Archive for the ‘Weddings’ Category

Tomorrow marks the day when I first started this blog! Wow I can’t believe it’s been a year already! I’ve blogged 54 times, which means I’ve exceeded my goal of blogging at least once a week! Yippee! I hope my good habits will continue. Honestly, I could not have done it without the encouragement of my friends, family, and fellow readers. Thanks!! Okay, onto the real reason I’m blogging today…

It was just a few weeks ago when I blogged Emily and Grant’s engagement session, and now they’re married! The weather had cooled down and was just a gorgeous day to get married! I had been looking forward to shooting their wedding ceremony at MIT chapel, which is designed by the famous architect Eero Saarinen who also designed the St. Louis arch (yes I’m a nerd..I like to research all my venues prior to the wedding.). It’s a beautiful church that’s completely circular and windowless except for the large oculus in the ceiling.

MIT chapel

The sun shines down the oculus and hits the metal curtain-like sculpture, producing lots of pretty sparkles.
interior of MIT chapel

Grant getting his boutinniere pinned on by his mom.
groom getting his boutinniere pinned on

Emily looks so happy walking down the aisle..all 4 steps, because the chapel is literally that small!
bride walking down the aisle

I really like wide balcony shots. Many thanks to Karman Lee, my second shooter who caught this beautiful image from the choir loft.
MIT chapel wedding by Boston wedding photographer

Just married!
birde and groom married at Cambridge wedding

A few portraits, then off to the reception.
bride and groom kissing

portraits at MIT chapel

Their car was secretly decorated by family members. So cute!
getaway car

The reception was held at the Harry Parker Boathouse, which is the most modern boat house I’ve ever seen!
harry parker boathouse

Having all their families’ wedding pictures displayed was a really sweet touch.
green centerpieces

pictures of family on their wedding day

toast

Karman was able to get reactions of the guests during the toasts while I focused on the bride and groom.
guest candids

The food was delicious! There were passed hor d’oeuvres and little food stations all around the reception.
reception at henry parker boathouse

henry parker boathouse wedding

first dance

bride during the first dance

feeding the groom cake

cake cutting

Congrats again to you two! I am so happy for you both and loved shooting every minute of your wedding!

More photos on posted on my Facebook page.

This is my longest break from blogging! I have not blogged in a month, and I apologize. I developed tendinitis in my wrists, so I’ve been trying to limit my computer usage once I get home from work. As a result, I am very backed up in editing, but I have amazing clients who have been very patient this last month. Thank you! I am busy packing up my belongings as I’ll be moving to Las Vegas next month!

Liza and Calvin were staying in Hong Kong at the time when they booked me over the phone for their wedding. They were coming back to Boston just a few days before their ceremony, so I didn’t have time to meet them in person before the wedding. All I could think was, “Wow, I hope they like me.” I know this isn’t uncommon in the industry, especially if you are planning a destination wedding, but I feel like there is something missing even if you try to simulate an in person meeting through Skype. It is just not the same. But everything worked out wonderfully (except for the hideous traffic) and I am really excited to show you the wedding!!

The wedding took place a few weeks ago at Wellesley city hall in front of a small, intimate group of friends. When I arrived, I found out that the justice of the peace was willing to hold the ceremony outside. I was extremely excited because city hall has beautiful landscaped yards. It was a sweltering 95 degrees that day but that didn’t phase Liza and Calvin. Since they are from Hong Kong, they are used to the heat and humidity! Thankfully there were some large trees nearby, so we could cool down a little in the shade.

bride and groom at city hall wedding

bride and groom at city hall wedding

They still had their rings in the little Tiffany bags. Cute!
bride and groom exchanging rings

Officially married now!!
just pronounced husband and bride

bride and groom sitting on a bench

We headed over to Wellesley College to take some portraits. It was my first time visiting the college, and it’s probably the prettiest campus I’ve ever been to. I was so happy to find lots of tall grass because I’ve been wanting to shoot in a field for a long time!
bride and groom portraits at Wellesley

