Joy & Bryant, 'Double Happiness' 7.5.08

Joy and Bryant had a Boston July 4th weekend wedding spectacular starting on Friday night. They had their rehearsal dinner in a traditional American and Boston fashion at Anthonys' Pier Four on Boston Harbor, complete with lobster bibs and roasted corn. The main fireworks were hard to see as they are set off on the Charles River, but we saw the other towns light up around the outskirts of Boston. We were also treatedto an amazing sunset with the sky turning purple and orange for a few minutes. 

The wedding day we started off at the brides' parents home with the bride and bridal party getting ready, and I had the perfect backdrop of original Chinese watercolor scrolls 

on the walls. The ceremony was at the bride and grooms' church, the Chinese Bible Church in 

Lexington. The bride wore a Vera Wang dress with a lovely flower detail on the back, The bridesmaids wore brown dresses from Simple Silhouettes, and the flowers contrasted nicely in bright yellow from Winstons, who carried the yellow theme throughout the reception. The minister conducting the ceremony brought a hardware toolbox with her, and she illustrated several tools such as a branch clipper to demonstrate how to 'prune' back a marriage to encourage growth. The guests got a laugh, but she also made a great point that marriage is like a home that needs attention and maintenance to survive and thrive.

After the ceremony, me and my second photographer Jessica boarded the limos for the Boston Harbor Hotel, and we were lucky to have the weather on our side. The American flag was under the rotunda and the sun behind our group, a perfect backdrop for portraits. The guests had cocktails outside overlooking the harbor and listened to the voices from an a cappella group from Brown University that Joy and Bryant brought to sing during cocktail hour. 

Inside the room, Suzanne Lowell from SBL lighting had her wonderful blue lighting effects on the walls and pin spots on all the tables to make the yellow flowers really pop. 

Halfway through the wedding, Joy and Bryant changed into traditional Korean wedding outfits, and then later Joy changed onto a a traditional red Chinese dress to honor their respective heritages. The couple went to each tables with their family to toast each table, a Chinese wedding tradition. They even had a bin of comfortable chinese slippers that guests could change into to dance the night away in comfort on the dance floor. The band Night Shift rocked the house until midnight, and the band made their way onto the dance floor to have guests sing along. Planner extrordinaire Tasha Bracken from the Simple Details saw that every detail was covered.

The next day, the couple had a traditional Chinese banquette dinner at Jin Asian Restaurant (most of us from Boston remember the Pagoda off of Rt 1 known as Weylu's), and Joy wore a silk purple Chinese dress.  The entertainment was provided by a Boston Chinese folk and classical dance troupe. The guests dined on deep fried whole lobster, and the couple toasted each of the tables. There was the  American tradition of a wedding cake, and it was decorated with the Chinese character 'Double Happiness' to celebrate weddings and marriage.

To see Joy and Bryant's wedding weekend, view their Lovestory

'Bogie & Bacall'- a Golden Age wedding on Lake Tahoe, 6.28.08

Liz and David met me at the Four Seasons Bridal back in January, and they told me about their fun plans to have a relaxed, Asian themed Friday night dinner at their home in Incline Village, Nevada, and guests were treated to traditional Japanese Koto guitar music as they walked in the door by Shirley and Brian Wong, provided by Elle Music with wonderful 

food by Blue Onion Catering. On the wedding day, The bride and her party had their hair 

and makeup done beautifully with the talented team at Wallet Weddings.  The 'Tahoe

Paradise' ship took their guests across the lake to the historic Thunderbird Lodge which was a perfect backdrop of the 1940's feel of the wedding. The guests got a custom tour of the property as they departed the boat, which is now a historic museum.The band Sister Swing sung Andrews' Sisters covers and 

got everyone in the mood for the dancing to 

come in the evening. The couple spent months taking swing dance lessons and even brought their wedding dance instructor Cynthia Glinka to teach their guests after dinner. There was a colorful chupah with flowers by Floramor (who did the floral design for the weekend) done in pale yellow and light peach colors to accent the silver-blue bridesmaids dresses. Hartmann Studios did all of the linens and lighting and coordinated nicely with the color scheme. 

The ceremony was breathtaking, with the backdrop of the lake and the sun setting behind them. 

The sunset was so beautiful on the lake that I asked Liz and David to come outside for a few 

minutes around 8:15 and I got a very Asian-inspired photograph with their silhouettes and the pine trees, reminiscent of Chinese landscape paintings. 

The reception got in swing, and the guests got a quick lesson in the 'rock-step-rock' basic swing step. Videographer-cinematographer great Justin Fone and I took turns getting shots from above. After cutting their cake, guests could take home cookies that were made from David's mother's recipe. The letterpress stationery and invitations were made in the deco design from Emma Rose Papery. The man who put this all together and kept in running smoothly is the amazing wedding and event planner Duncan Reyes, who I finally got to work with after running into him for for several months at wedding networking functions. Yeah, Duncan! Congratulations Liz and David!

Watch Liz and David's Lovestory.