carlie statsky photography

rea & erick | napa engagement session at paraduxx

Carlie Statsky — Sat, 12 May 2012 17:00:47 +0000

I love the adventure and inspiration of shooting at a new location, and Rea and Erick could not have chosen a more beautiful and personal location than the Napa winery called Paraduxx where they’re both wine club members. This was my first chance to meet these two and the second that I saw them arrive with their great smiles, their adorable dog named Sammy, and in outfits that I wanted to steal for myself and my husband, I knew that it was going to be a great shoot. We were so lucky to have to the whole place to ourselves for most of the afternoon, surrounded only by a sense of serenity and all of those gorgeous view. Rea and Erick are so easy to be be around, and so sweet too (when we had finished the shoot they handed me a gift bag filled with a bottle of Paraduxx wine. That was so thoughtful and unnecessarily generous of them…I felt like I was the one who should be giving them a thank you gift!) Of course now I’m even more excited for their Clos La Chance winery wedding later in the fall. I only wish they could bring Sammy that day too!

melissa & casey’s clos la chance wedding | 7 x 7 SF feature

Carlie Statsky — Mon, 07 May 2012 19:07:15 +0000

Melissa & Casey’s elegant and beautiful Clos La Chance winery wedding was featured on 7 x 7 today! Click here to see the full post.

jackie & matt | pasatiempo wedding preview | santa cruz

Carlie Statsky — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 18:10:57 +0000

Jackie and Matt flew out from Tennessee to get married at Pasatiempo in Santa Cruz this past weekend and they got the idyllic Californian weather that they deserved. Gabe and I absolutely loved spending the day documenting their beautiful wedding, here’s a little sneak peek from the golden hour…more to come!

i do venues feature | clos la chance wedding

Carlie Statsky — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 04:06:51 +0000

I Do Venues is a great resource for couples trying to find their ideal wedding venue. They feature all of the Bay Area’s very best venues and they just did another post today featuring Marilyn & Jason’s bright and beautiful Clos La Chance wedding. See the full post here, or my blog post about the wedding here.

shannon & jeff | los altos engagement session

Carlie Statsky — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 18:13:01 +0000

Shannon just might hold the record for most the photogenic eyes I’ve ever photographed. Add to that her great taste in outfits and locations and some engagement session magic was created. I loved every one of the locations that Shannon & Jeff chose for their spring engagement session. They both grew up in Los Altos so we started at their hometown library where the cherry blossoms were in full bloom. Then we headed across the street to their favorite lunch spot that they always have visit every time they come home to get their deli sandwich fix. Then after another quick outfit change we headed for the hills to capture these two so comfortably in love in such a romantic and classically Californian looking location. The light was absolutely perfect and everything just seemed to flow so smoothly throughout the whole afternoon. I know their wedding at the Oceano Hotel in Half Moon Bay later this year is going to be just as amazing!

ruffled feature | thomas fogarty winery wedding

Carlie Statsky — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 19:02:26 +0000

I’m so excited for my first feature on one of my favorite wedding blogs, Ruffled today thanks to the amazing vision of Shannon & Richard and all of the vendors who made their wedding such a beautiful one. You can see the full post and vendor credit list here.

kendra & nick | vintage travel engagement session

Carlie Statsky — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 19:47:44 +0000

Kendra and Nick both live in Germany and both share a love of traveling, while Nick has his pilot’s license and a passion for aircraft after all those hours spent up in the sky…so these two couldn’t have chosen a more perfect theme for their wedding and engagement session than ‘vintage travel.’ I always love it when a couple use their engagement session to show who they are and what they’re interested in, and Kendra and Nick did an amazing job doing just that by choosing an airport as the location for the engagement photos. Once we got there, Nick helped tow his favorite plane into place, and then we had the best time running all around this lovely little airstrip in the countryside filled with old prop planes and helicopters. I loved that Kendra brought along some beautiful vintage suitcases and that we had airplanes taking off and landing all around us while I captured these two in love. I’m beyond excited to see their vintage travel theme continued at their wedding at Rancho Soquel later this summer, because I know it will be as personal, unique and super fun as their engagement session was!