When I saw this field, I knew we had to pull over and get some shots with the purple flowers! I know this sounds silly, but I have been dreaming about doing a shoot with a field full of either yellow or purple flowers. When we actually walked into the field, reality set in. The ground was very uneven and the grass was so tall you couldn’t see the holes in the ground. I was afraid someone would twist their ankle but thankfully that didn’t happen. Plus there were lots of bugs eating us alive! It was even more difficult for Liza because I asked her to crouch down, and that is no easy feat in a tightly fitted Chinese qipao dress! We almost got a ticket too because we were parked illegally, but the cop left once he saw us walking back to the car.
bride and groom in a field of purple flowers

Then we headed off to their reception at Blue Ginger, a restaurant run by the celebrity chef Ming Tsai. They had a private room, which seated about a dozen people comfortably.
private room at Blue Ginger

Hands down this is the best wedding food I’ve ever eaten! His signature butterfish dish is ridiculously good. I sat at the table with all of the guests (there was only 1 table anyway), and even though I had only met them that day, we became friends right away and it felt like I had known them for much longer!
dishes at Ming Tsai's blue ginger

bride and groom drinking wine together

wedding at blue ginger restaurant in Wellesley

Unlike other celebrity chefs, Ming Tsai is often at his restaurant. He came over to wish the bride and groom congratulations and presented them with an autographed cookbook.
bride and groom with ming tsai

This is the first time where I’ve seen candles being blown out at a wedding, but I thought it was very cute gesture to make a wish on your wedding day!
blowing out wedding candles

Congratulations Liza and Calvin! Thank you so much for letting me document your day!

More pictures can be found on my Facebook page.

Okay, this is the last installment of Clara and Angelo’s wedding weekend. See part 1 and part 2 here.

Angelo has worked with the church youth for a number of years, and wanted to have a special reception with them and their parents the next day. They asked me to photograph their reception right when I was starting my business, and I’ve been looking forward to this day ever since!

Beautiful updo by the extremely talented stylist Yaya Hsu.
bride getting her hair done
The reception started a little late, so everyone was really happy to be finally eating!
Bride and groom getting food

So every time a guest could hula hoop for longer than 10 seconds, then the bride and groom had to kiss for the duration of the hula hooping! Yes, so they were kissing for a loooong time! Too bad they abandoned this game after the first two guests were able to hula hoop for several minutes. Whoever invented this game was genius!!
boston wedding photographer

bride and grrom kissing

A lot of Chinese receptions always involve games that focus on how well the bride and groom know each other. Angelo was blindfolded and had to guess which hand was Clara’s among some other guests.
bride and groom playing games

Yes, it wasn’t all girls!
groom touching bride's hand

guests laughing

Now it’s Clara’s turn.
bride's turn to guess groom's hand

They both guessed the correct hand but it took them a while! It was very entertaining to watch.
bride making a funny comment

They also had a photo booth with props, so here’s the lovely bride and groom giving me their most serious pose!
bride and groom portrait

(This is a 3 part wedding series. See previous post for part 1, and I’ll pick up where I left off from the last post.)

Once Clara finished getting her makeup done, it was time to head to the church. We didn’t have much time before Clara was to walk down the aisle, and we quickly whisked everyone in the dressing room at the church. They church has its own theater ministry, so the dressing room looked like the dressing room at a real theater. I wish I had pics but I was helping the girls get ready and running some last minute errands for the wedding. But that’s when the hired photographer came, so I wasn’t worried about taking pictures (that’s the next post!). When Yaya finished retouching all the girls hair, we went upstairs to the sanctuary to take our seats as guests, but it was so full we ended up taking seats in the second to last row. Which meant that every picture I took had pictures of elbows of other guests taking pictures, oh well. And since I was just a guest for Saturday’s wedding, I’m just going to post a few pics.

