Published: Lauren + Chris’ Wedding at the Santa Barbara Zoo
Wedding
Tina + Armando’s Wedding
Friday was a beautiful day for a wedding in Studio City. I had the great pleasure of joining Tina and Armando with their families at Sportsman Lodge for a outdoor ceremony followed by reception. Here’s some of my favorite images. Friends and family may see all the wedding images HERE.
Tina arrived at the site and got ready in her bridal suite. I had plenty of time to get lots of detail shots before she put on her dress.
Kim Williams with Enchanted Florist did an amazing job on all the flowers! When Tina saw her bouquet, she loved the beaded crystal buttons going down the ribbons that held the stems together. Nice to see her appreciation for the little details. Her bouquet was a gathering of white orchids and calla lilies and the brides maids carried a colorful spring mix of pinks, purples, green, and white.
The guys hanging out before the ceremony… The groomsmen wore purple ties and Armando wore a white tie.
As guests entered the ceremony, they were given a little purple baggie with a stone inside. During the ceremony, everyone rubbed warm thoughts and well wishes for Tina and Armando. Afterwards, they placed the stones in a bowl for Tina and Armando to carry the happy thoughts into their married life.
We did have a few moments in between group shots to get these beautiful pictures of the newlyweds.
On the guest sign in table, they chose to frame their favorite engagement picture from the Griffith Observatory!
Venue: Sportsman Lodge, Studio City
Wedding Planner: Monica McPartland
Photography: SherriJ Photography
Videography: Moonlight Video Productions
Gown: Mary Linn Bridal
Tux Rental: Friar Tux
Cake: Jaqki’s Cake Creations
DJ: Check One2 Entertainment
Florist: Enchanted Florist
Hair: Kim Laurent
Makeup Artist: Stacey Herman
Officiant: Kimber Lee Wilkes
Photobooth: Snap Shotz Photo Booth
Rentals: Mellanie Party Design
UPDATE July 20th. This wedding has been published on Wedding Channel! Click the image below to see the post.
Nicholas and Manami’s Wedding: Long Beach Museum of Art
On Saturday, I had the great pleasure of documenting Nicholas and Manami’s wedding at the Long Beach Museum of Art. I met Nicholas and Manami in the fall of last year. They are both graphic designers from Alameda, who planned on creating lots of the details of their wedding themselves. They were in town for a weekend, and at our consultation, they spoke of succulents, a colorful color palate, and an intimate gathering of 60 of their favorite people. I knew instantly I liked them and have been looking forward to shooting their wedding ever since! This past Saturday was an absolutely gorgeous day for their wedding, in addition to a great day for the Long Beach Grand Prix that took place a couple blocks down the street. Thinking traffic would be horrible, I left Santa Monica 3 hours early. Turns out, I arrived 2.5 hours early… which was just fine by me! I’d much rather be hours early, than even 5 minutes late. Below are some of my favorite shots from the wedding day. Friends and family can view all images HERE.
The first, is a set of images is Nicholas and Manami’s custom wedding stationary that they created themselves! I especially love the design with the banner, how perfect! It really set the expectation for their wedding… fun, flags, and f-ruffles! Ok, I know f-ruffles isn’t a word… but it kinda rhymed. =)
When we arrived, Manami was getting ready in her dressing room. Getting colored shoes to match a wedding dress can be tricky, but I think it’s super fun and modern. The ruffles on her shoes matched her dress perfectly!
Nicholas and Manami decided to do a “First Look” before the ceremony… which allowed us time to get these shots of them together.
Custom fabric balls decorated the isle. These are so fun and colorful, and a great alternative to flowers.
The first dance.
Photography: SherriJ Photography
Venue: Long Beach Museum of Art
Makeup: Chinatsu Watanabe
Flowers: J’Adore Florist
Invitations: Nicholas and Manami’s own designs. Contact me for their information!
*Update June 14th, this wedding has been published on California Wedding Wave.
Ben + Amber: Backyard Wedding
Finally, one of my most anticipated weddings of this year has happened; Ben and Amber’s backyard wedding was absolutely amazing. I first met Ben and Amber a couple months back and we talked for hours at a coffee shop. Ben and Amber ooze creativity down to their core. As they started describing their wedding day to me, I fell in love. Ben explained that there would not be a lack of things to photograph… and that turned out to be very true. Friends and family can access all of the images from the engagement, bridal, and wedding shoots online HERE.
Above: Signs leading to Ben’s Aunt’s house in Encino, a coloring book for the kids, and custom buttons.
Ben’s family in Iowa are jewelers. When Amber showed me her ring for the first time, my jaw dropped. Seriously, the most ah-mazing ring I have EVER seen!! (Mat, I hope you’re reading this and taking notes.) The details on the side and round cut diamond in the center… The best way I can explain is to just show you lots of great pictures taken with my new 100mm macro lens. Love.
Amber’s dress was beautiful. She had it custom made with lace. It came to about half way down her calf.
Candy, candy, everywhere candy! There were cupcakes, taffy, rock candy, redhots, jellys, lollipops, and really the list goes on. They also got a couple of really cool pinatas, a donkey one for the kids and jumbo cupcake for the adults filled with toys and candy.
Catering from Loteria Grill was so delicious.
Amber’s mom did her hair in a updo for the wedding. Ben’s mom officiated. These two shots are so poetic.
Amber getting ready.
Burger and Bacon were the “best men” and brought the rings on their collar.
Beautiful moments.
Ben’s brother signing the marriage license as a witness.
Ben took lots of Polaroid pictures all night long… mostly of Amber. =)
They did am amazing job decorating the back yard with banners and balloons.
I know we weren’t supposed to focus too much on Bride and Groom pictures, but I just had to take a couple at sunset! I’m obsessed with the evening light.
The first dance.
And finally, fun times at the Photobooth! Instead of spending BIG BUCK$ on a photo booth rental Ben and his good friend Matt have spent the past couple months building this machine from SCRATCH! They filled a table with some hand made props including masks, beards, classes, hats, word bubbles, and candy. The booth took 4 pictures and in less than 30 seconds, out pops the pictures. Ben was able to customize the text along side of the images with their names and logo. Guest could then keep one side of the strip as a souvenir and the other half went into the guest book. For more info on reserving this fun booth for your next party, contact Ben HERE.
*This wedding is currently featured HERE on Intimate Weddings.
Sunny + Jeremy: Castle Green Pasadena Wedding Photography
Sunny works a dream job at Disney and Jeremy loves playing video games. These two met years ago during college and like to call themselves dedicated Foodies. This past weekend included a huge celebration of their marriage with a day-long traditional Cambodian-Philippino on Saturday, followed by an All-American ceremony on Sunday.
Lastly, a couple of shots behind the scenes of me and Sabrina having fun and working hard. =)
Location: Castle Green and Westin Hotel. Pasadena, CA
Photography: Sherri Johnson, additional shooters Sabrina Hill and Magalie Narang
Videographer: Kappes Media
Music: Ashley Greenland (harpist), Dan Parcon (DJ), Rynxes Melgar (pianist)
Hair/Makeup: Kelly Zhang Makeup & Hair Team
Catering: Simply Elegant Catering
Flowers: Flowers by Leah
Cake: Cake Sensations