Private Estate Wedding Scottsdale, Arizona Everything about this Scottsdale wedding was breathtaking and fun!  The private estate in Scottsdale, Arizona made for a striking backdrop and equally striking was the personalities of the bride and groom as wellas all who attended.  Once the formalities were over these people definitely knew how to party!  Jessica and Travis are also very close friends with two of our past couples, Melissa and Grey and Karima and Terry.  It was so wonderful to see them all again and catch up a little!  Thank you so much Jessica and Travis for having us as your wedding photographers and allowing us to be part of your special day! 

Aniebiet and Damien were married in a stunning two-day long traditional Nigerian wedding last May. The second day of their event consisted of the traditional White Wedding and was held at the JW Marriott Desert Ridge Resort and Spa in Phoenix, Arizona and the reception lighting by Karma Event Lighting. The couple looked amazing and the wedding wowed the crowd, especially when Aniebiet was ushered in to the ceremony on a beautiful horse and carriage. She looked like she stepped right out of a fairy tale! Aniebiet and Damien, thank you so much for having us as your wedding photographers! It was very special and we loved being a part of it! 

Aniebiet and Damien had an amazing two-day Nigerian wedding event last May. The first day was held at the gorgeous Chateau Luxe in Phoenix and was dedicated to the traditional Nigerian wedding. It was full of surprises, including fireworks and the bride being symbolically brought from a far distance with her arrival by helicopter and beautiful lighting by Karma Event Lighting ... simply stunning. It was an honor to be chosen as Aniebiet and Damien's wedding photographers and we loved being a part of such a festive and beautiful event! Nigerian Wedding Photographer Phoenix 

We have several new photography awards to share from a few different organizations so we thought we would lump them into one posting. The following awards are from Fearless Photographers, WPJA (Wedding Photojournalist Association) and ISPWP (International Society of Professional Wedding Photographers.) It is always such an honor to place in any of these competitions given the amount of exceptional talent we are up against worldwide! Our couples are also important to our success because without their unconditional trust, we would not be able to make the images that we do!! 2nd PLACE - The Decisive Moment Category - ISPWP Summer 2014 Contest 13th PLACE - Humor Category - ISPWP Fall 2014 Contest 14th PLACE - Parents - WPJA 2014 Q3 Contest  FEARLESS AWARD - Fearless Photographers Contest

We love Dawn and Nick and are getting ready to post their wedding from this past Fall.  We couldn't let the opportunity pass by to post some photos from their gorgeous engagement session last year at the Desert Botanical Gardens and Papago Park in Phoenix, Arizona.  Be sure to also check out their amazing Sedona wedding!!

LOVED this rustic chic wedding held at the Windmill Winery in Florence, Arizona!  Rachael and Adam came all the way from Kentucky to have their perfect desert wedding.  Both love horses and country living so the setting seemed more than appropriate for the couple.  We enjoyed every moment of this lively, fun-filled wedding!  Thank you both for having us as your wedding photographers!

Rachel and Adam traveled all the way from Chicago to have their gorgeous wedding at the Hyatt Regency Scottsdale Resort and Spa at Gainey Ranch! Wedding Coordination was done by Cara and her crew from A Day to Cherish and they did an outstanding job! Thank you Rachel and Adam for having us as your wedding photographers. We had such a great time!

Jenn and John recently contacted us to ask if we did post-wedding photo sessions. We told them we did and the date was set. These sessions are generally referred to as trash the dress sessions, however we recently decided to give our sessions a fresh, new name. We now call them our Couture Sessions. We feel the name better represents to type of shoots we conduct. Yes, we have some brides that get into the water in their dress but that is only if they decide they want to. Our objective with these shoots is to go to amazing locations in amazing light and produce spectacular and inventive images!We did not photograph Jenn and John's wedding and while they loved their wedding images they simply felt they didn't have enough time to get a lot of images together. Unfortunately this is not uncommon on a wedding day as time frames for couple portraits are often short and hectic. This is why these sessions are so much fun. They allow for plenty of time to move around to get the best shots possible! We took Jenn and John to the amazing Superstition Mountains in east Phoenix and even played around with some night shots. We had such an amazing time getting to know these newlyweds and creating these images!

We are often asked if we do portrait sessions and the answer is ... of course we do portrait sessions :-)! In fact we have quite a few couples that continue coming to us through the years for all their photography needs, long after their wedding day. This is one aspect to the job that we love! It is always so much fun becoming friends with our past couples and watching them grow as a family. The McQueen's are one of those families and they are preparing to welcome baby number two. We met up at South Mountain a little before Christmas to do new family photos of Amanda, Ryan and their little girl, Kaity, and also to do a few maternity photos of Amanda. We are looking forward to seeing them again in about a month after the birth of their son!

We are always so excited when one of our images when a Fearless Award in Fearless Photographers!  They are very hard to get and it is always an honor and on top of that, the photo is one of our all time favorites from one of our all time favorite couples, Allyson and Eric :-)!  This photo was taken during their first look and it is such a sublime moment

We were beyond excited to grab First Place in the current ISPWP competition under the category, Emotional Impact!!  Better still, we LOVE the couple in this image!  Thank you Allyson and Eric for giving us one of our most memorable "first look" shots EVER!!!  

