Just wanted to share the cute custom folded cards I made for the Adi family from their portrait session. Love the picture they used for the cards!
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If you haven’t heard of the totally fab e-zine Utterly Engaged, then you should definitely check it out! It is filled with tons of great tips, ideas, & inspiration for brides-to-be. I’m a little late in blogging this, but last month I had the wonderful honor of working with Eva Chiou (event planner & Utterly Engaged editor) and Summer Watkins (blogger & event stylist of Grey Likes Weddings) in photographing a shoot for the December issue of Utterly Engaged.
For the shoot, Summer took us antique shopping at Country Roads Antiques in Old Towne Orange. Eva gave Summer a budget of $100 and tasked her with finding vintage items to create a table scape & event concept. I’ve never been antique shopping before but it was so much fun! And Summer has an amazing talent for finding hidden gems & bringing together elements I never would have thought to put together!
Summer found the cutest little bingo set and it became the inspiration for our bingo & root beer float themed party. Here are some photos from our day of shopping with Summer, along with photos of the fun table scape she designed. Also, don’t forget to check out the full article in Utterly Engaged because Summer shares her shopping secrets!
I totally need to go back & buy some antique cameras!
Happy New Year everyone! I thought I’d kick off the new year with a very sweet After Session with the lovely Sarah & her handsome groom Arnold. The two tied the knot the day before (the amazing Jules Bianchi photographed their wedding), so this was literally a Day After Session! I think it’s so fun when brides/couples choose to do an After Session. I mean, seriously, what bride wouldn’t want to rock that amazing dress of theirs one more time? Plus, for Sarah & Arnold, they were able to head back to their old stomping grounds to do their session. When Sarah first emailed me about doing an After Session, she was considering shooting in a field somewhere. After some thought, Sarah eventually decided she wanted to shoot at UCLA instead, the place where they met & where their love blossomed. 🙂
As we drove together to UCLA, I could tell they were so excited to head back to their alma mater. I’m glad they chose to shoot at a location that was meaningful to them because I think it will make these photos that much more special to them!
Congrats Sarah + Arnold!
P.S. A big thanks to Erich Chen for coming along & shooting with me. You can check out some of the photos he got of them on his blog.
I LOVEE the holidays! It’s such a fun time of the year…..holiday parties, potlucks, glittering Christmas lights & decorations, yummy food, spiked eggnog! And what I love even more is that I get to spend time with loved ones & see friends I sometimes only get to see once a year. Here are a few pictures from this year’s holiday festivities!
On Christmas day Jeremy, my brother, and I rode our bikes 20 miles from my house out to Seal Beach and back. It wouldn’t be a SoCal Christmas if you couldn’t spend it at the beach!
Then we had both our families over for a yummy Christmas dinner. Here’s our family pic!
On Sunday my roommates from college came over for our annual Christmas gift exchange. This is our 7th straight year of getting together & exchanging gifts! Last year we handmade our gifts. It wasn’t the easiest thing for most of us, but everyone did such an amazing job last year creating their gifts that we decided this year’s gifts should include something handmade again. Here’s the handmade portion of my gift…little greeting cards that I designed & printed myself.
We had a potluck & everyone brought over some majorly delectable dishes. L to R: blanched green beans and watercress salad, white bean salad, kimchi fried rice, prosciutto wrapped Asian pears, braised fatty pork
Mama Leone’s chicken soup, an amazing pizza, pancetta/italian sausage/sirloin beef pasta, & cookies!
My mini black Christmas tree with pink ornaments! Perhaps next year we’ll get a real one.
And onto the gift exchange!
Of course I wrapped my gifts to Viv in High School Musical gift wrap! =P (Thanks to Juli for these next few pics.)
We repeated last year’s reindeer picture, then decided to do something different for this year.
I totally failed at doing a mustache and somehow ended up with a beard as well. LOL
Here’s a recent family session I shot with the adorable Adi family. Isn’t Maddie the cutest?!
Maddie discovering leaves for the first time….so cute!
Angela & Charles’ wedding day was wonderful! I loved Angela’s gown, the bridesmaid dresses, the colors, the flowers….it all came together beautifully. Before their reception at the Bonaventure, we walked over to the LA Central Library to take pictures. I loved that we had so much time with the bride & groom and the bridal party. One of my favorite parts of a wedding day is being able to photograph the bride & groom together. I love capturing the way they interact and I love seeing how much they love each other!
A big thanks to Erich Chen for shooting with me that day!
Ceremony: CEFC
Reception: Westin Bonaventure
Dress: Jim Hjelm
Hair & Make-up: Susie Chhuor
Photobooth: Photocube
Reception: Westin Bonaventure
Dress: Jim Hjelm
Hair & Make-up: Susie Chhuor
Photobooth: Photocube
Long veils are so pretty!
Charles had such a big grin when he saw Angela for the first time during the first look.
Love this close-up Erich got of them!
All the guests had a blast with the photobooth! Everyone kept going back to take more pictures…including me & Erich. =P I gotta hand it to the guys of Photocube for designing such a great booth! I’ve seen a lot of different photobooths and they’re always a lot of fun, but this one in particular really impressed me. Not only is the booth stylish, but it’s super roomy & can fit a ton of people in it. And did I mention how fast the pictures print? Like literally the second you step out of the booth the print is already sitting there ready to be picked up.
