Wedding Entrance Hit on YouTube

We've seen people dancing into their Grand Entrance at their wedding reception, but at the processional for the ceremony? That is what newly weds Kevin Heinz and Jill Peterson did at their wedding ceremony a few months ago, and the video shared on YouTube has caught some attention worldwide.


I think what this couple did was very creative, and fun. It looked like everyone in their wedding party had fun doing it, and their guests were quite engaged to this unusual entrance as well.


Hey, it's your wedding. Whatever ways you can make it fun and uniquely yours is only limited to your imagination! Hope you'll enjoy this video as much as I do.

Will you ever consider doing this?

I saw this clip on The Today Show, and thought I should share the video with brides around the world. While the idea of "trash the dress" gives photographers and brides the opportunities to express their creativity and unconventional sides, this is certainly not for everybody.


I myself would choose to eBay my wedding gown if I don't think I'd ever wear it again - at least someone else can get an inexpensive gown and the dress gets "recycled." For now though, I am still holding on to my preserved gown, hoping that I would be able to give it away either as an heirloom some day, or a gift to a friend or relative.

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08.30.09 Cindy & Thomas's Wedding Recap

Cindy has been my best friend since junior high, so when she called me in May to announce the good news that she got engaged, I asked her what I can do to help. It turned out that she already got her ceremony location in mind - the redwood grove in the Berkeley Botanical Garden. Having an available location picked made planning a wedding 3 month from the engagement quite feasible. Also, Cindy had pretty distinct ideas of what she wanted for her wedding, so coordinating for her wedding was a breeze! My only challenge was that I'm in Southern Cal and the wedding is in Northern Cal, and I am not familiar with the area, so unfortunately in selecting vendors, I could not contribute much. All I did was give Cindy some ideas.

Group photo at the redwood grove (picture by Jesse)

Cindy & Tom wanted a small and intimate wedding with about 45-50 people. They wanted a short, non-religious ceremony follow by a casual reception where everyone gets to party and enjoy the food. Being environmentally conscious, she sent her wedding invite with eVite, and almost all of her guests RSVP through that. She took my suggestion and had Greg, my husband, married her & Tom.

A few other things made her wedding really unique: she has no wedding party, she has a customized wedding dress that she designed, a band consisted of guitarist & violinist to play bluegrass music for the ceremony as well as the beginning of her reception, and she had none of the typical wedding activities like bouquet or garter toss, slide show, or party favors. Toasting was basically free-style.

As much as things are very casual with Cindy & Tom' wedding, there were still things to coordinate to ensure her wedding day went as smoothly and carefree as she wanted. It did, and I had fun being involved with her wedding by being the coordinator!

Congratulations again to Cindy & Tom. What a memorable wedding!

Credits: Photography by Dann Chen.

The "stage" of the outdoor mini amphitheater

Guests of the wedding waiting for the bride to march down

Here comes the bride with her beautiful bouquet!

Exchange of rings

The kiss

The violinist playing at the reception

Street view of the reception site - Adagia Restaurant (picture by Peggy)

 

The reception room & the centerpiece (pictures by Peggy)

The reception

The salmon & the steak were both delicious! (pictures by Peggy)

The flower and the cake

Cutting the cake

Latest Wedding Trends - Part II

When we got married in 2004, film was on the verge of being converted to digital almost completely. At the time, 35mm was still considered better quality than digital photography because of the limitation on the mega-pixels. The same goes with edited video footage of your wedding day.


I remembered my husband didn't even want video initially, but after a visit with a videographer, we totally changed our mind, and we are glad that we did the video, because things in motion are definitely different than things in stills. While great photography tells good stories based on the moment the pictures were captured, a movie transcends the mood and the tone of your big day with much more power.


With video, our 8-hour day was condensed to an one-hour movie which can help us reminisce our wedding day any time. At the time, many wedding day videos we've seen are mostly raw footage of the whole day, documentary style, so imagine our appreciation of a nicely edited wedding video that can be played like a movie.


