A wedding on a calm Thursday during the week. With 15 of the bride and groom’s closest family and friends, along with their two beautiful children. A small quiet garden tucked in the corner of LA’s prettiest nature. Colorful arrangements of blooms DIY-ed by the bride. A ceremony officiated by a friend. Refreshments of lemonade, champagne, and delicious little sandwiches.

I so so loved photographing this wedding. Because it is not about the fanciness and frills – because all kinds of weddings are beautiful, when it is about the love :)

I do my best to blog most of what I shoot, but I sadly find there are busy times when it’s impossible to post everything, especially since my priority is always to deliver the images to my clients on time :) This is one of those such cases – a most beautiful wedding that somehow never saw the blog-light of day. I happened across these images the other day and seriously couldn’t believe I had never shared them! A vintage-inspired wedding set perfectly against the backdrop of the historical Oviatt Penthouse & Cicada Restaurant in downtown, adorned with art deco accents. A fabulously stylish couple. Sweet personal touches like a brisk swing dance in place of a more traditional first dance, and a painting (see the final photo!) created by the bride’s sister that was displayed at the reception and adorned their programs.

The portraits we did on the rooftop of the building are perhaps some of my most favorite portraits to this day. Thank you for taking a peek into this wedding that I’ve been wanting to share from the moment I photographed it :)

(I believe this was also the first wedding I worked with Shana and Kelly Zhang, both amazing girls & wedding professionals I’ve since formed friendships with and had the opportunity to work with lots :) )

You may remember Mara and John from their stylish Palm Springs engagement party. I was so overjoyed when they asked me to photograph their wedding as well! They were married at the Beverly Hills Courthouse {always love shooting there!}, in an intimate ceremony shared just amongst their family and closest friends. After some portraits, the celebration continued at Caufield’s with mingling amongst cocktails and hors d’oeuvres. Their wedding was the perfect example of a day that is low-key and relaxed, while still being beautifully elegant and classy.

To top it all off, their special day was announced in the New York Times! You can read their sweet story (and see a little photo feature! :) in the article here!