Wedding Story

J+J Southern California Wedding Celebration Part 2 (Chinese Dinner): May 08, 2010

UPDATE: More images are available for viewing at http://proofs.lawrenceatienza.com/ Click on weddings and then click on their gallery. Make sure you request the password from Jennifer or Jason. Also note that both weddings will have the same password. Enjoy!

Yes, I was blessed to capture J+J’s Chinese dinner wedding celebration. Thank you for allowing me once again to capture your special day.

It was surely not the typical Chinese wedding dinner I’ve attended that is for sure. The wedding celebration was held at Westin Bonaventure Hotel in Los Angeles. The dinner was held in the Catalina Ballroom, which was a good size to hold 200 plus guests.

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As I was taking some detail shots inside the ballroom of the tables, I came across the food card with the dishes to be served for the night. I began to salivate. oh yeah.. i know the card looks strange, I removed their last name for privacy sake.

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But before the Wedding dinner and formal portraits of the night, I captured some getting ready images. The image below is of the bride waiting for the finishing touches of the makeup by Beauty by Grace as the slideshow I’ve created played in the background.

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Their hotel room had an amazing view so I couldn’t resist capturing an image of the beautiful bride next to the window.

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Before the Wedding dinner celebration, I was fortunate enough to have the bride and groom for a few minutes for some creative wedding portraits. The concept of the portraits come from the wedding decorations used at J+J’s wedding celebration on May 1^st held at the Rec Center Studio location in Echo Park.

If you look back at the blog post http://blog.lawrenceatienza.com/2010/05/jj-southern-california-wedding-celebration-part-1-may-01-2010/ you will notice a Chinese takeout box as the centerpiece and fortune cookies hanging from the ends of the chairs along the aisle. So, I wanted to integrate memories from part 1 of their wedding to part 2 of their wedding. I must say, it worked out perfectly since J+J were wearing Chinese attire for the Chinese dinner celebration.

The first image is to set the scene of the conceptual portrait. The bride is luring the groom to the table with a fortune cookie.

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Once the groom arrived at the table, the bride closed in with a fortune cookie in one hand and her lips inches away from the groom. GAME OVER.. the groom is hooked.

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When the bride leaves for the Chinese dinner celebration, the groom indulges in the fortune cookies.

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The groom looks down and finds a good fortune next to the crumbled fortune cookies.

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The groom and bride then head to the dinner and I’ll let the images tell the story of the dinner.

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I hope you enjoyed the images. I couldn’t have done it without my assistant for the night, Raychelle DeVilla. As this was my first wedding with an assistant, I must say that I will never capture another wedding without one.

Thank you for taking the time to check out my work. You may check out more images from my flash portfolio at http://www.LawrenceAtienza.com.

Make sure you also check out the talented makeup/hairstylist Grace of Beauty by Grace whom is responsible for the bride and bride’s mother hair and makeup.

Jun 03, 2010 | Wedding Story | Leave A Comment »

J+J Southern California Wedding Celebration Part 1: May 01, 2010

It was beautiful Saturday morning on May 01, 2010 in sunny Los Angeles. The day started at the Bride and Grooms home at about 10:30AM for some getting ready and detail shots.

As I entered their front door, I was greeted by smiling faces and a beautiful bride to be. I then moved upstairs to introduce myself to the rest of the 4 bride’s maids and found myself in a room full of amazing people.

After the introductions, I proceeded with setting up in the other room for the details shots of the dress, shoes and ring. Before that, I decided to take some quick shots of the bride’s maids getting their makeup and hair done by the talented Grace of Beauty by Grace.

Since the bride was the last to be worked on, I preceded to complete the detail shots in the next room. I first started with the wedding dress. The white silk wedding dress with red bar with gold accents across the waist hung on the curtain rail. I wanted to capture the fine details of the dress by using a 90mm 2.8 Macro lens. For the majority of the shots, I was able to use the bright southern California sun as fill light for the images.

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After a few variations of the dress were captured, I moved to the ring shots. I wanted the ring shots to have meaning to the couple. So, I looked around the room that might have meaning to them and discovered karate trophies awarded to the groom for his martial arts skills, where the trophy surprisingly worked well with the rings.

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I then needed to look for an object that has importance to the bride and remembered the music note wine stopper from her bridal shower.

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Since, I had a good amount of time left for detail shots, I decided to take another ring shot with some cool candles. The candles had a weave like pattern that to me symbolized the unity of man and wife.

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I liked the patterns on the candles so much, I used them as the background for the “Shoes” Cole Haan shots.

Once the detail shots were in the bag, I moved to the next room to find the bride in the makeup chair and the groom on the bed getting a massage. I’ve never seen this before and thought it would be a great capture to remember what I will surely do when the day come.

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Once the makeup and hair was complete and it was time to put on the dress.

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Now that all of the getting ready and detail shots were captured, we moved to the formals location but not without taking a walking down the street shot of the Groom and Groomsmen.

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We then move towards the Mulholland fountain where the wedding formal bridal party images were captured. With only 30 minutes allocated for the wedding formals, I made sure that I arrived at the location first and setup the lighting.

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With the wedding formals complete, we moved to the Rec Center Studio at Echo Park where the ceremony and reception were held.

It was surely a short but sweet ceremony.

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Shortly after, the party started when the sun went down and the venue lighting took affect.

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You look around the Rec center Studio and find tables with Chinese takeout box centerpiece filled with chocolate dipped fortune cookies. Yumm. I wasn’t able to taste them but I am sure they were delicious.

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You walk down the aisle and find yourself also in fortune cookies heaven.

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An hour or so after dinner was served; dessert followed shortly after with the presence of Coolhaus and served their specialty ice cream.

The night ended with more dancing with the Bride and Groom at the center of the dance area.

