balboa Park engagement session with the beautiful couple you see below!  Molly and Derick are an adorable set who we felt like we just knew forever from the start.  Not only are they super photogenic, but they're two of the warmest and most inviting people we've met.  You can just tell by the way the hold and look at each other they're just crazy about one another.

Balboa Park was a fun special place for them and it turned out to be a great shooting location as well.  Tons of little nooks and great spots right off the main street and gorgeous gardens were in full bloom.  Such a treat to find so many fun spaces in one area!

There are lots of fun things you can do with engagement sessions, from sign in books to postcards to table numbers.  Molly and Derick knew they wanted to make Save the Dates for their guests using their engagement photos.  So naturally they brought some custom street signs to the shoot [awesome!], which will later be incorporated in their wedding decor.  Note the clever use of the last names and the numbers for the date of the wedding.  The photos we go are super cute and it was a blast to hang out and learn more about this great couple.  Molly and Derick, we can't wait for the wedding!

You can see more of our Balboa Park Engagement Session Photos at www.distinctphoto.com

Originally published at Los Angeles and Santa Barbara Wedding Photography Blog by Photographer Ian Grant. Please leave any comments there.

If you've ever thought there must be a better way than a boring lined sign-in book, then you're going to love our unique wedding sign in books!  Basically we take your favorite photos from your engagement session with us [included in all packages] and turn it into a nice hardcover 10x10 book keepsake.  Every one we've made has been a huge hit at the big day and people love crowding around and writing messages in the ample white space of their favorite page.  After the wedding, you'll be able to pull out your book from time to time and proudly go through all those great photos and loving messages for years to come. :)

Enjoy the photos of the fantastic Jesse and Miranda!

Originally published at Los Angeles and Santa Barbara Wedding Photography Blog by Photographer Ian Grant. Please leave any comments there.

I'm so excited to say that this September I'm going to be headed back to one of my favorite places in the world, Iceland.  If you followed my little roadtrip there [ 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 ] last year you know how much I love it and it's mostly going to be a little...well, breather before the little mini Ian arrives at the end of the year.  This time around my friend Nick is going to be traveling with me and we're getting a nice 4x4 so getting stuck in the middle of nowhere is a bit less likely.  I'll keep everyone posted, should be another epic adventure!

Originally published at Los Angeles and Santa Barbara Wedding Photography Blog by Photographer Ian Grant. Please leave any comments there.

As you may of caught unfolding on our Facebook, or any given celeb site [TMZ/Perez] Justin Bieber decided to make a guest stop at our Malibu Adamson House wedding this weekend.  It was just as much a shock to us as everyone else, but mostly pretty hilarious.  Special Thanks to Jeanine and Rob McCool for a really fantastic wedding- they were just on Good Morning America- crazy!

Here's how things went down- Early in the night the amazing DJ Dennis Waller and I got a private showing of one of the cousins Youtube video where she [as a super Bieber fan] got a special visit from the one and only teen idol at her house courtesy of the Ellen Show.  A completely isolated event though she clearly had shown this video to every stranger she's come across, and I mean if I were a super fan [2 square inches of wall not covered in posters/photos/albums/action figures] I'd probably be doing the...I mean yea.  So Dennis promised her he'd play a couple tunes later on in the night.

So after the cake cutting I'm hearing him live out the promise and he's playing those Bieber songs and of course the young girls with mic in hand are singing and dancing right along.  Naturally I went up there to capture the whole thing going down...

These girls were really getting into it, as I'd imagine every teenage girl who knew all the dance moves and lyrics verbatim would.  One song went into a second and literally out of nowhere who pops up but Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez.

Apparently they were off on the beach next door [the Adamson House overlooks the beach right next to the pier in Malibu] doing whatever celebrities do and when they heard the first song they bounced up and over the wall and surprised everyone 'crashing the wedding' as he called it.

Of course everyone went insane as I'm sure the video's you've seen on TMZ have shown.  10 minutes and he was gone and everyone was asking themselves what the heck just happened...and who pulled the stunt to get him there with such perfect timing.  Turns out it was just a fluke, I guess celebrities just do stuff like that every so often.

There's the official story- now back to the sanity of normal day to day activities. :)

You can see more of our Malibu wedding photography work at www.distinctphoto.com

Incoming search terms:

• ian grant photography justin bieber

Originally published at Los Angeles and Santa Barbara Wedding Photography Blog by Photographer Ian Grant. Please leave any comments there.

