Up today we have the second part of Devin and Megan’s wedding, a Doubletree by Hilton Sacramento Wedding. For those that have never been, it’s a sprawling hotel complex with a beautiful central courtyard – as you’ll see! You know, I posted last week, but to add insult to injury about my not blogging for so long, I went to go find the photos for this wedding and found that I had actually chosen the photos and put them into layouts for a blog post! I just actually didn’t write it and post it. Sigh. I’m sorry, everyone!
As you’ll recall, this was a long, 18 hour day. They had their Sikh ceremony in the morning, but their vision was one of blending cultures, and they couldn’t pass up a white dress ceremony as well. After the remaining customary traditions at Devin’s house, Megan headed back to the hotel to get her hair done, while Devin did what he’d been waiting a very long time to do: SHAVE HIS BEARD. You have to grow it out for your wedding, no more shaving, and he couldn’t wait to have a shaving party with him and his friends.
Personally, I feel like the little dance of joy Susan caught them doing after they exited the ceremony really just encapsulates everything. It was good to kick back at the reception and just party!!! I can’t wait to share all the details with you! Starting with:
I promised you blog posts over half a year ago, and so, instead, I didn’t post at all! Sigh… I’ll be doing my yearly facelift on the site over the next few weeks, and, of course, picking up where I left off – the second half of Megan and Devin’s Pi Day wedding. I can’t believe it’s been almost a year! Hopefully, I’ll be able to catch up entirely with the blog posts in the next few months.
But! Before I inundate you with all the beautiful photos I’ve been a part of creating in the past year, I thought I would serve up the “This Week in Funny Bunny: Vol. Dirty Dirty Liar She Never Writes Her Blog Posts” edition. Prepare for a HUGE essay, we’re covering almost 7 months here! It was my busiest season yet with Funny Bunny, and you’ll see that in the blog posts. However, it’s also been a huge year for me and for James, my fiancé. We always knew it would be. You may remember James from our internet famous Legend of Zelda proposal (http://funnybunnyphoto.com/2015/06/09/the-legend-of-zelda-engagement-proposal-james-natalie/). Our plan? To hit the big three in one year – wedding, house, baby! As you’ll find out, we’re getting pretty close!
This week, I have part one of a Gurdwara Sahib Sikh Temple Sacramento wedding with Megan and Devin. The second part, airing next week, includes their white wedding and their nerd-tastic reception at the Sacramento Doubletree Hilton. Sorry for the slight break in blogging, things have gotten really hectic for me this summer season, but full of couples I absolutely love, including Megan and Devin’s wedding back on Pi Day.
When you consider by the end of the reception I’d been working for 18 hours with my big heavy cameras, it was definitely a marathon for me and my second photographer du jour, Susan Yee of En Pointe Photography. The first half of the day, though, was pretty chill. I started off with Megan at the hotel, Susan started with Devin at his family’s home. Because Devin’s family is the Sikh family, all of the traditions here were very important to them, and I’m glad I had Susan there, photographing every detail, down to the ceremonial turban tying! From a personal standpoint, I was actually really happy to have the chance to photograph another Sikh wedding after all this time. When I first started out here in California, I worked for a photographer who specialized in these weddings and it felt good to put all that knowledge to use!
I’m saving all the sappy stuff for next week, so for now, just enjoy these beautiful colors and a love for Pi with Megan and Devin!
When Meredith and Rodney were describing their Paicines Ranch wedding with words like “rustic barn” and “sunflowers,” you know me, I’m a color girl, so sunflowers are high on my love list. Blue and yellow stood out vividly against those classic yellow California hills and really made for a beautiful day. As I was with the bride and bridesmaids getting ready, one of them warned me, “We didn’t manage to make it to the bachelorette party, you know, where we had invited guests and put out food. So, we’re going to be running late! You’ve got to be firm with us!” I’m normally pretty mild mannered, though I’m always willing to jump in where photos are involved, but this bridesmaid was right – everything ran late! But the best part, really, is that no one minded. No one got stressed, no one yelled, everyone just knew this was the way it was, and that everything was going to get done. If you’re running late on your wedding day, adopt this attitude; the one criteria for a successful wedding day is that you and your significant other got hitched. Everything else is secondary!
