Shannon Montez Photography Blog » San Jose's Family and Child Photographer, Shannon Montez, captures all aspects of family life: Families, newborns, children, babies, high school seniors, and weddings.

Vanessa and Jason are two of the sweetest, kindest, most beautiful (inside and out) people. They are deeply religious and I love how their faith was a huge element in their wedding. It was truly inspiring.

You may have noticed I have a thing for big trees with the sun shining through them. I can’t help it, I love it.

I love the look on his face as she walked down the aisle.

Is this getting old yet? I just think it makes such a nice parting shot…

When Salene called me to talk about her upcoming wedding, I was SO excited! The wedding was going to be held at the ranch Dave runs… Big barn. Dinner in the courtyard. Boots. FUN!! These two are so full of personality and are so great together. They had a really amazing wedding day and they care so much for each other. It was a really amazing day.

Dave (my Dave) took this one of the guys. I really like it!

Salene’s kids. Have you ever seen cuter kids? I was tempted to just follow them around the whole day and capture their cuteness.

The perfect setting…

This shot cracks me up.

They brought these fake teeth. Hilarious!

Mr. Man got all tuckered out.

A good old-fashioned barn dance!

Playing with light again…

A little warm-up post as I get back in the habit of blogging daily!

As I was preparing Salene and Dave’s wedding, I couldn’t decide which ringshot to share… So why not just share them as a set? Ta. Da.

I’ll share the rest of the wedding tomorrow!

(You know, once I’m all rested up from all my bike shopping and obsessing… still no new bike, but I did play with a few!)

This was *such* a fun time. Molly worked with my sister several years ago. One day, she was cruising her favorite scrapbooking website, Two Peas in a Bucket, and saw a picture of my sister on a page. My page. Funny coincidence! She followed my scrapbooking for several years, then my photography. I was so thrilled and honored that she wanted me to shoot her wedding enough to fly me (and Dave) out to Pennsylvania! It was the first time Dave and I had taken a trip together since having kids. Can you believe it? We enjoyed it so much. I’ll share that part later. But for now, Molly and Bryan!

I really love these shoes. Fun and casual. Perfect.

LOOOVE these flowers.

Bryan’s daughter was a huge part of the day. It was so beautiful watching them become a family. It wasn’t two people joining, it was three. It was beautiful. I love the small version of the bouquet for little missy.

Getting pretty…

I love the little photographer.

I love this shot of Molly and her sisters.

Happiness.

Some details.

Moments before Molly pulled up to the venue… Love this father/daughter moment.

Molly pulled up in the amazing old car (her dad’s!)

I can’t even tell you how lucky we got this day. It was POURING. Pouring pouring pouring. It magically stopped long enough for her to get into the tent, then poured some more. In fact, much of the time during the ceremony, we could barely hear what they were saying, the rain was so intense and loud. Part of me was enjoying beautiful moments like these:

And another part of me was dying over the fact that she brought me across the entire country to be there for her wedding, to take beautiful pictures of her, and we were going to be stuck in the tent because the weather was just so crazy. I was praying that the rain would stop for just a little while so I could get her some pretty shots to make her investment worth it!

God listened. As soon as the ceremony ended, the rain stopped. We ran outside, hoping to get any pics we could during the pause.

To me, it felt like a miracle. I was so relieved to be able to capture these (and more) images!

The speeches were really touching. Everyone was in tears.

All of their rings…

The guys had some fun…

Dancing… man and wife…

Father and daughter…

I love this shot from the father/daughter dance… The ground was so saturated and muddy from the rain that in spots you could sink in the mud up to your ankles. They weren’t concerned… it didn’t dampen the fun at all, probably even added to it!

It was such a beautiful, amazing day. It was so wonderful to be a part!

(this was not photoshopped…)

Carol and Eric. Two total GEMS. I completely love the entire energy about them. They are so relaxed, so funny, so totally into each other. I just loved being around them.

I love the joy on Carol’s face here. And the cool design that happened to be on the wall behind her.

Some details:

I love this shot, seeing herself in the dress, and her mom sharing the frame, also admiring how great she looks.

This guy is hilarious. I don’t know if I’ve ever laughed so much at a wedding…

That picture behind him on the wall? From my first wedding, Eric’s sister, with her dad who unfortunately died a few months before the wedding. It seemed so fitting to have it there at that moment in that shot.

Have you ever seen a more adorable ring bearer?

Even the officiant was hilarious.

During the ceremony, he quoted the line from Juno, where the dad is giving advice to his daughter: “Look, in my opinion, the best thing you can do is find a person who loves you for exactly what you are. Good mood, bad mood, ugly, pretty, handsome, what have you, the right person is still going to think the sun shines out your ass. That’s the kind of person that’s worth sticking with.”

Serious laughter and tears during this ceremony. Eric’s vows were so funny. And so sweet. I love when I can laugh and cry in the space of a minute.

