John W. Farrand Photography Blog

We are so excited to be shooting Anna and Andrew’s wedding coming up in just a couple months!  We wanted to do a little “warm-up” session with them, so they can get used to how it feels in front of our camera.  I think they’re doing just fine.

See for yourself.

BTW, the lettering on the thumbnail for this post came directly from their wedding invitation designer Cassie Poe.  Thanks Cassie for letting me use your amazing hand-drawn typography!

Melissa and I are so lucky to meet some amazing and beautiful people in this profession.  When we met Jessica and James, we knew we’d met some truly special people.  FUN people!  On top of being some of the sweetest people we’ve met, these two love to laugh, they love each other, and they love Disneyland!  Which is okay with us, of course!

When I look through these images, I’m reminded of how much fun we had bumming around the parks that day.  It didn’t matter that we didn’t have our normal sunny Disneyland weather, nothing could dampen the fun beaming from these two!  Enjoy!

We’re REALLY looking forward to Jessica and James’ wedding in 2015!

What an experience this was!  At work last week, Tivon pulled Melissa aside and said, “I’ve been dying to tell SOMEONE!”

He pulled out the ring box, opened it and said, “I’m going to propose to Brandi this weekend!  Is there ANY way you guys can make it down?”

Well, lets see… Disneyland, engage…. of forget the reasons!  Of course we’ll be there!!  “We’ll find a way!”  Melissa told him excitedly, after catching her breath.

So here we have it, two amazing people who have chosen to spend their lives together… AND they’re planning an amazing wedding in a special place, but I won’t share that here just yet.  We’ll probably do an official engagement session soon with these two, but wow!  What an emotionally exciting day this was!!

Tivon told us as we were getting on the Carousel that he was going to do it, Melissa and I both experienced small heart stoppages.  We were excited and nervous for him, and didn’t want to spoil it with our excitement.  We tested our best poker faces.  Apparently it worked, because Brandi had no idea!  If you look at the third picture down, you’ll notice Tivon pulling the box out of his Chewbacca backpack, then “counting down” with his fingers behind his back (I only got “two” sadly).  After he opens the ring box to Brandi, she didn’t notice at first.

I love the last picture.. I was walking behind them, and Tivon just raised his arm winningly.

Thank you Tivon and Brandi for letting us be apart of this special moment in your lives, it was definitely special to us.  We are honored.

Melissa and I have loved our recent photo sessions in Disneyland.  I always get a little nervous before an engagement session though.  As a photographer, the engagement session is your first opportunity to actually *work* together with your clients after your first interactions and meeting.  It’s kind of like a second date.. and when the first [date] goes so well.. the bar is set high!  Especially when that second date is Disneyland!

Well, only 5 minutes into us meeting in California Adventure, I knew I had nothing to worry about with these two.  What fun they were to shoot!  We hit it off immediately and we hit the ground running, literally!  We were running against the sun, as it didn’t want to hang around long.  Eventually a bank of clouds rolled in right before sunset, but we did find some great locations to take advantage of the sun as it peeked through.

These two had so much fun, and Daniel really knows how to bring out the joy in Serena, as you can see in this set.  We were all laughing and having a blast together.  Thank you Daniel and Serena for the fun time, and we are ecstatic about your Bakersfield wedding in October!

I think it’d been around 10 years since I last saw Gaby.  At that time, I was studying photography at Cal State Northridge.  Through the years, Gaby has been a great supporter of my work.  So it was really fun to catch up with an old friend to take some photos of her and her awesome fiancee Chris, in sweet Santa Barbara!

I can’t believe I’ve never visited this great town.  For those of you who have been to Santa Barbara, know what I’m talking about.. It’s just cool there!  :) If you haven’t been, and are capable of visiting… do it!

Gaby and Chris plan on having their wedding in October of this year, and we CAN’T WAIT to be a part of that!

Well, enough from me.. enjoy these sweet pictures of two really cool people, in a cool town.  It’s just too bad that my pictures weren’t able to capture Chris’ Australian accent!

CHEERS!

btw.. That out of focus picture is actually where their wedding will be!  We got to see it in action.. so cool!  I just left that in as a tease.  :)

You may remember Jeremy and Michelle from their sweet Disneyland Engagement Session.  Well, before we made it into the park we got to hang out at Starbucks for a little while before we braved the huge crowds in the park.  So this is a little Engagement Session inside of another Engagement Session!  Disneyland with these two was so much fun… our time at Starbucks was amazing… these people are basically amazingly fun people.

We can’t wait until your wedding at the Bell Tower Club in November, Jeremy and Michelle!

In case you couldn’t guess from the title of this post…  Fair warning: It includes gratuitous pictures of people in love, in The Happiest Place On Earth (can I get sued for using that title?).

Fun. Epic. Busy.

That about describes the 2 fantastic days we all got to spend together.. in Disneyland.  Melissa and I have been itching to shoot a couple in Disneyland for some time now.  Jeremy and Michelle are almost as obsessed with Disneyland as we are!  Knowing they had gotten engaged at Disneyland we knew we had to try.  We casually (read: not so subtly) mentioned that there was a “strong possibility” we could all hang out at Disneyland, and call it an “Engagement Session.”

We had So. Much. Fun!  These two are hilarious!

It was everything we hoped it could be, and BUSY.  The park was so packed!  We didn’t really expect the park to be as full as it was, but whatever.. We had a blast!  The thing I love most about these images is to see Jeremy and Michelle’s honest feelings for each other.  They’re just pretty people inside and out… and as you can tell, they just adore each other.

Anyone would be lucky to call these two friends, and after this trip.. We get to.  :)

We can’t be more excited for their wedding this November!

PS.. It was tough to work around the crowds, BUT I was able to do a little homage to one of my favorite pictures of Walt Disney.  See if you know which one I’m talking about… ;)

I am so excited for these two to get married!  When we were at Hart Park together we talked a lot about the wedding.  Wedding planning can be so frustrating at times, but ultimately it’s exciting! These two are so in love and looking forward to it.

Andrew is one of the nicest guys you could ever meet, and as you may notice in these pictures he adores Taryn.  I’ve known Taryn for a few years now because she’s my cousin, well sort of.  I married her cousin.  :)  I hope you enjoy these pictures as much as I enjoyed spending this time with these beautiful people.

C’mon August!