Eric and Pinar, Mt. Airy Mansion
April 2nd, 2008
The cherry blossoms were in full bloom as I spent the weekend in DC photographing Eric and Pinar’s wedding. It was very personal and intimate. I saw love everywhere: the mother and sisters of the bride baked the cake in chocolate and vanilla flavors (it was very good!), while the pastor had the privilege of marrying one of his former youth group kids. Eric and Pinar were both involved in the wedding even down to the details; Pinar finished the favors the previous night while Eric and his brother picked up the sound system in the morning. While the forecast said it would rain the previous evening there was no rain in sight and the weather was sunny, cool and crisp.
Needless to say the wedding came together beautifully!
Get Free Tickets to The Great Bridal Expo
February 29th, 2008
This year CCP will be making its debut at The Great Bridal Expo in Anaheim.
Looks like the wedding season is starting off with a bang! Next month I will be in Maryland shooting a wedding, and then it’s off to meet hundreds of brides at The Great Bridal Expo on April 26 at the Anaheim Convention Center.
If you’re getting married soon or plan on it in the near future please email me and I will give you my company’s promo code for 2 free tickets to the event. Or, if you want to drop by and say hi and see my booth feel free contact me also. This event is a fun way for brides-to-be to plan their wedding; there will be drawings, fashion shows, and alot of excitement going on at The Anaheim Convention Center.
CCP will be offering special discounts for those who sign up for wedding packages during the event. What else? Of course, lots of goodies and giveaways; my personal favorite part of going to a trade show.
Hope to see you there!
Wayne and Jeannie
April 30th, 2007
Andrew and Maria, October 28, 2006
October 30th, 2006
Congratulations to a beautiful couple. They met at an arts camp for children, and it confirms my notion that often good people are put together while doing good things. For a weekend I got to be part of the family, and it was a joy documenting their wedding day.
Andrew and Maria married at the Valley of Fire in Las Vegas, and the whole ceremony was beautiful and intimate. In the evening they got down and partied at the reception, and Maria wasted no time in starting the dancing, and alot of fun was had by all.
Alex and Ashley, July 15, 2006
July 25th, 2006
Alex and Ashley had a very special wedding, and this is one of the most unique weddings I have been to. A bit of explanation, though Alex and Ashley are Americans, ethnically they are Mien. The Mien is a subgroup of China (as in the Cantonese, Shanghainese, etc.). Mien people are also in Thailand and other Southeast Asian countries, and most of them dwell in rural areas such as deep in the jungle or the mountains. They speak Mien, and it was only this century that a written language was created for them with Roman characters.
Since my in-laws were in town the previous week, I had to leave Saturday morning at 3am to drive to Merced for the wedding; special thanks to my husband who decided to take a load off of my back and drive me to and from the wedding; this gave me enough sleep and energy to shoot such an elaborate wedding.
It was a very festive celebration…just the colors and the elaborate traditional wear were enough to satisfy the documentarian in me; we were in the city of Merced and on that day it was over a hundred degrees; Ashley’s traditional gown was about 4 thick layers, plus she had enough weight in silver, I don’t think she would have gotten by security at the airport with that outfit.
She got into traditional wear for the tea ceremony; this involved the guests giving some money to wish the couple well; one man even offered a song for the couple. Half of the wedding was western and half was Mien. It’s always encouraging to see a young generation pay respect to their ancestry; seeing the blending of two cultures encourages a creation of the best of both worlds.
What I see in every wedding are very tangible signs of love, and this wedding was no exception. For the banquet the groom’s side of the family got together and cooked the entire reception meal, and there was a 10 course meal that was absolutely delicious. At the end of the wedding I was just sitting there eating and eating and eating.
What a great job I have!
Candy Corn
July 20th, 2006
Everything has been busy, but I wanted to update nevertheless. Since Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas seasons are coming up in terms of flowers, we’re shooting all three seasons of flower arrangements this month and next month. Yesterday we did Halloween arrangements, and if any of you question whether candy corn is sold year round, Target sells them. In addition to shooting I had the pleasure of sorting out two bags of candy corns for the photogenic ones. I tossed the ones that didn’t have all three colors and some of them were broken and quite mangled. It’s a pretty peaceful thing to do, you should try it. Although maybe some of you shouldn’t, I know my husband would go crazy if he had to sort candy corn.
On another note, this past weekend my husband and I went to Merced for Ashley and Alex’s wedding. Since this wedding was quite unique and very cutural, here’s two preview pictures…I’ll post more later.
Jeff and Ying, June 3, 2006
June 5th, 2006
It was a beautiful Saturday on the West Coast. I had the honor of photographing Jeff and Ying’s wedding, the first of the wedding season. Some intimate moments: Mrs. Chang (a very cute l’il ol lady) was making this soup for Ying for breakfast. Explaining to me that it was a “matrimony soup”, we waited to see how many lotus seeds were in Ying’s bowl of soup because legend has it that this number would also be the number of children she had in the future (let the record show: there were 4 lotus seeds). Other highlights include lending a hand and painting her nails, and all of the cute kids that were there.
