Joni and Fabien’s wedding was like one of those perfect weddings that you see in a movie. From the moment I started photographing until I left the reception, everything just fell into place perfectly allowing the day to truly be about Joni and Fabien’s love for each other and their love for their friends and family. Their ceremony was at the Mission San Buenaventura in Ventura….such a cool place because of all the history behind it…it was founded in 1782! The reception was held at the gorgeous Spanish Hills Country Club in Camarillo.
Joni and Fabien are an amazing, caring couple and to illustrate this I hope it’s ok that I share this story from Joni about what happened a couple of days after their wedding.
“Last night, as part of my after-wedding food gorge, I went to dinner with my family at Fire + Ice. While waiting for my two plates of food to be cooked, I noticed a group of 15 people wearing the Make a Wish shirt. Being my gabby self, I started excitedly talking to one of the couples standing right next to me. They asked how I heard of the Make a Wish foundation. I told them that it was one of the charities I’ve loved and supported…and it was pretty coincidental because I just got married this weekend and we donated to the organization in honor of our family and friends.
The couple was surprised and mentioned that they were actually in California as part of a Wish. Their granddaughter was selected to be a Wish Kid. She was a beautiful 5 year old girl who has had a very rare disease. (I didn’t pry for more details about her condition…If you know what qualifies for a “wish kid”, there is no need to ask). The entire family flew all the way from Texas to stay over at Anaheim for 5 days to help fulfill the little girl’s wish. Out of all the things she could have asked for, her one and only wish was to go to Disneyland with her entire family and meet Mickey Mouse in person.
At this point, I could hardly finish the conversation and just went back to my table…all the while tearing up over my overflowing plate of grilled steak and seafood chow mein.
As I left the restaurant with my family, the people at their table called me over. They all congratulated me for getting married and then the entire family, including the little girl’s mother thanked me for supporting the organization and their little girl. The girl’s mom shook my hand and said, “it’s quite rare to see a “Wish” go full circle, so it’s a great coincidence that we met and you can see a small piece of what you’ve done and how happy you’ve made our little girl.” At this point, I was at a loss for words (which doesn’t happen very often!). Then what absolutely tipped me over was when this little girl came up to me, blew me a kiss, and just happily told me “thank you for giving me my wish.”
I felt like this was something you only read in books, but it was one of the most humbling and touching experiences I’ve ever had. Next to my family and friends, it was the best wedding present I could have ever asked for.
Thank you everyone for being a part of our wedding and looking forward to having you all there for the rest of the fun! 
PS. Of course my family saw me walking out of the restaurant crying and probably thought I got food poisoning”
Amazing story, isn’t it? Proof positive that when you give of yourself, you get back!
Special thanks to William Kim for helping out with 2nd shooting on this wedding.
What a gorgeous bride!!!
This has got to be my favorite cake of the year. Isn’t it awesome?
You gotta love those long reception speeches!!
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by Josh Goodman
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