You may remember Kelley & Edmund from their colorful Up-themed engagement session! Now imagine this theme being sweetly carried over to their wedding. Add some pinwheels. A couple hundred of them perhaps. (Handmade one-by-one by Kelley and her mom! Check out the altar! They made them ALL! MIND=BLOWN!) Then add some pretty patterned dresses. A casual & artsy venue (I’ve been wanting to shoot at the Smog Shoppe for eons). A stack of books here, a cluster of milk glass vases there, and an ice cream cart, filled to the brim with salted caramel & strawberry buttermilk, to round out the evening.

With a setup like this, and dozens of excited family and friends in attendance, this wedding was just as magical as the movie it was themed after :) It was such an honor to share in their joyous day!

A wonderful thank you to Wedding Chicks for featuring Kelley & Edmund’s wedding on their blog! Be sure to check out the post with additional eye candy here…

Cinematography: 618studios
Floral Design: Flower Allie
Event Design: White Lilac Inc.
Makeup + Hair: Kelly Zhang
Cake: Vanilla Bake Shop
Bridesmaids’ dresses: J. Crew
Invitiations: Ello There

You might have been able to tell through this blog, but I photograph quite a few mixed race couples. I don’t market towards it or anything, it just happened to be this way, maybe because I come from a biracial background and they can sense my hapa vibes through the interwebs? :) I love it though, and I feel like in certain ways my upbringing has made me extra sensitive to these things – to merging cultural traditions, to celebrating this diversity in your household, to the feeling that when two backgrounds come together, the result is not half of each, but double.

And so, one of my favorite aspects of Sara & Tri‘s wedding was the way they wove their cultural traditions elegantly into the day. A cozy Vietnamese tea ceremony, a sunset Jewish ceremony under the chuppah, signing of the ketubah, multiple-course banquet meal, and tons of dancing (which is basically wonderful tradition in every culture :) It made me overjoyed to see how their families from both sides completely embraced and enthusiastically participated in every cultural aspect of the day, whether it was their own or otherwise.

And to tie this all together, Sara & Tri chose a beautiful venue and filled it up with the loveliest details. How yummy are those bouquets? Kim of Art with Nature somehow gathered all the prettiest, petaliest flowers in the world (peonies! ranunculus! dahlias! garden roses!) and put them together beautifully…

Cake from Susina Bakery!

There are the big grand moments in a wedding – the bride walking down the aisle, the first kiss, the first dance – but I’ve found that so many of the smaller moments in between can touch your heart as well. A quiet moment between the couple in the middle of a busy dance floor, that second right after the ceremony when they are alone & embracing & brimming with joy – in this wedding there was another unique moment that I loved. Kat’s mother wasn’t physically in attendance at the wedding, but was able to observe it & be a part of it via Skype on an iPad (OH TECHMOLOGY), and I love the moment towards the end of this post, where Kat is conversing with her during the reception. It made me so happy to see that her mom could be a part of this day with them from way across the ocean…

On another note, you may need to take a swoon break mid-post as Kat’s dress is seriously to die for. I immediately fell in love with the flowy design & ethereal layers. Couple this with a room full of light (my favorite!) and I felt compelled to snap a billion photos just during the getting-ready portion of the day :)