Wedding: Tracy + Tim @ San Diego

Last Saturday I woke up at 6am and started driving down to San Diego with Henry early in the morning.  Last time I had Henry assist me on a wedding it was somehow another job in San Diego too and I’m very thankful he’s there to help me with the drive, otherwise I probably wouldn’t have enough stamina to last until almost midnight!  I was a little bit under the weather, actually I still am, and I haven’t even met Tracy and Tim prior to that day and I didn’t know very well what to expect.  My impression of Tracy from our phone conversations is that she’s a very sweet and caring person, and I think it really shows even in the pictures.

Tracy and Tim had a traditional Vietnamese wedding where Tim arrive with his wedding party and family in the morning with trays of gifts wrapped in red paper .  They were greeted by the bride’s family and Tim asked for permission to marry her bride.  Tracy put on a gorgeous Ao Dai (áo dài) and was accompanied by her father were then introduced to the crowd.  They then performed a traditional candle and tea ceremony while blessings were exchanged.  It’s definitely an honor to be a part of such colorful and beautiful cultural ceremony like this.

I love capturing these emotions during tea ceremony. Being brought up in an Asian family I understand very well the significance of these moments especially for the parents when they finally feel like their children are all grown up and starting their own family.Even simple hand gestures like these often show the deep emotional ties within their families and can tell a lot how much they care about the newlyweds.  Often times the elderlies would give the newlyweds words of advice and blessings to their marriage and I simply love these moments.Tim and Tracy then drove off to the home of his parents, and he arrived with a corner of his Ao Dai stuck between the door…  I don’t think he knew why everyone was laughing until someone told him after he opened the door for his bride. =)We took a moment to and took some portraits and it was a treat to shoot with Tracy and her beautiful bridesmaids who had no trouble coming up with these cute poses!Fast forward to later in the evening after a lunch break, we saw countless bottles of Heineken being served to all the guests as they walk into the reception!  I know all the guests had their eyes on the very cute dessert / candie buffet and I’m glad I took the pictures before they’re raided in no time!This is one of my favorite shots of the day.  Tracy and Tim always seem to know where the camera is but I think I managed to capture their genuine happiness in this shot of their first dance.Then of course the traditional table toast but this time around they had to go around 50 tables of 500 total guests!and an awesome performance by Danielle singing Aliyah’s “Let me Know”and even a freestyle dance performance by little brother and his group!