Beautiful Day Photography’s Weblog

Mimi and Scott’s wedding this past weekend was SO GORGEOUS and SO photographically inspiring, that Robert and I took almost 5,000 photos!!! To see the rest of the photos from this event please click here. After editing we narrowed it down to our favorite 3,000! Seriously, the Figueroa Mountain Farmhouse in Los Olivos is by far the most stunning rustic location in the LA/Santa Barbara Area. I had the pleasure of booking this wedding at the last minute and actually cancelled my trip to Wyoming with my sister in order to shoot it. I just had a FEELING that this was not one to miss…and I was right! My boyfriend Robert and I decided to make a weekend out of it and drove to Los Olivos to shoot this wedding. I was WARNED by Mimi that the road that leads to the Farmhouse takes the term “boondocks” to an extreme. To get there you have to travel 9 miles through a steep, curvy, mountain road with NO turnoffs. Even though I was clocking the miles I still had doubts that we were lost on the way there…but then it opens up at the top of the mountain to this clearing of yellow fields and a 360 degree view of the mountain range. You can actually see the sunrise AND sunset from this location. The farmhouse can sleep up to 14 people and when we got there, their friends and family had been staying there for a week already. They were blasting Ozzie Ozzbourne and drinking Mint Juleeps that the groomsmen hand-crushed themselves. The atmosphere was SUPER chill and relaxed and I fell in love with Mimi and Scott right away. Bizarrely attached is an ostrich farm, where my boyfriend, Robert, had a TOTAL face-off with one of the ostriches…it scared the living crap out of me. They come at you running and hissing like a snake and are like 7 feet tall!! So I included a close-up of the hissing bastard!:)

The reason I LOVE LOVE LOVE weddings like this is how simple, yet GORGEOUS it is. Forget spending a million dollars transforming an ugly ballroom into a magically lit wonderland, I mean that’s like putting lipstick on a pig:) All they had to do here was face the chairs towards the setting sun, sprinkle some wildflower petals and voila! Instant magazine-worthy photographs! Honestly, if this doesn’t get published then I don’t know WHAT will!

Some of my favorite touches from this wedding were, the HUGE BBQ grills brought in…smoking meat all day, (Seriously I am SUCH a carnivore!!), the parasols and fans for the ceremony, the ABSOLUTELY hilarious constant stream of commentary from Mimi the entire ceremony, (at one point during the vows she said to Scott, “Till death do us part…And you’re never getting out!..LOL”), the GOAT that brought the rings on his horns down the aisle….and he did NOT want to go down the aisle, (but its amazing what a little bribing with food will do!) AND finally the TOTAL feeling of being SO secluded from the world. Not only could you see EVERY STAR in the sky (Rob and I laid down after the cake cutting in the field and watched shooting stars together! I can’t even REMEMBER the last time I did that OR COULD living in smoggy LA!) but you had the freedom to roam around the property. With the farmhouse being on 150 acres you can BLAST your music, scream as loud as you want and party for 3 days straight and NEVER get shut down. Long gone is the restraint of a SILLY time line! Honestly, I was SO amazed with Robert and some of the AMAZING photos he took. Not only did we have a blast and eat well, but we felt like part of the family.

YES THIS WAS an extravaganza!! Normally, I just take the bride and groom to the park and the beach for an hour, but since Jen is a friend of mine whom I met through our mutual girlfriend/stand-up comic Jennifer Myers (There’s your shout out girl!!), AND because they are RIDICULOUSLY good-looking we decided to make it a four hour tour of Los Angeles…starting with their apartment in Hollywood, to LACMA on Wilshire, to the spectacular Greystone Mansion in Beverly Hills and finally to the Beach in Santa Monica! We encountered ZERO traffic and the whole day was a fun adventure. Too bad Paul, Jen’s fiance, is a COMPLETE BORE:) Here are some examples of the 800 photos we took yesterday!!!

As some of you know, I have been playing soccer since I was 5 years old. I STILL play in a co-ed league 4 nights a week in Santa Monica (which is how I met my boyfriend Robert!!:), but last year I joined the first ALL girls soccer team that I have played on since College. Hollywood United Girls Soccer (or HUGS) has been getting A LOT of media attention all over the world, including the 12 minute interview on FIFA television worldwide (featured on YouTube.com). They have flown over journalists and videographers from all over the world to cover the story of our team and now after last night’s victory claiming 1st place in the league, Adidas has agreed to sponsor us!! We have a few international tournaments in our future and now with the possibility of a reality show on the horizon, we realized that WE NEED MORE PHOTOS! So the other day I had the girls come over to take some portraits….Our site will be revamped soon, but for now check us out at www.gohugs.com.

