Cheryl and Sung's Wedding - Montecito Country Club
I had the honor of shooting Cheryl and Sung's wedding this past weekend as a 2nd photographer with Sarah Holden of Sarah Holden Photography. The wedding was at the beautiful Montecito Country Club.
Along with meeting so many incredible brides and grooms, I love being able to meet other wedding industry professionals like Sarah, her husband Jeff (video) and the two wonderful characters behind Make My Day Coordination Services, Carol and Christa. Sarah is an awesome photographer from LA and works with her husband Jeff (Hillside Productions) who's the man in charge of the video camera. What a great team!
Carol and Christa make another great team and were in total control of the days events. It was such a pleasure working with this crew!
Here are some favorites from Cheryl and Sung's wedding day.
Well, everyone knows about my niece and nephew being back home in Santa Barbara because I can't stop talking about them! They came with me the other day to run errands and we wound up at the bank. So... I decided to give them some gifts and start them out on their road to financial freedom! haha
Sarah and Jordan opened up their first personal savings accounts! Wells Fargo has a special program for children that teaches them about savings. A little incentive that they offer is that for every $3.00 they deposit, they earn a Wells Fargo Kid Buck. They can save these bucks and buy prizes with them or if they can make it to $100 kids bucks they can turn them all in for a $50.00 US Savings Bond! Not a bad return eh? I wish I started saving when I was 8 years old!
Here are some pics from my iphone of their day at the bank. Jordan was so cute, he was a little nervous about signing his paperwork, but he did it!
I just don't have words to describe the people that I meet doing wedding photography, they're all amazing, just like this wonderful couple. I had the honor of shooting Tanya and Randy's wedding here in Santa Barbara.
The girls started their day with some pampering at River Blue Salon in Montecito and the ceremony and reception were held at Serra Hall. Everyone was wonderful with laughter and tears flowing all over the place.
Thank you for having Rolando and myself there to share in your wedding day!
I had the honor of shooting Kimberly and John's wedding before I went on my trip. This was a very intimate and special 7-7-7 wedding held at the Four Seasons Biltmore in Montecito.
Kimberly and John are from the San Francisco area and are about as nice, caring and in love as they come. The wedding was small and intimate and one VIP on the guest list was their dog Macy! The ceremony was on the beach and was followed with a beautiful dinner at the Biltmore. It was an honor to be a guest and to be their photographer on their wedding day.
On a side note, talk about a small world... I met Kimberly and John, which led me to meet Kimberly's cousin Lesley who told me that I should meet her sister. She said that it was too bad because her sister lives in Maui. Well... I was going to Maui 2 days after the wedding so I DID get to meet her wonderful sister Patricia in Maui! Patricia met my folks that came out to Maui for the second half of my vacation and over lunch, we found out that (try to follow me here) my dad, mom, uncle, HER dad and mom all graduated from the same Medical school in the Phillipines AND my uncle knows them!?! How bout them apples! Crazy huh?
So here we are going through pictures on the computer, catching up on the last 15 years and Jane pops open this folder with pictures of this prehistoric monster! I couldn't believe it was real and she told me that these Jackson Chameleons are all over the place! I immediately ran out in the backyard to go and find one..... no luck.
The next day, we're out in the back hitting golf balls in their backyard (a perfect 150 yard par 3 with a flag and all!?!... in their backyard!?! haha) and we started talking about it so Bart runs off with me following and he finds one! This thing was so crazy looking! We took it back up to the house and proceeded to scare everyone with it and I HAD to take pictures.
Aparently, "a pet store owner in Hawaii purchased 36 of these in the early 70s. He allowed them to live outside, so there is also a sizeable colony of Jackson Chameleons prospering in Hawaii." - from the web.
I came out here to Maui to visit some dear friends and to get a working vacation in too! I've known my friend Jane ever since we were little kids and I haven't seen her and her husband Bart in at least 15 years. They just moved out here to Maui the beginning of the year and they also started a new life with their newly adopted son Patricio! They took me in whole heartedly and shared their lives with me. It was so amazing to see Jane after all this time and we picked up right where we left off so long ago. I'm forever grateful and they just don't know it yet but I'm moving into their guest room ASAP!
They own a beautiful home upcountry with amazing bi-coastal views of the island and don't even get me started about the stars you see at night... but the most amazing thing about this home is their son Patricio. He's from Guatamala and is the most precious thing in this world. I love this little stinker and we bonded big time!
Here are some pictures of their beautiful home and of my new best friend Patricio.
I just can't get over how beautiful it is here in Maui. One thing that makes this island so beautiful are the amazing flowers that grow here in Hawaii!
Maui No Ka Oi! - Delta flight with Jewel Van Valin!
Well, I'm off on a wedding shoot to Maui, going to visit some dear friends and to see my family. I took off from SB down to LA and then to Maui. My trip to LA was a short puddle jumper, which was a piece of cake. My flight from LA to Maui was another story, a great one! About two hours into the flight I decided to get up and walk around. Anyway, I made friends with two Delta employees and we wound up laughing all the way to Maui!
The flight attendants, Jewel Van Valin and Dave were so awesome! We sat and talked about everything from relationships to travel to their 30 years of marriage! Dave fixed me the most incredible bloody mary that never seemed to drop below half full! He kept that rather large cup full for the last 3 hours of my flight.
Jewel was so amazing. She walked the plane and had all the kids and any adults that wanted to play draw something with crayons that she brings on every flight. Once they were done, she would tape them up on the ceiling and the walls of the plane. Everyone loved them and there were some pretty amazing drawings! We had the plane laughing and playing games and at one point, we had a mother and daughter racing (fast walking) the aisles to see who could complete the most laps in 3 minutes. People were taking pictures of all the artwork that was hanging all over the plane and by the end of the flight I think I took pictures of everyone as if it were a wedding reception.
The flight seemed to last 30 minutes and before you knew it we were on the ground. I've never flown with a flight crew that was so friendly, helpful and fun. That's Jewel, Dave and me in the last picture posing with my work of art!
Sarah and Jordan Mia are finally back home in Santa Barbara
After 2 years of living in Ireland and 1 year in London, my brother and his family finally moved back to Santa Barbara for good! I'm the happiest uncle in the world! I told them I'd babysit for 3 years straight just to make up for lost time. I can't stand it, these kids are too stinkin cute!
I was playing around with them the other day and had to shoot some pictures. Beautiful Sarah is still a doll and Jordan is getting so big! You can see in his first picture that he had (key word here is had) a loose tooth so being the mean ole uncle I am, I had to pull that sucker out! My brother, Sarah and I wrestled him down on the sly and I happened to touch his tooth and all of a sudden, it popped out! haha
He also has a new toy Vespa that he's playing with and I had to take a few shots of it! Too much fun!
I met Heather a few weeks ago down in San Diego when we were doing the Senior shoot for Yvonne. The two of them are good friends and we all talked her into being a model for a bridal shoot up here in Santa Barbara.
They all (Karen, Craig, Josh, Michael, Andy and Heather) came up from Glendale and we cooked out and had such a fun shoot. Heather is such a trooper and she was game for anything we threw her way! She's a beautiful girl and an excellent model, Andy is one lucky guy!
