Jordan and Jairus had such a lovely wedding in North Carolina. They were married in Jordan's family's church in Oxford followed by a reception at Alivia's in downtown Durham. They had their closest family and friends, who were wonderful to meet and photograph! Many many congratulations to the ohsoinlove couple!
This was a very special wedding for me because I have known Thea and her family since kindergarten. Like me, Thea is also an only child, and I often felt that she was like my big sister so I have many wonderful memories of us playing together - dress-up, trips to Disneyland, tea ceremonies, going to Little Tokyo in downtown L.A., climbing trees... As she and other close friends and family members are getting engaged and married, I've started to become more nostalgic. On the morning of her wedding, I was looking through old photo albums and found this picture of the two of us on one of our trips to the Huntington Library with our American Girl dolls. Thea, on the left, is probably around nine, and I'm about seven years old.
Looking at the photo makes the memory seem so vivid, but then I think about how much things have changed, and it again seems like such a long time ago. Thea now lives in Chicago, and I probably see her parents more than her. At any rate, I was so happy to be able to partake in her wedding. Her husband Marc is wonderful and very musically talented so he and his friends played during the ceremony and reception. The wedding took place in Thea's parents' backyard and was the perfect early summer garden wedding.
Animals have always been an important part of Thea's home, and so it was no surprise that the turtles dressed for the occasion with purple bows and Momo, the pug, landed in a lot of my shots.
I couldn’t be happier that Monique and George were my first wedding of the season. I'm always overcome with a bit of nervous excitement for the first wedding as I have a tendency to over-think and get butterflies from playing out in my mind how things can go wrong. The silver-lining in this is that because I think of what problems might arise, I'm also prepared for when things do get off schedule. Fortunately, everything went beautifully and smoothly with Monique and George's wedding in Santa Ana.
Monique and George came to me by way of my cousin, Stephanie. When we first scouted the ceremony and reception locations, I knew that they were going to be wonderful to photograph; they were actively involved in planning the kinds of pictures that they wanted, and I always appreciate when a couple adds their ideas to mine. Monique was a radiant bride, and George had a permanent grin plastered to his face all day.
