When I arrived at the Zuckerman’s Beverly Hills home to start shooting Carrie and Jeff’s wedding with Laura of Beautiful Day Photography, the valet told me to head in through the front door. I opened the gate, lugged my camera gear over a bridge, and up the front steps. I knocked. Nothing. Rang the door bell. Nothing. So, I let myself in and tiptoed through the most elegant rooms my eyes had ever seen. I found the girls all upstairs getting their hair and make up done and tried to take it all in. This house could not have been more breath taking. People actually wake up here every morning?? What a perfect place for a wedding!!!

Planned by Red25Events this event was out of the world amazing. The details and design elements used to transform the Zuckerman’s estate were nothing short of fantastic. They re-landscaped a lot of their property for this event, putting in lawns and gardens specifically designed to host their sons wedding!

I spent only a little bit of time with the girls, enough to get some detail shots and realize that Carrie is perhaps the sweetest classically beautiful girl I’ve ever met! (and that she has a major thing for Hello Kitty ) I then headed over to the Beverly Hills Hotel suite to hang with the guys for most of the early afternoon.

I headed down the hill a bit to the Beverly Hills Hotel to hang out in the suite there with the guys for a bit. I am always quick the chuckle when I show up at the guys hotel… if only the girls knew how calm men always seem to be. Drinking beer, watching sports.. Oh? Time to put my tux on? Okie doke!

Hi secret garden lawn ceremony site.

Hi beautiful reception tennis courts!

Girls girls all type of girls..that’s for you Heather

Laura Grier and yours truly!

Since I’ve been so swamped with actual work in the photo department de Meg Perotti I’ve had little time to do anything to my photographs from my trip to Guatemala a few weeks back. I uploaded them to a flickr account that I have for family and friends to peruse but I really wanted to present them in a way that I felt I saw them. So there will be three posts, one for Antigua, one for Volcano Pacaya, and one for our stay at Lake Atitlan.

Mikey, Mason, and I met in the 6th grade… which means we’ve known each other for 12 years! That is half our lives…. We spent some of our most awkward years together, then spent some of our most important years apart, and still came out of it all friends. Many of my high school dance photos either include Mikey or Mason as my date. So, when Mason got his Peace Corps assignment almost two years ago we immediately decided this would be a great opportunity to get out of the country and visit him together. Our plan originally involved our good friend Marie, but some things complicated her situation and at the last minute she wasn’t able to come. We had to kind of re-evaluate and re-excite ourselves for the trip but as soon as our eyes started taking in the volcano’s from the airplanes decent into Guatemala City we knew this trip was going to be amazing. Despite everything we saw my favorite moments by far we had the last night, sitting atop the roof at our beautiful hotel, Meson Panze Verde, drinks in hand, chatting about life- past and present. These men have been two constant blessings in my world and I am so thankful to still have them in my life. We guide each other through moments good and bad and continue to experience things together years past our high school days. Hopefully this trip is one of many to come.

Mason rode with our driver to the airport to make sure we got into Antigua from Guatemala City okay. We stopped at his $4/night “hotel” first to grab his stuff. Honestly, I think these photos do this place justice. Mikey and I were really excited to get Mason to our hotel and let him feel pampered a bit… seriously folks, this place was …. whew…only Mason.

Our hotel, Meson Panze Verde. As Mason said, “They have CHEESE! TWO KINDS! AND I can drink the water right out of the faucet!” Isn’t he cute.

Mason teaching us the proper way to eat our “Chuchitos.” This was our first of many.

The first afternoon we were exhausted from flying over night but all amped up from being in this foreign place. We decided rather than nap to take a walk around Antigua.

Mason got his boots shined for, like, 5 quetzales.

These were our first ruins… I think I took 300 photos here. Seriously!

There are laws against the colors you can paint the outside of buildings in Antigua. Many of them look like the photo on the left… beautiful details like this are all over this city- all complimenting the women in traditional Mayan dress that roam the streets selling goods.

I felt bad about this one…. I didn’t mean to catch him falling- it just happened.

Our last day in Antigua… we hiked up to this look out point. I can’t remember what volcano we were looking at, maybe Agua? But it was so peaceful… we spent awhile in silence just staring at this landscape not sure what we were feeling.

