Hello Everyone,

I hope you all had a chance to check out my galleries and blog entries.  Please feel free to leave comments and critiques… I am very open when it comes to feedback (good and bad).

After Caitlin and Sudheer’s wedding in Northern California, Gavin and I decided that we are gonna take a small vacation and enjoy Northern California.  We were suppose to hit up Yosemite National Park, but was not able to find any hotel vacanies. It’s alright though; it’ll give us an excuse to go in November when it’s less crowded.  Before we head out to San Francisco from San Ramon, Gavin and I stopped to have our Sunday brunch at a nice little restuarant called “The Peasant and the Pear.”  Their Pear Martinis are to die for!!!  The food was good and the service was excellent.  I got the Peasant Scramble which is angus ground beef sauteed with caramelized onions, baby spinach, mozzarella & two eggs, served with seasoned breakfast potatoes.  Gavin got the Monte Cristo Sandwich… and he thought it was alright (a little to dry for his taste).  Because it was our first with the restuarant, the server hooked us up with some strawberry crepes.  Yummy!!!

Oh yeah… Gavin and I loooooooooooove to eat!!! We love trying out new restuarants and dishes.  Don’t be surprised if you see blog entries with just food!  A couple years ago, when we were in Seattle, Washington, we ate clam chowder a six different restaurant… in A DAY!  We’re both such chowder heads!

Here are some pics of our drive into San Francisco.  I just thought the structure on these bridges are pretty cool looking so I took a few snapshoots as we drove through.

We stayed two nights at the Petite Auberge. It’s a cute little French Hotel in the heart of San Francisco.

I love it there; it’s so cute and comfortable. We got a petite suite and so we had the whole lower level of the hotel to ourselves. Looks like a doll house doesn’t it?

This is where we had our complimentary breakfast with all the other guests.  I love the comfort level while staying in this hotel!

This is where we lounged for our complimentary cocktail hours.

After a few glasses of wine, Gavin and I walked around SF as we decide what we want for dinner.  Gavin wanted a picture where the building looks like it’s slanted, and as for me… I had to strike-a-pose for the camera.

After climbing hills after hills, we finally decided we were gonna eat at the R & G Lounge.  It’s overpriced Chinese food!  To start, we ordered Salmon avacado eggrolls and shark fin soup.  For our main dishes we ordered Live Crab with salt and pepper (signature dish) and R & G Special Beef (secret recipe).  The lightly battered Crab with Salt and Pepper was awesome!!!  The Beef was awful.  It was super duper sweet.  I guess their secret sauce was SUGAR!!!

Here’s my silly Gavin posing like a dead crab. hehehe…

After dinner, we took a stroll through Union Square, which was only a few blocks for our hotel (Petite Auberge… also known as the White Swan).

I love this picture of Gavin pretending to lean on the column!  He’s actually a good distance away, but it looks so real!

Today is our second day in SF!  We wanted to be like the locals and take mass transit everywhere, so here we are… bored out of our minds waiting for the bus to come

Our goal today is to visit King Tut’s exhibit located inside of the De Young Museum at the Golden Gate Park.  It’s been 30 years since this exhibit was in California.  Unfortunately, when we got there, the exhibit was closed.  Out of all days, it had to be closed on the one day we decided to go!  While we were there, we visited the Science Center instead.

The Science Center was fascinating!  They had many exhibits ranging from the deep ocean to the hot African Savannas to the humid Rain Forest!

Here are some pictures that Gavin took while we were exploring the aquarium.  I love this picture… so color… so crowded… yet so peaceful.

Check out the dragon sea horse thingy… and the albino crocadile.  Pretty cool huh?

These are my attempts to look like the skull next to me.

Random pictures of us… hehehe

We took the bus to San Francisco’s Chinatown.  From there, we walked through Chinatown to get to Fisherman’s Wharf.

Along the way, I saw this bench and had to sit down for a picture~!  This is my favorite picture from the day! I love it!!!  From left to right:  Speak no evil, (Boob grabbing), See no evil, and Hear no Evil!!!

At Fisherman’s Wharf, we ate at the Crab House (in Pier 39).  To start, we had a bowl of clam chowder and crab cakes!  The clam chowder was not at all to our standards.  The crab cake was alright… we’ve had better ones.  Our main dish was their famous Dungeness Killer Crab roasted in their secret garlic sauce.  It was delicious!!! You can never go wrong with butter and garlic!

