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Neema and James were so much fun to work with. The wedding was amazing! The ceremony was held at St. Lawrence Catholic Church in Sugarland Texas, followed by the reception at the Town Square Marriott. These guys know how to have a good time!
There of course was some nerviness before the ceremony. When you have such a big wedding (600 guests) it can be nerve racking to get up in front of them. But everything went smoothly, the vows were said, the kiss shared and the party started.
We set off on the party bus with food and drinks to get some fun shots of the bridal party. We somehow ended up at a Specs liquor store which made for some fun and different shots. One of the most memorable of my shooting career!
The reception at the Marriott was beautiful! The lighting design was subtle with vibrant colors, it gave the ball room a fresh feel. I always recommend lighting to my clients, it will turn any old ballroom into a master piece. The wedding party had awesome dancing entrances to different songs followed by the bride and groom who just killed the dance floor! Loved it!
The cake was cut, the first dance danced and then the real party started. The music was turned up and all the guests hit the dance floor and had the time of their lives!
Thanks to Neema + James for having us out to film their wedding day, we had an amazing time!
Neema + James’s Ingredients:
Wedding Planning - www.nventiveevents.com
Photography - www.pinkposh.com
Party Bus - www.royalcarriages.com
DJ - www.djrocky.com
Lighting - www.darrylmurchisondesign.com
In the next post of the Real Grooms Series, I asked our resident “groom”, Danny Lai, to give his advice on what really matters most during those hectic yet important planning stages of the wedding. Danny tells me that the best advice you can get (regarding what matters most during the planning and the actual wedding) are from people who planned their own wedding. Of course, we all know that each experience is unique and different but it sure is refreshing to hear a male’s perspective. Don’t you agree? Here’s Danny answering the question - What’s important during the planning stage of a wedding?”
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Advice will vary, depending on who is giving it, especially depending whether it’s a bride or groom. As a newlywed groom, I learned some important lessons while helping to plan my own wedding, and thought it would be useful to share. These are my opinions only, my simple thoughts on what was actually important to us.
What a great wedding up at the Samoset Resort in Rockland, Maine!! Sabrina and Mark had a great color scheme especially with their splash of red!
Hope you enjoy the photos! 
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My husband’s side of the family has an interesting tradition for celebrating birthdays. Instead of celebrating everyone’s birthday on their actual birthday they like to group birthdays together from a 3-4 month period and celebrate about 10 people’s birthdays all together. Now this arrangement does have its pluses, but it also has its negatives -try being 24 years old and having enough money for 8 birthdays!!
Well, one benefit of being a pastry chef is using my culinary skills to make homemade gifts that make people forget that I didn’t spend the big bucks on them. 
I decided to try out a new recipe for the big party extravaganza! I took a look through my folder full of cupcake recipes that I’ve been wanting to try out and I kept flipping back to Chockylit’s recipe for Salted Caramel Frosting, so I decided to try it out.
The light was so nice in my studio this past week, especially around sunset. I am so happy summer is upon us. I love the blue light of winter, but this light suits me and my work so much better!
Alison, 37 & John, 33
Portland, Oregon
Wedding Date: November 1st, 2008
Number of Guests: 35
Wedding Ceremony Location: Oaks Pioneer Church, Portland, Oregon
Wedding Reception Location: Kell’s Irish, second floor, Portland Oregon
I officially have a new favorite wedding site…Three Points Ranch in Texas. There are such beautiful and unique details about this place like the airstream camp which provides a place for the bride to get ready. I love airstreams, and I just think this is so unique, not to mention a great place to shoot photos. The ceremony site itself is stunning, and the dining barn is just too perfect. Check out these photos from the Three Points Ranch website below:
Sarah and John wanted to include two rituals I had never done before into their wedding ceremony -a Sapling Planting and a Circle of Love.
They got the idea for the Circle of Love from John & Kate Plus 8, when they had their vow renewal in Hawaii (side note: watching that episode last week for research made me a little sad with the Gosselin’s recent news).
It’s a traditional Hawaiian ritual, but I couldn’t find a lot of information online. Most of what I found was about using the Circle of Love as more of a floral decoration (i.e., creating the altar where they would get married, with perhaps a brief mention in the ceremony itself - like a decorative chuppah) than a ritual. But Sarah and John wanted to incorporate their family into it, having them place the flowers to create the Circle of Love during the processional, in lieu of having a traditional bridal party.
I am sooo thrilled to finally share this wedding with you! I first met Amanda in Sherman Oaks, and it was love at first consult…seriously! Within minutes of sitting down together, we were both going a mile a minute with ideas and inspirations for her fabulous wedding day. Amanda’s initial hope was to integrate both her Chinese heritage as well as Stephen’s Jewish traditions. Amanda also converted to Judaism before the wedding, making the day extra-special. The vision for her “Chewish Extravaganza” (Amanda coined the term! lol) evolved and was refined over time, and the result was a luxurious Chinoiserie-inspired celebration. Blush pink and shades of purple (including aubergine and amethyst) were accented by cool silver, and florals were lush, somewhat “wild” and organic in composition. Whimsical elements like cocktail arrangements nestled in bamboo steamers and Chinese tea sets combined the traditional with the non-traditional. At every turn, Amanda wanted to make her wedding to Stephen highly personalized, detailed, and fab to the nth degree!! After all, they had spent 15 (yep, fifteen!!) years together before tying the knot and that alone is reason for a serious amount of festivity! 
Some of you may recognize Amanda below. She is Mrs. Hot Cocoa (or ‘haute cocoa,’ lol) of Weddingbee. She is also my third (!) Bee bride, and it was an absolute delight working with her. Now enjoy this gorgeous look at her day, with many thanks to Luna Photo (could Mike and Paula be any cooler??) and Della Chen (the sweetest!!) for their stunning images:
As usual, I’m answering your questions every week. Feel free to contact me any time through e-mail at meg@princesslasertron.com, twitter @lasertron (which is easiest for me), or by leaving a comment here!
Q: Your college studies are mostly unrelated to your creative endeavors, and yet you seem to have so much know how about running a small business - in the past few months you’re full of buzz words and great advice. Where is all of this coming from? And where can I get a taste? (From Amanda)
A: Although I might appear to have traveled down a less conventional path to get to where I am, I look at my personality and see that this is pretty natural for me. I’m impulsive, entrepreneurial, creative, and I tend to have an alpha-type personality. From the time I was in high school, I never saw myself being happy in a corporate job or sitting behind a desk, so I never prepared for that kind of life. I applied for all of the college scholarships I could, chose the school that gave me the most money, and studied what was most fun for me–German and Intercultural Communication–because I had amazing relationships with the professors, the programs offered me outstanding leadership opportunities, and I was able to travel quite a bit. All the while, I planned to work in an artistic field and a few years before graduation, I already had a double life as a student/businesswoman.
Where did I pick it up? A few classes, the influence of my parents who also own a business, books. Experience. I absorbed a lot of information from my peers in local business. I attend as many conferences and workshops as I can. I think that as artists, at some point in our career when we get the first “big break”–a $5000 order, or a huge wholesale deal, or a big writeup in a magazine–we have to snap into Professional Mode and learn pretty quickly. It was then that I made lots of mistakes and did things “the hard way.” Then I did better next time.
Q: What’s your favorite craft related product to work with right now? (From Brittney)
A: Tools are most important. I love my Crop-a-dile, pinking shears, and Gingher rotary cutter and cutting mat. I also go through a lot of Band-Aids. Some of my favorite things that I work with every day that are a little more fun include…
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