Engagement Session by Apertura Photo

Our engagement photo by Apertura Photographer Erwin Darmali

is up.. Wooot.. Wooot... Woott.. What do you guys think

Table tops: Lace tied napkin; cake stand; dome cover

Here are things I am lusting over right now.... Should I do it???? Love the lace tied napkins.... dome cover cake stands and the inside will be one big flower....

How how.. should I pull the trigger? The cheapest I found on pink lace is about $4 per 8 yards.. I'm guessing I will spend about $50 on that total... Here's one I found

The cheapest I've found on the dome cover is about $15 on Pottery Barn. See here and here

(Stevie Wonder) Isn't She Lovely - Sungha Jung

I'm yours - for solo acoustic guitar

Wrap up of my favorite wedding film photographer part 1

which I believe almost all, if not all, are shooting film (and some part digitals).. So with no order of preference:
1. Lane Dittoe - San Clemente, CA

While I have not dealt with Lane at all , i know for sure he shoots film and you can see the softness of his works. I first stumbled upon him because he was featured on style me pretty's e-magazine

2. Ja Tecson - Los Angeles, CA

Yes the picture above is from his real wedding. He does commercial/fashion shoot too , his website is pretty cool as well.

3. Tec Petaja - Nashville, Tennesse

Love his work.. i think he travels to CA a lot to for weddings..

4. Jose Villa - Santa Barbara, CA

Need I say more?

5. Elizabeth Messina - Santa Barbara, CA

Amazing work... Jose Villa's wedding photography is Elizabeth Messina...... Enough affirmation.. I went to a wedding where it was so awesome (personal, comfortable , intimate) and Elizabeth was her photographer.. amazing work OK.. the picture above is the wedding I went to..

6. Lisa Lefkowitz - Bay Area/SF, CA

Sigh.. look at the amazing film photography.. the softness, the color.. mind blowing

7. Ryan Ray Photography - Texas

I recently found Ryan's work through In The Now wedding planner in Santa Ana. He flew often to CA and his prices seems reasonable. Pretty sure he shoots film too :)

8. Braedon Flynn - Orange County, CA

soo bummed that he's not available for our wedding date... amazing work

Okay so that's it for now.. but believe me I still have moreeeee film wedding photographer to come..

The Worst Has Happened: Life After the Death of My Children

The Worst Has Happened: Life After the Death of My Children


Ok sooo not wedding related... but it will help us to stop and appreciate what we have in life (not things...) at least for 10 minutes...

Rose gold for wedding ring?

I saw two weddings today featured on style me pretty where the bride and groom are wearing rose gold for their wedding bands.. what is upppp yo... anyway A wants rose gold.. i prefer platinum.. i thought of getting a rose bold wedding band for myself but i just can't do it.. if he likes it he can have it...

What do you think of mismatched color on wedding band for bride vs groom? What do you think of rose gold ?

I found my first dance song!!!!!

Okay yet to be approved by fiance :) :) :) butttt... he's gone for his bachelor party tonight.... and I am watching jerry macguire on tv tonight (friday night.. i know i'm lame) but this is also the carmageddon in LA (The close of 405 freeway) so I am not touching that car key...

i digress.. "secret garden" has always been my favorite song.... soo yay.... what do you think???

Been busy.. :( not in a good way

yes sorry i have not been posting.... :( sad sad sad... lots of things going on.. not good ones either..... work is not good and it's busy... and i just moved ugh.... and need to find a new apartment..... see how could i do wedding planning with this???

let's see... this week A is trying to find our wedding bands.. we overspent on other items.. so the rings have been cut down drastically... we are trying to figure out what we want... A wants a rose gold ring... while im getting platinum.. i know.. i know.. he likes it what can i say?

he also needs to find his wedding suit.. because he insist to buy it instead of rent...... he's definitely behind on that end.. i told him just make sure u have a suit by the wedding date... my planner wants him to have a suit by mmm..... 4 days ago? :)

How are you girls getting your man to be on time? maybe i should get a different tactic

Indonesian traditional wedding

i wish i know how to share vimeo video on here but i couldn't so I'm just going to refer you guys to the link here This is a video by axioo about a traditional Indonesian wedding that they shot. The color, culture, the speech.. is amazing.. I'm an indonesian chinese so unfortunately i don't have the strong culture that Indonesians have but I'm always in awe with their traditions...

