Steep Street // T H E * B L O G // Print Design, Photography, Web Design // Kelty Luber: May 2010

I'm sure you remember this hip couple from their Romantic Ruckus wedding a few weeks ago on my blog and site... what I may not have stressed enough was how truly amazing their music choices were for the wedding! They come from families packed with musicians and incredible dancers, and their dancing mix and cd wedding favor reflected their eclectic taste from nearly every genre imaginable.

The awesome blog Hi Fi Weddings has featured Britt and Jonny's wedding and highlighted their music choices throughout the event... from Rilo Kiley to Cat Stevens to the Yeah Yeah Yeahs to Elvis Costello, they seriously covered their bases. As a guest, I can testify as to the impossibility of just sitting or standing still. Old favorites were mixed with familiar sounding new stuff... I was seriously stoked to see the entire playlists to scroll through on Hi Fi's blog. Check out their thoughtful selections yourself!

Yesterday, Britt and Jonny sent me their testimonial about our time together. The whole thing made me giggle, sigh, and feel lucky all over again to have been part of such a cool day and to have met such genuine, hilarious, and creative people. Scroll below for their blow-by-blow of the evening and browse more testimonials on my website here.

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Steep Street was actually the very first vendor we booked for our Malibu wedding, after coming across some of Kelty's engagement photography online. After contacting Kelty via email, we learned that she would soon be moving from the Bay Area to Portland, Oregon. Not that that mattered a lick! Kelty's more than happy to travel for her work, art, and passion! Plus, we just had to have her! Every single new post to her Steep Street blog assured us that we had chosen the right photographer for our upcoming fun, rustic, vintage wedding! So, after 7 months of personal, friendly, prompt emails, Kelty and her assistant twin sister Hannah headed to Southern California to document the most important day of our lives!

First, Kelty and Hannah showed up to our site early so they could scope out the premises prior to the chaos of the day. As I ran around setting up tables, getting makeup done, and meeting with vendors, their calming presences put me at ease - with all of unknowns of the day, I knew then and there I wasn't going to have to worry about the photographers.

They began the day with such confidence and grace. They glided in and out of the bridal suite, snapping pictures, asking to borrow my dress and ring, and strategically setting themselves up for the ceremony. It already felt like they were “friends taking pictures” rather than strangers or “vendors.”

The real fun began after the ceremony ended when the bridal party started to roam the grounds for our photo session. For the next hour, our whole group acted like a bunch of kids, hanging out on a broken-down carousel, posing in front of a huge ferris wheel, fake-running, trampolining, toasting, and laughing. Kelty had so many great ideas and there wasn’t a single moment wasted trying to figure out what shot to get next. We went from one amazing setting to another – sometimes Kelty used Hannah as a ladder to get a cool, overhead perspective, and other times they double-teamed the group; Hannah grabbing shots with the boys while Kelty got shots with the girls. When the photographers are game for anything, that same feeling tends to engulf the crowd. Everyone just wanted to get the coolest shots possible and we all had such a fun time doing it! Jonathan and I finished up the session thinking, “Wow, I think something really special just happened.”

Back at the reception, Kelty and Hannah once again became this “presence,” both there and not there. Which, to me, is what you want in that kind of atmosphere. If your photographers stick out and take up space, your guests will get nervous and be unnatural. With Steep Street, you know they’re there, but they just sort of float around the room, grabbing these amazing moments and moving on before you even realize you just had your picture taken. They covered every special instance of the night without ever getting in the way of the true emotion and sincerity of that moment.

We also had this sort of last-minute idea to set up a bucket of wigs, hats, and sunglasses for our guests to take goofy pictures. Without much warning, we asked if Hannah would hang out outside for a little while at our “Fun Time Photo Stop.” Before we knew it, she was set up, wrangling guests from indoors to the outside deck, and snapping pictures of our goofball friends. That impromptu idea of ours could have fallen flat on its face if not for the dedication of Hannah to make it work for us!

The end of the night was a flurry of dancefloor mayhem, group hugs, and resistant goodbyes, all, of course, documented by Steep Street. And then in a flash, they were gone...

In the post-wedding conversations, it tickled me how often guests brought up Kelty and Hannah. Friends and family loved the overall vibe of the way they worked, calling them “ethereal beings” and “lovely mermaid twins.” One friend told me that he wanted to tell them all of his troubles and ask them for the meaning of life. Dare I say a couple of innocent crushes on the gals were formed here and there. A lot of Steep Street fans were made that night!

Kelty’s professionalism always shines through, as she stayed in constant contact with me in the weeks following the wedding. We screamed like little girls the day that Kelty sent our sneak peek photo, and it only whetted our appetites for more! The day that we received our first handful of photos (via the lovely Steep Street blog and website), we just about lost it. Whatever expectations we had built up over the course of seeing Kelty’s incredible photos pile up on her blog were, somehow, surpassed. After looking at the pictures over and over for hours (no, literally, HOURS), we went to bed filled with so much emotion from the memories that the photos reignited! We had almost forgotten about all the things we did that night - like it was just a dream, until the photos finally provided proof that it all really happened! They are SUCH an amazing representation of the two of us and the night and the feelings we were having.

The post processing that Kelty does takes the photography to a whole new level. The look and feel of her photography just lends itself so perfectly to the intimacy, love and fun that we wanted to convey on our special day. Can I say that I think we have the greatest wedding party pictures in the history of time? Because I do. And I don’t know how to describe the ceremony photography other than delicate, timeless, and truly emotional.

Luckily, Kelty and Hannah also totally embraced the goofiness in us and in our dearest friends and family. So, our reception photography had us rolling on the floor, laughing our butts off! Every insane dance move or fake mustache, captured for eternity by the Steep Street lens. And as important as beauty and timelessness was to our ceremony and wedding party photos, capturing the crazy antics of our loved ones was just as essential for us during the reception.

In our year-long wedding planning, I spoke to so many of my married friends who ended up hating their wedding photos. Jonathan and I can honestly say that hiring Steep Street was one of the best decisions we’ve ever made. Our wedding WAS the greatest day of our lives, so to have anything less than the best pictures on earth would be a disappointment to us. The memories and feelings that we have in our heads and hearts are absolutely reflected in Kelty’s photos. And, though memories fade over time, we now have hundreds of photographs to remind us of every joyous, ridiculous, gorgeous, thrilling, and heartwarming moment from our favorite day on earth. Thank you to the artists, and now friends, of Steep Street!!

Most Sincerely, Britt & Jonny