What a fantastic time we had spending a day on Saguaro Lake with Christina, Kyle and their adorable dog, Littles!  Saguaro Lake hold a lot of meaning to Christina and Kyle and is also the location for their wedding!

Sometimes we get far behind on blogging, due mostly in part to photographing other weddings and portrait sessions, editing, traveling for work and doing day-to-day task of running our business.  This sometimes leads to some of our favorite weddings hitting the blog late and sometimes not at all.  We couldn't let Christina and Kyle's wedding slip through the cracks.These two were married last November at Saguaro Lake, a location that is very special to them!  In attendance was their dog, Littles.  We love Littles.  We also love this couple and couldn't be more happy for them!

We just love this couple!  Mona and Allen held their Indian Fusion Wedding on March 29th, 2014 and the day couldn't have been more beautiful.  They started the day with the first of two ceremonies with a lovely Catholic ceremony at St. Maria Goretti Catholic Church.  After a lunch held for their guests, the couple headed over to the Doubletree Resort Paradise Valley for their second ceremony, a colorful Hindu ceremony.  After the cocktail hour the final phase of the day concluded with a fun-filled reception.  A long day for sure, but one full of joy, fun, love and most important, the blending of two families and cultures.  We just love wedding like this!We have to thank Jo Ann Grant of Apropos Creations for doing such an amazing job planning all the details and pulling them together to provide Mona and Allen with a day they will never forget!!Mona and Allen, thank you both so much for having us as your wedding photographers!  We loved every minute of it and hope you enjoy the sneak peak :-)!VENDORS:Wedding Venue Hindu Ceremony / Reception - DOUBLETREE RESORT PARADISE VALLEYWedding Venue Catholic Ceremony - ST. MARIA GORETTI CATHOLIC CHURCHWedding Photographer - SIERRA BLANCO PHOTOGRAPHYWedding Coordinator - JO ANN GRANT, APROPOS CREATIONSDJ / Dhol / Lighting - DJ ADHI, IN THE MIX ENTERTAINMENTFloral / Mandap - ELEGANT EVENTWedding Cake - ...

We LOVE this boudoir session we photographed at the ultra-unique, retro, Valley Ho Hotel in Scottsdale! The bride-to-be did this shoot as a gift for her groom ... what a GREAT gift idea :-)!

We are so pleased to have placed in each of the three most recent wedding photography contests we entered! It is always an honor to win awards in these prestigious competitions!FEARLESS AWARD - Fearless Photographers February 2014 Contest 13th PLACE - WEDDING DETAILS CATEGORY - ISPWP Winter 2013 Competition16th PLACE - HUMOR CATEGORY - WPJA 2013 Quarter 4 Contest 

What a beautiful way to begin 2014!  Julie and Bob celebrated their New Year's Day wedding at their Arabian horse estate is Scottsdale, Arizona with their closest family and friends in attendance.  The day couldn't have been more pleasant.  Julie looked amazing in her custom designed gown and Bob was equally handsome in his black tuxedo.  Cocktails were served before and after the ceremony which was held at the main house.  Guests were then invited over to the gorgeous horse stables to enjoy dinner and an evening filled with dancing and great fun.  Thank you both so much for having us as your wedding photographers.  It was such a pleasure!  We also want to thank Julie's good friend, Dana, for all her help in pulling the wedding plans together and for being a delight every step of the way!

Another year has come and gone ... it goes by so quickly!  Year eight of our business brought with it more travel and some wonderful advances and changes!  We started out the year with a destination wedding in San Francisco, California and ended it with a destination wedding in Cancun, Mexico.  We also enjoyed photographing a traditional Navajo wedding on the Navajo Nation, which is always a deep privilege!  We scaled back a little this year and photographed 32 weddings.  The extra time was spent working on a new business called Nature's Album by Sierra Blanco.  This business is dedicated to the nature end of our work, offering fine art landscape and wildlife prints and nature photography workshops.  It is an exciting new venture for Kevin and I that we are thrilled to finally launch!  You can view our nature photography on our new website.The biggest change of all though centers around our wedding photography business.  Kevin and I (Tina) have always been the primary photographers.  Angie joined us four years ago and starting taking her own weddings through us a couple of years ago, but only sporadically.  This year Meg joined us and she has been working very hard to learn the ropes and our unique style of journalistic wedding photography.  With the launch of 2014, Sierra Blanco Photography is now officially a ...

Another year has come and gone ... it goes by so quickly!  Year eight of our business brought with it more travel and some wonderful advances and changes!  We started out the year with a destination wedding in San Francisco, California and ended it with a destination wedding in Cancun, Mexico.  We also enjoyed photographing a traditional Navajo wedding on the Navajo Nation, which is always a deep privilege!  We scaled back a little this year and photographed 32 weddings.  The extra time was spent working on a new business called Nature's Album by Sierra Blanco.  This business is dedicated to the nature end of our work, offering fine art landscape and wildlife prints and nature photography workshops.  It is an exciting new venture for Kevin and I that we are thrilled to finally launch!  You can view our nature photography on our new website.The biggest change of all though centers around our wedding photography business.  Kevin and I (Tina) have always been the primary photographers.  Angie joined us four years ago and starting taking her own weddings through us a couple of years ago, but only sporadically.  This year Meg joined us and she has been working very hard to learn the ropes and our unique style of journalistic wedding photography.  With the launch of 2014, Sierra Blanco Photography is now officially a ...