matt & joanne- moorpark country club wedding

Yet another back to back to back weekend!

Kicking off this fri-sat-sunday weekend was Matt & Joanne's wedding at the Moorpark Country Club. I had not even met the bride and room until the day of dealing exclusively with the groom's Mother Janet. So the first time I met the bride was the day of and our first meeting was memorable.

I was in the getting ready room chatting with the grooms lovely twin sister Lyndsay waiting for the rest to arrive. When I heard commotion I stood up in front of the doorway to greet them...which apparently was a big mistake as the bridal party started screaming like I was an intruder! I can understand their POV though. They weren't expecting a tall man in their room when they walked in. They were so boisterous and it was then that I realized that the bride are her entourage were all Brazilian. They told me.."you have to excuse us..we're loud because we are Brazilian". Too funny.

I had a blast shooting their wedding. Both families are so close knit and was such a neat thing to witness two families, as well as two cultures, come together so nicely.

Bride wanted either Endless Love or Breathe by Faith Hill..so i chose the latter. :) I love that she took a very deep breath when she walked down the aisle. Of course I had to time it with the song!

duy + hanh - vietnamese wedding doubletree anaheim

You know its a great day when 12 hours seems like 2. Seriously, the day flowed so super smooth and was so fun that it just flew by. Traditional Vietnamese wedding started with groom coming to brides house to perform tea ceremony before going to grooms' parents house for a couple more ceremonies. After their traditional Vietnamese ceremony , the bride changed into her "American dress" and they had a short ceremony outside in the backyard.

Besides their two close friends and family members that each had in their wedding party, Duy and Hanh also had a bunch of little kids in their party and they stole the show. There are a couple of shots in their videos that are up there in my list of all time favorite shots. The bride kissing the little boy and the look on the little girl's face as she watches Duy put the ring on Hanh..PRICELESS!

The fact that they featured these kids tells you all you need to know about Duy & Hanh. They are two incredible people who care deeply about everyone in their life. They constantly made sure that Drew and I were taken care of. They made us feel like we weren't just their vendors, we were their friends. Of course that makes you want to go the extra mile and do the best job possible. (Plus they are HUGE Laker fans which always pumps me up!)

They decided on using Chantal Kreviazuk's "Feels Like Home" for their Cinema Reale. It worked perfectly because of ceremonies being at their houses...and the duel meaning of "home".

ton + virra - montage resort laguna beach wedding video

Virra found out about my work through Jeff & Linda, a wedding I did in June of last year.

Well, now all that's left for me to shoot to complete a full week is a Tuesday and Wednesday wedding. I shot a Thursday wedding this year, and now after this weekend, a Monday wedding. I must say I love this "off day" weddings. Everyone just seems much more relaxed and easy going about things.

Virra and Ton are incredibly sweet people who are clearly in love with not only each other but their cute little boy, Jaiden. One of the highlights was watching friend of the bride "bribing" their little boy with gummi bears to get him to walk down the aisle!

Got a chance to work with - for second time in a few weeks- Jasmine Star and her hubby JD. They are so extremely gracious and truly a pleasure to work along side. They even bailed me out by letting me use their Mac power cord as I had forgotten mine!

This fabulous event was coordinated perfectly by Michelle and Brooke from Details Details who made sure everything flowed flawlessly all day. They were extremely helpful which is so important for doing the Cinema Reale.

Virra and Ton like R&B music so we went with a tried and true classic, Sade's "By Your Side". Virra looked absolutely stunning and it was impossible to get a bad shot of her as you will see in this video:

noel + kat - bowers museum wedding

Let me start off saying Noel and Kat are awesome people who know how to plan a wedding! Everything about it was so unique and cool. They are such sweet and gracious people who truly appreciated the day and everyone there. (which is evidenced by the fact that they had a table full of Krispy Kremes boxes for guests (and vendors! ;) ) to take home with them. Yummy!)

They also had a photobooth and I never pass up the opportunity to ham it up!:



Thats my buddy Tom and I after a long shoot. I guess that is my excuse for the dorky faces I am making.

