Bridgit's Awesome Hair Design

You may remember Bridgit as one of my awesome brides from last year, but did you know she's an awesome hair stylist as well? She is!! Bridgit Louie works out of Spoil Me! Spa & Salon* in Mountain View, and wanted some fabulous examples of her work for an upcoming website. So she gathered up friends and clients to be her amazing models and make up artist, and made a day of it!

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*UPDATE! :) Bridgit now has her very own fabulous studio:
Bridgits Hair Boutique
650-826-4429
www.bridgitshairboutique.com
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I got there just in time to see the final touches being added, and then we headed out for a few portraits of the gorgeous ladies. :) Don't they look fabulous?

Here is the fun fun slideshow!



















Doris:




















Dee Dee:




















Bonnie (You've seen her before too... I shot her and James's Engagement photos!)




















The fab make-up artist, Skye:





















Of course, I grabbed some shots of the beautiful Bridgit too!





















Thank you ladies for an awesome photoshoot, and for inviting me out for margaritas afterwards!! You are all just too much fun. ;)

oh dear.

Oh, I am soooo sore! Yikes! I'm still moving and ok right now, but I'm guessing I won't be able to in about 6 hours. Luckily all my appointments for next weekend were cancelled, and I can just rest (or catch up on school work....in a chair.)

As I walked in the front door...lamenting my poor muscles....I remembered that I get to go pick up my new camera today! Yay! The UPS man won't leave anything on our doorstep, doesn't deliver on weekends, and shows up anywhere between 10:30am and 4:00pm. Evidently UPS thinks every home has a stay-at-home mom or something. But I go to work! So, I have to have packages delivered to the centeral shipping hub, and I go pick it up myself.

But really, it's like Christmas here, I'm so excited. It almost makes me forget about bootcamp. ;)

It's 5:30am, and I'm Awake!

Well ladies and gentlemen, it's 5:30am, and it's my first day of class. I'm not talking about school though, I'm talking about the women's fitness bootcamp I spontaneously joined last week. It's a 4 week program, and I go 3 days a week at 6:30am. That just so happens to be the last little sliver of my schedule that was available (though my sleepy head right now keeps saying "no! it wasn't available! I used that time to sleep!"...).

When I know I want to accomplish something, and I'm likely to give up, I try to tell as many people as possible. Why? So that I feel too embarrassed to quit of course! So that when people ask me "how's that going?" I need to have an answer. And I want to get in shape! And I'm soooooo likely to not get up this early every morning! So I'm telling all of you, just to get me out of bed in the mornings.

I have a couple of GREAT sessions in the editing phase that I can't wait to show you. But right now, I'm going to go get in shape!

Elizabeth & Rob E-Session!

So it's nearly 5:30am, so I most likely won't have anything clever to write. Except for that I was so excited to work on these and make a slideshow to show you I stayed up till 5:30am!! I just couldn't pull myself away. ;)

Rob & Elizabeth are just a gorgeous and super fun couple. You know, normally my grooms just don't like cameras, but I think Rob didn't mind at all! Elizabeth teased and said they'd have to schedule another one, just for him. (Hey, I love more photoshoots!) I can already tell that they are going to have one heck of a party at their wedding, and I can't wait!

Check out the fab slideshow!


(I normally try to pick fewer photos for blog entries, but I'm too tired to pick favorites! I love them all!)

Lets Have a Little Fun!

[image from http://takemydress.com]


Today I saw a post on one of the blogs I read about a bride who started the website Take My Dress to help give away her unworn, unseen wedding dress!! It arrived to her, still needing alterations, 3 DAYS before her wedding. She found another dress for the wedding, but was too upset with the first one to even open up the crushed box holding her unused dream dress.

If you want to enter a contest to win her dream dress (and bring some closure for her) go to: http://www.takemydress.com/


This got me thinking, what wedding tragedies are *you* dealing with? Time to vent ladies!

I'll start off, with a tale from the day my little sister got married. We were totally on time, and things were going really really well. Until.....we went to the stylist. We found out later he may have been, um, under an influence of some sort. He did and redid and redid her hair like 5 times! Right about the time we'd say "it's perfect!"...he'd start pulling out all the pins! Then it was time to do my hair....and after several tries he decided I had too much hair. I agreed to let him cut it (chop chop chop) just to get out of the salon on time!

Luckily the rest of the day went beautifully!!

(Here's one of my snap shots of the day...I have a photo where you can see how agitated she was, but she'd KILL me, lol. She was, by no means, a bridezilla; this was just an extreme situation.)













