Wedding at the Westin Mission Hills Resort

Recently the Westin Mission Hills Resort hosted a beautiful wedding for Julie and Brent Farber. It was such a very elegant wedding! Photos are posted here. They used the entire Celebrity Ballroom foyer for the ceremony and filled up the ballroom for the reception. I don't think I have ever seen the Westin look so beautiful! Design and decor was by Donna Groves of Ultimate Events. I will be posting photos of the amazing setup soon, but for now we have a little video to share:

Photographer for a Television Reality Show!

This last weekend I was the photographer for a wedding that is to be part of the Reality TV show "Tori and Dean: Home Sweet Hollywood". I'll confess that I had quite a few nervous feelings about the idea. Could this be my 15 minutes of fame?

A friend of mine works on the show Survivor and warned that it's never, ever a good idea to be on a Reality TV show. These shows are usually scripted and they will make you look however they want you to look. Uh oh. I'm not so sure that I want to look like a pushy, obnoxious wedding photographer. Is that the image they would make for me? I was getting pretty concerned and even thought about backing out. The only Reality TV show I've seen is The Office and they make everyone look like an idiot. (Yah, I know.... it's a fictional Reality TV show, but still....) Then some friends told me about Tori & Dean's show. I guess it's not one of those mean shows full of made-up drama and big-time jerks. It's light and cute and actually a kind of fun to watch. Phew! No fear needed.

And then the contract showed up.

It stated that the producers could cut and edit any content containing my image and voice and make it mean anything they want! I really don't want to be the photographer equivalent of Dwight Schrute. Or Michael Scott. I was officially panicked until a friend reminded me that I would be just a prop. That sound you hear is my deflating ego. Of course! If I'm seen on the show at all, I'm just there as part of the typical wedding event. That's it. Just doing my job! Okay, so go ahead and do it.

And the day came. It was actually a bit fun. The extra people running around and the multiple cameras made it interesting. I had to remind myself to pay attention to the grooms and ignore the video crew. But all of the people and equipment were so interesting!

Before the ceremony the grooms were helping each other put on their ties. Two videographers and I were squeezed into a hallway to capture this. I heard one of the many people say "get the photographer". I turned in time to see a video camera swing towards me. I stared at the lens and gave my best deer-in-the-headlight impression with an look that said "huh?". And it was over. Why did I fear that the producers would make me look silly when I could do it myself? But I'm sure that moment will be edited out. If I make the show at all it might be all of 2 seconds. And that's good because it leaves me with 14 minutes and 58 seconds of fame left to go!

The grooms, Scout and Bill were very nice. The video crew were polite and professional. The staff at the Hyatt Grand Champions were all amazing! The resort was operating at full capacity and they still accommodated all the last-minute demands of the video production. They are all pros! I was exhausted but I'm glad for the chance to be part of this wedding.

Update: The episode aired this week. Turns out there were two quick close-up shots of me taking photos (what's with that receding hairline?) and two more quick ones of me with the other photographers. In all, about 2 seconds of fame. Not really worth the worry, but fun anyhow!

The clip below shows a 30 second segment of the show, and I was on there for two very quick flashes! Oh, the fleeting nature of fame....

A beautiful wedding and gracious giving

Once in a while we are fortunate to be part of a special wedding celebration. Recently Dave and I were asked to photograph a several day wedding at a beautiful resort in Mexico. That alone is enough to talk about. But the bride and groom did something really special.

They told all of their guests that they really had no need for gifts. Instead, they wanted to do something to help the people near the area of the resort. So they setup a Foundation to fund a few of the existing local charities. Guests were asked to make a donation to this charity in lieu of a gift. Something truly remarkable in any time, especially now with so many people in need.

One of the days before the wedding I joined the bride, her mother and the bride's 7 year old daughter to take a tour with one of the charities. It is an organization that helps the migrant farm workers who come to the region once a year but have no place to live. These workers simply setup a camp at the edge of the farms living with whatever scraps they can find. Often they burn pesticide bags to cook their meals. There is no sanitation, no water, no education for the children. The parents lack basic understanding of health issues.

This organization works to provide housing and education with basic health care for these people who live on the absolute fringe of society in Mexico.

The gifts from this wedding won't be filling shelves, or put in closets or returned at stores. Instead these wedding gifts will be changing people's lives, people who need it the most.

Our hats off to Jessica & Tim who did something very special for their wedding celebration. Something very special.

We made a short slideshow of the visit so that the guests could see who their donations will help. CLICK HERE to see the video.

If the video doesn't play on your computer, then you can update the QuickTime player on your machine. Download the QuickTime update here.

Don & Scott's Wedding

Don Prentiss and Scott Rogers were married at the Palm Springs home of their good friends Steve and Chris. Mayor Steve Pougnet performed the wedding in their living room, and many of their friends flew in from Florida to attend. It was a small, intimate wedding. In my mind part of what made it intimate was that the guests were all good friends of both grooms. It was obvious to me, as a by-stander, that the guests really cared about Don and Scott and were very happy to see them at their wedding. As usual, I cried when they cried. Guess I'm still a softie.

A small slideshow from the wedding can be viewed by clicking here.

The photographs can be viewed by clicking here.

Barbara and Gary's Wedding

Barbara and Gary had one of the most interesting weddings that I have ever photographed! It was held at the Hyatt Grand Champions Resort in Indian Wells. What was unusual was that the only people attending the wedding were Barbara, Gary and a good friend who was the officiant. (And I was there too, but I was trying my darndest to be invisible!) It was a beautiful day, very nice and relaxed. It was one of those moments where it felt like the two of them were alone, and that was very nice.

The photos can be viewed HERE

Scott and Jon's Wedding

Scott and Jon Hines had a beautiful and simple wedding at the Indian Canyons Golf Resort in Palm Springs. Their 4 children were part of the wedding which made for a very special event. The photographs really show a lot of emotion and affection in the entire family.

Photographs from the Hines wedding can be viewed HERE

Steven and Gabriella's Wedding

Steven Schwarz and Gabriella Lopez Flores had a nice, small wedding at the Renaissance Esmeralda Resort.

You can view photographs from the wedding HERE