Ryan Phillips Blog

Here are a couple of great engagement shoots we had recently. The first is Patricia and Keith that we shot down in Corona Del Mar last week. It was a perfect overcast day with a nice warm glow. They are getting married at the Balboa Bay Club in September. I had a great time shooting down in Corona Del Mar, there were so many cool backdrops. We were originally going to do a beach thing but due to the weather, we opted for a more editorial look. Way cooler!!!

Bill and Jennifer are getting married at the amazing US Grant hotel in Downtown San Diego next month. The wedding will be one of the most fabulous we shoot all year! They have the whole place rented out and the ballroom will feature wall to wall custom made cabanas. The event is being planned by the extremely talented Tiffany Cannis. We shot their Engagement/Family session at Balboa Park in San Diego, what a cool place!

Andrea and Doug were a blast! Doug has a crazy sense of humor and Andrea just erupts into laughter at everything he says. The perfect combo for great photos!

We headed out to Pasadena to shoot Sharon and Ken’s engagement session a few days ago. They are getting married at The One and Only Palmilla in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico in a few weeks. This shoot was so much fun!! Their kids are little Rock-Star versions of them…well almost…they are pretty damn fabulous! Don’t forget to check back in a few weeks for pics of their wedding. I can’t reveal any of the surprises but it is going to be out of control!!!

This is one of my favorite wedding stories of all time! Carole called us about 6 weeks ago and said she was planning a surprise wedding for her boyfriend. My obvious skepticism was quickly placated when she told us the story. It was Terry’s 60th birthday and he had asked her to marry him a few years ago but she just hadn’t said yes yet. She said the biggest gift she could give him would be to marry him. Carole is a one of the friendliest, nicest, most down to earth people I have met in a long time! We knew that this was the real deal.

She planned a fabulous birthday weekend at The Four Seasons Westlake Village with a couple extra surprises in store :-) Carole called Amy Gallagher at the Four Seasons and had her put the whole thing together. When Carole and Terry checked in they were informed they were being upgraded to The Presidential Suite. The Presedential Suite @ The Four Seasons it is out of this world! 2500 square feet of shameless opulence! It has living rooms, a formal dining room, offices, a full kitchen, an unbelievable master bedroom and bath, exercise room and sauna. It has a fantastic view of the waterfalls and the mountains beyond. The next morning, breakfast in bed was delivered. The waiter pulled back the silver domed plate cover to reveal….not eggs…..but an invitation to his wedding later that evening! Amy @ The Four Seasons put together a first class event! They had their closest friends and family there as they got married in the private cellar in Hamptons Restaurant. The English Garden did a beautiful job on the flowers.

She totally started to cry when he helped her get dressed…

These were her mother’s pearls…

This is one of many of what Carole calls his “CEO Portraits…”

This is just a small portion of the main living room of the suite…

More “CEO Portraits…”

The Chupah was made from the branches of a white birch tree, with matching birch boxes for the floral arrangements…

Carole is a writer and put together a beautiful piece for the ceremony. She was crying so hard that she could barely get through it.

Happy Birthday and Congratulations!!!

Hey everyone, I just wanted to share the good news. Carrie and I were just published in Los Angeles Weddings, Ceremony Magazine, Your Wedding Day Magazine and The Knot! Check out the latest issues to see the full spreads…

Christine & Gabe @ The Viceroy in Santa Monica…

Sara & Barclay @ Firestone Vineyard in Santa Ynez

Amy & Scott @ The Gage Hotel in Marathon Texas…

Amy & Jeremy @ The Westlake Village Inn…

I was cleaning out my personal photos and came across a trip that Carrie and I took with our good friends Ken and Jen a few years ago. Since I wasn’t blogging then I had never posted them and thought I would share. My memory is probably a little fuzzy so if you are going to Belize using my information make sure you double check it first :-) Also note that this was taken with a Canon 10D so the files are a little lackluster :-) Our first destination was just north of San Ignacio at Francis Ford Coppola’s place. It was all built by hand by local craftsman and retains a lot of the natural feel of the landscape. It is a great introduction to Belize and it’s people. Many people just opt to go to Ambergis Key and veg out, which we did, but not before we got some authentic experiences first. Coppola’s place sits high up in the mountains and the road is probably one of the worst I have ever been on. Next time we’ll fly in :-) There is not an abundance of things to do on property, it is a place designed for relaxing. However, there are some neat local hikes and fantastic food and wine. It also has a huge croquet course which was great fun for Ken and I to have a couple of drinks and play a game we have never played that involves whacking a ball with a club :-) Here’s a couple of shots of the property and the surrounding trails…

We went on a little outing to some ruins about 2 hours from the Lodge. I wish I had some pics from the drive in. The driver did not want to go into the area because the rains had been really bad all week and he thought we would get stuck. I pushed him and said we would be fine. Unfortunately he was right. We were lodged deep into the mud, hours from anywhere and the guide said it could be days before anyone came out this way again. Did I mention that Jen was pregnant? We tried building up “a road” to get out but that wasn’t happening. All of a sudden we see about 5 4×4’s come barreling into the clearing and one by one get lodged in the mud. All the major truck manufacturers were represented here. This would have been a great commercial. About 30 min later an Isuzu Trooper comes around the corner and towed out every one of the trucks. So if you actually need a 4×4, Isuzu might be the best choice. I am glad we tried because I would have never have seen the sites below had I not pushed our driver to go. This is a series of moss from different ruins. Carrie and I framed these and they are hanging up in our house.

This is one of the many faces carved into the sides of the ruins…

Here is me covered in mud after hours trying to free our car from the jungle and then climbing to the top of one of the ruins…Not my best side :-)

We all decided to go on the “rafting” adventure that the lodge offered. Rafting in Belize consists of sitting on a bicycle tube with half your body submersed and floating through the jungle for 6 hours. Not to mention that Jen was pregnant, it was freezing and raining, and the “river trail” consists of a long series of underground bat invested caves. Halfway through our guide told us to beware of Crocodiles and then if on cue, Ken’s tube popped. He was given a new one and we had one extra which it turns out we needed. In order to get into the caves you have to go into these nasty ponds and dive under and swim a bit before you come up inside the cave. It was a crazy day but the scenery was amazing and something you would never normally see.

Jen will kill me for this but I couldn’t resist…Never take a pregnant woman rafting through crocodile infested waters in a Belizean Jungle!

Final shot from the lodge…We saw this after coming back from a crazy day out on the river.

We decided to fly out but that may have not been the best decision either…see those clouds? Tiny plane + clouds = turbulance….

The welcome face on the door of the Turtle Inn on Ambergis Key

Some of the locals…

We went out fishing for the day and I thought I had the catch of the day….

But then Carrie one-upped me with this monster….

On the way back, in the middle of nowhere we saw this house…

When we got back the kitchen cleaned and cooked the fish for us it was so good!

Some more random sights….

A lil’ swim with sharks and stingrays…

Breanne came to us about a year ago fresh out of Brooks Institute of Photography. She has been our Production Manager and the glue that holds this place together. I am happy to announce she will also be shooting portraits for us this year as well. Here are a couple shots from recent sessions, stay tuned for more from Breanne in the upcoming months!

Here are a couple of the Super Fab make-up artist Michele Stewart and her latest addition, Brayden…

This little one, Ava, belongs to one of our recent brides Amy Scott. You can check out her featured wedding in the current edition of Your Wedding Day Magazine

Not so Lil’ Eli…4 months old and 18 pounds!!! Future linebacker for the Pittsburgh Steelers…