Monthly Archives: June 2009


KIM FROM PAPETERIE

When I first spoke with Kim from Papeterie, I found out that she would be making the lovely wedding invitations for one of my couples, Jerry and Anh, who are getting married next summer. I’m always excited to find out which vendors I will be working with at the weddings. Kim also told me that she would be writing articles for an online magazine and she needed some fresh headshots. Of course you all know how I feel about that, I think everyone should update their headshots as often as possible. So we met for the first time in Newport Beach on Friday and found out we had a lot in common! She’s so fun to hangout with and I’m so excited to see what she creates for Jerry and Anh’s wedding. In true Brian Khang fashion, Kim said she only needed 1 photo and of course I gave her more than that. Keep in mind that we literraly shot for 15 minutes, so here are a few of my favorite photos of Kim, in 15 mintues. Oh yeah and if you are getting married and or need some beautiful invitations, be sure to checkout Papeterie!

 

Some simple headshot photos, in some beautiful California sunshine!
 I know the photo on the right is blurry, but I still love it!

BRIAN AND JACKIE : TRADITIONAL VIETNAMESE ENGAGEMENT CEREMONY

This past Sunday, Brian and Jackie became offically engaged! If you’re not familiar with the traditional Vietnamese engagement ceremony, then you’re in for a treat! This ceremony is important in Vietnamese traditions. It’s a time for both families to meet and have the blessings from the brides (Jackie’s) parents, giving the approval for their daughter to marry the groom (Brian). This is also when she officially gets to wear the engagement ring. Out of all of the Vietnamese engagement cermonies I’ve whitnessed, I would have to put this on the top of my list as the most emotional. Yes, Helen and I nearly lost it during the ceremony, we’ll admit that.

 

I must warn you there will be a lot of photos. I really wanted to highlight the complete event for those that have never seen it. Brian and Jackie, we’re so honored to be a part of your engagement ceremony, as well as your wedding next year!

 

Brian and his family waited outside to be brought into the house.




All of the offerings were brought into the house.
And presented.
After the introductions to both sides of the family, they finally brought Jackie out.



A quick prayer.


And presenting of the engagement ring.
When Jackie’s friend Clarie sang “Forever” accapella, everyone at that point lost it, including us. It was so touching!

Brian’s mom giving Jackie some shinny bling.  It’s part of the tradition that both parents offer a gift of jewlery.  I hope that’s right.  
Jackie’s very proud parents.
It was a great day and who wouldn’t love Jackie’s smile!

We did some quick portraits of course.







It was also Father’s day that day, which made the event even more special!


Jackie don’t hate me for posting these, but your smile and laughter is so great!

THANK GOODNESS FOR FACEBOOK AND TWITTER!

Lately, I’ve noticed, it’s becoming harder and harder to blog. Well of course I’ll always blog my most recent photos, but when it comes to personal updates, that’s what I’ve been missing! So thank goodness for Twitter and Facebook! Not only am I able to share with all of you what I’m up to, but I’m also able to see what you are all up to as well! Maybe you can blame Twitter and Facebook for stealing all my time to update my blog with my personal stuff or you can blame Twitter and Facebook for making it easier to see what I’m up to. Either way you see it, I know it’s a good thing! So, if you haven’t added me as a friend on your Facebook or followed me on Twitter, now’s your chance to get a new friend that is caring, would never leave you in the rain and most likely would be staying up late with you, eating a midnight snack! Yes, I’m talking about me. So CLICK HERE to add me to your Facebook and CLICK HERE to follow me on Twitter.

 

And because I know you came to see some new photos on my blog, here is one of me looking like a tourist at Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco. Yes, I later realized that he’s missing his sword. I’m a dork.

WHEN PAINTING GOES WRONG

It’s been sometime since I’ve been able to post a random post, like I normally did before. I’ve been so busy with our move to our new place and home studio. So let’s get down to business! I’ve been sore no lie. How do the people on HGTV, which is my favorite channel, decorate an entire room in 1 day? I know they have a mini sized army, but still, it’s a lot of work. We’ve nearly completed our studio space, which I’m so excited to share with you all shortly. I did learn something from this whole experience. Paint a test sized color sample on the wall. My mistake, I painted all the walls, hated the color and had to repaint them. That definitely took me out of commission for sometime. So remember, the next time you paint and you think you love the color, remember my mistake.

 

Here are the poor color choices we made. Yes they may look great, but combined, they looked like a kindergarden classroom.

OUR TRAVELS : SAN FRANCISCO : FISHERMAN’S WHARF : JAPANESE TEA GARDEN

Yes, so I’ll admit it, I’m long overdue for a new blog post. But in the past 2 weeks, I’ve been playing tour guide for our family from out of town, moved to a new place!, had my car broken into and took a trip for the first time ever to San Francisco. So I would call that a pretty productive 2 weeks! But it’s great to have things starting to get back to normal now. I’ll make sure that I’m a good blogger and blog more often from this point on. Anyhow, getting back to our trip to San Francisco. We choose the road least travelled and drove. I must say, it was a loooong drive! Scenic for the most part, but loooong! I think it’s one of those things you need to experience once and move on or fly from now on in my case. It took us a total driving time of 7 hours with moderate traffic for those wondering. For the most part, San Francisco didn’t feel to off from what I expected it to be. The roads there are definitely much cooler and a bit scary at times, driving a manual car and worrying about drifting into the car behind you. There seemed to be so much more that I haven’t seen there yet, so I’ll definitely plan another trip there soon. Here are some random photos of San Fran showing you exactly where I was.

 


 I rarely use actions, but I felt this photo was perfect for it. TRA Grandma’s Tap Shoes at 50% and Vignette + Blur Fast at 20%

 we all know what the photo on the right is of, so I thought it would be a great idea to photograph it out of focus
 we visited the old I guess you can call it arcade room at the wharf. there were some creepy old games there.




 we found the world famous bushman waiting to scare another tourist.
 crepes are my new best friend!

 yes you’re witnessing a spiky moon! yes this was taken at night and yes that is really the moon!





FEATURED ON UTTERLY ENGAGED

When I woke up this morning to my usual dings from my iPhone email alerts, I was so shocked and excited to see that Annie and Brian’s wedding was just featured on Utterly Engaged! I was also excited that Utterly Engaged was launched just today. If you haven’t heard about them, they are an E-Zine for DIY brides, that’s looking for some styling ideas, without breaking the bank. Be sure to book mark them or add them to your RSS! Below are just 2 samples from the feature, but you can CLICK HERE to read the rest.

 

utterly engaged annie brian
utterly engaged annie brian

ANDREW & RACHEE : A BICYCLE ENGAGEMENT SESSION IN LONG BEACH

Last week, I photographed Rachee and Andrew’s engagement session down in Long Beach. I must say, it was a nice surprise when they both showed up with bicycles! It was perfect though in every way. I am looking forward to their wedding coming up in July of this year. Here are some fun photos from their session.

 

it’s been a long time since I rocked some flare, so I thought I might as well bring it back.
it’s not as easy as it looks to ride a bike, not run into anything and still look this good!










a little more fun on the bicycles.
we stopped by a mini dock and a mini beach for some more photos.

checkout Rachee’s fun shoes! 

these two photos are my favorites!