Julie and Mark : A wedding at The Bel-Air Bay Club : Los Angeles, CA

Quite awhile back (coughJulycough) I had the pleasure of heading back down to Los Angeles to photograph Julie and Mark's wedding at The Bel-Air Bay Club. I usually have a lot of time to meet with my clients before their wedding and spend some time really getting to know them through emails, a dinner, and their engagement session but since we weren't living very close to each other Julie and Mark had never met me before their wedding day! I always get nervous before weddings, no matter the couple, but not knowing the bride and groom adds a little bit more pressure than normal... so I was pretty excited and relieved when I stepped into Julie's getting ready suite and was greeted by one of the warmest smiles ever!

Thanks to miss Em for making the trip to LA to shoot with me and for being not only a great friend but an awesome second photographer too! We had both had pretty long months of shooting already and it was really nice to have such a friendly face by my side that weekend. :)

Onward!

{The Lab Event} - Cyber Monday deal!

I hope you guys all had an amazing holiday weekend and are full of food and love this Monday morning. I know you've all be scouring the net Cyber Monday deals all morning instead of working so why don't you take a moment and head over to The Lab Event's and buy your tickets for this fabulous event at 50% off! This event, a not-so-ordinary bridal experience to immerse yourself in creative inspiration to define your wedding style, is going to be held January 14, 2012 in Sonoma, CA. I'll be there, along with so many other amazing vendors, so you should be there too!!!

You'll be hearing more about this wonderful event for brides from me shortly but for now, I wanted to make sure and share this with all of my 2012 brides!

GET YOUR TICKETS NOW // TICKETS

Can't wait to see you there!

Happy Thanksgiving!

So often I find myself complaining about things. Too much e-mail, not enough down time, not enough sleep, nothing to wear, nothing to eat, don't feel like cooking, so much work I can't breathe.... and so often I am reminded by my own heart that I have nothing to complain about; that in the grand scheme of life I am a very very lucky girl.

When I was a little girl, as a family, we'd sit around the dinner table each night and Dad would ask, "Good thing, bad thing?" We'd cycle around the table and each have to recite one good thing that happened that day and one bad thing. Bad things were always easy to find .. sometimes it took restraint not to list off 10 bad things one after another... but finding good things always took a little work. That was the beauty of it ... Some days, good things were something as simple as, "I forgot my lunch and Alicia lent me money..." and some days they were as grand as, "I got the lead in the school play!" Finding good in things, even when life feels bleak, is a beautiful thing and giving thanks for little blessings can turn around even the darkest of days.

It doesn't take Thanksgiving for me to acknowledge thanks these days but it is a wonderful thing that Thanksgiving encourages it. I wish you all a day full of love and laughter and the ability to see the good things that you are blessed with, even if sometimes it feels like you can't even put one foot in front of the other. Eat, drink, and be merry and thank you all so much for being a part of my life!