This Sunday, 8/29/2010, we’ll be hosting a grand opening at our new studio space at 420 Rolyn Pl #B, Arcadia.  We have invited some of our favorite vendors, past clients, friends, and family to join us celebrate.  Refreshments will be served and we’ll be there from 9 to 3pm.  We’ll also be giving out discount coupons for future bookings that day.  So come by and meet up, or simply stop by and say hi!

Looking forward to meeting you all this Sunday!

Here’s a map to our studio for your convenience:

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I remember a many years ago when I first visited Balboa Park in San Diego when I was still experimenting with photography.  I spent a whole day there taking pictures at the San Diego Zoo and I was impressed by the massive size, landscape, and especially fascinated by the beautiful architecture there (note to self: I still need to find a chance to visit the museums there).  I just couldn’t be happier when Lillian and Binh told me they’re getting married at the Prado in Balboa Park!  The Prado is a historical landmark in San Diego and it’s simply a treat to shoot there.

The two of them bursted into tears and they almost made us cry as well.. =)

Pictures like these shows why I love the photojournalism aspect of my job where you simply cannot reproduce anything like this no matter how well you pose.  This is the type of images that I really treasure on my own wedding, and I’m blessed to have the opportunity to help others perserve theirs as well.

The weather that day was simply amazing and this is a view from the Casa del Rey Moro Gardens where the wedding ceremony was held.

Wynn and her team did an awesome job putting everything together!

Lillian and Binh wowing the crowd with their first dance

It’s a great pleasure working with the following vendors who made this special wedding so awesome!

• Wynn Austin of Le Chic Wedding Consulting

  http://www.lechicweddingconsulting.com

• DJ: DJ Vynce Pham
  http://www.musicphreek.com/

We started off the day at the Lux Sunset Boulevard Hotel where they’re getting ready in the morning:

Mary and Mike decided to do a first look at the hotel.  Their flower girl was confused about what they’re doing, and started telling Mike that Mary’s coming and asked him to turn around.. cute haha =)

and their elegant and beautiful bouquets

Here’s the red and white wine they’re using for their wine ceremony

And the very lucky Cooper accompanied with two pretty flower girls

It’s a gorgeous day and a beautiful ceremony

we took the entire bridal party along, including the flower girls and Cooper the ring bearer to the golf course for some pictures.  =)

hmmm….. ice-cream bar that everybody looked forward to.  It’s a huge hit that night!

In the reflection, the boy couldn’t wait until Mary and Mike could finish so that he could get his ice-cream; and Mike’s dad working hard in the background.

and they crowd urged them to hurry up ’cause they were so anxious to get their ice-cream! =)

and on the first dance, Mike’s dad also was working hard making sure he captures the moment! 

The entire wedding has been a blast and simply a treat to photograph.

And of course, huge thanks to all the vendors who made the wedding a awesome success!

• Jill Cuarto
  Makeup by Jillz: http://www.makeupbyjillz.com
• DJ Steve Martinez: http://www.djstevemartinez.com/
• Mountain Gate Country Club Los Angeles: http://www.mtngatecc.com/

Meet Gavin, he’s 3 months old, and quite an active little boy as well!  He’s spent the whole time moving about punching and kicking, exploring the world around him during the entire session.  So it’s been quite a task to try to catch up with this little guy!

It’s great seeing you guys again Jodie and John, and it’s definitely a pleasure meeting little Gavin!

The day began with the coverage of Kate and her bridesmaids getting ready.  I was told about the beautiful Carrie bridal gown by Maggie Sottero prior to the wedding, and I had an idea what it would look like, but Kate wowed everybody once she put it on… I’m sure you’ll agree she looked absolutely gorgeous in it.

This is one of my favorite shots when Dale and the girls were busy helping Kate with the gown.

Moments later after Kate was done with her gown, Dale asked for help to straighten up her corsage.  Knowing Dale’s tendency to be pin point accurate about everything, she eventually ended up taking off the jacket and doing it on her own while everybody was laughing about it.  Kate on the other hand, started dancing on her own in the back.

Here’s one of their portraits, and they had to make Gene take a shot with the bouquet. =)

They had quite a long list of portraits to do and so we found a great spot for that, and I just had to sneak in some silly shots in between. =)

and here’s another one of the very happy bridal party

I looked around for inspiration for the ring shot and ended up seeing these empty glasses at the bar sparkling in the light. =)

The very clueless-looking amazingly cute ring bearer

I usually don’t like to get too close to the bride and groom during the ceremony, but I was able to get behind Gene as he watched Kate and her father walk down the aisle.

and her priceless, genuine, beautiful smile

I knew we’re on a pretty tight schedule, but I managed to get a chance to ask the couple to do a few quick shots and this is what we got.  =)

This is when Kate’s little brother cracked everyone up with his awesome toasts.

The sun was quickly setting at this point, and I had to quickly adjust to adapt.  But I think it worked well on the father daughter dance

Gene holding his mother in the very touching mother-son dance

So it was another awesome day where I was again reminded of how much I love my job, and how fortunate I am to have the opportunity to capture these joyous moments in people’s lives.  Congratulations again, Kate and Gene!!!

Huge thanks to the following vendors who helped make the wedding a huge success!

• Angelina Tam and her team who have done an awesome job on the hair and makeup
• Scott Norris from Coastline Music
• Dior Chase, Events Coordinator.
• Phoenix Bakery:  http://www.phoenixbakeryinc.com/

Natsuki’s dress simply looks stunning on her, and isn’t that hair piece adorable?? =)

This is what usually happens on the groom’s side when they’re “getting ready”… they got ready in just a few minutes and then it’s like an hour of chilling. =)

Little flower girl apparently a little confused about what everybody’s cheering for. =)

This is when Natsuki made her speech thanking her parents during the dinner reception. She spoke entirely in Japanese so I’m not exactly sure what she said, but I don’t think language would be a barrier conveying the content seeing her parent’s reactions.

