Howie & Grace
A wedding for Kings – Hirono and Kevin
Hirono and Kevin decided if they were going to get married their wedding was going to be fairly non-traditional. Being hockey fans they decided to do a hockey themed wedding. They invite the mascot from their favorite team. Bailey the mascot for the Los Angles Kings lead the couple into their reception to a crowd of screaming fans. After the grand entrance Marcus a friend of couple sang the Star Spangle Banner. Bailey then dropped the puck and the couple had an official faceoff. Lawry’s Steak house served up an amazing meal. Each guest went home with an Official Wedding Puck.
*Side note the Bride Hirono had me tearing up as I was leaving the event. She said “I don’t know how I could have gotten married without you. You really made my day! I can’t even imagine how I could have done this without you. You’re so much more than a wedding photographer.”
Before the wedding, I gave her my traditional SJP pep talk. Looking back it was totally theme appropriate.
My boyfriend makes fun of me all the time. I’m so moved by people and thankful to be able to do what I do that I cry. I guess that’s what happens when you do what you love, with all your heart and people appreciate it. It’s a good life!
Location and Catering: Lawry’s
Florist: Floral Fields
DJ: D’Jay Company
Singing on your wedding day
As a wedding vendor I want everything to be picture perfect (pun intended) for a couple on their wedding day, but things go wrong all the time. Last weekend I shot a fabulous backyard wedding, as the bridal party lined up to walk down the aisle the power went out in the whole neighborhood. You could almost hear everyone thinking “oh sh*t!”…followed by panic, then one of the guest yells “lets all hum” which lead to everyone singing “going to the chapel and we’re gonna get married…” Can you even imagine? How amazing would it be to walk down the aisle to all your closest friends and family singing?
Because of the Power outage all sorts of things went wrong…. Catering was really late with dinner which lead to more heart felt speeches to the bride and groom. The automatic sprinklers were reset and turned on spraying a couple guests, which caused everyone to laugh uncontrollably. By the very end guests were jumping up n down chanting “BEST WEDDING EVER, BEST WEDDING EVER.”
Moral of this story… Your wedding day is probably the most important day of your life. You plan this day for months, sometimes years, and you’ve dreamed about this day since you were a little girl. Things do go wrong. Keep your sense of humor, use your improve skills and enjoy this very special day.
Congrats Aimee & Bob!
Wedding Photography is not so Simple?
Many times people think wedding photographers simply shows up at a location, shoot for a couple hours, burn a disk and the jobs done. No matter how big or small the event is this is some of what’s involved.
The day before every wedding I spend a lot of time getting prepared. I always start by charging batteries, which is a process that takes most of the day. Then I go through all my gear cleaning, testing, syncing camera times and formatting cards. I pack up all my gear. I also review timelines, shot lists and locations. I plan my gear and my shots around the location and the timeline. What I bring for an indoor wedding is very different from an outdoor location. Finally, I map all locations, and layout my clothes. One the day of the only thing I want to think about is getting all those amazing shots. The getting prepared to shoot a wedding takes up most of the day before the wedding.
On the day of I run around for hours with 40 pounds of gear strapped to me in order to capture all those memories. I’ve actually been described by a groom as a ninja. I wear all black, I sneak around and I draw cameras like weapons.
After the wedding, I download everything online incase of a fire, on 2 external hard drives one to back up the other, two computers, all the cf cards don’t get reformat until images are done being edited and discs incase the hard drive fails. Archiving your memories is just as important as capturing them. I’ve actually had several brides loose their images and come back to me and I was able to send them a new disc.
On a typical wedding, I shoot about 3,000 images per event. I probably go through each event about 5x. The first time I go through an event I edit out the obvious bad images. The second time I check focus. The third time I color correct everything. The fourth time I get rid of all unnecessary images (I tend to over shoot and edit later) and double check my color corrections. I upload the proofs to an online gallery and release the gallery to my clients. Typically I give my clients 800-1000 proofs to go through. After my clients pick their final proofs I recheck their final selects and export them as high-res jpegs, burn a disk, package everything, and mail it out.
Each wedding is actually days of work.
