Last night was the first of a week long celebration for Niyati & Vikram, and we were so happy to be part of it! All the ladies were having Mehendi (henna tattoos) applied to their hands. Niyati’s extensive designs to both her hands and feet by the fabulous Neha Assar, took hours, and looks INCREDIBLE!!! There was lots of singing, dancing and (my favorite part) amazing food! I can still smell the henna… We can’t wait for the rest of the festivities this weekend. If last night was any indication, it’s going to be one amazing celebration. Here’s a look at last night:

Neha carefully applying Niyati’s Mehendi.

Vikram’s name was hidden in the intricate designs. He’s supposed to find it on the wedding night, and if he doesn’t it’ll be ne lonely night for him…

There was lots of singing…

…and dancing…

The brides mother having a great time!

Only half way done…

With a four hour break between the ceremony & reception, we got to spend tons of relaxed time with Zarah & Joe. After the beautiful ceremony at Saint Louise de Marillac Church in San Dimas, we were off to their alma mater Cal Poly for a great portrait session. We even had time to stop at Carl’s Jr for a little lunch! We sure did get a lot of stares! The reception was held at Park Privé, where we met up with the rest of the bridal party and had a great time playing around with them. The beautiful flowers were designed by Petals by Xavi and Jason & Jason of Visions Entertainment kept everyone on the dancefloor.

A sampling of the event:

We are members of The Association of Bridal Consultants (ABC), which holds a monthly get together, where all sorts of weddings vendors can meet and schmooze. Tonight was a fun one, as we hung out with a couple of other married couple wedding photographers! We have been hearing all about Carrie & Ryan Phillips of Ryan Phillips Photography for months now, so it was great to finally meet each other in person. We also met another very cool photography couple who run Evoke Photography. Both do abolutely beautiful work, and are fun to hang with!!

Check out a few shots from the event:

Jen with the lovely Mary Sushinski of Occasions Bridal Consulting and Event Design

Carrie & Ryan of Ryan Phillips Photography goofin’ with me!

Evoke Photography muggin’ for the camera!

Update: We’ve had requests for a link to the entire wedding. It can be found here. Please pre-register, and you will be notified when we’ve uploaded the entire event.

The biggest complement we can get, is being hired by another photographer to document their wedding. We had such a great time at Melissa & Michael’s wedding this past weekend. It was the most perfect, clear, sunny day at the Adamson House in Malibu. The fabulous Tamara & Callie from Belle Bridal Consulting pulled off a flawless day, Foodink Catering created a delicious spread, and DJ Matt Cornwall kept the party hoppin’. Could these two be any cuter???

A good friend of Melissa’s created all the flowers, they were SOOO beautiful!

Such a fun wedding party!

The photographer and his muse…

My unbelievably talented friend Veronica performed at The Derby last night and rocked the house. This quadruple threat of a woman (she sings, dances, acts and is a photographer!) performed with a band for the first time and everyone sounded great. Keep your eye on this one… I’ll be posting upcoming shows of hers.

Here’s a couple of snaps from the show…

This memorial day weekend, we had the privilege of documenting Marissa & Brook’s wedding. Without even meeting them when we first booked with them (they live in Arizona) we knew we all loved each other. They came out to LA in February, we met for the first time and shot their engagement session at The Getty Center. We had such a great time with them and captured some fantastic shots. I had been thinking for a while about making Guest Books from engagement sessions, and was so inspired by Marissa & Brook, I made them my first guinea pigs! They loved the album, and thus was born a whole new album we are offering to clients now, and everyone is loving them!

The wedding took place at La Quinta Resort & Spa, and we got to spend the whole weekend with their family & friends. Once again, Nate broke out the Polaroid Land Camera, and everyone was loving the instant gratification of polaroids! Saturday night we hung out at the rehearsal dinner/croquet party, which was so much fun. Sunday, was the wedding (LOVED Marissa’s 20’s inspired dress! It worked perfectly with the feeling of the venue) and Monday morning we were invited as guests (though, we never go anywhere without our cameras!) to the farewell brunch. Just as we fell in love with Marissa & Brook, we fell in love with their friends & family and felt so much a part of the family by the end of the eventful weekend. It was hard to say goodbye to everyone!

Here’s a sampling of the weekend:

Picking the order for play.

Everyone was loving these polaroids!

We cannot wait to shoot Niyati & Vikram’s wedding!!!!! It’s going to be a multi-day Indian extravaganza!!!!!!! We are lucky enough to be able to document the mendhi night when Niyati will have henna painted on her hands & feet, as well as parties before and after the actual wedding. It’s going to be one incredible week. I especially can’t wait for the food! Maybe I’ll finally learn how to properly put on my sari I picked up in India way back in 1999!

We shot their engagement session all over the USC campus (where they both went to school). It was such a beautiful day (and evening) we had a great time hanging out with them, getting to know each other and getting some great shots. Nate, the true artist, is always coming up with new and exciting ways to photograph his subjects. His latest tool is a Polaroid Land Camera, which has been altered to use modern day polaroids. He has been using a particular polaroid pack which produces a negative along with the immediate positive print, so we can enlarge the photo, and not just enjoy the mini 3.5×4.5 size print it makes.

Here’s a few of our favs from this shoot:

Nate in Polaroid action!

We shot our first Quinceñera this month at the Rio Hondo Contry Club and had a blast! For those who don’t know, a Quinceñera is essentially a coming out party for a 15 year old latina. Alexis is such a beauty, I don’t think we could have taken a bad picture if we tried. Alexis and her “court” (much like a wedding party) performed a few dance routines to start up the reception. MAN can those kids move! For a half hour they twirled and jumped and put on an unbelievable performance. It set such a great tone for the party.

Nate and I have been contributing to KCRW now for years. I usually spend my mornings editing the latest shoot and listening to Morning Becomes Eclectic, we are addicted to This American Life and love all the programming on this great station. This year we decided to up our contribution and become Angels! Which means we got to go to the annual Angels party which happened last night. A good mix of music (of course), food, drink and atmosphere. On the terrace of MOCA, it was a very foggy night, and all the lit up “skyscrapers” made downtown LA look like Gotham City.