Today I stumbled upon The Still Image With Crash Taylor via Jasmine Star’s blog. If you’re a wedding photographer, you should definitely be following Jasmine’s blog because not only are her images eye candy, she has FAQ posts that answer questions that readers ask and I’ve always taken away at least one new piece of information from each of those. The first post that I ever read by Jasmine was an FAQ entry she made about First Looks (the bride and groom seeing each other before the ceremony for a photo session) and it’s what convinced me and Jeff to do a First Look on our wedding day. We were very clear from the start about not wanting to know anything about what the other would be wearing and making sure that the first time we saw each other that day was at opposite ends of the aisle as I made my way towards him. But after reading Jasmine’s take on it, my mind had changed. And I am so glad we did it cause it was just so much more relaxed not trying to cram it in between the ceremony and hors d’oeuvres. If you’re getting married, consider doing this. If you’re shooting a big wedding and need to propose this as an option for your clients, consider reading this.

The Still Image With Crash Taylor is also a super helpful site because Crash interviews the world’s finest photographers and asks how they make certain images which is a question that most of us wonder when looking at a captivating photo. Each post contains the location, what type of camera and lens, lighting, creative process and post-production which is pretty much everything you need to know about how to make a picture. I think it’s really great when photographers share information…it keeps the industry at a higher standard.

Here’s one of my favorites from our First Look. It rained on our wedding day but we sucked it up and took photos outside anyway. My mom would’ve killed me if she knew I was out in the rain after getting my hair done and potentially dirtying up my gown before anyone even had the chance to see me in it but it was totally worth it. It was the only alone time that Jeff and I had together our wedding day (with the exception of our photographer being with us) and it was very much needed.

Photo by Tec Petaja

Below are a few select photos that I pulled from my cousin’s facebook photo album which had photos that were taken at the second celebration for our marriage. We’re considering making this a monthly event. This particular party was mostly for my parent’s friends who weren’t invited to the actual wedding because my parents thought it’d be too far for them to travel to Roanoke. We had a great time with lots and lots of good food and I plan on posting more images once I get all of the high res files. I still haven’t finished going through all of our honeymoon photos yet. Lots of images to get to!
Side note: Judy (Jeff’s mom) also wore an Ao Dai which is what me and my mom are wearing…it’s a traditional Vietnamese outfit which comprises of a form fitting silk tunic worn over pantaloons. And yeah, wikipedia describes them as “pantaloons,” therefore so shall I. They were each custom made in Vietnam per our measurements and I was supposed to wear a circular disc-looking hat with my outfit but I didn’t want to mess up the ‘do. I’m sure you can understand my reasoning.

Hello. I’m married. We’re married. And life is good.

I’ve been looking forward to writing about all of the different elements of our wedding and reception and had planned on doing that throughout the planning process, but we wanted to keep everything a secret from our guests so that there could be at least some element of surprise. And now I kind of want to wait until we get our wedding photos from our amazing photographer because I’m sure he got some great detail shots. For now, we’re lucky enough to have photos from friends and family streaming into a community flickr account that I’ve set up for them to share photos on…please feel free to visit http://www.flickr.com/photos/huongandjeff to check them out. For a slideshow, click here. I’m sure there will be more photos streaming in over the weeks to come.

Even though I am not divulging details for now, I do have to say that the wedding was absolutely perfect. And I’m not just saying that because it was mine. We got so many compliments on everything and absolutely nothing went wrong. Except for the summer rolls being deathly spicy but even those who blindly attempted that feat, survived (me included—I was in tears from the spiciness and was too much of a lady to spit it back out…my mother, however, was not). Lots of people were kind enough to tell us that “this is the best wedding I’ve ever been to” and Jeff and I had smiles plastered on our faces all night. The speeches and toasts brought us to tears and we even had an impromptu speech from a friend who felt so strongly about sharing such great thoughts about us. You could tell that everyone was feeling the love. And I want to do it all over again.

I completely lost it when Jeff was saying his vows and I could start to see tears well up in his eyes and hear his voice start to shake. When it came time for me to say mine, I could barely speak because I was so overwhelmed (in a good way) and trying to control myself. I was a mess. I couldn’t even see because as tears were streaming down my face, my glasses were kind enough to fog up my view. From that point on I didn’t hear a single word our Pastor said. It was just me and Jeff.

We hosted a brunch the next morning for all of our out-of-town guests and it was a great way to see everyone off. Super cozy, lots of hugs, more tearful speeches, and we had the chance to hear about all the things we missed. Thank you to everyone who made our wedding so incredibly wonderful and memorable. From California, Arizona, Minnesota, Ohio, New York, Florida, North Carolina and Pennsylvania…we know you traveled from afar and it meant so much to us that you took the time. A thousand thank yous and hugs and kisses.