Today is third and last day in SF for us.  Our first stop… Mama’s!  This was our second time eating at Mama’s.  There is always a line out the door at this place.  I’d have to say that it’s the best breakfast I’ve ever had… so worth the wait!  Their eggs benedict and omelettes are my favorites!!!

After breakfast, we drove to Golden Gate Park again… I had to see King Tut’s exhibit!  Too bad they don’t allow photography inside.  It would have been amazing to capture the findings that were there! I learned so much about King Tutankhamun and the previous Pharaohs of Egypt.

On our way out of SF to Carmel, we stoped for some quick pictures of the Golden Gate Bridge!

Caitlin and Sudheer had so much fun at their first wedding (at Los Verdes Golf Course in Rancho Palos Verdes);  they decided to do it AGAIN… “Indian Style” this time! With great pleasure, Gavin and I traveled to the Marriott in San Ramon (in Northern California) to capture their big day.

Let’s take a sneak peak in Caitlin’s room and see what’s she’s doing.

And here she is again… getting ready for her man. I love photographing Indian weddings. It’s always filled with beautiful vibrant colors, ornate jewelery… and delicious food! Yup… can’t forget the food!

Here are some of my favorites during Cait’s prep.

Before we see more of Cait, let’s peak in Sud’s room and see what he’s up to. Of course… what else could he be doing?  …Chillin with a beer in his hand! The groom always has it so easy… just slip on the clothes and they’re ready to go! I’m so jealous.

Meanwhile… the bride has to put on make-up, get her hair done……….and in Caitlin’s case, struggle to put on jewelery. This is not posed… she is seriously making faces while putting the bracelets on. Silly Caity!

I’ve always found it amazing how a Sari is worn.  It’s a 9 yard long piece of elaborate cloth that is wrapped around a female. I got to see for the first time how it was done and I thought: “Wow…” Lots of folding, tucking, and pinning!

Not only is Cait a lovely Western bride, but she also makes a stunning traditional Indian bride.  By the way, I LOVE the Henna tattoos. For those who are interested: Mehendi is a small tropical shrub, whose leaves when dried and ground into a paste, give out a rusty-red pigment. This is suitable for making intricate designs on the palms and feet.

Lastly, Cait puts on her Bindi and she is ready to go!

The traditional ceremony lasted about 1 hour.  I thought it was very interesting ceremony. There were lots of chanting and rituals involved.

There is a curtain that blocks the groom from seeing his bride as she walks down the aisle and approaches him. Once she is on “stage” the curtain is lowered and they meet for the first time during the day.

Great Ceremony… I was intrigued with everything!

The Reception was filled great toasted.  Sudheer’s sister’s toast was so touching it made him cry while others brought back memories that got him constantly laughing.  During the toasts, Sudheer’s mom also found out things that mothers were suppose to never know!

And here is their first dance.

Ok… let’s get the party started:

Thank you Caitlin and Sudheer for a wonderful experience! Congratulations and may your future together be filled with lots of love, warmth and happiness!!!

Sudheer and Gavin (my Fiance) are Brazilian Ju-Jit-Su (a form of martial arts) buddies at UCLA.  Sudheer got his Ph.D at UCLA and is now a mad Geneticist.  Caitlin also went to UCLA and is now a wonderful teacher.

I had such a great time photographying their wedding on July 4th at Los Verdes Golf Course in the beautiful city of Rancho Palos Verdes.  It was such a lovely day for a wedding.

And as usual, here is my ring picture.  I love Caitlin’s ring…

Caitlin decided to go with a creamy ivory color dress and shoes instead of the traditional white.

Here are some pictures of Cait getting ready for her man… She’s gorgeous!!!

She’s so silly… everytime someone would compliment her on how beautiful she looks, Caitlin starts crying!

Cait and Sud are so funny. It was hilarious during their exchange of vows. Sudheer was concentrating on being serious… and the more serious he looked the more it cracked Caitlin up. She finally couldn’t hold it and burst into laughter.

What a beautiful couple….

Here are some quick pictures of the newlyweds right after the ceremony.

The cake cutting was the best part during the reception. Sudheer was sooooo mean.  He got her right in the eye! Poor Caitlin… she was saying “ouch!!! I can’t see… I can’t see” the entire walk to the bathroom.  I am so sure Sud is gonna pay for it later.