Grandpa stunned every single one of us with his groovy dance moves!

And this is why I love slideshows… Natsuki and Brian’s slideshow was full of memories with their friends and family, and of course I’d never let these opportunities fly. =)

Congratulations again!! I hope you guys had a fun time back home in Japan and a wonderful time at your Japanese reception!!

This is one of my favorites: Julie talking to the flower girl and ring bearer boy right moments after the walked out of the church after the ceremony. You could almost see her joy from the gleam of her eyes.

This is one memorable shot… You wouldn’t believe how difficult it was to actually gather the entire bridal party (we only later found that we’re still missing 2 persons after the shot and Julie & Minh wasn’t even aware of it during all this)

This is yet another intercultural wedding I’m covering this year, and gosh an Indian bride doll and an Asian looking groom with glasses! These cake toppers are just too darn cute…

These cute elephants are actually the place card holders they used for their wedding. I figured they have a little cultural meanings and I borrowed them for their ring shot. =)

Julie and Minh slipped into a Shari and Sherwani respectively and everybody wanted a picture of them!

I just love shooting table toasts. These are the shots that reminds me the bits and pieces of my own wedding and I hope to do the same for all my couples.

The wedding venue Hotel Laguna is a historical building dated back to 1888 and is a cute and charming place. Their unique and colorful decorations really made the entire wedding very special. They went as far as having a hindu priest and Eva wore a traditional sari while Andy wore a sherwani during their ceremony. At their dinner reception, Eva slipped into her wedding gown and they wowed the guests again with some great Bollywood dancing performance and their beautiful Croquembouche!

The entire day of wedding has been nothing but total awesomeness thanks to the very dedicated vendors:

• Matt Grumann as their DJ/Emcee : http://www.mattgraumann.com
• Jackie Jang from Susie Chhuor Professional Hair and Makeup Team : http://www.susiechhuor.com
• Kelly Durham the wedding coordinator from Socialite Productions : http://www.socialiteproductions.com
• Oh and thanks Bernard for assisting me that evening. Hope you had fun

Congratulations again Eva and Andy!!!

I can’t believe it’s May already and wedding season has officially begun! I’m going through the busiest month of the year and there’s a back-to-back Saturday and Sunday wedding later this month. There has been quite a bit of changes thou and we’re definitely moving forward in the past few months to provide a quicker turnaround time, and also expanding our services. I can’t wait to share with you guys what’s in store. =)

• I still remember not too long ago when I wasn’t sure what route I wanted to take in my photography career, and I worked on some small automotive shots just for fun. A couple months ago I got a flickr mail from Digital Photo Magazine in the UK, and to my surprise they wanted to use one of my pictures… I’m super stoked and flattered and I still can’t believe that happened, especially knowing myself for not ever entering my work into any forms of contest, ever! I hope someday my wedding work will get there and I really look forward to that. =) You’ll find this picture in the Digital Photo Magazine issue 129 (May 2010) page 8 and 9 full spread!
• Blog update! As you probably already have noticed there’s been several updates to this blog, and there are even more upcoming changes to make the site more user friendly and aesthetically pleasing. We’ll be implementing slideshows and other cool new features next!
• Wedding Gift Registry!! I’ve been thinking about this for a while ’cause often times I come across couples who could use a little help with their wedding budget and doesn’t need that fourth toaster oven, the Wedding Gift Registry we now offer should solve that problem nicely. All you need to do is to spread the words before your wedding to your guests, and we’ll take care of the rest for you!
• The Apple iPad – This new toy is definitely making my life easier. It allows me to bring much more than just a few albums and my portfolio book at meetings. Now I can even bring some of my sample album layouts, and pretty much all the pictures I wanted in high resolution, along with a nice calendar, my emails, and even replaces my notepad. I’m loving it!
• We’re cooking up a new client booklet and package list for our new couples to improve communication and to provide them a much better idea what to expect along every stage of their wedding from us.
• We work hard in order to provide the best experience possible for every couple, and we’re very proud of all our collection of 5-star reviews as shown on projectwedding.com and some even on Yelp! The positive feedback count continues to grow, and Shirley and I are totally humbled and I can’t thank you all enough!
• Videography – a few of you have inquired, but unfortunately we’re still working out the details at the moment so that would’t be available as early as we hoped for. I’ll be sure let you guys know once we have anything set in stone.
• Last but not least, PHOTO BOOTH! It’s been on my mind for the past few months and I haven’t been able to set it in motion. But I finally picked up the key equipments and we’re working towards the finishing touches at the moment. In the next couple of months we should be ready to roll out that new service, and it’s going to be awesome! We wouldn’t be bringing in a passport photo booth to your wedding, instead, we’ll bring in a real photographer with professional lighting setup and all the gears to print you 4×6 lab quality photos on the fly. Best of all, we’re working on making it consistent with our entire experience – FUN! Stay tuned for more info!

LACMA engagement photo - Urban Light

I just knew that we’d have a great time on our e-session when I first met up with Tiffany and Mike because I sensed a great chemistry between us. Since they booked me quite some time ago, we’ve exchanged ideas over the past months before we came together to do this fun e-session. We even wrapped up the night with a yummy Korean BBQ spot in LA, and of course I had to send them my recommendations on ramen haha! We never seem to run out of silly things to talk about the whole time – Mike’s new Mini Cooper, traveling, food, food, and more food. e Thanks Tiff! Thanks Mike! I’ll never forget us shivering together in your Mini waiting for LACMA to turn on those darn lamps, and let’s do ramen together next time!