Shout outs to Diana Barbatti of Diana Barbatti Photographer for stepping in a second photographer even though she was completely under the weather! Your dedication was awesome!
As I hung up this dress, the mother exclaimed, “I KNEW you were going to put that there!” (more…)
Today, we return to your regularly scheduled programming with a Big Basin Redwoods engagement session. Kunyu and Dean are getting married in a little bit and I wanted to squeeze their session into the blog before the wedding! I love these two. I feel like a broken record writing about my clients every week, but I see a lot of myself and my friends in Kunyu. And Dean… well, I don’t know how to explain him, but I like him too! 😉 And I was happy to learn that Kunyu, upon stumbling across my blog, read through it, turned to Dean and said, “I think she’s just like us.” You know you’ve got some dream clients when…!
Whenever I do a Big Basin shoot, I inevitably end up carpooling with my clients (let’s face it, this place is in the middle of nowhere), and it’s no secret that I am extremely sensitive to motion sickness. This time, in Dean, I found a fellow motion sickness person who understands that you need to take those turns at like 10 mph, and for the love of God, give me some cool air. He also introduced me to this amazing medicine, Kwells/hyoscine hydrobromide, which is disappointingly not sold in the US (and apparently really easy to trip on), but man. I’ve never felt so good on a curvy road! And maybe it did something for my photography too, because these photos are AMAZING!!! If I do say so myself.
I love the tippy toes to reach that “forehead to forehead” pose! It’s so adorable!
I don’t mean to be obnoxious but S U N F L A R E! ! ! (more…)
Okay, so I have to include the key phrase “Legend of Zelda engagement proposal” in the first sentence of this blog post to get my google SEO points. 😛 And you know what the suck is? Every time I say Legend of Zelda engagement proposal in this post, it’s supposed to sound natural. Normally I can sneak it into alt tags but this post doesn’t have enough photos!
SPOILER ALERT: James proposed to me using the Legend of Zelda NES video game and I totally said yes. The Legend of Zelda is his favorite game of all time. It’s one of the first games he ever played as a 2 year old, with lots of help from his Mom. This led to a deep love of the franchise, and of course, he owns every single game, and all the original consoles, with their boxes…Basically, everything you can think of. Just check it out!
He also has a huge collection of Nintendo Power magazines – we went hunting for the Legend of Zelda issue, only to discover in the Nintendo Power index that Zelda was released TOO EARLY! That was a “mind blown” moment for us. In short, a Legend of Zelda engagement proposal was pretty much a no brainer for James once he hit upon the idea.
About 2 or 3 months ago, James started saying things like, “I’ve been thinking a lot about the original Zelda recently, maybe it’s time to play it again.” This was way upsetting to me, because we are in the middle of a “playing everything in order” and we’re on Majora’s Mask, so how DARE HE go backwards. He also knows that I hate change, and that I need time to soften up to new ideas, so he was starting in on me early. By about 1 month ago, I was ready to accept that this was an idea James had, and he was going to do this playthrough whether I was happy or not. So, we scheduled a day of Zelda for last Saturday. The protagonists gathered:
Yeah, I always make that face. Also I apologize! If I’d known these photos were a little more important than personal use, things would certainly be better lit or in focus.
In the weeks leading up to this, James came home from work everyday and would lock himself up in his office room and work, for hours! And then he was really vague about what he was working on. And he kept saying things while he was half asleep that would be like, “We have so much time together, Bunny” or “Our second quest is just beginning….zzzzz” So, that was all very suspicious, but as my daily journal that I write reminds me, I was suspicious, but also not TOO suspicious. I figured he would tell me what was going on in time. He also kept telling me all new facts about the Legend of Zelda that I never knew – for example, if you look at that green level below, those cat things (Pols Voices) are meant to be killed by whistling into a microphone, which was never included in the US version of the NES console.