Groom hugging bride's father

I like the architecture of the church. However I’m always frustrated though by stained glassed windows because the light shining through it is so bright compared to the church interior.
church ceremony in Burke Virginia

Somehow the flower girl slipped out of her seat during the ceremony.
flower girl looking at guests

bride and groom holding hands

Clara and Angelo had the shortest first kiss I’ve ever witnessed, so I was thankful that I got the shot!
bride and groom first kiss

Fast forward to the reception. Friends taking pictures of Clara and Angelo cutting the cake.
guests taking pictures of bride and groom

I like this candid of Clara and Angelo. I think they just finished signing their marriage documents.
bride and groom sign papers

Let the dancing begin!
dancing at the reception

Look who got onto the dance floor and started dancing in the middle of the circle! She is so precious!
dancing baby at wedding

Wedding in Gaithersburg Maryland

Bride and groom hitting the dance floor.
bride and groom dancing

Chinese wedding reception dancing

The wedding photographer busting a few breakdancing moves before retiring for the night.
wedding photographer breakdancing

This is going to a 3 part series on Clara and Angelo’s wedding, so get ready for lots of pictures! Last weekend I traveled to DC to attend their wedding..but also to take some pictures. Clara is one of my very good friends, and she asked me to fill in some coverage gaps when their other photographer was not shooting. I was really excited to hang out with her all morning and photograph her getting ready. We started off the morning at her house, and the super talented Yaya Hsu did everyone’s hair. Then I went with Clara and her mom to Red Door Spa to get their makeup done. I was surprised that there was no overhead or natural light, but instead they had flood lights pointed directly at the client. But they did a good job considering they had terrible lighting to work with. And Clara came out looking like a queen!

clara getting her hair done

sharing a laugh together

I love how Yaya incorporated some braiding into her hair!
details in hair

hair all done
Now to Red Door spa.
Red Door spa brushes

makeup sheet

Clara's makeup by Boston wedding photographer

Red Door spa makeup

bride smiling while applying makeup

I love this pic!
bride looking at mirror

Public garden wedding

June 7, 2010

The wedding season has only just begun, and I’m already back at the Public Garden. It is a very popular place for brides and grooms to get married because it’s such a great park and it’s fantastic for small, simple weddings. I had the pleasure of second shooting for Lloyd Mandrell Photography. I love second shooting because I can hang in the back with my zoom lens and take candids.

I saw some a couple of swans nesting at the park.

Swans nesting by pond

bride's flowers

They found a great spot under a willow tree, and it was really nice to be partially in the shade because it was really sunny that day!
wedding at boston public garden

This is me attempting to be incognito.
bride under a willow tree

groom smiling

Exchanging rings.
exchanging rings

bride and groom laughing at each other

The wedding guests. The flower girls are adorable!
wedding guests

bride and groom first kiss

Yay and they’re married! Look how happy they are. :)
boston wedding photography

girl playing with willow tree

A few weeks ago, I helped out at a very intimate wedding at the Boston Public Garden (please see the official pictures by Shang Chen photography here). Being an assistant is fun because you don’t have to pressure to deliver any images, so it’s a chance to get out of the box. I decided to only shoot with my 70-200 lens, and I had a lot of fun because this is my favorite lens now!

The bride and groom and the guests walking to the spot that they picked out for the ceremony.

Boston wedding photographer

Love this image!

outdoor wedding at Boston Public Garden

In case you’re planning a wedding at the Boston Public Garden in the winter, FYI – they drain the pond. There were a few puddles of water, and a few ducks were trying to wade in it, desperate for the city to fill the pond again.

Wedding party at the Boston Public Garden by Boston wedding photographer

Exchanging vows by the lake

Aren’t they a beautiful couple!

Wedding portraits at the Boston Public Garden

Bride and groom portraits on the bridge at Boston Public Garden

Boston wedding photography