“There is no use trying” said Alice, “One can’t believe impossible things.”

“I dare say you haven’t had much practice” said the Queen. “When I was your 
age, I always did it for an hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many
 as six impossible things before breakfast.”

-Lewis Carroll-

To my mother, to my aunt, to my grandmother, to all the women who have been mothers of sorts to me throughout my life; thanks for helping me always believe in the impossible.

Here’s to Ruby, a recent soon-to-be-mother I had the honor of photographing- Her little June should be here soon and I can’t wait to meet her!

Happy Friday! This has been a trying week for me and I am so glad to welcome the weekend in with a beautiful wedding in Saratoga tomorrow. The sun is supposed to stay shining- loving this weather.. how boring, I am talking about the weather! Lets get right into Zuli and Rehan’s images shall we?

Zuli follows my blog and e-mailed me back in January about setting up a time to get some photos done of her and her hubby Rehan. They were married 6 years ago and haven’t had any professional photographs taken of them since. What a crime! We had such a magical time having our portraits taken that Tim and I, (well, okay mostly me) decided that we’d do a session of the two of us yearly from here on out and I hope that my clients leave our sessions feeling this way too. It’s so nice to see two people who are so connected, so about each other- the way Zuli and Rehan look at each other melts my heart and spending the afternoon with them in Palos Verdes was an absolute treat.

Zuli’s fabulous make up was done by some of my favorite girls in the business, Fiore Beauty

There were class parties at Booksin Elementary, birthdays, projects in middle school, soccer games, summers, calling boys, tping houses of our crushes, walks home from school,.. we’ve known each other since Mrs. Cherry’s kindergarten class and spent most of our school career up until 8th grade as friends. After 8th grade I left my lifelong friends and headed to Presentation and Kelsey attended Willow Glen High School. We definitely lost touch after 8th grade as young kids do- occasionally running into each other over the years at parties in high school,  in college, and at Peet’s coffee or Aqui dinners now that we’ve both moved back into the neighborhood.

I  love that my job continually allows past relationships to come full circle. When Kelsey told me she was engaged, I was all, “Um, hello! You are going to make such a gorgeous bride, I must shoot your wedding!” She gave me some bs about how she doesn’t photograph well or something but you be the judge! I am so happy she has found someone like Jason and I can’t WAIT to be a part of their wedding day in June!

Here’s a couple fun pictures I found of Kelsey and I… one from Kindergarten the other from 8th grade. Courtney- are you out there? … LOVE the clown costume. How did I not remember this??

Left: Cinderella is yours truly, Indian Princess is Kels | Right: Kels is front and center, I’m on the far right.

Moving when you own a business isn’t exactly the easiest thing to do- Not only are you going, “Oh no! All of my Los Angeles clients that I love so much are going to think I am abandoning them!” but you’re also going, “Oh no! I’m going to miss all of the wonderful people I’ve gotten to know over the years in the industry!” When you work with planners, florists, make up artists, cake artists, caterers, etc. etc. on a consistence basis you form a little family. You know how to work together to create the best possible atmosphere for a bride and groom and you rely and lean on each other for everything from time-line help to referral bases. Moving essentially forces you to be the new kid in town again. You have to build relationships with people by proving your worth through your work ethic and your work quality. When I made the move back to the bay area in December I instantly connected with Janece Shelloe of Every Elegant Design and reached out to her to help photograph a fun project that she developed. She is planning Megan and Kevin’s wedding later this summer and it was so great to get to know her better before their big day!

We had an amazing team of vendors out that day … We took inspiration from Vincent Von Goghs Starry Starry Night painting and ran with it! I was aiming to create some seriously moody, creative images- images that conveyed a more serious mysterious kind of love. It was really fun to be able to approach the “bride” and “groom” from a more editorial relaxed mindset and I’m pretty excited with the outcome.

The tablescape ran today on my absolute favorite wedding inspiration site Junebug Weddings. Check out the post here!

Contributors:
Photographer: Meg Perotti
Film maker: Andrew Hsu of Studio MSV
Wedding Planner and Designer: Janece Shelloe of Every Elegant Detail
Location: Radonich Ranch via Marky Carr of Vingette Events
Paper Designs: Rachel Hanson Designs
Florals: Amy Burke Designs
Cake: BethAnn Goldberg of Studio Cake Design
Dress: Sarah Houston via Nouvelle Vogue
Tuxedo: Selix Formal Wear
Hair and Makeup: Armando of Get Your Do Up

Andrew Hsu is one of the most genuine people I have ever met and also one of the most talented film-makers. He  created a beautiful storyline for our models and captured the eerie love we both were aiming for so perfectly.

Clients, enjoy the photos- sorry if you don’t understand/care about the text

I officially started shooting weddings in the summer of 2005. I was interning at a studio in Hollywood and met the person who would teach me almost everything I know about weddings today, Laura Grier. I was still in school, California State Long Beach, studying away to get my degree in Fine Art Photography, and was looking for a fun, creative way to make some money on the side of my other almost full time job at A&I Photographic….

I’ve been getting a lot of questions from people recently about how/when I started…. I can’t tell you that it hit me one day that I was supposed to do this, or that I’ve always wanted to shoot weddings, or even that weddings are what I’ll be shooting 10 years down the road. I can tell you this though, it was years of trial and error, experience, and about 5 photo jobs down the line…..To give you an idea of my timeline, I started shooting for Laura in 2005 and didn’t start my own photo business until 2007. I 2nd shot for 3 years while still going to college for photography, worked at a pro-photo lab called A&I for 3+ years, interned at a some pro photographers-studios, and worked for the art department of a CondeNast Magazine all before deciding to do this full time.

The industry needs to start being honest. Businesses don’t grow over night and photography is a learned skill. The most important thing about your work is the happiness of your clients. Let’s all start focusing on our own work, shall we? In order to dive back into how I felt about weddings when I first started shooting I recently dug out a bunch of prints from the first wedding I ever photographed. I don’t have many of the images because they were on film and the negatives were not mine to keep since I was 2nd shooting but I was able to snag a few prints for my portfolio at the time and I’m so glad I kept ‘em.

I’ve learned a lot since then- pretty sure most of these were shot at around F8 but I don’t think I did so bad?