Sarah Maren Photography

lisa and steven {esession}

Sarah Maren — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 22:08:05 +0000

Lisa and Steven are just delightful! We had such a lovely afternoon hanging out with these two! They are getting married in Yosemite in May and we can’t wait to be a part of it. Their wedding is being coordinated by the wonderful Kate Miller Events so it’s bound to be flat out stunning. And with a couple as sassy as this, how can we go wrong?

Lisa and Steven THANK YOU for being so awesome! We loved hanging out with you, and seriously can’t wait for your wedding. Check out the SLIDESHOW HERE for more pictures of this fabulous pair.

Hey! Look what I’m making! {personal}

Sarah Maren — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 00:39:20 +0000

So I’ve been going back and forth about writing this post for a couple of months. Part of me wants to shout it from the rooftops, and then there is another part of me that wants to keep it to myself. The rooftop shouter won out, as she so often does with me. That’s right, I’m making a person! A little boy to be exact who will be joining us sometime in July. While we are SUPER excited for him to come live with us, he was not what I would call “planned.” I mean, do wedding photographers plan to have babies in the middle of the summer? The answer to that is no, no they don’t. But planned or not we are excited for this new addition to our little family. I mean, hello! Look at this face! What’s not to love?

I’ve never thought of myself as someone who liked being pregnant, but I must say this one has been pretty darn easy. No sickness, no weird cravings (though I am HIGHLY susceptible to suggestion when it comes to food), not even feeling too crazy tired. All and all it’s been a pretty awesome experience and I’m really over the moon. I’m shooting weddings right up until the end, but luckily I’m getting lots of help from my wonderful husband and my really amazing photographer friends who are shooting along with me in my final weeks. I can’t tell you how blessed I feel to be so supported by my partner in life, my dear friends and my sweet clients. Thank you all for being so awesome during this time. I’m taking a short maternity leave after my July 1 wedding and will back in action for fall weddings. We have three spots still available for 2010 so feel free to send us an email if you’re still looking for a photographer.

aimee and jarrod {esession}

Sarah Maren — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 21:50:59 +0000

I seriously don’t even know where to start with Aimee and Jarrod. I guess we could start with how much I freaking love them, how awesome they are, how they are seriously one of the cutest couples I’ve ever met in my life. I kinda adore everything about them. Add to that the fact that Aimee is my go to girl at Real Weddings Magazine, and her wedding is nothing short of a dream team of some of my favorite vendors ever, and really what is NOT to love? It’s pretty darn close to perfect if you ask me. And their eSession has made me SO excited for their wedding this May! I’m over the moon with these two!

Could these two have more gorgeous eyes? I was mesmerized the whole shoot! Plus, it’s always a joy shooting people who have crazy chemistry and won’t even BLINK when you tell them we’re basically shooting all day in places where our lives might be in moderate danger. I LOVE THEM!

I seriously love that last picture… Dustin grabbed that one and as always it’s one of my faves from the whole shoot. I love shooting with him because he sees things SO differently than I do.. it’s very fun.

Aimee and Jarrod! We adore you! And we are seriously so excited for your wedding this May! It’s going to be amazing! Thank you so much for having us be a part of your team. Take a look at more of their hotness in the SLIDESHOW HERE or below!

the best of friends {personal}

Sarah Maren — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 19:56:50 +0000

That up there, that is me and my best friend Jill. She and I have known each other for a LONG time… since 2nd grade actually. I remember the first time I met her… I thought she was really pretty and then I found out that she was a better reader than me and it kinda pissed me off. I was the best reader in school and then she just came outta nowhere and was all smart AND pretty! What the what? But, as the years went by we just ended up loving each other. Don’t get me wrong, there were some tense moments in our tween years but by the time high school started our friendship was pretty much set in stone. Along with that friendship came her awesome family who became like family to me. I didn’t have living grandparents, and Jill had a lot of them so I kind of adopted them. I didn’t have an older sister, she did though, so I did too. I didn’t have younger brothers to pack around on my hip, but Jill did and so they were my little brothers too. Jill was my rock. She was always the one who told me I would be great. She was (and IS) also the one who tells me when I’m being an ass. I don’t know where I would be without her, and I’m glad I don’t have to know.