Anyone (current or former bride, photographers, friends, anyone) have a funny-now-but-not-at-the-time story to share? :)

Robert's Got Style

Ok, I know Robert was joking when he asked to have photos next to the "Style Consultations" window sign, but seriously, he looked pretty sharp in suit and tie! Robert is another awesome comedian in the Bay Area, looking for new fun headshots.

I had never been to downtown Campbell, so I was rediculously excited about all the cool backdrops we found. :) If I get permission from Robert, I'll come back and post a link to his website so you know where to go check out his comedy routine!

check out the full slideshow!

Ben & Kim's Tea Ceremony!

I spent Easter morning with Ben & Kim and their families celebrating their Tea Ceremony! According to Ben, the Tea Ceremony in a way marks their official engagement, and is really a time for the families to come together. I'm so glad they didn't choose to have this ceremony on the same day as the wedding (as many do) because I can tell there were so many wonderful emotional moments that just wouldn't have happened had they been rushed!

Although I didn't understand a word of the ceremony, it was easy to tell they were talking about how much they loved Ben and Kim, and how happy they were for them. I don't think there was a dry eye in the place by the end!!

View the very sweet slideshow!

Kim getting ready for a very special day.













Ben directing traffic just before all the gifts were brought to Kim's family.



















Kim's gorgeous new ring!













I just adored both grandmothers, they were so incredibly sweet:













Ben caught an eyelash and made a wish. ;-)

Steve & Chrissie Get Married!

This weekend I had the emmense pleasure of shooting two events, the first of which was my first wedding of the year! Steve and Chrissie were married in Newark, CA in front of a close group of family and friends. Chrissie's daughter was the fun dj of the evening and the whole crowd danced and laughed till the place shut down. ;)

Check out the fun slideshow!

Chrissie, the beautiful bride!



















What a sweet couple!



















Sometimes I fall in love with the strangest photos....and for some reason I like the fairy lights in this blurry abstract one. :)



















It's easy to cross a street when you've got a bride to stop traffic!













I love a pretty bouquet!



















Soooooo many delicious cakes!! What's a girl to do! (Eat one of course!)



















If there are any grooms-to-be reading this blog, remember this: girls (at least me) think it is sooooo sweet when a groom reaches out to hold the bride's hand during an emotional part of a ceremony (bonus points if he kisses her on the forehead):













Dancing like they were the only two people in the world...

Charming Parisian Apartment

Hello! No, I didn't disappear in Vegas, I'm alive and well! Sorry I haven't written in two weeks, life has been super super craaaaaazy! I had such an amazing time in Las Vegas, I met a million people (feels like it anyway), attended some great classes, picked up some new photography skills and tips, and relaxed a little bit too! I had really great food, spent a lot of time in a fun piano bar, and spent a lot of money on a new pair of shoes which I LOVE. What I didn't do a lot of was....photography! Goodness, I couldn't believe it when I got home, but I had been so busy with everything else, I hadn't stopped to smell (I mean photograph) the roses! What I did take, I haven't edited yet, but I'll post a few when I get them done.

One thing I've been super busy with is putting the final touches on the photographs of the LOVELY apartment we stayed at in Paris! I'm so excited to show you this slideshow. The apartment was so....Parisian!! It had all the old world charm and antiques and coziness that you could possibly want. Since we stayed in an actual apartment (instead of a hotel), Paris just felt so much more like home. It was absolutely wonderful!

Now I can't take credit for all of these photos. The other photographers who traveled with me were INCREDIBLE, and they got really amazing shots of the apartment as well. So I've just mixed them all together, and I want you all to be amazed at the work of my friends:

Tim Co http://whatistimco.com & Ashley http://ashleybartoletti.com/

(I'm sure Lori: http://evelynstudios.com has awesome photos too, but due to circumstances totally out of her control we haven't gotten around to exchanging them yet. Lori, get to feeling better!!)


Here's the beautiful slideshow, set to fun Parisian style music ;)


This clawed-foot bathtub upstairs is huge! I stressed out a bit one day, luckily a hot soak in this beautiful tub completely relaxed me!














I've always loved old faucets.













They've done such a wonderful job of filling the apartment with beautiful antiques, you really feel like you've gone back in time!













It's so neat to stay in an apartment instead of a hotel, especially since you have all the comforts of home! This is a very nice stove, I even was inspired to make eggs one day! Of course, I then realized I can't cook, and would rather enjoy the tastes of Paris. :)














As a photographer, this front window was simply incredible. With the shades pulled back, it let through the most beautiful light! The enormous antique mirror panels that cover the wall above the day bed spread the light through the living room and kitchen.