Last week I shot a fantastic birthday party for Karel Guefen at the Page Museum, home of the La Brea Tar Pits. Carol was having so much fun, at times leading me around to take pictures of her with her friends, many of them she’s known since elementary school and high school. Guests were greeted at the door by a caveman entertainer. Activities included a scavenger hunt and a live jazz band to keep the mood swinging. Food and entertainment were all coordinated by Melissa Savage of the Special Events office of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles. All the exhibits made this a fun venue to shoot. Here’s a peek.

Drinks were served through an ice sculpture of a wooly mammoth.

On the scavenger hunt, counting dire wolf skulls (there are 404).

During the scavenger hunt, grandchildren discovered the photo booth.

Veronica from VeroFoto, came by the other day to take some shots of me and Nate. It was very stressful at first, just the thought of being on the “other” side of the camera. We of course had a great time, and by the end of the shoot, Nate decided he was ready to be a model! This is our favorite shot from the day and will be our new bio pic, what do you think?

Nate & I belong to ABC (Association of Bridal Consultants) and every other month they have a networking event. It’s a great opprotunity to stay in touch with other vendors in the wedding industry, as well as meet new friends. Each event is hosted by a different venue, this Monday we were at the Castle Green, which was a grand hotel built in the late 1800’s, and is now converted into apartments and a great event venue. They also have different vendors who get to show their work, and this week Cherie & Hedley of CherieFoto were the photographers! Here’s a shot Cherie took of me and my “date” Veronica from VeroFoto:

My youngest brother David has what he called his first YouTube appearance. He’s doing a cover of the Grateful Dead’s “Sugaree” with his band 38 Cents a Gallon. Check it out below.

In case you’re wondering what this has to do with weddings, David and my dad wrote and performed an original song at our wedding, as well as at the weddings of my sister and our other brother Bryce. He also did a great solo performance of Pavement’s “Shady Lane” during our reception.

I have here in my hot little hands, a $100 gift certificate for 100 Candles. I thought we could have some fun and create a contest to give this gift certificate away. Tell us, What would you do with 100 Candles? Nate & I will judge the stories, and whatever we feel is the most fun and deserving will win! Get your entries in by April 30th and we will reveal the winner the following week. Please email your stories by clicking here.

Good luck!

Yesterday we hung out with the fabulous Cherie & Hedley of CherieFoto. Being that we keep bumping into each other at industry events, figuring out we are all from Toronto (Torontonians - Cherie is who started photographing the “Sunshine Boy”, and who can forget Deadly Hedley from CFNY days), we all shoot Nikon, AND to top it all off we are neighbors! We walked over (yes, some of us walk in LA) and hung out in their fantastic studio, gabbed, drank wine and looked at photos. We love these guys, they are true artists and are unbelievably inspiring to us. Here’s Nate & I posing with Hedley:

I have to brag about my brother for a minute here. For those who don’t know, Josh is an entrepreneur extraordinare, and his latest venture is RealD - The Premier Digital 3D Experience. We get to stop by his offices and see the latest demos they are creating and movies they are working on (some of the latest have been Monster House, Chicken Little, Meet the Robinsons and the 3D version of A Nightmare Before Christmas). Every version of the technology he shows just blows us away, not only does it look fantastic, but the super cool lightweight glasses you wear are a dream. Today, we got to see a song from the upcoming U23D. It is a bunch of concerts from the last tour throughout South America, shot specifically in 3D for his format. Nate & I were lucky to be in the front row at the Staples Center show last year, and this film makes you feel like you are right back there. The crowd shots are INCREDIBLE!! I cannot wait to see the entire film. Anyway, I hope this gets you all excited for current and upcoming 3D experiences… Here’s a shot of the cool glasses.

We were laughing so much during Angel & Erik’s engagement session, Nate actually had to stop shooting because his cheeks hurt too much!! These two are hysterical (did we ever figure out who the smarty-pants vs the smart-alec was??) and we can’t wait to shoot their upcoming August wedding at the beautiful Villa del Sol D’oro. We spent a few hours with these guys chatting and laughing as we made our way around Franklin Canyon Park. Here’s a look:

Nate photographed Jeanetta & Darrell’s original engagement session at the UCLA campus this past February. The theme to their wedding is 1920’s Paris, so when we told them we’d be staying at the Paris hotel in Vegas for WPPI this March, they decided to come out and meet us for a second engagement session! We are so glad they did, we had so much fun walking around the hotel and casino (until we got kicked out!) with them all dressed up! We can’t wait to photograph their upcoming May wedding at the Fantasea Yachts Club. Here they are all decked out:

Nate & I spent 4 days in Sayulita, Mexico photographing Vicki & Nick’s incredible wedding. About 100 guests flew in from all over, some as far as Taiwan & the Philippines, to celebrate with this super sweet couple. Spending 4 days with their “amigos y familia” was the highlight of our trip, muchos gracias to everyone for making us feel like we were right at home. Mama Shen has officially adopted me and I feel like we’ve known the “campers” forever (shout out to Hollywood, Dot and the gang!). We know we’ve made incredible friends on this trip and will not forget a second of it. Over the 4 days, we photographed the rehearsal dinner, the rehearsal ceremony, the boys playing football, the girls mani-pedi party, a big BBQ on the beach (with the BEST tacos EVER), of course the wedding day itself and the goodbye brunch. The wedding day took place at Brisas Mar at the Villa Amor overlooking the beautiful bay. Alonzo of Don Pedros hooked up the entire weekend with fantastic food, and transported all the guests all over town. Luz of Sayulita Weddings ran a flawless weekend of events. It’s been agony picking out only a handful of images to show here, but here they are:

Nick’s brother & best man made t-shirts for all the guys. Nick’s was a little more personalized.

Vicki putting on her lips.

Vicki’s beautiful bouquet held her “something old”. Her great-grandmother’s jade hairpin.

Waiting for her ride to the ceremony.

Seaside birds.

Vibrant tropical colors everywhere.

The very emotional thanking of the parents.

The hard part’s over!

Good friend, minister and life of the party, Hollywood.

Vicki in her stunning Monique Lhuillier dress.

The beautiful couple.

The reception in a bodega on a cliff overlooking the bay.

Gotta have a conga line!

Vicki & Nick surprised all the guests with an incredible fireworks display!