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Here is a picture of the three of us. Thanks for a great time capturing your special day. I was happy to capture their Chinese wedding reception dinner. Images will be coming soon on a new blog post.

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Vendors
Hair & Make-up	Grace Ilasco
Florist	Sharlene Choy
DJ	Bryan Davidson
Photographer	Lawrence Atienza
Video	Scott Berger
Dessert	Freya Estreller-Coolhaus
Beverages	Liquid Catering, Dawn
Security	Lock down security services, Boyer Cross
Officiant	Jerry Shen
Photo Booth	Jasmine Cheung
Coordinator	Donaji/Audi of Event Professionals
Venue	Tabitha Erhardt Rec Center

May 22, 2010 | Wedding Story | 2 Comments »

TRADITIONAL WEDDING for an extraordinary engagement

A month ago, I was blessed to capture a special day for a couple with an intense love that lasted a long engagement. The beautiful couple had a traditional catholic wedding. The ceremony was held at Santo Tomas el Apostol (Saint Thomas The Apostle Church) located in Los Angeles California.

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The ceremony was indeed beautiful which lasted about 1 hour. It was surely a typical catholic wedding ceremony as it included a service and then the joining of man and wife. Actually, there was one twist to this ceremony as instead of a “regular” band to play the wedding song , the ceremony music was provided by a mariachi band. Yes, you heard me a mariachi band. If you don’t believe me, check out the image below. Look to the front of the church behind the pastor and below the crucifix.

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The Bride was supported by a Maid of Honor, a Matron of Honor, a Flower girl and four Bridesmaids. The Groom was supported by a Best Man and 5 Groomsman that you can see from the image below.

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Before the wedding, I made sure to talk to the deacon and ask what my restraints were at the wedding ceremony which enabled me to plan out my photography execution. I was fortunate to have free reigns to where I could walk to during the ceremony. I did my best to be a fly on the wall and not interrupt the ceremony, but yet capture some key shots that you will see below.

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After the one hour long ceremony and about 30 minutes outside the church taking the basic family and friends outside the church shots, we proceeded to the formal shoot location. The couple was looking for more traditional form portraits so I had to hold myself back which wasn’t difficult as I matched the formals with the age of the couple. I physically scouted the location one week prior to the wedding day and at the exact time of the formal session so that I can accurately plan out the shoot by knowing the exact lighting conditions. If I may add that it was a very windy location, but I was able to shoot fast enough to capture the images.

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After the formal shoot, we proceeded to the reception location named Ports O’Call Restaurant and Banquet in San Pedro. The reception location was only 3 miles from the formal shoot location. Yes, I did think about the reception location when determining the formal shoot location.

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As a special bonus to the couple, I provided the bride and groom a slide show for their guests displayed on a 60 inch projected screen via my projector and Netbook. The slideshow displayed images from their engagement session and a few images from their past to illustrate their growth through the years. As the slide show played all of the “grown ups” attentively watched the slideshow while the kids played with the giveaways.

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The beautiful wedding day ended with the bride and groom dancing with their friends and family. Thank you for allowing me to capture such a close and intimate wedding day.

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Mar 27, 2010 | Wedding Story | Leave A Comment »

WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHY SAMPLE: BOAT RIDE WEDDING

I believe it was a summer wedding where i was asked to photograph a friends wedding. It was the first wedding i photographed for free. What an experience indeed. As an up incoming southern California wedding photographer, i was very green. All i had was my trusty Nikon D200, 18-200MM 3.5-5.6 VR Lens and a Nikon Sb-600 flash.

The southern California wedding took place on a boat that was launched off marina del rey.

The southern California wedding was a nice and intimate celebration due to it’s size and feeling in the group. The wedding tables were nicely decorated with a cool flower centerpiece with candles hung from it’s branches.

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The chairs were decorated with a small arrangement bringing the colors of the wedding together.

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The floors were covered with white rose pedals easily spreading across the seats around the area where the vows would be expressed.

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The beautiful southern California bride walks down the aisle at a fast rate to her future husband to be.

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The bride and groom are listening to the captain as he prepares to read out their wedding vows.

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The bride and groom hold on to each others hand tightly as they are about to make their vows and spend their life together forever.

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The bride places the ring onto her future husbands hands as she completes her wedding vows forever.

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The bride and groom look onto the captain as he reads the final text of their vows.

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A wedding guest sitting in the front took out his point and shoot digital camera to snap a picture of the couple as they look to the crowd about to proclaim their eternal love to each other.

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Now that the ceremony is over, it is time for the reception. This image is of a father and daughter looking out into the dark ocean with the beautiful wedding cake on the foreground.

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The newlyweds are cutting their wedding cake with their reflections on the window along with the American flag seen from outside.

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After a nice slice of wedding cake, the bride and groom move towards the dance floor to have their first dance.

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I feel with the limited light and room for maneuverability, I was able to capture some good wedding photography.

Lessons learned from this wedding is that one flash isn’t enough for a boat wedding with limited sources of florescent light. A faster telephoto lens is also a must when dealing with low light conditions. Now, that I’ve experienced a boat wedding ceremony, I feel that i will be better equipped for future weddings similar in conditions to this one and will produce even better wedding photography.

So if you are looking for a photographer that is familiar with boat weddings, please reach out to me and let’s create beautiful wedding photography together.

Mar 24, 2010 | Wedding Story | Leave A Comment »

Lawrence Atienza (818) 233-0370 Blog of a conceptual photographer

J+J Southern California Wedding Celebration Part 2 (Chinese Dinner): May 08, 2010

J+J Southern California Wedding Celebration Part 1: May 01, 2010

TRADITIONAL WEDDING for an extraordinary engagement

WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHY SAMPLE: BOAT RIDE WEDDING

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