This is the FIRST professional photo I have had of myself in a while so I HAD to show it:) Beate and Monet our team captains took it…Beate could BARELY hold up my camera, so I’m VERY proud she got this shot at all!:) Go BEA!

I have had the privilege of meeting Jade and Svetlana, the two owners of Spray de Sole in Los Angeles. They are recent clients of my GREAT friend, publicist, (and soon to be bride) Nicole Wool and have offered me the trade of a lifetime in exchange for doing the photos on their website…free spray tanning this winter! Their company isn’t just ANY ORDINARY spray tan company. They come to your house and do private sprays, offer all organic sprays and products AND it looks and feels natural!! I have never been into spray tanning before, but I tried it out and I AM CONVERTED!! Seriously, they have it figured out! Whether you want one coat for just a light color or two for a super bronze, you will look like you have JUST been lounging on a yacht in the Mediterranean.

BEFORE AFTER (one coat and ten minutes later!)

I just HAD to put a blurb up about this event.  I NEVER knew in ALL the years I have been out here that this tournament existed!  I mean, I thought it was just a bunch of professional volleyball players seriously playing, but it was like HALLOWEEN on the beach!  It was a mixture or experience levels and EVERY team HAS to wear costumes and it was SUCH a sight to see people dressed like pageant queens, or super heroes, or Venetian Gondoliers, or heavy metal rockers out there playing volleyball and blasting music and partying!…Courtney and I are DETERMINED to put together a team for next year…Costumes to be determined…..

I had SUCH a blast this entire weekend for Karen and Loren’s wedding. I truly have to thank Julie Nunn Martin with I DO Events AGAIN for not only her,her husband Rob and assistants Ranna and Sarah’s hospitality all weekend by letting me stay at La Casa de Martin, but because they truly YET AGAIN, created such a flawless event. I came up a couple days early also because Karen and Loren invited me to their rehearsal dinner as a guest AND I also was able to take some photos of Karen’s niece Gabrielle (pictured below). Their rehearsal dinner was at a VERY authentic Chinese restaurant where I was able to try foods I NEVER thought I would like such as shark fin soup and jellyfish. It was VERY delicious! I had blogged about Karen and Loren’s engagement shoot on Mother’s Day a few months ago and we had SUCH a great time that day that I felt like we all bonded. I put together a photo album sign-in book using some photos from that day and it was a huge hit. The whole day went by smoothly and was very relaxing (although I heard that Loren was a bit nervous:). I was IN LOVE with the flowers and color scheme from this wedding. The yellows and oranges of the flowers REALLY popped against the purple bridesmaids dresses. Plus the tables at dinner were washed in purple hues with orange floral centerpieces. Karen’s dress was also SO gorgeous. It was vintage looking with very delicate lace sleeves and it fit her PERFECTLY.

The City Club in San Francisco TOTALLY reminds me of The Fountainhead by Ann Rand, with the art deco architecture and just the detail in the ceilings and walls. I couldn’t stop taking photos! (Check out the textures of the ceiling during the ceremony). OH and YES that IS an original Diego Rivera mural flanking the staircase…SO AMAZING! We also had BRILLIANT light and I took everyone outside for more of an urban backdrop for our photos. Due to my fiasco the day earlier during the rehearsal (where while I was scoping out the City Club and rooftop for places to shoot that I got trapped in the elevator and then after getting out deciding to take ONLY stairs and then getting trapped in the stairwell and having to climb back down 14 flights of stairs to get out!! ), I decided to only travel ONE time up to the rooftop for photos on the wedding day. I opted to go up there for that PERFECT twilight where the sun has already set a half hour before, but there is still SOME color in the sky for a long exposure tripod shot…The rest is history and you can see the result below..SO GORGEOUS! A few other things I REALLY loved about this wedding was the combination of the Chinese and Jewish cultures, the fact that they had a kids playroom with babysitters during the reception, AND they had a live band!! (Yep, the one and only Brandon from Elle Music!!). It was SUCH a beautiful day and evening and was SO relaxing and chill compared to most weddings. To view more photos from this event please click on this link!

