How was your weekend?  Mine was eventful!  Was in 3 time zones.  Shot an amazing wedding in Chicago, met up with 2 of my couples from last year, one babysat for us while we shot the wedding, went blueberry picking in Michigan (apples and peaches t00)…  Just got home a few hours ago and tired.  Was going to share a wedding but decided to share a portrait session instead.  This is the beautiful encore session of Caroline and Mason.

Caroline contacted me after her wedding about an encore session.  After much brainstorming, we went back to their wedding venue.  It’s meaningful & beautiful – what more can you ask for?  She even had Fleuretica replicate her wedding bouquet!

Her flawless hair & makeup is by none other, Theresa Huang of TH makeup and design.

Mason said he wasn’t good in front of the camera… he lied.  I love the above portrait of him.

I’m thrilled that she got to wear her wedding gown again and so honored to have captured some sweet memories for them.

Remember the hot air balloon shoot I did where everything just went wrong?  (You can read about it here.)  Well, I’m excited to share with you the results!    You can also check out Green Wedding Shoes for the full feature!

Ngoc & Albert thought a hot air balloon ride would be a great way to celebrate their one year anniversary… only one problem, they’re both afraid of heights!  After some thought, they figured it would be a great adventure to do together.  Wilmarose of Lovely Jubilee styled this anniversary shoot for them.  She wrote up a little short story about this adventure and hired Jen Simpson to illustrate a story book for the happy couple!  She then did all the shopping and pulled together EVERYTHING – from the clothing to the props, and even the story book.  Perfect hair & makeup by Margaret of Muse Makeup Artistry.

I LOVE that they have this story book that matches our shoot to a T!

Despite how cheerful these photos look, we were all NERVOUS!  All of us were afraid of heights.  The bigger the balloon got, the faster and harder my heart pound.  One one hand, I was worried about getting enough shots on the ground.  Then I was worried about going high into the air in a wicker basket.

The best part about working with a stylist is just showing up and everything is prepared for you.  I love the little “one cent to fly” ticket, all the cute flags, and all the other props Wilmarose thought out.

And then it’s time to take off!!  *gulp*

The ride was actually not as scary as I thought.  Take off was smooth… landing though is a whole other story.  But most of the ride was really relaxing.

There was one point though where we were REALLY high.   Ngoc & Albert hid in the basket, afraid to look over.

But then they encouraged each other and agreed to look at the same time.

One of my favorite photos of them:

I love this gorgeous necklace by Leanna Lin.

And finally, the (very rough) landing.  We slid across the entire field – basket tipped over at some points!  But it was an adventure of a lifetime and I’m so fortunate to have gotten to experience this!

And as mentioned in my post about the mishap, I had to “guess” every single exposure during this session thanks to a broken light meter.  Not bad, huh?  I’m proud of myself!  And now I’m going to pack as I leave for Seattle in a few hours!  Yippee!  Out of office til Monday!

During my own wedding planning, I shopped high and low for my wedding dress.  I didn’t think it would be as difficult as it was!  I went over budget a bit for it, but after the long search, it didn’t matter (that much).  Nearly 5 years later, I can say for sure that the budget is insignificant and irrelevant to the memories.  In my culture, it’s customary to change into several gowns during your wedding. When I mentioned to Jonathan how much my dress was, he broke it down to the cost/hr.  After that, I wanted to wear it as long as I could, and for as many days as I could!  I talked about wedding gown tea parties with my girlfriends, shortening it into a tea length dress, but in the end, what made most sense to me was to have an encore!  Get dressed up again and celebrate that dress!

Grace and Richard picked the perfect setting for their Encore session.  The LA Arboretum had the most beautiful colors and light!

There was so many beautiful spots to choose from that I ended up shooting twice the number of rolls of film than I usually do.  Just look at the light at the orange groves!

I adore Grace’s hair & makeup… by none other than Theresa.

peacock!

and getting flare in film is always exciting:

Wishing you both much continued happiness!

Last year, I shot the new line of Marichi Mani’s shoes.  You can find the photo above in a full page ad in both Teen Prom & Seventeen Prom.  Hair & Makeup by the talented Theresa Huang.  It was my first commercial shoot and first shoot for a line of shoes.  I love shoes and shoot shoes all the time at weddings, but shooting specifically for a shoe ad took much more thoughtful posing.  We shot over 20 pairs of shoes that day!  Did I mention I was 8 months pregnant at the time?

Our model, Ashley, was so wonderful to work with.  Look at the 3 very different looks she gave us!

I learned so much from this shoot and had so much fun.  I love new experiences!

So excited to share that this session I did for Ilene & Jeff got published in the new Ceremony Magazine, Los Angeles edition.

Ilene & Jeff lives in Massachusetts and wanted photos of them in their wedding attire on the beach.  Since their wedding was not on a beach, a day-after session, or an encore session, was the perfect solution!

If Ilene looks familiar to you, that’s because I also photographed her twin sister’s trash the dress session.

I miss the warm beach weather.  Can’t wait for Spring!