the fritsch family | carmel portrait session

Carlie Statsky — Sat, 24 Mar 2012 18:56:38 +0000

I absolutely adore this family and their photogenic ways. This is the second year in a row that I’ve done their holiday photos and and I love getting to watch their sweet daughter Millie go from smiling in their arms one year, to running around and exploring all over the beach the next. Between her outfits and her expressions, she could not possibly be any cuter, and neither could her parents. For the first half of the shoot I got to re-visit their beautiful home in the hills of Carmel and then we drove down to their local beach for the rest of the afternoon. I left this session feeling so lucky that I get to document the growth of such a lovely family.

sarah & gloria | seymour marine center | santa cruz wedding

Carlie Statsky — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 22:20:01 +0000

It was such an honor to document this wedding! Sarah and Gloria are two people so in love, and experiencing their wedding day only affirmed my belief that we should all have the right to marry whomever we choose to. Sarah and Gloria are both incredibly kind, creative and conscious people, and everything about their wedding seemed to reflect those qualities. They chose to have their wedding at the Seymour Marine Discovery Center in Santa Cruz because they share a love of the California coast and they liked the fact that part of the proceeds from their booking went towards marine habitat preservation. They had planned on holding their ceremony outside overlooking the ocean, but just as the ceremony was scheduled to begin, it started to rain and was moved inside next to the aquarium at the last minute. I love that Sarah and Gloria gracefully rolled with the change of plans, and everyone stayed nice and warm throughout their emotional ceremony. One of my favorite moments of the day was seeing Sarah’s Dad embrace the two of them right after the ceremony, and feeling the love and support that Sarah’s parents showed Gloria and her relationship with their daughter. Sarah owns a scrapbooking supply store called Our Paper Place and she used her amazing crafting skills to create the most awesome hand-swen wedding programs I’ve ever seen, as well as many other details that made the event feel so personal. There was a wall of photos telling the story of their lives that was shaped into a giant heart, a curtain made of origami whales, table signs named after different ocean dwelling species and custom stickers used to close the boxes full of hand-made cookies that each guest got to go home with. Just to show what kind of people Sarah and Gloria are; they thanked absolutely everyone in their speech, including their photographer and insisted that we sit with their guests for dinner and take home a box of those delicious cookies. Every time I take my kids to visit the Seymour Discovery Center now I’ll think of this day with the fondest memories!

vendor credits:

florist: Frederick James luxuries http://fvjluxuries.com/

caterer: Andrea from lifestyle culinary artshttp://www.lifestyleculinary.com/

cake: Stephanie from the Cake Shoppe http://www.chefany.com/chefany.com/Welcome.html

rentals: Alexis party rentals

vesna & stephen | palm event center wedding

Carlie Statsky — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 22:34:13 +0000

I’m happy to say that my first wedding of the year was a great one. We were blessed with blue skies and warm weather that winter’s afternoon and I loved shooting at the Palm Event Center for the first time ever. Vesna and Stephen chose to do a first look so that we could enjoy some of the sunshine and vineyard views before their sunset ceremony inside of a cozy, candlelit barrel room. Vesna’s family is originally from Macedonia, and one of my absolute favorite moments of the day was when this beautiful traditional Macedonian music began as Vesna started to walk down the aisle. The entire front row was filled with family and the moment they caught site of Vesna and her father approaching they all burst into tears, only to have Vesna’s mom start handing tissues out to everyone…so sweet! After the ceremony came a great party filed with lots of Macedonian dancing, mounds of candy, photobooth antics and some fun games including Stephen being blindfolded and asked to identify his wife’s legs among the lineup. I have to thank my wonderful assistant Julie Cahill for helping me document the day, some of her images are included below. Vesna and Stephen, you both deserved a day like that one and I wish you both a lifetime of happiness together!