It was also very suspicious on the day of that James went out and bought champagne, and that he wanted me to take a lot of photos of all of his Zelda things and his playthrough. And me as well! We definitely don’t normally take photos of ourselves playing video games. But I figured he was just really into the playthrough and just wanted to remember this, the first time he would be playing without his childhood save files…
Anyway, James laid the groundwork for this playthrough by, one day before, telling me that his NES cartridge battery finally died, and that he was VERY UPSET, and that it meant that all of his childhood save files were gone and that we would have to play the game through on Saturday without saving. And so, we played. It actually went pretty well – with all the maps and his previous knowledge, we breezed through the game in about 6 hours, which isn’t bad for a casual player and no speed run experience. Here he is making a map of the final dungeon so that he could make the most optimal path to Ganon and the silver arrows…
…when…. (still frames included just below in case you don’t want to watch the youtube video).
But… how did he do it??? As soon as I turned to him and said, “Of course I will marry you, stupid!” my next question was, “How??? Your cartridge?????”
So… I should say, first, that I have ruined 3-5 previous proposal attempts, including a recent attempt where he wanted to go to New York (where we met) and gather some of our closest friends, and … well, I kind of refused to go to New York because it didn’t make any sense to me that we go – I knew for a fact most of my friends weren’t there, why would I go! What I’m saying is that I have a history as a ruiner, and this is no exception.
James had ostentatiously put the original gold Zelda cartridge into his NES the day before, so that I would be fooled into thinking that the cartridge was in there. He’d planned to sneak out before I woke up and switch in what you see below, the EverDrive cartridge holding his romhack. However, due to a fight with my rabbit Blackjack (who wouldn’t go to bed!), I fell asleep on the couch instead of in bed. So… instead of having the freedom to switch it out with me peacefully sleeping in the bedroom…. James had to keep his fingers crossed that I would remain asleep on the couch as he carefully switched the two right in front of my closed eyes. Major props on his success!
A few highlights, Princess Zelda is actually wearing bunny ears in this hack, so as to represent me. As well, eagle-eyed viewers will note the map revealed in the video is an impossible map to Ganon – James really did play the game all the way through, we just did the emulator recording later. Aside from the proposal and the “you got the ring” text, he also managed to hack the game to play the “you got the thing” music during that moment, which is actually a long awkward silence in the original game. Obviously, Link is holding up a ring instead of the Triforce, too. 🙂
All this is made more impressive when you realize that he did not expand the memory to give himself more space to work with, and that he really only found a few bytes of space to work with. He had a lot of grand plans that got thrown out once he realized he couldn’t fit it in and that what he thought was a one day project had turned into two weeks. A lot of people will build an arts and crafts project, modify the “It’s Dangerous To Go Alone” screen, whatever, do simple video manipulations, I’ve seen TONS of those that are equally nerdy in their own right, but I’ve never actually seen someone modify the end screen of Zelda like this and it is completely my James!
Last, but definitely not least, here is the ring by the fabulous Takayas Custom Jewelry. I bow forever to this man for accommodating James’ rush order and trying to understand his crazy requests.
The ring is actually a standard Zelda collection that Takayas sells, which includes the Hyrulian crest and the Master Sword. However, James couldn’t stand that I would have anything that wasn’t completely unique, that it was possible some other man or woman out there was wearing this exact ring, so he asked Takayas to engrave their best effort at bunny ears on the sides.
So, that’s my story! Congratulations me and James! James hopes to do a reddit or imgur post sometime today, or by the time this posts, maybe last night…Maybe! I have to say that I’m so not looking forward to wedding planning. I already feel like the walls are closing in. Maybe it’s time to elope and hire a fantastic photographer! 😉
P.S. Did I mention it’s a Legend of Zelda engagement proposal?
Today’s post is near and dear to my heart, the marriage of my friends, Ben and Katie, in their absolutely gorgeous Chesapeake Bay wedding. Ben was always on the fringes of my social groups before we finally started crossing paths a lot more frequently in undergrad when we were both studying Japanese. Not many people have created the most deranged (yet completely boring!) Japanese video ever with me, but Ben can certainly count among those few people. Ben was introduced to Katie through another friend of mine, Thara (the officiant!), while Katie and Thara attended law school and, well, the rest is history. I can’t speak to a lot of the speeches I hear at weddings, except that I know the people speaking them are trying to express the truth of their friends’ relationships… In this particular wedding, I can say it’s true, the changes I’ve seen (albeit at a distance) in Ben over the years he’s known Katie have been all for the better, and they are a couple that really deserves each other.