Antigua…

Lake Atitlan up next… when ever I find some more free time.

Ahhhh, the bay area. Some days, my “procrastination” tool is to search through Craigslist and homes.com for potential properties Timmy and I could someday move into. Lately, every trip I take up north results in severe home sickness and attachment syndrome that hits me as soon as my ride (usually Mom) drops me off at the airport. Don’t get me wrong, I love Los Angeles. I have fun here, I work here, there are many people that I love here- but Los Angeles is not the Bay Area.

So, as usual, when a Bay Area bride and groom come my way I am always always up for the trip. Assisting Laura Grier of Beautiful Day Photography is forever a pleasure but giving her a warm bed, okay bunk bed, to sleep in too??? Awesome. It was great to have Laura in my San Jose home and to have my parents finally meet this elusive woman who asks me to travel all over the country (well, mostly state). Coordinated by Julie Nunn Martin of I Do Events and designed by Ricardo Luna of Luna Gardens this event was nothing shy of fabulous.

What was really fun about this particular wedding, other than it being all around my stomping grounds, was that the Silvana and Joe went to two very familiar high schools! St. Francis and Bellarmine- which, as those of you who know these schools will understand, is a very unlikely match. (Those of you who don’t, I will say the Bellarmine vs. St. Francis football game was the biggest game of the year.) They met in summer school on the Bellarmine campus and the rest is history. Bellarmine guys do not disappoint and were in true form. I ran into my old friend Taylor Crary and the parents of another, The Lebarons. Anyway, it felt good to be around people who truly represent home and Silvana and Joe and their families could not have been lovelier!

After the ceremony in Los Gatos I had to skip out on formal portraits to high tail it back to downtown San Jose to get details shots of the amazing ballroom transformation before the bag piper arrived to officially kick off the reception festivities.

She was pissed. He thought it was funny. It ended in all smiles

Sweet Caroline….

The after party was on the roof of The Fairmont- cigars, sliders, swimming.

When I get inquiries to do weddings up in Northern California I can’t help but squeal. Not only do I get to be a part of an amazing day in someone’s life but I get to see my family while I’m doing it! Sometimes it is quite hard to come back to Los Angeles after spending time up there.

Thanks to Audrey Erpelding for connecting me to Lori- what a totally amazing girl she is! Lori and Lee had a whirlwind engagement, she said to me when I asked her why she wanted the day to come so quickly she said, “When you know you know….” She planned her wedding herself (with the help of family and friends!), and her beauty and style really shows in every detail-Lori’s nautical theme was carried throughout everything during the day. I could not have asked for a better match! When she told me she had some polka dot rain boots that she wanted to wear in some portraits I couldn’t control my excitement.

Lori is from the east coast and Lee is from Canada so they split their day up into a morning ceremony and a late afternoon reception in order to allow the guests time to go into San Francisco and explore a little. She prepared goody bags for them to give them some ideas as to where to go. Too cute.

My brother Tristan was my assistant for this wedding, he continues to impress me in all that he does. His photo below…

The beauty of small weddings- this is everyone who attended! and the most magnificent church I’ve ever shot in. Old St. Hilary’s!

Can I please say that this has been one of the hardest blog posts to narrow down in the history of this blog? I shot SO many photos! After we finished at the church we all went down to a park to eat lunch before more photos while the guests explored SF. I’ve NEVER done this before on someones wedding day and it was the greatest! Relaxed fun friendly time with you wedding party, eating pizza, on a blanket in the park? Amazing.

This picture is for those who were at the park. And that’s all I’ll say about that –

We spent some time in downtown Tiburon and shot these.

the boots !!!

JCrew anyone?

The best jumping picture ever?

The reception, which I only shot a bit of, was at the Peninsula Club in Tiburon which was seated just below Old St. Hilarys!

For details of the reception and more photos head to Pictage and sign the guestbook!

Back from Guatemala- blogs to come.

Coming up: Lori and Lee’s wedding in Tiburon, CA

Thanks for being patient you guys, I have been in and out of town all month. Promise Lori and Lee’s wedding is worth the wait. My weekend in Tiburon was perfect.