Beautiful Day Photography’s Weblog

Maria and Devang are one of the sweetest couples I have ever met.  Maria is Latina and Devang is Indian and they decided to do two ceremonies; one in the morning at the Sanatan Dharma Temple in Norwalk and the second one 7 hours later at Wayfarers Chapel in Rancho Palos Verdes. I have to say that I LOVE shooting Indian ceremonies, not just because I get to be barefoot:), but because the colors are SO vibrant and there is so much ceremony to the ceremony.  It puts Traditional American weddings to shame…although I HAVE to say that the traditional white dress looked WAY more comfortable than the layers of Indian garb and heavy jewelry that Maria had to wear, but it makes me want to marry an Indian guy, just so I can experience that type of ceremony and feel like a princess….Sorry Rob!  Anyway, by looking at the photos it honestly looks like two different weddings.  It’s hard to believe that it was all in one day, but I have to say..YET AGAIN, the field next to Wayfarers Chapel just blows me away in that late afternoon light.  We of course were rushed off the property, but it was a neat little escape to hide away from family in the field for 15 minutes and to just be able to take these amazing photos.  I HAD to show them some of the photos on the spot, because they were just not going to believe the colors!!  But Congratulations Devang and Maria…BOTH your ceremonies were beautiful and I was SO glad to be invited to shoot the earlier one as well.

To view more photos from this event, just click on this link!

So I have to say that I never used to be a fan of the photobooth at a wedding, but the last 5 weddings in a row there has been some form of a photobooth there and it was the HIT of the wedding.  There are many different ways and companies that provide this service for you.  Beautiful Day can provide a backdrop and an assistant to man the photobooth for you, which is more like a mini studio portrait sitting, companies like LA PHOTO PARTY do the same but on a larger scale for groups, and then there are many other companies that can come and deliver an actual old-fashioned booth that spits out prints right then and there for your guests.  The price varies from $500-$1500, depending on if you want photos printed right then and there for your guests, but it definitely adds a whole other element to your wedding photos. For SOME reason, people feel like they can put their guard down and be silly in a photobooth, maybe its the props and costumes or maybe it reveals some repressed old childhood memories or something, but for you brides out there…its a GREAT way to send out personal thank yous to your guests, by sending them a 4×6 print of them being silly and in costumes at your wedding:)

Lauren, Steve and I had so much fun celebrating the fact that we are all officially Venice Hood Rats now.  They recently moved here from the Washington DC area (where I grew up) to get a change of scenery and just live in a cool place:)  I happen to LOVE Venice and after spending 8 years in Hollywood, its nice to own a beach cruiser and to be amongst the crazies and the artists down here.  With that being said, we thought a Venice-themed engagement shoot would do…So our locations ranged from the famous Firehouse Restaurant, to the Venice Canals, to the murals around the area and then FINALLY to the Beach itself.  The colors and vibe were just so cool that I had to share some…

Ps- The other cool fact is that Ivonne and Chris Kirk ( a former bride and groom of mine and good friends) HAPPEN to live two doors down from Lauren and Steve, so I keep running into them in the building.  Ivonne JUST had her baby, little Soledad, and be sure to look out for the blog about their new baby after our shoot this week… Congrats!!!

YAY!!!  Rick and Rosa are FINALLY married!!  I have known Rick for YEARS and I have to say that he scored big time with Rosa.  As you can see she is drop dead gorgeous, but also just a very genuine person.  I have been photographing Rick’s hip-hop clients through his company FM2 Inc for years and some of my favorites shoots ever have been of his clients.  Including KRS1 and Dj Marley Marl’s album cover “Hip Hop is Alive”…speaking of which, DJ Marley Marl himself was Djing Rick’s wedding…TOO funny!  So needless to say Rick is like family and for years he’s been calling me “L-Greezy” and I almost fell over on the phone when Rosa called me for the first time to chat about their wedding and was like, “Is it ok if I call you Laura?”  And I was like, “Yeah of course, why would you think not?”  and she was like, “Well Rick only calls you L-Greezy”…LOL…Too funny.  In any case, the pressure was on to photograph his wedding in the same SUPER SATURATED funky Laura Grier style that I have used to photograph his clients for years now…(PS check out my OTHER website www.lxposed.com to see what i mean).

So when Rick hired me, he hired my “team” as well…including the fabulous Tara Dowburd-Luftman for  Make-up and Holly Chavez with HMC Events to coordinate the whole day.  It was like being with family working with those ladies and as you can see, it was STUNNING. They had their ceremony at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels and their reception at The Cicada Restaurant nearby.  I think the highlights for me, other than seeing my close friend SO happy in his life, was seeing Rick embrace not only Rosa but her daughter Lauren, rocking out to Marley Marl, stuffing my face with their huge display of shrimp and of course salsa dancing with their guests…I mean most of them WERE Latino…so I was right at home:)  Anyway, I KNOW you two are having a blast in FIJI.  I hope you tried scuba diving, but incase you actually DO have access to the internet, click on this link to check out the rest of this event.

Nish and Jeremy are not only previous clients of mine, but since shooting their wedding 6 years ago they have become VERY close friends of mine.  Nish went with me for our girl expedition to Bali last December and I had a feeling that shortly after that trip that she  and Jeremy were finally going to try to have a baby..and when she showed up to my birthday party acting strange in February…I JUST KNEW she was Prego!!  It’s a boy, but the name remains a secret.  He’s due on Halloween though!  So exciting!  but I HAD to blog some of the pics, because we all had SO much fun!  It DEFINITELY was NOT your average pregnancy shoot:)

Ryan Larson, Stacey Tomashek (now Stacey Pasetta:), and I all used to work at Spence Studios in West Hollywood years ago.  It was my first photography job out of college and my career shooting weddings started there.  We all worked there and it was like a very tight knit family.  They are like my sisters.  The Spence Studios legacy abruptly ended years ago with the death of our dear friend Jay Spence while we were all on a ski trip in Mammoth. From that moment forward my life would never be the same.  I lost a dear friend, was forced to challenge myself and start my own wedding photography business, and basically had to grow up.  Looking back, I owe Jay Spence for where I am today and I am SO thankful to have taken away from that place with me some of the best friends I will ever have in my life.