A couple months ago we took a nice little needed trip over to Paris and got to hang out in the beautiful city of lights.  Since we usually take trips in the winter, it was significantly different than the last time we were there [2007] which had like an hour of sunlight in the entire trip!  It was also incredibly cold...and rainy.

Rather than stay in a hotel this time around we opted to get an apartment for the week and it was one of the best decisions we made.  Not a lot of people even think about going that route, but as long as you're cool with people not coming in your room and making your bed daily it's basically the same thing.  I wanted to stay in/near the Marais like the last trip, but we ended up going with staying on the Île Saint-Louis which is a little island in the middle of the Seine river.  Basically north-central Paris and right across the bridge from the Notre Dame cathedral.

Amazing location, with a crazy old building where levels hadn't been invented yet when they built the stairs and decided to put ragged beams on the ceiling.  We lived on the fifth floor so getting Tanya's preggo body up and down the stairs was a real treat [not to mention my wragged old legs], but it kept us in good shape.  Naturally they didn't have an elevator as it was like a 1600's building, so getting back up after 5-8 mile daily walks made for a painful end.

Here are some photos from our trip, it was a nice little getaway for a destination wedding- photos soon to come for that one!

Originally published at Los Angeles and Santa Barbara Wedding Photography Blog by Photographer Ian Grant. Please leave any comments there.

Do you have any plans on doing an Iceland destination wedding this coming year?

So I've been thinking about going back to Iceland [pretty much every day for the last few months] and think it would be a blast to shoot a wedding over there.  Anyone have any plans for an Iceland destination wedding any time soon?  Want to take along a really fun landscape loving wedding photographer with you?  Please feel free to send me an email and let me know about your plans! Passports are ready to go. :)

Great Iceland venues include:
- Hotel Budir
- Hotel Ranga
and of course you can have a small intimate ceremony pretty much anywhere.  The sky is the limit!

Check out my roadtrip travelogue of the last time I drove around the country.

Originally published at Los Angeles and Santa Barbara Wedding Photography Blog by Photographer Ian Grant. Please leave any comments there.

Well if that didn't get your attention enough, rumors are true [!!] and this coming December it looks like we're going to be adding another little member of the Grant family.  Tanya and I decided back in January that we were probably due to have a kid after all we started with a rabbit, then a cat, then a dog, and it was only inevitable that we were going to add a human to the list.  Thankfully we did our best to time this whole pregnancy thing so it would not effect our wedding season as much as possible...phew.  Sure enough, after the first month of trying and me getting excited about the prospect of a little science experiment we got the fantastic Amazon 15 for $5 preggo tests.  Right away, pregnant.

Once my heart stopped racing [understandably] we went about finding a doctor, and we have this great guy in Beverly Hills through Cedars Sinai hospital who just loves the fact that Tanya was born in Israel.  Seriously, I mean he just loves bringing it up in conversation- for instance when we told him we had a little international plane trip coming in May he was like 'where you going?  Israel?'  No doctor.  But thank you, I think.  Love the guy, old and totally crazy.

He also loves giving ultrasounds so we've been able to see our little Bean every few weeks more or less.  Last week after not breathing for a few days in anticipation we had the gender ultrasound and found out we're going to be having a little girl, which Tanya and I thought we were going to be having from the very start.  Random, but we never really started picking out boys names- we just kind of always knew we were going to have a girl...not that we wouldn't have been completely happy with a boy, it's just one of those random things in life where you just kind of know something with your gut intuition.  I guess we had a 50/50 shot anyway. :)

Little Bean has been throwing 3am dance parties and using Tanya's bladder as a trampoline, so if you see Tanya disappear for a few minutes every so often at your wedding that's probably where she's gone.  She just doesn't understand that tormenting mom isn't exactly the nicest thing to do 24/7...we're going to have to have a little talk when she gets out.

Anyway, I just figured I'd share the amazing news with everyone.  To answer the obvious question that's going to come up, yes, we're still shooting weddings and have no plans to miss any ever.  You just might have a very noticeable pregnant lady taking some pics, and if you give her belly a rub you get a little good luck and maybe a swift kick from our angry little womb child.  We're going to have an awesome little babysitter team in the background for 2012 that will keep an eye on our little one while we're off partying at your sweet event.  Maybe in 10 years we might have a little covert camerawoman bouncing around your toes getting those candids you didn't see coming. :)  I just bought her a pretty nice pillow for the crib of course not dropping any hints or anything...thank you Plushtography!  For our past/future clients this year's holiday postcard might just be setting a new bar of excellence.

Originally published at Los Angeles and Santa Barbara Wedding Photography Blog by Photographer Ian Grant. Please leave any comments there.