Last week Jill’s great grandmother passed away at the age of 98. Monday was her funeral, and I made the trip up to Foresthill to be a part of the celebration of her life. It was an honor to stand with generations of her family who loved her, cherished her, and flat out adored her. I can only hope that my kids and grandkids will like me half as much as everyone loved Grandma J. One of the best things about the day was all the family pictures that everyone brought to share. It was incredible to see these images laid out so lovingly and with such care. It made my job just seem that much more important to me, and made me so grateful that I had been able to photograph families and events in people’s lives. It means the world to me that my job is to witness families be formed, grow and change. It humbles me to know that an image I created helps someone remember the love of their family. It is an honor to have that be my job.

Thank you Jill for being my BFF, and for treating me like family. It means everything to me.

rachel and darren {esession}

Sarah Maren — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 19:15:01 +0000

Rachel and Darren are ADORABLE! We seriously adore them and are so excited to be a part of their wedding. We met up with them at one of our favorite places The Shady Lady Saloon (where these two also had their engagement party) to start our shoot. It was a blast hanging out and hearing some REALLY hilarious stories. I love it when clients feel like friends we’ve had for years… it just makes me so stinkin’ happy.

How much do we love Rachel and her super cute expressions? Personally, I adore them.

As we were finishing up the shoot the sun decided to come join us and it was magic! Seriously, it had been SO LONG since we had actual honest to goodness sunshine during a shoot that Dustin and I went a bit crazy. I just need to remember that feeling in August when it’s ALL SUNSHINE ALL THE TIME! But seriously, how can you not LOVE light like this?

Rachel and Darren we LOVE YOU! Thank you so much for an amazing session and for making us love you even more than we already did. We are SOOOOO excited for your wedding and can’t wait to witness the beginning of your lives together as husband and wife! Hooray!
Check out the SLIDESHOW HERE or below for more super beautiful pictures of this perfect pair.

allyson and ben {wedding}

Sarah Maren — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 23:24:31 +0000

I don’t think there are enough words for how freaking awesome Allyson and Ben are. They are AMAZING and we LOVE them. Dustin and I were thrilled to shoot their wedding a little over a week ago. They were amazing to work with, and made our job so dang easy! It was fabulous. We arrived after most of the getting ready was over, but I loved catching a few shots of Allyson’s final preparations. Her mom and sisters were such a big help to her!

While I was busy with the ladies, Dustin got right down to business photographing the fellas. They are one handsome bunch.

And then it was First Look time. Oh how my heart flutters with first looks! We were afraid it was going to start pouring rain in the middle of them seeing each other, but Allyson and Ben braved the outdoors to see each other. Seriously, this is one of the best first looks we have ever witnessed… there was just electricity in the air. Ben was so anxious to see his bride - and I can’t blame him!

Already emotions were running high, and it was just out of this world! We had lots of time prior to the ceremony starting for portraits of our beautiful couple and their awesome bridal party. I so enjoyed every single one of them! It was a blast!

Then it was time for a little photo lovefest with Allyson and Ben. Holy moly these two are photogenic. I felt like I could do no wrong… just point and snap and MAGIC!

as I mentioned in their sneak peek, we did some of their portraits at a gun store. Thanks to the staff of Just Guns who were so cool with us crashing their story on a stormy Saturday. They let us do whatever we wanted and they pictures turned out super fun.

And then it was time to get these two married! I loved their ceremony… they read letters to each other, had friends share quotes and had a lot of tears and laughs. Perfect way to begin their lives together!

Then it was party time! And how cute is all the origami? Allyson’s cousin made their super cool cake topper and they had a tree full of paper cranes. I loved it!

I LOVE this picture of Allyson and her dad as they started their dance… and I even MORE love that Allyson’s mom joined in on the dance half way through. I’m TOTALLY doing that when my Lauren girl gets married.

Allyson and Ben THANK YOU for being so freaking over the top amazing. We LOVE that your wedding was the start of our 2010 season. Thank you for sharing your love with us, and for making us feel so much a part of your family. We love you guys and wish you a lifetime of happiness! Check out the SLIDESHOW HERE or below for more images of Allyson and Ben’s fabulous wedding.

Wedding and Reception Location and Catering: Croatian-American Cultural Center
Flowers: DIY
DJ: Family Friend with mad skills
Cake: Freeport Bakery
Bridal Hair and Makeup: Jessica Stine Spanish Fly Hair Garage

The Happiest Place {retro blogging: personal}

Sarah Maren — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 21:38:20 +0000

In the fall of last year, when things were crazy and all I wanted to do was throw my computer out the window I called Dustin in the middle of the day and said, “We are going to Disneyland next month. I’m booking it now.” He kindly didn’t stop me and I booked our very first family vacation. Dustin and I went to Disneyland on our honeymoon, but hadn’t been back since Lauren made her way into our lives. We were so excited because Lauren LOVES all things princess and she loves Mickey Mouse and The Castle. We made the mistake of telling her we were going WAY earlier than we should have, and it was all she talked about for WEEKS AND WEEKS! Finally, the day arrived and we made our way from the Disneyland hotel to the Magic Kingdom. Lauren RAN all the way to the Monorail station.