The reception venue was the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana which underwent an amazing transformation to host their event. When I arrived there to start my edit, there were museum visitors all over and within 2 hours in had transformed into an amazing wedding venue.

Got the opportunity to work with Paola Spagnoletti from Just Chic Events. Her and her mother were just awesome to work with. They were so helpful and flexible with everything.

Besides knowing how to plan a unique wedding, Noel & Kat also have great taste in music and chose one of the cooliest songs ever for a Cinema Reale; Sum 41's "With Me". Yeah...Sum 41. That pop punk band that had a couple of hits in the mid 90's actually wrote a very cool love song.

The song really had some ups and downs in tempo which makes it not only the perfect wedding song, but it also gave me the opportunity to try some different editing ideas.

Enjoy. :)

shelly + joe - montecito country club santa barbara wedding

Wow.

Loved everything about this wedding! Got to work with coordinator Jackie Blackwell for the first time and she was excellent to work with! She was on top of things yet flexible! Also worked with photographer Tara Rochelle for the first time and she was incredible!

Gorgeous bride had a real classy retro look going so I went with a desaturated filtering to match the style and feel of the day.

When they told me the song they wanted for their Cinema Reale, I got really giddy. That's because they wanted to use Bif Naked's cover of Metallica's "Nothing Else Matters". If you had never heard the song before, you may be tempted at first to think "A Metallica cover? For a wedding song?". While the lyrics may not be your typical wedding love song, it doesn't matter in this case and I think you'll agree when you watch the clip. It worked perfectly.

HD VERSION

nicole + phil - hummingbird nest ranch wedding

Busy weekend!

Right after finished Vito & Funni's wedding, I jetted over to Simi Valley to begin editing Nicole and Phil's Cinema Reale.

Nicole was another last minute bride who signed with me mere weeks before her wedding began. I am so glad she found me because it was such a unique and beautiful wedding.

B&G wanted Phil Vassar's "Last Day of My Life" for their Cinema Reale. Its always a challenge to use country songs because the lyrics are always so specific and almost like a short story so it is hard to match with footage of the day. I think I did pretty well with it and they loved it!

vito + funni - langham hotel almansor court wedding

Vito and Funni are good friends with Ian and SainVie who I did in June of this year and are the second couple in a trio of Indonesian weddings I signed at the same time. They are all friends from the same church and they all came to visit me at one time. All of them are such tremendous people and Vito and Funni are no exception. They are very special people who love God and each other very much.

I chose Mat Kearney's "Breathe in, Breathe Out" for their Cinema Reale.

annie + ron - trump golf course wedding

Another one of those Friday weddings! Annie called me just weeks prior to her wedding and didn't officially sign with me until 2 days before! I have to say that I am REALLY glad she did because it was an amazing day to say the least.

The beautiful bride is Korean but the handsome groom is Chinese so it started out with traditional Chinese tea ceremony before moving to the scenic ceremony lawn of the Trump for their American ceremony.

It was coordinated by the couple's good friend Nhu who really took care of us and made sure we had everything we needed. Photography was handled wonderfully by Annette and Andrew from Triple Cord . They were phenomenal to work along side.

We had a technical problem that prevented us from showing it at the time we wanted, but we sorted it out and showed it and received an incredible response.

Bride chose the song "When I See You Smile" by Uncle Sam.

wife's bday! linkin park irvine concert

My incredibly crazy fun weekend ended with a date with my wife on Sunday. She is a big Linkin Park fan so I surprised her with tickets for her birthday. I loved the look on her face when we kept walking down closer and closer until we were smack dab in the middle 5th row orchestra seats! You can see that even with my cheapo camera (that don't allow the good cams) how close we were.

One of the highlights was when Chris Cornell joined LP onstage to sing "Crawling".

kaley + chris- engagement shoot

Chris and Kaley are one of my 2009 couples who not only signed on with me for video but Kaley is the first bride to decide to book me for photo for their wedding! I could not be more excited as they are not only beautiful couple, they are so sweet and easy going. They totally put me at ease!

We did part one of their engagement session today in Pasadena primarily at my good friend Danielle Biel's studio. As you can see from the pics, they are an incredibly photogenic and the chemistry is amazing between them.