Intimate winter wedding at Hotel deLuxe, Portland OR

Crista and James are an awesome couple! The are successful in life, completely in love with each other, surrounded by genuinely wonderful family members and friends... Photographing their wedding day this past January 5th 2013 at the fabulously Hollywood-style Hotel deLuxe, was a huge pleasure! [I want to give a big shout out to my friend Alan Weiner for helping me out at this wedding with his second shooting assistance!] This was our first wedding of our 2013 season and we can honestly say that we started off with a bang ;) It was a quaint, little wedding. Only the core people in Crista and James' life was in attendance. They actually travelled from Washington DC to get married here in Portland! It was truly a cozy and fun day, that I'll remember for ever. Thank you Crista & James!

Special thanks to an awesome crew of wedding vendor peeps, who never stop being awesome ;)

Getting ready and ceremony : Hotel deLuxe, Portland Oregon
Reception : Gracie's Dining at Hotel deLuxe, Portland Oregon
Florals : Floral Designs by Alicia
DJ : D-Moe-Funk (Dan Moe)

Friends and Family! Thank you for making me feel so welcome at their wedding. It was a pleasure working with you! Please click on this link here ( http://pictage.com/1258823 ) to sign up for their wedding gallery. Once the images are all ready, you will receive an email announcement. You'll then be able to see them all! Thank you!

SW Portland Urban Winter Engagement Session!

Crista and James are FUN! We had been communicating via email for months (since they live out of state). When we finally met in person, two days ago, it was as if we had known each other for ever! We totally bonded and had a blast on their engagement session... and their wedding is today! ;)

Here is a sneak peek of their engagement session. It was a non-rainy day in Portland (which is rare for this time of year!) but it was COLD! We all bundled up and had a blast walking around SW Portland, near their hotel. I predict a fun-filled wedding day today with them!

Bella Italia!

Back in May of 2012, I travelled to my home town of Rome (and visited Umbria which is where my parents have a home). I was there for 2 week, visiting family and friends. It had been 9 years since I was there last. You can only imagine the tears of joy flowing from my eyes when I landed and began to hear Italian being spoken all around me.

As this 2012 year coms to an end, I feel that collages of highlights of travels and shoots we've had the pleasure of taking part of, must be posted... so many memories to share with you!

To see much larger images of many more details of my trip to Italia, please click on this link.

Wedding Bouquet Trends in our 2012 Wedding Season!

Wedding bouquets are all beautiful! They reflect the bride's mood, style and personality. Florals are subjective and, while each year seems to see trends, they are all somewhat different. We love to photograph them! They are part of the whole adventure in wedding planning, and in the end, they complete a bride's attire. Here are a handful of the floral bouquets and arrangements witnessed and photographed by us here at MoscaPhoto, throughout our 2012 wedding season. May this post serve you as inspiration for your own upcoming wedding! If you need recommendations for incredibly talented wedding florists in the Portland area, scroll to right below the image collage!

In no particular order, here are the wonderful florists we have had the pleasure to work with and get to know throughout our 2012 wedding season:

Floral Designs by Alicia
Blum Design in Flowers
Sophisticated Floral Design and Accessories
Petalos
Lucy's Informal Flowers
Bloomsbury
Your Perfect Blossoms
Tammy's Floral

Happy Holidays! Timberline Lodge, snowy and lovely Engagement Session!

Timberline Lodge is a stunning place. Full of history and warm comfort. It's a local destination for many Oregon and Washington residents who love the snow and love to ski. It's also a popular destination for shoots such as this fun engagement session (and of course, weddings)! 

Stephanie & Josh live in another state and are in Oregon to visit family. They stayed at Timberline Lodge over the weekend, which is when we drove up to meet them for their session. It was BEAUTIFUL and FUN exploring the place and getting to know them! Genuine souls, grateful for life and long-time sweethearts. We had posted one quick image as a sneak peek two days ago, but now we're ready to show you many more! 

Today is December 25th 2012, so... if you celebrate: HAPPY HOLIDAYS to everyone, and especially to Stephanie & Josh, featured here! ;) If you don't celebrate: LOVE AND PEACE TO YOU AND YOURS!

Timberline Lodge Winter Engagement Session!

This is one suuuper quick, single-image, sneak peek! As we work on the rest of the images from our session with Stephanie & Josh from yesterday, here is one that really shows the beautiful winter wonderland that surrounded the two of them. Timberline Lodge was gracious enough to let us photograph on their premises, inside and out. We started off inside and then moved to the outside towards the end. It was FUN! Stephanie & Josh are sweethearts and live out of state. They came to spend the weekend at the beautiful lodge, which is WONDERFUL because we LOVE to drive up there in the winter! So much snow and great energy. Can't wait to show you more!

Salton Sea, California

Not many places in the world are like this place. The Salton Sea has always fascinated me. It's story from it's accidental creation, to the good 'ol days during mid-century times, and it's demise due to pollution and neglect. I've read just about everything there is to know about this place and it's even more intriguing now! When we were in Palm Springs last week,  we decided to take a half-day trip to the lake. We had to choose which side (east or west) to see, since we didn't have much time left in the day. We chose on the east side and went straight to a place called Bombay Beach, CA. 300 people still live here and swear by it. An earthen levi was built to protect "the town" from flooding toxic waters. This is what remains of the old town, on the other side of the barrier. I wish the light had been better for photos, but I sure know for a fact that we will return and will explore much, much further.