As Caitlin was cleaning off the massive amount of cake on her face, Sud stuck his head in the women’s room and yelled out “I’m sorry babe… I love you…” Caitlin chased him out of the room and into the men’s room where she gave him a piece of her mind about caking the bride in the face! I followed her in too (FYI – there were other guys doing their busy in the men’s room while Cait went in there!) but then decided it was best to stand at the door to take pictures.

And here she is… our beautiful bride coming out of the MEN’S room!

Caitlin eventually got Sud back right in the face as he was giving a speech about how wonderful his wife is!  It was awful……ly great!!! LOL

And here they are… Caitlin and Sudheer ! They are totally made for each other!

They will be having another wedding (an Indian wedding) in Northern California.  Gavin and I will be photographying that one as well. I can’t wait to see how beautiful this couple will look in their Indian Sari.  I’m excited…yay!!!

There will be more to come… check back soon for more of Caitlin and Sudheer in action!

I had the pleasure of photographing Huong and Doug’s wedding at La Palapa Delmar (or Del-mar) in Long Beach.  Huong and Doug met and feel in love while they were serving in the Peace Corp in South America.  Huong is totally a city girl who enjoys shopping and Doug is an outdoor/nature person who loves hiking. Hm… what can these two have in common right?  Well… it’s their pure and kind hearts that attracted them to one another.

Here is our beautiful laid-back bride Huong getting ready for her big day. It’s funny how Huong and I share so many similarities.  While she was getting ready, we joked about how unfair it is being the oldest female sibbling in a Vietnamese (Asian) family. We both love our little brothers to death, but agreed that they are brats.  After sharing many funny stories about our moms; we realized that we can and SHOULD publish a book titled “Our Vietnamese Mothers”. =)

And of course, for those who know me… I am a sucker for rings! So… here it is:

Huong requested to have pictures of both their rings on an apple because she loooooves apples! “An apple a day keeps the doctor away”. Ironically, Doug is a Doctor!

Huong and Doug decided to have their first meeting prior to the ceremony. Great planning because we had lots of time for photos.

Their beautiful beach wedding ceremony was held on the beach right outside of La Palapa Delmar. I was told that La Palapa Del-mar is one of the two beaches in Long Beach that have permits to conduct a ceremony on the beach. Great choice of location guys!

Huong and Doug wrote and read their own vows.  You may be wondering why Huong is laughing so hard right? The back story is… when Doug read his vows, he was suppose to say, ” I am here by choice, not by chance.” But instead he accidentally said “I am here not by choice…” then paused and realized oops that didn’t come out right! Take two was a lot better. =)

Their reception at La Palapa Del-mar Banquet Hall was an evening filled with entertainment.  It started with the Bridal Party’s spectacular grand entrance to Huy’s (Huong’s little brother) awesome speech to Doug trying to speak in Vietnamese and then serenading to his gorgeous bride. And of course… LOTS of dancing!

Thank you Huong and Doug for such a wonderful day. I look forward to having you two attend my wedding with Gavin in Vietnam this coming December!

Gavin will be shooting Dez and Mario’s wedding on September 26 of this year.  They originally planned on having their wedding at a winery out in Temecula. Unfortunately, distance and traveling will be an issue for their families, so they decided to have it at the Museum of Latin American Art in Long Beach instead.  For their engagement photography session, I tagged along  and it turned out to be a wonderful double date!  To be honest, Dez and Mario are more like friends now than “clients”.

These two are so silly. They were a little shy at first… so guess what we did? Of course… nothing better than alcohol to loosen them up! We did some wine tasting at Churon Winery.  At Inn at Churon Winery is where I found my LOVE — “Gold Nector”.  Gold Nector is the perfect blend of Chardonnay and Muscat.  Desiree and I had to buy some bottles to take back home with us after trying it.

After a few drinks, they were ready to go.  Here are some pics that I took for fun as a second photographer.

While driving to another vineyard, I spotted a nursery filled with gorgeous baby palms. Dez and Mario laid out the blanket and enjoyed the sun as they sipped their delicious Gold Nector under the beautiful palm canopy. =)  They are so cute together… totally made for each other.

After wine tasting, we ended our double date with dinning at Lucille’s BBQ where we enjoyed delicious ribs while watching the Laker game.  Thank you Desiree and Mario for such a wonderful experience with wine tasting.  Gavin and I had so much fun hanging out with you two!