Well, the past few weddings I've been to this year, I noticed a new trend has emerged, due to the awesome development of technology, and it's taking that wedding day video to a step above - it's call "same-day-edit," which is a highlight reel of your entire wedding day in as little as 3-5 minutes, mostly shared as a presentation toward the middle of the bride & groom's reception. 


If your wedding day video is like a movie, then the same-day-edit is like the preview for the movie - it contains all the heart-wrenching scenes that makes you want to watch the movie!


Same-day-editing videos also makes sharing your big day online with friends & family that much easier.


Here are some samples of a same-day-edit, this one below is the work of Ray & Joyce from Still Motion:



yen+tom // the trailer from stillmotion on Vimeo.



Here's one from Ray & Joyce's wedding day, produced by Still Motion in collaboration with MindCastle:



joyce + raymond // stillmotion special edition sde // LA from stillmotion on Vimeo.

Want to hire a good videographer to do a same-day-edit for your wedding? Be sure to contact us for referrals!

Latest Wedding Trends - Part I

Bygone are the days of chocolate fountains, ice sculptures, and dove releases. If you really want to impress your wedding guests these days, I highly suggest renting a photo booth for your reception. Take my word for it. It’s a small price to pay for the hours of joy and entertainment you will derive from it.

Peggy and I just finished a wedding last weekend. It was a beautiful intimate wedding with 110 guests, most of which were Chinese family members from both the bride and groom sides. For those of you who’ve never been to a Chinese wedding, it’s sometimes difficult getting the older Chinese generation to let loose on the dance floor. Don’t get me wrong. There are exceptions to the rule. When the mood strikes, my mom will not hesitate to give you a taste of her line dancing skills. Nonetheless, more often than not you’ll find Aunt Rosemary or Grandma Lee sitting at their respective tables guarding the centerpieces, being entertained only by watching the younger generation crowd the bars and spill their drinks as they stumble their way to the dance floor. Well, I was happy to see that this was certainly not the case at a wedding reception well equipped with a photo booth.

Before I continue, for those unfamiliar with a photo booth. It’s a portable booth approximately 6’tall x 5’wide x 3’deep (see pic). You and your friends step inside the booth and with a press of a button the built-in camera takes 4 shots which are then printed almost instantaneously in photographic quality.

This particular photo booth printed all 4 poses on a 4”x6” semi glossy waterproof photo paper with a customized footer selected by the bride and groom (see pic). Two copies of the photo are printed, one for the guest to keep (FREE of charge) and one for the married couple to put in their photo album. Yes, TWO copies, so pose with discretion ;) This photo booth vendor even provided scrapbooking tools for guests to get creative with. This was very popular with the kiddies.

Back to my story, the photo booth welcomed its first guests at the start of the cocktail hour. This worked out really well because guests, especially the non-drinkers, find themselves at a lost during this portion of the wedding day. They’ve already signed the guest book, found their seats for the reception, and pocketed their favors. What else is there left to do? Well at this party, even before the drinks were flowing there was a line forming at the photo booth. Rarely do you see that happen on the dance floor.

Needless to say, no one noticed that an hour had passed before the wedding party made their entrance. In fact, I personally had to put a halt to the photo booth line so that people had sufficient time to take their seats before the official start of the reception. I sensed a sigh of relief from the guests when the emcee announced that the couple rented the booth for the entire reception so people were welcomed to use it at any time. Sure enough, they did not need to be told twice, as groups of friends and family flocked to the photo booth throughout the entire evening. It helped fill in any gaps that you may otherwise experience at a wedding. By the end of the evening the 200 picture album was almost completely filled up! The couple definitely got their money’s worth.

I think the photo booth appeals to guests because it’s easy to use, photos are shot in private so people are more comfortable with their poses, and best of all you get to take with a free photo keepsake of yourself having a good time with your friends and family. By the same token, the photo booth is a great way for the bride and groom to entertain guests who are dance floor shy and as an added bonus, they will take with them many photos of their guests having a blast on their big day!

Interested in renting one of these guaranteed crowd pleasers? Just ask Peggy or I and we will get you a great deal!

The Wedding Toast

Two weekends ago, I was the unofficial wedding coordinator and the non-existent matron of honor to my best friend Cindy (more on Cindy's wedding later).


