I mean… could they be any cuter?  I don’t think so.

I can’t tell you what an honor it was to get to photograph Mark & Marissa’s wedding.  First, because they are just wonderful people.  Second, because this was my second wedding in this family.  What a compliment to be trusted to tell the story of not one, but two of the most important days in this family’s life.

But mostly, it was just an honor to be there and witness the love between these two.  The vows, which they wrote themselves, were just beautiful.  I don’t think there was a dry eye in the house when Mark teared up as he said his vows.  My friend Karey, who was shooting with me that day, said, “Seeing how they are with each other makes me even more excited to get married.”  I couldn’t agree more.

I had never been to Liberty Station, but it was really cool.  The North Chapel, built in 1942 by the US Navy, was absolutely charming.  Such a cool place for a wedding.

Mark & Marissa decided to see each other before the ceremony, which gave us plenty of time to get lots of great photos of the two of them.

Right before Mark & Marissa were to recite their vows, which they had written, the pastor said, “Mark, do you remember how I told you that at least one thing would go wrong today?  Well, do you happen to have the copy of your vows on you?”  When Mark said no, the pastor had to run to his bag to get them!  Luckily it wasn’t far and I was in my stealthy sniper position and got a shot of it!

Thank you, you two, for having me.  I think you’re both great and it was such a joy to be a part of your day.

……WISCONSIN?!?!?!  Yep.  A couple of months later, Adam flew out to California to visit for a week.  It didn’t even take a day for them both to know, this was the one they wanted to spend the rest of their lives with.  Adam went home and bought a ring!  Soon after that, Megan decided to move to Wisconsin to be near her sweetheart.  Adam came out to help her move and proposed.

A year and a half later, Megan waited in the bride’s room, with the most gorgeous light streaming in.  Her father, who has MS, was determined to be able to walk his daughter down the aisle.  And he did.

It was all sweet and wonderful and emotional….. until it came to the cake cutting.  This was the biggest cake smoosh I’ve ever seen in person!  As Megan went to the restroom to clean up, someone said, “You’d better be down on your knee apologizing when she comes out!”  So that’s what he did.  It was hilarious!

What a fun day!

Church: Glendora United Methodist

Reception: Lindley Scott House

Cake: Some Crust Bakery

There wasn’t a dry eye in the house…. including mine.

The big event!

Megan told me that if people wanted to talk to her, they could find her on the dance floor!  This girl is awesome!

Sheel and Neha are getting married in New Jersey this coming weekend!  I hope your weekend is wonderful, guys!

So much beautiful color and exquisite detail.  Oh… and Sheel took care of planning a lot of the details since Neha lives in New Jersey.  Not bad, huh?  Maybe he should think about doing some event planning on the side!

We got a few minutes to get some fun portraits of Sheel and Neha.  Dang……. what a great looking couple!

They did this whole choreographed routine that was AWESOME!!!!  Their whole family rocked it!

Until now.

Maybe I’d never seen a REALLY good wedding video before, but today I saw two!  The first was Elysium Productions new demo reel that I saw on Becker’s blog.  Seriously…. I almost cried twice.  It was beautiful.

Elysium Productions 2010 Demo Reel from Elysium Productions on Vimeo.

The second was a wedding video by Cherish films that I saw on one of my favorite blogs Snippet and Ink.  Take a look.  These definitely made me look at wedding videography differently.

Neda + Sati “A Marriage of Two Cultures” from Cherish Films on Vimeo.

Brad loves to travel so when the opportunity came to work in Switzerland for a few years, he said why not?  There was really nothing keeping him here.  In the meantime, Robyn went to work with a missions organization and was living in Hungary.

Fast forward a couple of years…… Brad heard through mutual friends that this girl Robyn was living in Hungary.  A bunch of people from church had told him what a great girl she was and since she was pretty cute he thought, “maybe I should take my vacation in Budapest!”  He contacted Robyn saying that he was going to be in Budapest and would she mind being his tour guide.  Robyn was a little curious about this request, but after asking people from back home about him, they assured her that he was a great guy.  So she said yes and they started chatting, planning what they would do while he was there.  She thought, “This could either be disastrous or this could be great.”

It was great.

Brad, who thought that Robyn was WAY cuter than her facebook photo even, told her that he really liked her and would like to see her again.  So began nightly Skype conversations and trips back and forth to visit, and few month later…. a proposal!