Potential Maid of Honor dresses

Aren't they gorgeous? The dress will be custom make by my MOH's design

Big News: Apertura Photo did our Engagement Session Yesterday

YAYYYYY................... I think it's all fate............... Apertura Photo in Corona is top 10 wedding photographer in US in 2009.. I had reached out to them but their rate is way beyond my budget so I couldn't do it.. A couple weeks ago, I got a linkedin invite from Erwin , one of the photographer partners at Apertura. I didn't recognize the name and I clicked on it trying to figure out who he is, which brought me to his website and then his blog. And his blog shows his latest twitter posts and I saw that he said he needed a volunteer couple to do engagement session for a video shoot......So I emailed them my picture and hope.... We didn't hear from them until the day of the shoot supposed to happen so I figure we didn't get it... And then around 2pm yesterday, Ray (the other partner) emailed us and said the volunteer couple dropped out and was wondering if we are available... (OK so we are not first choice, it's okay.. still get a free engagement session)....

So we did that yesterday.. we were 30 minutes late... sorry.... !! but we went to pasadena and walked around there to take picture.. I reallyy really really really enjoyed /loved working with Apertura Photo both Erwin and Ray. After 20 minutes, the videographer actually left to go catch their flight. I figured Erwin and Ray would stop photographing us soon after that since they won't be videotaped anymore. I was wrong.. they did a full 2 hour engagement session with us (I think generally engagement session is 1 hour long) i think it's also because both Erwin and Ray are main photographers so they each styled us and thus it takes 2 hours..

In terms of style, Erwin and Ray are very urban, hip, lots of lighting play, a lil vogue styling too... They are the kindest people and they are supper passionate of their works. You can really tell if they spend 2 hours with us when we don't pay them and they are actually printing out some photos for us (of a $1000 value) I know I know I told you it's fate.. luck.. what ever you call it..

Soooo if you guys are looking for a wedding photographer, do check out Apertura Photo I really recommend both of them. They are both passionate, great to work with and professionals. Good luck, let me know if you have any question at all.

OOH.. and Apertura photo just did the shoot for the fashion tips

from Junebug that launched today.

Note: I still love our wedding photographer :) Really... :)

Inspiration on my wedding invitations

Now that my invitations are out and people have started to receive them, I'll reveal them real soon.. in the mean time, please enjoy the inspirations that help me pick/design my invitations....

My dress has arrived!!!

Yayyyyyyyyyyy....................

First part of their email:

Congratulations, your Vera Wang bridal gown is ready!
I will be your stylist assisting you through your journey with us and hope to make it memorable for you.

I love how they have to say "your Vera Wang bridal gown" :) time for alteration... Sh(^*(#(&# need to tone these arms................ The benefit of a big gown is that it wont show my hip ;)

Tips about Monique Lhuillier Sample Sale July 10th 2011 Los Angeles

I went to ML sample sale last December and here are some tips if you are planning on going for the July 10th sample sale in Los Angeles:
1. Go online to browse the dresses. Take note which one you like. Make an appointment to the regular ML store and come and try out the dresses. The sample sale won't have the most current season's dresses on sale but it will have the previous season. It's good to know what you are looking for (if not on a specific dress, at least on a style you like) so you can grab the ones you like
2. Wait in line early... like reallyyy reallyyy early... People are sleeping on the street to wait in line. There's meter parking (free coz it's sunday) and there is a starbucks (I think it's sbux about a block from the place) so you can go to restroom/grab coffee or tea. I think the starbucks open at 7am?
3. Dress appropriately. There is a gigantic room to change, wear underwear that will be good to wear under your wedding dresses so you can know exactly what the dress will look like on you. The sample dresses are mostly size 8 to 12... so you will need to alter it
4. Bring lots of friends if you can but if they are going to just join you around 10am and make the rest of the people behind you go down in number (They'll give you a number to get in based on your rank in line) be courteous and don't bring your whole village and make the rest who waited since dawn to go down the rank too much. Bringing lots of friends help you to get a hold of the dresses you want. You can only bring three dresses to the changing room.
5. They accept credit chard and cash.
6. The dresses are on sale but the not so simple ones are still in the thousands of dollars.. The one I had liked was $5K...after discount.. SIGH
7. Have fun.. bring your MOH/BM/Moms... They also have accessories, RTW and veil

Pink and Gray Inspiration board

From here

aww some of it is really cool.. like the gray dress.. DROOOLLLL.....

New love: Lisa Lefkowitz Photography

and this peach and pale blue and white and green wedding

....

and she shoots film... loveee................. film.. I dont know why I love film.. I love the look of it, the color.. my eyes are getting trained to notice the difference between film and digital.. Loooovveee... I dont know how much her rate starts (Lisa L) but I read it's somewhere starting around $6K or $7.5K

Pictage: directory of photographer

I just found this website Pictage that will list you the price range and reviews of photographers. It's not an exhaustive list since not all photographers are in there yet. but i think it's pretty useful. I really like to get at least a price range/starting price of a vendor to make sure that I'm not wasting anyone's time. It also seems that from reading some blogs, some photography vendors might be willing to work with your budget depending if they think they have perfect fits with you, non wedding season, not a saturday etc etc.. Just something to bear in mind...

have you booked your photographer? Are you having difficulty with the many options out there?