We love Hindu weddings!  The beautiful clothes, the many many many traditions, the long days which let us get to know the family much better than a 6-8 hour day does, the AWESOME music… I could go on and on.

Ria and Parag were married at the Concord Hilton on the Sunday of Memorial Day Weekend.  They actually had their Sangeet the night before, but Lisa and I were committed to shooting Bree & Terry’s wedding that night so our long time colleague, Julio Duffoo, took over shooting for the night. He did an awesome job, but that’s another post for another day.

As you can tell, Ria looked AMAZING!!!  in both her red sari for the ceremony and her blue sari for the reception. Parag didn’t look to shabby himself.  The couple hired Purvi Shah of Avant Planners for her design and coordination skills, and she did a great job with both aspects. The vendor breakdown is below the photos:

• Coordination: Purvi Shah of Avant Planners
• Venue: Hilton Hotel, Concord, California- contact Marlen Abolafia
• Flowers: Aurora Floral Designs
• Mandep: Aurora Floral Designs
• Invitations: Ineke Moss
• Music: DJ Salim
• Video: Martin Meyer
• Photography:  Lisa & James (of course)

Beginning our long weekend of Memorial Day Weddings, we have Bree & Terry’s very sweet Oakland Hills wedding.  Bree & Terry (& mother of the bride {aka MOB} Leslie) were the first to book us for 2009 waaayyy back in 2008.  Good thing too, because Memorial Day weekend is always one of the most popular weekends to get married and we usually have 2-3 to shoot.  Needless to say by Tuesday, we need a 3 day weekend of our own.  But I digress.  Bree & Terry are super sweet and have been a couple since they were in high school (which wasn’t that long ago .  Their ceremony was at the Skyline Community Church in Oakland with a reception at Mira Vista Country Club in El Cerrito.  Lisa and I had never been to the church before but we were delighted to see how beautiful it was.  Very minimal with clean lines and light colored wood.  The church is dominated by a HUGE floor to ceiling, wall to wall window looking out towards Mt Diable.  It even has a labrynth in the garden to walk if you are getting nervous about your wedding and need to chill.

Lisa totally rocked this wedding,not that she usually doesn’t, but this one was really her baby.  Can you guess which shots are hers and which are mine?

Oh yeah, did I mention that MIchael was there?

We’ve had some great opportunities this year to shoot mid-week weddings at the gorgeous San Francisco City Hall.  Most recently we have Jessica + Ryan’s wedding which we followed up with a shoot at  a couple spots around the city.  Shoots like this one make my job really easy, attractive couple, beautiful locations, great weather (well, maybe a bit cool for anyone in a wedding dress   Our first stop after City Hall was Golden Gate Park by the Conservatory of flowers.  One of my favorite tunnels is right there, so we took advantage of the rare occasion of it being open.  Next stop in the limo was Baker Beach which is always beautiful.  No matter how often couples ask to go there, I never get tired of shooting on the beach here.The strong wings did wreak some damage on Jessica’s hair, but she took it in stride.   For a wonderful finish to their wedding day, Jessica + Ryan reserved a private room at Gary Danko for a delicious looking dinner with their immediate families ( I say looking because I was not lucky enough to taste anything.  Maybe for Lisa’s birthday this summer…)

Wahoo!  The E-Sessions just keep coming!  Kim & Jeff live in the South Bay and have a great fondness for Capitola and Santa Cruz.  I, too, have great fondness for the Santa Cruz area, being a Banana Slug myself.  Don’t know what I mean by being a Banana Slug?  Suffice it to say I went to a certain college with a certain disdain for fraternaties, sororities, letter grades and organized sports. Also the campus is neatly tucked away in the beautful redwoods of California, so the Banana Slug is the perfect mascot.

Anyhoo, we all settled on shooting in the Capitloa Village and some nearby beaches.  While proving to be an almost freezing experience, Kim and Jeff were a total blast to work with.  Loads of charm and personality.  We’re definitely looking forward to their wedding at the lovely Nestledown this fall.

Huckleberry Karen’s last DIY flower workshop was such a success, she’s putting on another one in a couple of weeks.  Here are the details:

Date: Sunday, June 14, 2009
Time: 10am-12:30pm
Location: Fort Mason, San Francisco, CA
For more information or to register you can email Karen at : huckleberrykarendesigns@gmail.com 

I have some photos from her last workshop, I’ll pull them out and post them this week.