Brad and Robyn came back to California to get married at the church where both of them grew up (and where I met Brad a few years back).  A beautiful, meaningful ceremony and a simple yet elegant reception with 400 of their closest friends was how they wanted to celebrate their day.  They headed back to Switzerland the next day and were going to honeymoon in Italy.  Nice!

Thank you for allowing me to share your day with you, guys!

Robyn’s dad’s expression when he saw his beautiful daughter was priceless.

Brad & Robyn saw each other before the wedding.  I just love the moments I’m able to capture during a first look.

Christopher Wren came along with me to second shoot.  He got this great shot.

As they got ready to leave, we took them up on top of the parking structure of the church for a few more photos.  Man…. was it worth it!

The first time I met with Elyse I thought, “This is my kind of girl!”  I couldn’t wait to shoot her wedding.  Elyse is a graphic designer so needless to say, I got excited as she talked about all of her ideas for the wedding.  And knowing that her and her family were doing it all, even the flowers, I couldn’t wait to see how it all turned out!  They did not disappoint!

Rain has been a them for these two and me.  It rained when we did their engagement shoot.  And it was set to rain the day of their wedding too.  I prayed for days that a God would keep it dry until 5:00, when the ceremony started.  After that, it could pour buckets.  Well….. that’s exactly what happened!  It started raining right after their first look.  It rained for a couple of minutes and then it stopped for the rest of our photo time.  Thank you!

Robert and Elyse, thank you for allowing me to be a part of your day.  You are so much fun and you kept me laughing all day!

Ceremony: St.Paul’s Lutheran Church Fullerton

Reception: Summit House

Then she added a bird cage veil.  Yes please!

I love the expression on her dad’s face here.

Elyse showed me her original drawing for the cake.  Cucamonga Cakery made it happen…. and rocked it!

It was especially easy with my friend Lindye.  Lindye is an awesome event planner in Orange County, and just a great person and friend.  She and I got together to shoot some new photos for her new website, which is awesome!   Make sure you check it out.

Check out what we got.  Yes, her skin really IS that perfect.  Stop your hating (and I will try to as well).

Soooo……. how ya been?

Now that the busyness that was Christmas and the weeks of catch up right after are done, I feel like I’m caught up.  I’m spending some time thinking about what new things I’d like to do this year as well as planning some little adventures.  I’m ready for a great year…. how ’bout you?

So to get you caught up, here’s a wedding that I did in December.  Kim & Geo got married at the Balboa Inn right at the foot of the Balboa Pier.  It was a cold, kinda dreary day, but what a great day for a nice, intimate wedding.

Kim’s dress was gorgeous.

And so was she!

The groom wasn’t bad lookin’ either!

Another vote….. do you like color or b&w?

White lights make everything magical!

Man and wife!

Ohhh….. he did it.  He really did it.

Good for you Kim!

Check out my portfolio here.

First outfit: Thursday evening Palak got her henna done.  This was super cool to watch and made me want to get some done myself sometime!

Second outfit: Friday morning, there were ceremonies at the bride’s home in Yorba Linda.  Her outfit was beautiful and it was really fun to witness the ceremonies.

Third outfit: Friday night Palak & Simmy’s family and friends gathered for a night of traditional dancing called Garba & Sangeet.  Lots of dancing!!!!

Fourth & Fifth outfits:  I don’t have photos of these since I was a guest at the wedding.  Oh wait…. I think I have a snapshot from the reception….. yep… here you go!  Lots of dancing happening!  Her wedding dress was really beautiful, but you’ll just have to trust me!

AND….. outfit #6:  Simmy’s family is from northern California, and that’s where he and Palak live.  So they had a second reception in San Jose the day after Thanksgiving.  I have LOTS of photos from that so get ready!

I.  LOVE.  THIS.

Talk about a good looking couple, right?

I thought we’d have to do all of their photos in the hotel room since it was raining outside.  But the rain stopped and these two were troopers to face the cold for a few minutes so I could get this.

Um…. thank you!

OK, back inside we go!

The door to the ballroom had this cool little peep thing.  I thought it was cool!

Icing on the Cake, a cute little bakery in Los Gatos did the cake.  Pretty!

What I love most about Indian weddings is that EVERYONE dances!  A LOT!

Palak and Simmy enjoyed a much deserved trip to the Carribean!  After all of the planning and celebrating, they said they pretty much slept for the first few days.  I don’t blame them!  Thank you for inviting me into your lives.  You and all of your family and friends were so great to me!