Working with Julie Nunn Martin from I DO Events is not only a blessing, because she makes the wedding SO smooth and beautiful that I CAN’T TAKE a bad photo, but she has become a great friend and someone I completely trust. She is the ONLY coordinator that sends out a gorgeous packet to each vendor with EVERYTHING you could POSSIBLY need to know like directions and routes and detour routes and phone numbers, that you are SO overly prepared that it makes the wedding seem like cake….Some of my ALL TIME favorite weddings have been with her and her “dream team” which includes Ricardo Luna from Luna Gardens for flowers and lighting…and of course I would like to consider MYSELF and my associate Meg Perotti as part of that team:) So with this being said I was SO excited to not only be shooting Silvana and Joe’s wedding on 8-9-08 in San Francisco, but to be able to shoot a wedding with her the NEXT weekend as well (Liberman-Woo). It was back to back fun…and not to mention I love BOTH of these couples dearly.

Silvana had this AMAZING gown with a super long train…I LITERALLY had to crawl under it get the crazy layers and train and to get this shot.

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There were a few touches that I REALLY thought went above and beyond most weddings. For one they had 6 priests and a bishop at their ceremony!! If that isn’t solidifying their marriage I don’t know what else would! Then they had a surprise antique car take them to the reception…where I ducked in the front seat to take photos the whole ride…my FAVORITE photos of the ENTIRE wedding. It truly was the only “intimate time” they had together the whole day, that is if you want to call having a professional photographer in the front seat shooting you the whole time as intimate:) We were able to round up the whole wedding party for some quick shots before yet ANOTHER surprise greeted everyone at the cocktail hour…A BAGPIPER! Can I just say this is THE BEST way to round up 300 people for dinner…Have a bagpiper lead them in…gone are the days of chimes or flickering the lights!

Other great “I DO” details are the monogram “SGJ” as an Ice sculpture, on the cake AND projected on the dance floor. The whole room was transformed into pink hues and large trees with thousands of orchids adorning each tree with hanging crystals that were scattered around the dance floor. Hand-opened roses, a specialty of Ricardo Luna, were on each napkin and in each centerpiece. One of my favorite parts of the wedding was photographing the expressions of the guests as they walked in the ballroom. It was a TOTAL surprise and jaws LITERALLY dropped at the awe-inspiring site. It WAS gorgeous! No wonder Julie and Ricardo were JUST featured on Platinum Weddings! The best part about this wedding was the craziness of the party! The bride and groom are young and so are their friends. They were up on stage dancing and singing and can I say that the song “SHOUT” was SUCH a hit that I am requesting it at EVERY wedding. I swear! Young and old alike broke it down for that song. We took THOUSANDS of photos during the party and dancing..it just would not stop! They actually took the party to the rooftop for an “After-party” when they got kicked out of the ballroom and people were jumping in the pool and smoking cigars! To see more GORGEOUS photos from this wedding, please click on this link.

Susanne and Michael are one of my FAVORITE couples. I had blogged about them earlier when we had done their engagement shoot. They met on Match.com and should be an example to those who are skeptical about meeting their soul mate online…IT IS POSSIBLE!! They also made the cutest slide show of their photos growing up and together (using a bunch of mine from the engagement shoot:) and I think EVERYONE should do that. I learned SO much about them and their personalities by looking at the photos from when they were younger. I mean, I had NO idea Suzanne rode horses!. and also that she has been STUNNING since she was younger. Actually at one point (the photo below where Susanne was pinning on Michael’s boutoniere, I told him how lucky he was because not only is Susanne an amazing person but that she’s SO HOT!…That’s why she was laughing in the photo. In any case, it was a VERY relaxed day…on a Sunday and after the two CRAZY days of intense weddings before that starting on 8-8-08…it was like a breath of fresh air. They got married right before sunset at Wayfarer’s (my favorite slot lighting wise to get married there) and you couldn’t take a bad photo. We also went over to the bench and took photos where Michael had proposed to Susanne…So it was really cool that they got married where they got engaged. Also, they bought a brick with their names and date that will forever adorn the walkway there for decades of weddings to come….VERY COOL. From there my new associate, Jennifer Jasso, (who is SUPER talented and chill to work with) and I joined them at Simon’s Restaurant at Ports of Call as guests…occasionally shooting some pictures and just enjoying the happiness of the day. To see more photos from this event click this link.

