You may remember Diana & Marvin from their wonderfully windy engagement session, where I was first able to really witness their relationship. This happens after many of my engagement sessions & weddings, but I left feeling especially inspired, inspired by their love for each other and how it outwardly manifests. There is a certain kindness and patience with which they treat each other that I feel we often take for granted in the hustle & bustle of every day life. Their first look on their wedding day was such a perfect example of this – I instantly saw a somewhat nervous Marvin turn joyfully calm and comforted in Diana’s arms. I saw her whispering reassuring words into his ear. I saw their ear-to-ear smiles light up the entire venue. I know I always encourage first looks, but watching them laugh together & share how excited they were for the day really reaffirmed this, and was such a wonderful thing to witness.

The rest of their day at the stunning Vibiana {think 19th century cathedral restored into a dreamy airy event venue} unfolded perfectly, hugely in part to the work of Fresh Events Company, one of the best wedding planning teams I know. I was so happy to have been a part of it and hope you enjoyed this peek into their day!

This past Thursday was Thanksgiving, a day for good food of course (stuffing!! I wait all year for the stuffing!!) but mostly for the simple act of reflecting on our blessings and giving thanks. It also just happened to fall on my mother’s birthday, which brought additional meaning to the day. For you see, each and every year I find that I grow more and more thankful for her – this amazingly positive, endlessly loving, admirably strong-willed, shining light in my life. This person who drove me to countless lessons of every kind growing up {piano, ice skating, orchestra, tennis, the list goes on}, who filled our home with laughter and the sound of her singing voice wafting over from the kitchen, who always took the time to enjoy life and all of the little things.

There is the thankfulness of now – of when I visit her and we share a cup of tea, or go out to lunch, when she asks me about photography, and tells me how proud she is of me for doing something I love. But more and more I find that I’m thankful for then, for things I hardly even realized growing up – that she always pushed me to do my best, but never pushed me to be something I wasn’t; that she was active in our lives, but never overbearing; she was always there to listen, but never pried; that she had this immense trust and expectation in us to do the right thing, even as kids, that helped us learn to trust & respect ourselves as we grew older.

I haven’t really said this before, but I am 110% sure that if it weren’t for my mother and what she taught me, I probably never would have had the inkling that I could pursue my dreams, or have the discipline to work for what I wanted, and do what I now do. That if I got it into my head that I wanted to photograph people’s wonderful weddings, and build a business with no initial idea at all of what I was doing, I should and could go for it, absolutely, and could actually be successful.

So on this Thanksgiving day, I gave thanks for so many great things and wonderful people in my life, but I quietly included just an extra “thank you” to my mom. Thank you for always believing in me and supporting me to the fullest. For all your love and strength. And for just being you. I leave you with some photos I’ve been meaning to share, from a mother-daughter session my dear friend Ala photographed for us earlier this year :) { Thank you to Kelly Zhang for dolling us all up! }

This was one of my last few weddings of 2013 and I can tell you that I was looking forward to it the whole year! For one, their wedding would be at the gorgeous Rancho Las Lomas, a zoological garden tucked in the hills of Orange County. It would be planned and coordinated by Nancy and her team at So Happi Together – seriously some of the sweetest & most organized girls you’ll ever meet, who put together impeccably beautiful and creative events.

And of course – it was in celebration of this amazing couple, who stole my heart at our very first video meeting with their clever one-take save the date, who I had the best time running around San Francisco with, and who are some of the kindest, most genuine people you’ll ever meet. Their wedding day was a pure reflection of them, and I was overjoyed to have been there to document it!