Since then, Ryan started her own business, Savoir Flair Wedding Coordinating, Stacey works for Marc Jacobs and I of course founded Beautiful Day Photography.  It is SO amazing to see how far we have all come since those days at the studio before they were married and when we would all support each other through our breakups and dramas.  I LOVE them dearly and when Marty proposed to Stacey (to this day the most SPECTACULAR proposal I have ever heard of) and we were all there to witness it, Ryan and I knew that we would have to work Stacey’s wedding…LOL.  I mean, no one else could possibly do it but us.  

So here we are….and here is a glimpse of the intimate backyard wedding that Ryan and I helped to produce.  The little details are what made this so amazing.  Stacey had vintage butterfly clips and peacock feathers as decor.  She sewed her own throw pillows and table cloths/runners and found her dress at a vintage store.  Between her finger waves, their first dance song that was recorded by her grandmother in the 20’s, the silent film projected on the side of the house, the old-fashioned cake and the vintage photo booth with 20’s props, I think we captured the essence of the era that I KNOW Stacey really was meant to be born in.  Marty, you are the BEST thing that has ever happened to Stacey and I am so glad to include you in my life as a brother:) I love you guys!

To see more photos from this event, just click on this link.

Ok, so Shannon and Tyson are going to be my friends from now on for sure… I mean it!  I had SUCH a blast at their wedding AND at the rehearsal dinner the night before.  They put me up at the FABULOUS Ojai Valley Inn and Spa and it was SO nice to sleep in such a luxurious room, wake up early and eat breakfast, rent bikes and ride around the wine country of Ojai, lay out, take a nap…and THEN start shooting the wedding.  Honestly, it was SUCH a nice day and the wedding had not even begun!  I actually ran into Justin and Mandy (a former bride and groom of mine) at breakfast and not only did they have a baby, but another baby on the way!  I JUST shot their wedding a year and a half ago, so I was shocked…but I LOVE running into former couple’s of mine and seeing where they are now.  SO awesome.  What ALSO made this event so fun was that I got to work with one of my best friends, Ryan Larson with Savoir Flair Wedding Coordinating.  We even shot some family photos of her two kids and her husband Matt before the wedding. (which I blogged about last week).  They are two of my favorite people and so amazingly artistic and talented…I knew Shannon and Tyson were in good hands.

So Tyson and Shannon have known each other since High School. They dated most of the years inbetween then and now as well.  But the coolest part about their wedding is that ALL of their family and friends all grew up together too, so the ridiculous stories they all had about each other that they shared at the rehearsal dinner dated back to when the groom’s sister used to babysit some of the bride’s family when they were little….It truly was SO neat to see how close they all were.  They even got their High School Principal to marry them!  Too funny.  But EVERYONE there was just good energy and they all partied and had the best time and that energy I am SURE shows in the photos.  There was SO much emotion between the two of them.  I am sure it was a day they both never thought would FINALLY come:) It was also amazing how both Shannon and Tyson went out of their way to treat me like one of their own (which I think is a hard circle to break into:) and it truly was an honor to get to know them and to be part of their big day.  I KNOW that we will all hang out together many more times in the future.  Love you guys! Your thank you note is DEFINITELY going on my website.  It was really touching.  Thank you.

If you want to see more photos from this event, just click on this link

So Thoa and Glen were SO worried that I would not be able to get any good photos of them!!  Not only are they SO cute and funny, but Thoa is my PERSONAL hero now.  She works for Obagi skincare in Beverly Hills and they have this AMAZING line of skin care products specifically for Malasma (which for those of you who have no idea what that is, its the skin stains women get on their faces due to hormones).  I have been completely obsessed with skin peels and wearing spf to avoid this, to no avail…but three days after our photo shoot I received THE BEST present ever in the mail from Thoa.  As a thank you she sent over their ENTIRE skin care line to me and already after a week I am noticing results!!  Seriously ladies, CHECK OUT OBAGI!!…So I digress, back to their photo shoot:)

We basically took over the St. Regis and ran around and had a blast.  The location was super personal to them, because that was where Glen chose to propose to Thoa and where they will be having their upcoming wedding.  Afterwards, Johnny the GM of the resort treated us to dinner and drinks and I had THE BEST burger to date.  They have this amazing truffle burger that is to die for!  Of course I brought home the other half to savor after my long drive home and my boyfriend ATE IT!  Oh well, at least I have the Chinese cuisine to look forward to at the wedding:)

I HAVE to show off this amazing event (actually only 1 day out of three) that Linda Pitelli with Eventful Designing put together for the Four Seasons in Westlake Village. She asked me to come shoot details and have a couple drinks….and honestly, I just wanted to hang out with Linda and her husband Patrick and see what miracle she had performed THIS time.  I was NOT disappointed and the entire theme was Asian-influence, which she took to a WHOLE other level including Geishas walking on stilts passing out fans to guests, a human snowglobe dancer, Asian cuisine, Modern trance music with an Asian Flair, and of course amazing silk tents and pillows with SUCH vibrant colors that you were transported to another land far far away from Suburban Westlake Village.  I also finally met William Innes, another Wedding photographer who I had always heard about, but never had the chance to meet.  We bonded over geeky photo talk and I am sure we will be helping each other’s businesses out in the future. All in all, this event was a spectacular visual circus that I had to share!  Love you Linda!