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So on 8-8-08 I had the PLEASURE of being a part of this wedding. Ali and Win are extremely NON-Traditional…they wanted to have their ceremony next to the Tyrannosaurus Rex bones in the main hall of the Natural History Museum. The two adjoining LONG halls full of diaramas of Elephants, buffalo and ancient scenes of animals from all over the world served as the backdrop for the dinner tables and dance floor. I had NO idea what it was going to look like when I went for the walk-through, but it was even more BEAUTIFUL and CLASSY than I had imagined. To see more photos from this event please click on this link!

The Natural History Museum was SO generous to donate 200 safari hats to each of the guests. Not only was it a REALLY cute idea to have as a favor, but it started a “photo booth-esque” style of portraits, using the HUGE Elephant display that dominates the far end of the hall as a backdrop for our bizarre safari portraits of the guests. The Museum let us practically climb into the displays to do these photos…VERY cool!

The Museum also did a couple of other REALLY neat touches. First, they left open the private gem room for all of the guests throughout the night to wander through. It was SO beautiful and EVERYONE even the little kids were enthralled. I found a quartz that looked like a heart…I thought it was PERFECT! THEN, they had something I had NEVER seen before. It’s a life-sized T-Rex (but a person in a suit). He had REAL growls and roar sounds effects…I MEAN REAL. He scared the living crap out of me coming around a corner. Of course after scaring everyone to death..he eventually came out and broke it down on the dance floor. Seriously, T-Rex knew how to break it down and had MANY admirers…..(um, Gideon!) She decided T-Rex was her date and is even going to make Christmas Cards to send out to her family of the two of them…LOL. Technically, Gideon, it could have been a WOMAN in that suit!

Me on Safari at the museum!!!

So THANK god for Ruby Dechirico with City Kitchen. Not only did she cater the event, but she was the coordinator and the IT girl. It was such a blast hanging out with her the day before at the pool party, but especially having her take care of everything the day-of. Here SHE is on Safari! LOL Love you girl!

Also I wanted to say that DJ Nahchey, owner of Dash Dj’s was So much fun to work with. He kept us dancing ALL night long and even came to the walk-through (which is above and beyond for a DJ). He told me that he loves to be a part of ANYTHING that will help make the day go smoother. My sentiments EXACTLY, which is why I want to work with him again FOR SURE!

SO the other day I was asked by someone in a group conversation if anyone EVER REALLY comes home from a day at work and just says, ” I LOVE MY JOB!.”..I had to interrupt, because I actually DO all of the time, for real! When I was asked this question I had JUST shot this pool party the day before their wedding in lieu of their engagement session. I had ACTUALLY come home that day and said to my boyfriend, ” I LOVE MY JOB!”. It was SO much fun! Basically, I was in a bikini at the Beverly Hilton for 4 hours, eating and drinking Arnold Palmers, playing volleyball in the pool with some random kids…and of course doing what I LOVE best, taking photos! I honestly think that (as a photographer), going to family functions before a wedding, whether it be a BBQ or rehearsal dinner is SO beneficial. It just makes the wedding SO much more smooth and fun because you have already met and had fun with their friends and family…And have fun photo documentation of it! PLUS, like in this situation, the bride and groom Ali and Win are SO not into having a camera focused on them. So the idea of an engagement shoot was NOT their thing at all….I absolutely don’t mind swapping out an engagement shoot for another opportunity to shoot a bride and groom. Really, for me, the engagement shoot is about getting to know the bride and groom a little more and getting comfortable with them. So if a party is a better chance to do that than a portrait session?, no problem…and of course I can’t pass up any opportunity to spend a day at the pool! To see more photos from this ridiculously fun day, please click on this link!

I also wanted to say that I LOVE Ali’s friends. I had the ABSOLUTE pleasure of meeting Gideon Phillips, the one making the silly face in the middle of the pool. She is not only one of the most intriguing, inspirational people I have met (and I am sure we will become long-time friends), but she is a BLAST and helps volunteer in NUMEROUS programs to help abused children and over in Africa to help drill wells for water. To check out the cause she is a part of that will be taking her to Uganda in October, please check out www.dropinthebucket.org.