Here she is on the monorail! So excited to go see all her “friends.”

I honestly wasn’t very good at taking pictures on our trip because I was having a little too much fun, but I’m so glad for the shots I got. Lauren LOVED the rides, and loved the characters. We loved being there as she experienced it all for the first time. It was really, really awesome.

She LOVED meeting Mickey and Stitch at California Adventure and watching the High School Musical 3 parade. She LOVES HSM3 and knows ALL the songs by heart and sings them A LOT. I thought she would have been jumping up and down and singing during the parade, but she was absolutely shell shocked by the whole experience. It was really cute. After the parade we were off to Ariel’s Grotto for lunch with the princesses. Of course, she wore her fabulous Snow White dress.

The other cool part of our vacation was that on day two my BFF Jill and her adorable family happened to be at Disneyland too, so we got to spend some time with them and it was such fun. It also ment that Dustin and I got to go to the Haunted Mansion because we had tried the day before with Lauren and she would NOT have it. We had to use the wimp exit… sad but true. Here is the ONLY picture of my and Jill… again, not so good with the picture taking.

We had SUCH a great time with our friends, and such a great trip. Lauren loved all the rides. She was JUST tall enough to do Star Tours and Splash Mountain and she loved them. But she REALLY loved the Rockets and the Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters. She also loved the snacks I packed.

And we both loved having our faces painted… they did a really awesome job!

Disneyland did just what it was supposed to - helped us have a lot of fun and spend some much needed time together. Lauren STILL talks about it every day. She talks about the Castle and the Pricesseses and The Spinny Cups all the time. I love that we got to make these memories with her… and honestly, I can’t wait to go back with her again.

allyson and ben {sneak peak}

Sarah Maren — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 13:47:31 +0000

Saturday marked the beginning of the 2010 wedding season here at SMP and HOLY MOLY did Allyson and Ben do us proud. I seriously can’t wait to get these pictures all rocked out because we had the most fun ever photographing these two and their amazing friends and family. I just am so excited about 2010! And these two have set the tone! I mean, when I said to these two crazy kids, “Hey, look! A gun store! Let’s take my liberal self in there and take some pictures of you guys with big ol’ guns!” They RAN INTO THE STORE! Yeah, I love them.

More to come! So stay tuned!

ashley and chris {esession}

Sarah Maren — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 19:13:14 +0000

Ashley and Chris are one seriously delightful couple. Both are teachers (bless them!) and both are just a whole lot of fun. We met up with these two last week for their engagement session in Old Sacramento. The weather was dry, but the sky turned pretty dramatic at the end of our shoot, so of course we had to rock that out. It was a lovely afternoon spent with these two cuties.

Despite the cold and the darkness that descended on us super quickly, Ashley and Chris rocked their esession and made me SO excited for there wedding this June. I can’t wait! Check out more of their extremely adorable session in their SLIDESHOW HERE or in the box below.

I think I’ll Go to Boston {retro blogging: personal}

Sarah Maren — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 18:54:01 +0000

My friend Gwyn inspired me to do some retro blogging today… and since the trip I’m retro blogging happened to be to see her it only makes sense, right? Back in August 2009 I made my way from Sac International to Boston International to see my internet friend (now real life friend) Gwyneth Colleen and shoot a wedding with her in Maine. G-Love lives in New Hampshire so getting to see so much of New England was wonderful. The wedding we shot was lovely, I was only torrentially rained on once, and on my final day in New England we went to Boston early so I could get my Freedom Trail on. It was fabulous to see the sights with beautiful Gwyn!

We went to some seriously iconic Boston places as well for a little grub and a little drink. We had a cannolli at Mike’s Pastry and it was nothing short of life changing. (Also Gwyn is so cute!)

Then we happened across the Cheers Bar, and Norm’s seat was open so there was only one thing to do!

Boston is a BEAUTIFUL city, and I enjoyed the short time I spent there. I hope to go back someday soon and check out even more of one of the most historic cities I’ve ever been to!

Thanks Gwyn for being an awesome hostess and for showing me the sights in New England, taking me to eat my first (and last) lobstah, and being just an all around lovely person! I’m so glad I know you. And thanks to Jet Blue for getting me home to my super cute family.