The wedding itself took place at Katie’s parents’ home, overlooking the Chesapeake Bay – it barely required any ornamentation at all! We ran behind schedule, perhaps predictably, and it was classic east coast boiling hot weather, followed by massive thunderstorm. At one point, one of my friends was patting me down with paper towels, just saying over and over, “You’re just so sweaty!” Thanks to all my friends for grabbing me water at every turn, and for Ben making sure to tell the caterers, “Uh, you took away the photographer’s food while she was taking photos during dinner. Please feed her again.” Anyway, I could go on and on about this wedding, so I think I’ll just let the photos (mostly!) speak for themselves!
Today, we blithely shove another friends’ wedding post out of the way to fit in my OTHER friends’ Berkeley engagement session before their wedding this Sunday. Does that sentence even make sense? Basically, what I’m saying is that Ben and Katie were in this slot, but then the timing worked out just so…! Anyway, look forward to Ben & Katie’s post in June. 🙂 This week, it’s Henry and Michael’s session! I want to save all the not at all sappy reminiscing about Henry for his actual wedding post, so instead, I guess I’ll talk a little about the session itself…?
Originally, we were all supposed to go up to Tahoe and take photos, but that very weekend, late April, we checked the weather and BAD NEWS it was snowing, attach chains to your tires! So instead, we did a last minute shift over to the Berkeley campus, where Henry and Michael first met and continue to live even now. While Tahoe would have been meaningful for them, Berkeley was really all the more meaningful because, well, they’ve spent pretty much their entire relationship here! As Henry said, leading us from spot to spot on campus, “I’m really just looking for all the places we’ve been [drunk] and hungry together.” Romance! Anyway, I always have fun working for friends, and this was no exception. I’m so happy that I get to photograph their wedding this Sunday instead of being the Worst Wedding Guest Ever ™! 😀
First, we start off with one of my favorite photos of the bunch – I’ve been seeing the whole green ivy, blue sky photo in my head forever, and I finally got one I liked!
Also an awesome Brenizer in the eucalyptus grove! (more…)
Today’s wedding is not just a Skyline Church wedding, but, also, a reception at the Wedgewood Wedding and Banquet Center at the Metropolitan Golf Links. What a mouthful! Christie and Sandy won my heart early on. “We can’t agree on anything but you!” they said, and to be sure, they did book me a year and a half in advance! This sweet couple was planning their wedding even before marriage became legal for everyone in California.
Their wedding day was completely emotional – the tears started early, when the brides exchanged gifts and letters before the wedding, and continued into the ceremony and reception. At the ceremony, both brides looked gorgeous on their walk down the aisle, and it was truly touching the way they each teared up when listening to each other’s vows. The ceremony was also peppered with personal details from each bride, including a wine box with personal letters, a tree planting ceremony, and a family gift of song from Sandy’s side! All this against the backdrop of Skyline Church’s second to none view. Seriously, check it out. Shout outs to Nicole Cross of 43rd Ave Photography as well, for stepping in as second photographer again!
I can’t help but start with this panorama from the church’s labyrinth…
My fluffy bunny butt is in surgery today to be neutered (various reasons, but mostly, we do plan on eventually getting a 2nd rabbit to keep him company and it will probably have to be female)! I’ve been wringing my hands for the past couple weeks waiting for the appointment, and I’m particularly nervous today now that he’s finally gone in! My clinic does a drop off in the morning and pick up in the afternoon, so I’m just sitting here trying to get any work done in the meantime… Come home safely and heal up well, Blackjack! The apartment feels empty without you!
[edit, Wednesday, April 29th, 2015] He’s finally eating again! Rabbits are very fragile – not eating or pooping for just 12 hours can lead to death, so by 4 am last night (20+ hours without food), I was pretty frantic. I finally saw him eat half a piece of parsley and poop, so I tried to take comfort in that and nap for a few hours. Now, 3 pm the day after surgery (24+ hours without much food), he seems to be devouring normal amounts of food again! I think we’re out of the woods! YAY! All this worrying gave me a huge migraine, though. I can barely look at this screen. BUT yay! My little boy seems to be doing great!
