Michelle and Roozbeh 4.28.07

Michelle had booked me a while back over the phone so when her wedding approached, I was wondering if I'd meet her in person for the first time at the wedding. Since she and Roozbeh were living up north and were in medical school, they were SUPER busy. I did remember, however, that this wedding sounded right up my alley - the officiant was a Buddhist monk and it was a traditional Persian ceremony. At a traditional Persian ceremony, instead of standing, the bride and groom sit and face the audience, in front of a variety of symbolic eats, decor, and writings. It's so beautiful and the audience is very participatory, giving blessings and readings, etc....I loved that this ceremony mixed Persian tradition, buddhist philosophy and some pagen rituals (like hand-fasting).
Thie wedding took place at the Castle Green in Pasadena, a beautiful venue which had an infinite amount of amazing places to photograph. Heather, from Martini's and Bliss Events was the coordinator and it was so awesome to work with her again. She is a hoot! Anyway, this just turned out to be a fabulous wedding with all sorts of traditional Persian dances between the bride and groom, their guests and a traditional Persian dancer as well!! I want to thank Talla from Studio Inspire and Tammy from True Blue Photography who came and helped me - I have to honestly say - I don't think I've ever taken so many family shots in my life - half of LA are their relatives!!!

Cindy and Alexis's Wedding - 5.12.07

I had the pleasure of meeting up with Cindy and Alexis in NYC and doing their engagement shoot on the subways and Central Park (on the blog back in October of 2006) ....it was so great to see them again back in California at their wedding. Cindy is a dancer and looked absolutely beautiful and Alexis is an actor and tres sauve! Anyway, they are both sweethearts and this wedding was a pleasure. They had a 10 course chinese banquet dinner and were kind enough to give us a table of our own (oh my god, so dangerous for a pregnant woman, I pigged out!). But seriously, the ceremony was beautiful and the reception was a blast. Cindy was a bit worried that there were no places to photograph at the church. I found this field of wildflowers behind the church and she was game enough so go get all dirty in them. Thank you Cindy, I love these shots! They remind me of "The Sound of Music" or something. Ugh, I'm such a sap! One really funny thing that happened, was at the end of the ceremony, the priest forgot to tell them to kiss. He announced them, and I'm thinking "Oh, my God, did I miss the kiss?". So they are about to walk back down the aisle and the priest remembers and has to stop them. Hey, nobody's perfect! The bride and groom had a great sense of humor about it!!!

Tamara and Zachary's Wedding 4.22.07

Tamara and Zachary live in Echo Park and had a full on Echo Park, musician wedding. Zachary was attracted to my website because I had been a singer/songwriter and he is an INCREDIBLE musician. He was recently Josh Grobman's musical director and he plays in all sorts of cool bands and projects around town. His wife Tamara has been a doula, delivering babies in war zones of Israel and Palestine (brave woman). Tamara and Zachary have a son, Ezekial, together who is almost a year and who is adorable. "Zeke" as they call him is Tamara's fourth child and it was very funny when she told me at our initial meeting that she would have to breastfeed in her wedding dress. I was REALLY hoping that I could get a bridal portrait with her breastfeeding. Well, here it is! The coolest thing is that although this photo is a bit revealing, Tamara had no problem with me putting it on my blog (Yes, I asked!!!). I mean, how hip is that!!! Zachary and Tamara also have an incredible story - they had met when they were teenagers and dated, then reconnected all these years later to fall back in love again! They had never forgotten each other. Now isn't that romantic?

A little bit of Old Hollywood with Mandy!

Mandy and Michael had this fabulous idea when they came to book their photography - a bridal shoot at the Old Los Angeles Theater. How they swung this I don't know (usual rentals of this place start at $5,000!).....but they had some connections and thus, we got to shoot there! Mandy really wanted that "Old Hollywood" look which wasn't difficult in this setting but I must say, I've never quite taken photos like this. Mandy is so much fun and I was so excited during the shoot - we both had a blast. Isn't this place AMAZING? They rent it for parties and movie shoots, etc.....Michael was telling me that they shot an episode of "Dancing with the Stars" there. One funny pregnancy tidbit - so I had to shoot from alot of low angles to get alot of the decor, you know. At one point, I was laying on the floor shooting and I thought to myself "Oh my God, I'm not sure how exactly to get up!" It's weird having this big stomach in the way!!!

The Knotties Love Me!!!!!

Well this was a very nice suprise! I had no idea The Knot Magazine even did this....but I guess they put a "Best Of" national magazine together and I scored the highest for Los Angeles Wedding photographers. I got a perfect score of 100% happy brides and was at the top of the list. Yay! I don't know exactly how they do this (I'm not very good at self-promotion - I wouldn't have even know about this if my friends from Next Exit Photography hadn't told me about it! ) but it sure feels good! It's on newstands now!!!!

Marcy and Mark are having a baby!!

I know I shouldn't pick favorites, but Marcy and Mark are one of my favorite couples! They are just SOOOO nice. I photographed their wedding back in 2004 and it's been such a pleasure to see them over the years at other weddings they have referred to me. We really bonded over our love of India - they travel there relatively often and my trip over there pretty much changed my life and they always offer to get me stuff when they go (thus we had to put her in the Sari for the shoot!) . Anyway, I photographed her maid of honor Lisa's wedding in 2005, then I photographed Lisa's cousin's wedding in 2006.....so basically I've been up to date on all the Marcy and Mark gossip. I was thrilled to hear that they were expecting. Marcy is a month ahead of me in her pregnancy and her belly is half my size (It's so embarrasing!) She really looks great! I really couldn't wait to see them and we gabbed so much I had to remember to shoot (I really shouldn't be putting that on the blog!)