Regardless of the title, I gave a toast, as I was not about to give up my only chance to congratulate my best friend in public. My speech was well received, there were quite a bit of laughs throughout my toast, and at the end of it, I think I saw Cindy's eyes glistening with tears.


I have been to many weddings myself where sometimes the toasts were so long that they were unbearable.  Part of the reason is because most people dread public speaking. In fact, in one of the surveys, making a public speech is the #1 fear for most people! I cannot believe that making a public speech is actually feared more than death!


So I thought I share what I think are the elements of a good speech for a toast. I am talking mostly about content. As for introduction, body language and delivery of the speech, please refer to: http://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Wedding-Toast


Here are some Do's & Don'ts:


Do's:

1. Prepare for what you want to say ahead of time. Rehearse it, and time yourself.
2. Tell people who you are, how you're related to the bride or the groom. It's important for people to know your relationship with the bride or groom, because it makes your speech that much more relevant.
3. You can share with people your first impression of the bride or the groom, including anecdotes, if any.
4. Add some humor to your speech, if appropriate.
5. Use short stories or imagery to demonstrate your points.
6. It's OK to make fun of yourself.
7. Be sincere and genuine.
8. End your speech with well wishes for the couple.

Don'ts:

1. Don't read from your writing. It's OK to use little cue cards with highlights or bullet points.
2. Don't have a long speech. People have short attention span. It's generally good to keep the speech under 3 minutes.
3. Don't embarrass the bride or the groom. Although it's OK to poke a little fun at them, if you know that this won't upset them in public.
4. Try not to get overly emotional and cry while delivering your speech, because it makes your speech hard to understand.

Next time when you ask people to raise the glass, hopefully it leaves a warm, fuzzy feeling to the people whom you're toasting.

07.11.09 Hye & Gerardo's Wedding recap

Hye & Gerardo got married on July 11th at the Catholic church where Gerardo grew up, and had their reception at a country club with 80 of their guests.

When I was planning this wedding for Hye & Gerardo, their main objectives were: 1.) finding a reception location close to the church, 2.) a fun reception where everyone can dance and enjoy themselves, 3.) must be on a Saturday evening and the date cannot change, since they've already changed the date several times and finally decided on the lucky numbers 7 & 11. Besides, they've already announced the date to everyone before  finding the reception location, and booked the priest at the church as he had a super busy schedule.

And how did their big day go? Wonderful. The bride & groom had their super star treatment as they were chauffeured around in a limo. They also enjoyed their cocktail drinks and danced the night away with their guests. Here are some pictures to give you some ideas of their wedding:

The Church

Mother of the Bride in traditional Korean dress, escorted by brother of the Bride.

Lighting the unity candle and got married by a priest.

Reception Ballroom overlooking the golf course in the canyon

The sweetheart table

Dinner table set-up

Party favor - heart shaped key/ bottle opener

The Cake

Guest sign-in and gift receiving table

The bride & the groom

Bridal bouquet - deep red/ black rose

Bride's brother with his son, having a good time on the dance floor.

The Lounge area

The happy bride & I, at the end of the night.

Congratulations, Hye & Gerardo! Thank you for choosing me to help you with your big day!

Centerpiece Makeover

Although I help brides plan or coordinate their weddings, I don't usually help them "create" centerpieces. I'd set the centerpieces up for them, if any assemble is required, and I may offer ideas, but I usually leave this part to the brides for them to be creative.

Floral centerpieces are common, and on average costs $50 each, so if you have 10 tables, that means $500 just for the centerpieces. This is when I'd offer some ideas for brides to create their own to save money.

Candles are popular and a romantic yet affordable option. Hye asked me about this, so I suggested buying some pillar candles in trio and put them on a mirror. Simple enough. Well, maybe a little too simple.

This is what the centerpiece looked like when I put them together for Hye, after unpacking the boxes:

I picked up from Hye the candles and the mirrors the week of the wedding. It's too late to re-order anything through mail, and I can't leave the centerpieces looking like this for Hye's wedding. So I asked Mary, my partner, to help me in coming up with ideas to dress it up.