Villa Verano Estate Wedding - Santa Barbara, CA

Wedding Venue/Reception: Villa Verano Estate

Though Ian and I always love to meet a couple before their wedding day, sometimes the couple might be from out of state and doing a pretty nice destination wedding.  Cristina and Jesse were from outside the California realm so we didn't have a chance to get to know each other in person before the wedding, but as soon as we met it felt like we were old friends.  I'm sure you can tell by the photos, but they are incredibly warm and welcoming and totally crazy about each other.  It doesn't hurt that they are beautiful and easy to shoot!

Cristina and Jesse had a Villa Verano estate wedding, a private residence up in the Santa Barbara hills.  I think this might be a new favorite wedding venue - there is so much to work with, from the stunning ceremony lawn, to pools and courtyards and sweeping staircases.  Seriously, every turn brings another exciting view.  Joy de Vivre designed the event and it was one of the most relaxed and intimate affairs we have been to.  If you couldn't tell, we love us some outdoor sunset weddings- and up in the Santa Barbara area you really can't beat the light.  Such a gorgeous place for a wedding.

  -xo Tanya

You can see more of our Santa Barbara wedding photography work at www.distinctphoto.com

Photography: Ian Grant Photography
Planning: Joy de Vivre
Officiant: Jerry Bellamy
Florist: Florette by Kelly Kaufman
Lighting: Lani at LBPS Lighting
Rentals: Classic Party Rentals

Cristina and Jesse opted for a reveal, which gave us the opportunity to get some really beautiful moments of them seeing each other for the first time.  A reveal is one of the easiest ways to keep the day calm and stress free and it lets you get the jitters out nice and early.  I think in a way it's a special moment you both get to share together, free of the chaos and timelines of the wedding day.  A few moments to breathe and take everything in of sorts!  So while we still love the traditions, reveals are a lot of fun and a great way for us to capture the two of you seeing each other for the first time- something I think you'll always treasure.

After a beautiful sunset ceremony, the reception was held on a balcony overlooking Santa Barbara.   Check out the monogram in the middle of the dance floor!  The night turned out to be a scorcher with the Santa Ana winds blowing in hot air, but it didn't stop everyone from dancing the night away.  From our roof-top location everyone stopped to watch a long drawn out shooting star fly across the sky - not a bad way to bring luck to their first night as a married couple!

You can see more of our Santa Barbara wedding photography work at www.distinctphoto.com

Originally published at Los Angeles and Santa Barbara Wedding Photography Blog by Photographer Ian Grant. Please leave any comments there.

When Fernando, told Cherisha that he wanted to give her the gift of family portraits, she spent months looking for the right photographer. She wanted someone who would be happy to shoot her six-month-old daughter, Isabelle, along with her other "babies," dogs Cubbie and Bear. Funny enough, when we joined up at Malibu Creek State Park, it turns out we had already met! Cherisha was a bridesmaid in Hiromi and Jeff's wedding a few years ago. It's a small world, and we were so happy to see her again!

Cherisha and Fernando are so doting on Isabelle, who is the sweetest baby. We walked around the park to take some family photos, and hit some beautiful afternoon sunlight. Despite the dogs giving chase to some instigating lizards and the heat of the day (95 degrees and counting), Isabelle was a champ. Check out her gorgeous big eyes. I'm such a sucker for families like this. Hope you enjoy the photos.

xo Ian and Tanya

Originally published at Los Angeles and Santa Barbara Wedding Photography Blog by Photographer Ian Grant. Please leave any comments there.

An Urban Downtown Los Angeles Engagement Session

Scott and Alyson have such a sweet love story: Scott first discovered Alyson’s Facebook profile through a mutual friend…you know just browsing around.  He instantly wanted to get to know her and through a shared love of the same bands he was able to get her attention.  The pair started as friends and after just three months of dating, Scott surprised Alyson with a proposal in front of family and friends.  Alyson was too shocked for it to sink in right away, but once it did she was thrilled!

For Scott and Alyson’s engagement session we ventured to Los Angeles’ warehouse district for an urban photo shoot.  We caught some gorgeous afternoon light and even made friends with a few of the local characters…All in a day’s work when you shoot downtown!  Congrats Scott and Alyson! xo Tanya

You can see more of our Downtown Los Angeles Engagement Photography at www.distinctphoto.com

Incoming search terms:

• downtown la engagement photos
• los angeles engagement photo ideas
• downtown la engagemen
• downtown la engagement shoot
• downtown la photo shoot wedding
• downtown los angeles engagement