Happy Saturday, everyone! I’m enjoying a nice, cozy day indoors….away from the pouring rain….and firmly planted next to my heater. =) And on this snuggle-up-on-the-couch-with-a-cup-of-hot-cocoa-and-a-Snuggie type of day, I thought I’d share with you some photos from Naomi & Henry’s wedding. A big thanks to Jean & Austin for shooting with me….you guys are awesome!
I’m a little behind on the blogging, and I’ve got tons more great shoots to share with you, so keep checking back!
Ceremony: EFC Hacienda Heights
Reception: Pacific Palms Resort
Florist: Flower Genie
Videographer: American Event Productions
Naomi’s beautiful dress.
Their first look….Naomi looks so happy!
The whole gang.
I love the expression Jean caught of the flower girl while she was getting her hair done! Awwww….
The adorable little ring bearer was carried down the aisle by his mom.
I LOVE watching the groom’s face as his bride walks down the aisle!
Naomi & Henry’s friends surprised all the guests by interrupting the first dance & breaking out into “Beat It”. It was pretty rad!
A couple of cool ring shots by Jean & Austin.
Naomi has a beautiful voice, and during the reception she surprised Henry with a song. So sweet!
Here are some of my upcoming travel dates. If you’re interested in scheduling a shoot or would just like to meet up, email me at serena [at] serenagrace.com. =)
For the second part of our trip we headed up to the Gold Coast, near Brisbane. They have some amazing surf there….not that I surf. And even if I did, I wouldn’t get in the water after a surfer showed us this picture! What the heck?! A 10-foot great white shark was practically bitten in half by a BIGGER great white. We were content to just people watch from the beach.
We rented a car which was quite an adventure in itself! Driving the complete opposite of what you’re accustomed to takes some getting used to, but eventually Jeremy got the hang of it and could signal for a turn without turning on the windshield wipers. =P
It happened to be my birthday while we were in Australia and Jeremy found this cool restaurant called Moo Moo. It was some of the best food we had while in Australia. Jeremy’s enjoying some wagyu beef and brussel sprouts…
….and I tried kangaroo for the first time! It was a lot like beef & lamb….and it was good!
We went to the rainforest Skywalk on Mount Tamborine. It’s an elevated walkway that takes you through the upper & middle canopies of the rainforest, and then later descends to the lower canopy.
Jeremy is a bit scared of heights so he was always holding on to both sides of the walkway.
Check out the size of that ant! It’s even carrying a spider in it’s mouth.
We visited a glow worm cave. I couldn’t take pictures inside, but it was a lot like looking up into a starry sky…..or a ceiling full of LED’s….except the light was coming from little itty bitty worms’ butts!
Jeremy made breakfast for us one morning….
….and we enjoyed the view from our balcony.
We went on a jet ski tour around Surfer’s Paradise. The coolest part was when we spotted a pod of dolphins swimming by.
These lorikeets landed on our balcony one morning…literally 3 feet away from me! They made so much noise and seemed really bold that I was afraid they might attack me.
Wild brush turkey
Sun-bathing
If you’re interested in seeing the full album from our trip, you can view it here.
Two weeks ago Jeremy and I snuck off to Australia just to get away for a little bit. I’d never been to Australia before so I was really excited to visit & explore the land down under! We spent half our time in Sydney and half on the Gold Coast (near Brisbane). Here are some pictures from the first part of our trip in Sydney.
Sorry if it takes a while for all the pictures to load!
Enjoyed the pink lighting on our Virgin Australia flight! The flight was 13 hours but I LOVE long flights…mostly because I get to watch a ton of new movies!
We arrived early Sunday morning so we decided to try and visit Hillsong church. We had forgotten to write down an address or directions to the church, but we had a general idea of where it was, so we wandered semi-aimlessly through the streets of Sydney. At one point we were about to give up….but then we saw a Hillsong shuttle bus drive by so we knew we were still on the right track! As you can see, we did eventually find it. =)
We were lucky enough to be in town for Sydney Opera House’s Open Day (basically an open house). We got to go inside and see the opera theater, concert hall, green room, rehearsal rooms, backstage areas….all for FREE!
They had lots of performers walking around that day.
There was a guy up top playing the organ.
The green room and some costumes from their shows.
I thought this photo from Trent Parke’s exhibition of life backstage at the Sydney Opera House was hilarious! Some people had used the copy machine to photocopy themselves. The first post-it reads, “Is this correct use of government property?” The second reads, “Absolutely not! And we have your fingerprints.”
Went to the Sydney Wildlife World and saw cute koalas, boxing kangaroos, and other cool insects & animals.
A humongous stick bug!
Looks like the dugong is smiling!
Check out the size of that stingray!
Queen Victoria Building shopping complex
Visited Cockatoo Island, the site of a former prison as well as shipyard. Since Jeremy worked at a naval shipyard before, I think he was pretty excited to see the giant cranes & dry docks they used for building ships.
Rented some bikes and rode around Manly Beach…
…then enjoyed dinner on the wharf with this lovely view.
Why does the design on the seats in this train look like an ocean swarming with sharks?!