Brides pep talk
Brides pep talk
A few years ago I started giving all my brides a pep talk before their ceremony. I find it helps keep the focus on what’s really important. I start off by telling the bride “Today is a very important day. Today is the day you’re going to marry your soul mate. You’ve been planning this very important day for months, may be years and have dreamed about this day your whole life.” I remind her that things might not go exactly as planned but the most important thing is that she has fun today. So when things go wrong laugh it off and enjoy today because today is a very important day. I find giving this speech is sort of like a pep talk and when things do go wrong she’s more likely going to let things roll off her back and enjoy her wedding day. I started this because too many times I’ve seen brides get really upset over trivial things. I more then anyone want a picture perfect day but something’s are just out of your control. In my opinion, there is nothing worst than to watch a bride get upset on her wedding day. An unhappy bride makes everyone uncomfortable and it’s really hard to get great pictures.
A Really Great Speech!
Our son the chef…
This speech was given by the father and mother of the groom, about their son the chef. No only was this speech funny, thoughtful, whimsical and personalized its perfect to hang on the kitchen wall.
On Behalf of Mina and myself. I would like to thank everyone for being here tonight as we welcome Crystal into our family. We especially would like to thank those of you who have come far distances to be here with us.
We all know…. The best way to a man’s heart is through his stomached.
As many of you know, Scott is an amazing cook, so I will direct this in a foodie fashion. Scott, you are the apple of our eye… Even though you came out of the oven looking like a plucked chicken, six weeks early.
You are like a fine bottle of wine smooth and mellow. You have never reach a boiling point only a smooth simmer. While sometimes a little saucy you have never been flaky or crusty.
“Tips of the Tongue” A recipe for a good marriage.
It takes many ingredients to create a good marriage. First you will need unlimited cups of love, respect, kindness, understanding, cooperation, trust, and acceptance. Then Mix in some patience and a good sense of humor, and the result will be a gourmet marriage!
Crystal – We feel very lucky that you will be a part of the smorgasbord of our family. Your sweetness will only add to the flavor of your union together. We gladly hand you our sunny delight. We know he is a tall order but with the proper gloves you can handle him.
Savor each moment together because the moments get eaten up faster than you think.
Scott – You picket a great dish. Well Done!
Moms Part
Marriage is not unlike a hot dog, its best not to analyze every single ingredient. Sometimes you can get grilled; sometimes you can get steamed but relish every moment.
Now Crystal, you have married a Hebrew National who has to answer to a higher authority his mother but I am thrilled to hand his buns over to you.
Love you guys.
My wedding Secrets
It seems like I’m always stopping brides from trying to do everything. In general they have a bridal party and their number one job is to help you get married, so delegate. There is no reason to run all over the place. A couple other things I tell people are to walk slowly smile big and have fun. When your standing at the alter exchanging rings turn your ring finger toward the camera so I can get a good shot of it going on his finger.
First look
First looks are sort of the new thing to do. I love them for multiple reasons it’s a great photos opportunity, it makes the day run smoother. First looks are usually done as soon as the brides done getting ready. We turn the groom around we walk the bride into the room and the couple gets to spend a moment with each other before their “I Dos.” I find it really takes the anxiety out of the day. Traditionally when a couple gets to see each other for the first time coming down the aisle they don’t get to hug on each other which they’re dying to do. After the first look we do photos of the couple and then get the family round up and we do all the formals. The great thing is the couple now has the opportunity to go to their cocktail hour. If for whatever reason we’re unable to get the formals done we have time during the cocktail hour. I like to be able to do the formals before the ceremony. That way I get more time with the couple and everyone can enjoy cocktail hour.
Second Shooter?
When couples ask me about a second shooter….. the first thing I ask is how many guest are you having? Usually any number over a hundred, a second shooter is something to be considered.
A second shooter provides many advantages.
• Having a second shooter means there will be additional back up should anything go wrong.
• You’ll also get double the coverage for a fraction of the price.
• You’ll have additional photos!!
• Many times there are multiple things happening at once and you can get coverage that you just can’t get with one photographer. Formals and Cocktail hour, Bride and Groom getting ready etc…..
• The biggest advantage is that you’ll have multiple angles of the same thing. For an example you’ll get the front and the back view of the bride walking down the aisle, tossing the Bouquet etc….
Brentwood Backyard Wedding
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| From July 29, 2011 |
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| From July 29, 2011 |
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| From July 29, 2011 |
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| From July 29, 2011 |
Wedding Location: The Egan’s House Brentwood