We did some shopping the day before the wedding, and re-created the centerpieces with the original materials but added just a little more to make them nicer:

This was the sweetheart table for Hye & Gerardo. The wooden creatures are Korean doves. This was the only table with a pair of doves. The rest of them just have the three pillar candles on a tray on top of a mirror with some gold color pebbles.

Very inexpensive makeover - only $3 more per centerpiece!

Location, Location, Location

One of the most important things about planning a wedding is the location. Once you've found an ideal location, half of the planning is done.

But how does one choose a location? It all depends on what your preferences are. For example, are you envisioning an outdoor or indoor wedding? Or maybe the ceremony outdoors but the reception indoors? Do you want a place with a view? If so, is it city lights/ skyline view, mountain view, or ocean view? Will it be a day time or night time wedding? Which day of the week? Of course, the space you choose needs to match the number of guests you have. Just like buying a house, you should also consider locations within your budget so you don't break the bank.

Once you've narrowed down what you want, then the search for that ideal location is easier. It's much harder to do the search when the bride doesn't know what she wants.

So for Hye's wedding, the location search was pretty easy, because she was getting married at her now husband Gerardo's church.

Ceremony location, done.

The reception location obviously should be close to where the ceremony was going to be held, so it's easier for the guests to travel from one location to another.

Here are the three locations for reception that I took Hye to see:

Facility # 1 - about 5 miles from the church

• Pros: most affordable reception with an inclusive package except for service charges; mountain view
• Cons: Only the club house was available. The layout of the room was a little odd. The room was also undergoing some remodeling, and it's hard to picture the space before the remodeling is done.

Facility # 2 - about 7 miles from the church

• Pros: room has large bay windows that goes from floor to ceiling with an amazing view. Package is almost all inclusive, except for alcohol. Complimentary one-night hotel stay.
• Cons: located in the residential area, valet parking is required. Many events at the facility that day, can't set up before 5pm.

Facility # 3 - about 8 miles from the church

• Pros: Beautiful historic grounds. Very grand. Lots of potential for creativity.
• Cons: Too expensive. Cost of site rental alone without food is $5,000! The location is so big that it's confusing where to park and where the event is taking place.

So which location did the bride & the groom pick?

The answer is...

Facility # 2. More pictures of the reception site to follow.

06.06.09 The RayJoyce Wedding Recap

I love doing wedding day coordination. It's sometimes more satisfying than planning a wedding from beginning to end, because I get to see the fruit of labor of other people's original ideas and be the one to execute things on the day of to complete the bride & groom's vision for their big day.

Mary & I were RayJoyce's wedding day coordinators this June. Joyce used to work at the same place with Greg, my husband, and he suggested for her to contact me after he found out that she got engaged last year. She decided to hire me for the day-of-coordination.

I have to say, being an engineer & a photographer definitely gives Joyce the unique talents to be both methodical and creative at the same time. Working with her was so easy, and her wedding day?

Everything was elegant, tasteful, and organized! Mary & I had so much fun doing our jobs as coordinators that day - I love it!

The RayJoyce Wedding was a medium-size wedding with about 145 guests. The ceremony was in the afternoon and took place in a Japanese garden at the Langham Hotel. It was officiated by their friend who got ordained for one-time. The cocktail hour was held at the same hotel in the courtyard, followed by a grand evening reception in a beautiful ballroom. I always like it when the ceremony & the reception are in near vicinity. It makes things that much easier for your guests, and everything just seems to flow more seamlessly.

Joyce's reception had a coffee theme: all the tables are named after a coffee bean or drink. The place cards were nestled on a tray full of coffee beans (and the cards smell so nice after sitting in there for a while!), and she had the coffee color throughout, highlighted by the pink of orchids.

Here are some of the pictures I took (not very professional, but it gives you an idea). You can also visit her wedding blog to see the awesome pictures taken by photographer Serena Choi.

Thanks, Joyce & Ray, for choosing us to be part of your big day! And congratulations on your new journey together as a married couple as well as a team of professional photographers / cinematographers!