Tahoe Wedding Photography at the Cedar House Sport Hotel (Elizabeth & Matt got Hitched!)

We have so many images I want to share with you from this wedding I am going to break up this preview post into two posts. The first will be today, and the second later on in the week. I'll tell you more about Elizabeth & Matt's experience in that post, because really, this wedding was BEAUTIFUL. I cried at their ceremony, which was so beautiful and I want to tell you all about it! (But I can't talk about me being an idiot and the love birds in the same post... it's.... wrong. lol)

This was also my first fully Jewish wedding ceremony, which was very special. I've had many weddings which incorporated one aspect or another of the Jewish faith (the Chuppah, the breaking of the glass), but none which included as many traditions as this- I think we just about had it all! And I want you to see it all! So hang tight! :)

See Elizabeth & Matt's San Francisco and Presidio engagement session HERE.
(And read of my previous tales of dorkery)

This is also my BIRTHDAY MONTH and I would LOVE to hit 1,000 fans by my birthday on the 24th! Can you help? Become a Facebook Fan, or recommend EHP to your friends and family and let's see if we can hit that goal! Fingers crossed!

Elizabeth & Matt's "First Look" before their ceremony. Stunning! I love first looks!














Cutest picture of a bride, EVER! And that garter is AWESOME!















I was really determined this time that I was not going to screw up and look like an idiot in front of Elizabeth. As you know, Elizabeth and Matt are my designated couple-of-the-year whom (thank goodness I'm getting this over with early in the year, eh?) I like to make an idiot of myself in front of. Their wedding day was on Saturday in Truckee, just outside of Tahoe, and I was definitely going to break the streak.

Since it was going to be a long drive, and I hadn't had my oil changed in over 12,000 miles (guesstimated), and at least since last June, I decided I better do that. So crack o'dawn on Saturday it was. They charged me for extra oil since I was like, you know, running OUT. I got 30 pounds of air in my tires and the outside of my windows washed. (Why not the inside? That's where my beagle does all of his "nose art" ???) Fabulous.

I had overnighted two beautiful new lenses, totaling about $1200 that I was excited to try out (I'd tried out the more expensive $1500 Carl Zeiss lens at Sandy & Ryan's wedding last year, but couldn't handle the big price tag going into off-season. So how about the off-brand at the beginning of the season? I got an auto-focus and a [much cheaper] manual focus.) My bags were packed, I was dressed, I even had a turkey sandwich and a yogurt on hand so I could avoid the golden arches on the drive up there. Beautiful.

I walk out the door with all my crap, get in the car, drive around the corner and then it starts...

SCREECH!!!!!!!!!!

Memory cards on the table.

Flip a U, walk back in for the cards. Not there... Hmmm. Oh! On the floor. Cat knocked them down. I crawl around on the floor looking for the cards when I feel a light breeze. As I turn my head back, I see my front door wiiiiide freakin' open. MY FREAKING CAT AND MY INSANE BEAGLE ARE GONE. (My goody two shoes girly cat is still asleep inside, but the boys- GONE.)

I scream and run outside. No dog, no cat in sight. I start running around like a lunatic, screaming for the dog. My neighbors stare at me. (I would too.) But come on. My dog is a BEAGLE. You know what beagles do? They RUN AWAY. My childhood dog? Beagle. How did we get him? He wandered into our yard after running away from his family who we never found. How many times did he run away? 7 days a week. How did I get this beagle? I found him running in traffic after he ran away from his family, who I never found. How many times does he run away? Every damn chance he gets. Poop, poop, poop, POOP, POOP, POOP!

Finally one of my Spanish-speaking neighbors starts yelling in my direction (I do French, German and ASL, no Spanish) and pointing, and there is my collarless beast, pissing on flowers. I shriek, he pees harder. I run, he runs. Then I remember our lesson from Remedial Puppy First Grade: "Emergency Recall."

"Charlie, Hurry, HURRY, HURRY, HURRY!"

The little bastard spins on a dime, HUGE smile on his face and runs right for me, and jumped into my arms. It was so cute, I almost didn't call him a "something-hole."

Almost.

When we got to the porch, the cat, Toulouse, was sniffing flowers. As soon as he saw me he thought he better make a run for it too, lest recess be cut short. But I grabbed him by the back leg (making him scream bloody murder) and dragged him out and threw both of those nasty, nasty boys back in the house, much to the disappointment of their sister, who I am sure had been hoping her time as a single-house pet had come. (She prays fervently every day.)

So I got out of the house. Walk back to the car. Noooooo memory cards. Back to the house for the memory cards. Get the memory cards. Okay, in the car. Nooo gas. Argh! Gas, got gas. Twenty minutes late! And 45 minutes of driving WAY over the speed limit later, I wonder...

Where did I put those $1200 lenses?

...I pat around the back seat.

Nope.

ARGH.

Are you KIDDING me?!

Sitting on the coffee table at home. In their boxes so they would be protected from my little heathen, devil-child pets. No fancy lenses for me. ARGH!

I am really pleased to say though, that I broke my speeding streak. The last three times I've driven through this area, I've gotten pulled over. Every. Single. Time. I don't do so well with that (they offer to call me ambulances I "don't do so well with that," so much so. My sweetheart worked in that profession, and those people give me panic attacks now. Fun!) so I was really proud of myself that I knew to only speed going UP the hills, and go like, 20 going down the hills.

Okay, 65.

It might have been 70.

Come, ON! I'm from southern California! 75, 80mph is not speeding! Only in the mountains do you get pulled over for that! Okay, with ice on the roads, I understand (it freaks me out too) but in good weather, come on! lol

So, since I pulled into my parking space a whole two minutes early ( I was seriously BEAMING with pride) after my exciting drive (speed, BRAKE, speed, BRAKE, speed, BRAKE!) I figured this would be the end of my disasters.

Until I walked into the room and the groom's sister pointed out the sticker on my sweater indicating size was still on. (At least it wasn't a double XL. Only a medium. Phew.) And I pulled the price tag off myself, super stealthfully so I'm sure no one noticed me clawing my hands frantically down my back once I realized I hadn't hidden the evidence of my new purchase.

In junior high in the locker room a girl I didn't know turned to me once, pointed at my shorts and said, "Are those new?" VERY defensively I said, "NO! They are WAY old!" Because it would have been totally uncool for me to wear new clothes to school. Later in the bathroom at the end of the day I looked down at my shorts. Price tag, sticker, size. The works. Stamped on my butt. I'd walked around ALL DAY like that. Awesome.

Anyway, I made it all the way until the reception until I knocked over the entire seating chart display by getting crowded by the door and hitting it with one of my three cameras. Glitter alllll over the floor. Name tags everywhere. Luckily just about everybody was already in their seats and most of the names had been taken already. Dodged a bullet there.

All in all, not bad. My biggest regret is when I walked out I grabbed a napkin, and for good measure, threw a lonely looking mini-cheesecake on it (it was very sad, and lonely, and I'm sure it had some fuzz on it, so I'm positive no one wanted it) because I wasn't sure I would be using the whole napkin for my gum and I didn't want to waste the paper (this was a green wedding you see) so I put the little baby cheesecake on it... and really... my biggest regret I didn't take two. Or five. Because that was the best flippin' cheesecake I'd ever had in my life.

Oh, and that I left my battery charger plugged in at the venue and drove all the way home before I remembered.

This is also my BIRTHDAY MONTH and I would LOVE to hit 1,000 fans by my birthday on the 24th! Can you help? Become a Facebook Fan, or recommend EHP to your friends and family and let's see if we can hit that goal! Fingers crossed!