Check out the adorable ringbearer hiding out on her dress during the ceremony. This is their dog, and it seemed so fitting that it was so close.

I love the first happy moment as man and wife… getting announced as such for the first time.

This sign was a neighbors, and dated back to World War II.

We snuck into the back of a restaurant where there was a van seat just waiting for beautiful wedding portraits. This is totally them… the contrast between romantic and funny.

Their first dance. Oh my gosh… it was hilarious.

The Worm in a wedding dress? Are you kidding me? It was so awesome.

No cake, they had fondue. Eric doing fondue with his classic style.

Carol, Eric… thanks so much for inviting me along on such a fun, touching beautiful amazing day!

Funny thing… Katie was checking out wedding photographers and was set to book me, showed her fiancee John my website. He realized my last name was familiar… because he works with my husband. Weird, huh? Small world!

Katie and John are beautiful people and theirs was a beautiful day. This is going to be a long post, but I just have lots of favorites!

Father and son getting-ready time… awww…. precious…

Mission San Jose is SOOO cool. (actually, it was kind of hot, but you know what I mean!)

What’s up with the random jumpers here? Cracks me up.

This may be my favorite reception shot ever…

It ends well, though.

Shannon and Jason!! First of all, fabulous name for a bride, don’t you think? Not only does she have a fabulous name, she is a REALLY fabulous person. And so is Jason. Shannon is a graphic designer, she designed her own invites, and printed them out on her OWN letterpress machine. I almost died when she told me that. I have a tiny obsession with letterpress.

Their wedding took place the latter part of June in Livermore. We hit at least 104 that day, but it was totally ok. We had so much fun we hardly noticed that we were melting a bit. I was just loving the whole amazing day…

Goooorgeous…..

The beautiful, delicious invites… I don’t feel right showing the whole thing with their full names, but just take my word for it… amazing.

I love the perspective of this shot… Shannon making her way down the aisle, with  Jason and the priest watching…

Their first dance was beautiful… a real, choreographed dance. Love it!

A sweet moment caught during the dance…

You can check out the entire slideshow here.

In case you’re looking for my wedding work, I inadvertently deleted it from my website. I’m making some changes, putting up a new website dedicated just to my wedding work. So, rather than trying to fix my overeager mistake, I’ll just have to wait a few days to get it up and running. But in the meantime, I just had to mention that I haven’t given up shooting weddings. I still love it. In fact, here’s an image from a wedding this summer that I’ll be sharing soon.

I think this is my new favorite “first kiss” shot. I love that you can see the people that are supporting this union standing in support. When I look at it, I feel like I’m also standing in support. (which I am…) Dave likely caught this shot, but I can’t remember for sure. He’s become an awesome photographer, and if it wasn’t for insurance and 401k that he gets at his other job, I’d be tempted to bring him on full-time with me.

Words can’t describe how much I love these guys. Hopefully pictures can.

Their wedding was amazing. So emotional, so beautiful, so genuine. I felt so honored to be a part. The wedding took place at a historic farm called Ardenwood Park. It was the *perfect* location… rustic and majestic. I was DYING over the beautiful light and towering trees. Still am, actually, when I look at the images! Ok… here goes… (it was so hard to narrow this down)

Alyssa and Albert decided to do a “first look” and see each other before the ceremony. I can not recommend doing this enough!! It was so touching and special for them to have that first moment privately and be able to connect before the ceremony. The stress melted away. I was tearing up behind the camera watching them.

We also had time to get a bunch of the portraits done so that they were able to spend more time with their guests and enjoy the day…

A couple from the beautiful, emotional ceremony…

Laughter to tears…

Love this look from her mother and father.

A few minutes after becoming man and wife.

Have you ever seen a more beautiful wedding dinner? With a mariachi band? Are you KIDDING me? So fun.

Even SUPERMAN made an appearance! (ok… it was actually Alyssa’s nephew)

First dance.

The dance with Dad was touching…

Ok… enough for the blog. But here’s the slideshow if you’d like to see more!

Katie and Kevin got married. (in May!) They had such a fun, unique, personal wedding. It was small and intimate, with a vintage feel. You may notice a lot of my images have a vintage look to them for this wedding, I think it was just inspired by the feel of the day… classic, timeless, sentimental, beautiful.

Her dress was so cool. I loved all the ruffles and the shorter length. SO fun!

Cool flowers. Cooool hair.

She got ready at the Old Monterey Inn… the historic building was the perfect backdrop. As was the seaside park for the ceremony. Complete with an accordian player!

Katie’s dad was the officiant. I loved that.

The first kiss…

Officially hitched!

And an impromptu kiss at the end of the aisle…

Same spot, not sure which composition I prefer… This?

or this?

The lovely couple.

The reception was held in a cool historic home that was small and intimate for dinner and socializing. The reception was fun and relaxed, just their closest friends and family enjoying each others’ company. Perfect.

Awesome day.  If you’d like to view the entire slideshow, here’s the link!