Marrying the man of your dreams, having the wedding of your dreams, and having everything go so smoothly! With the help of Bakersfield’s Fairygodmother Event planning services this wedding was just that!
This was no ordinary wedding. Each year, the Fairy Godmother Foundation brings together top wedding vendors in Bakersfield to donate one special wedding. This is their 2nd annual donated wedding. Each couple has to be nominated by someone else. You can read more about being selected on the FGM foundation page. Rob and Rachel have 3 children, and one of them, Isaac, has an inoperable cancerous brain tumor. He is currently on a trial treatment and it is going well. Wedding plans were difficult, as you could imagine with such a complex situation, but when you enlist professional help it can make your special day so much less stressful!
We started the morning at the Padre Hotel in downtown Bakersfield. This hotel was recently renovated and is now one of the top spots for couples to stay for local honeymoon’s and is a great place for getting ready photos. Their color schemes and furniture choices make for great photo opportunities. We met up with our bride at her 8th floor Farmer’s Daughter suite. We jumped right in, setting up details like the dress, garter, shoes, jewelry, and bouquets. The groom was getting ready down the hall, so it was very easy to move between rooms to get the getting ready photos.
Once our beautiful bride was in her dress, we did a set of reveals. First was to her sisters and bridesmaids. She is the youngest sister to get married, which leads us to our next reveal, Dad. The genuine expressions, excitement, and emotion make for some great photos and memories. Everyone was super excited to see Rachel in her lovely David Tutera dress! Next she got to see her groom.
The reveal took place in the restaurant area of the Padre. This precious moment was shared only between the couple, the cinematographer, two Fairy Godmothers, and our photo team so it was very private and intimate. With our groom’s back faced toward the entrance, Fairy Godmother Colleen opened the curtain and Rachel entered. She walked slowly towards her groom, building anticipation, and placed her hand on his shoulder. He turned around and they embraced and shared a small kiss. Some couples choose to do a reveal with the entire bridal party and/or family surrounding them which is also a very fun way to share that experience.
After the reveal we got to do some bridal party photos! We took them to a brick wall behind the Mark and posed everyone in the group, one couple at a time. We took several large group photos and then each individual group, bridesmaids and groomsmen. After, we explored the downtown area with our bride and groom, finding painted and brick walls, some nice rows of trees with dappled light coming through, the Wall Street alley, and the Nile Theater blue tile wall. We got some great individual and couple’s portraits and then headed over to St Francis church so we would arrive one hour early.
Part 2 Coming Soon…