There were many firsts for me at Emi & Alex’s wedding at the Snow Building in Oakland. Since the building is technically inside the grounds of Oakland Zoo property, I went to scout inside the zoo earlier in the day. Although we never actually got to photograph inside the zoo during the wedding, I did get to see flamingos, rhinos, and giraffes in the East Bay for the first time – really exciting for me 
. First time it’s started raining on us in the middle of an outdoor ceremony, which smoothly got relocated indoors for part 2. It’s also the first time I’ve photographed a wedding that represented these 4 particular ethnicities coming together – Argentinian, Armenian (Alex), Black and Mexican (Emi). This definitely translated into fantastic families coming together for a very fun wedding! First time I’ve seen churros be part of the dessert bar at a wedding, too… If you don’t know what churros are, I highly recommend going to the streets of Madrid in the wee hours of the morning after being out all night to find out! And it’s the first time I’ve seen a groom surprise his new wife by not only having a mariachi band (her favorite) show up and play near the end of the night, but also picking up the microphone and belting out a song just for her as his first time ever singing in front of a crowd! Cheers to the both of you!
The progression of sky colors over the San Francisco skyline as the sun set on this half-rainy day was just stunning!
Alex after his fabulous mariachi debut 
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I don’t even know where to begin describing this fabulous wedding at the relatively new Yoshi’s San Francisco. I knew this was going to be a great night from the minute I met Khiem & Xuan Dai. They are both highly accomplished in their high-tech careers and fabulous artists as well. Their goal for their wedding was not only to celebrate themselves and their love, but to really have a chance to give of themselves to all of their friends and family and treat them to a wonderful evening by sharing their interests and their cross-cultural Vietnamese & Western backgrounds. From the small details to the large events of that day, everything was planned with this in mind. Since Khiem is a wonderful photographer himself (no pressure on me or anything! ), his photographs graced all of the tables in the restaurant, each highlighting a country he has photographed, as well as provided a beautiful ambient slideshow during the 4-course dinner. They both share a passion for art & music, and so immediately following the ceremony, the guests were invited to enjoy a fabulous concert that included Taiko drumming, traditional Vietnamese music, and none other than Xuan Dai herself blowing everyone away on the violin (Xuan Dai’s father sang with her for part of it). Later in the evening there was a performance by a breathtaking 12 and 16-yr-old ballroom-dancing couple, who you can also see in the photos below. The gorgeous flowers by Ivy Vuong and seamless coordination by Elizabeth Bainbridge of 2 the 9s Events put the whole night over the top. The perfect classy wedding for a truly classy couple – congratulations!
I don’t even have a shoe fetish and I couldn’t stop staring at her shoes…
This next one is one of my favorite images from the performance from behind the wings by my second shooter Sapasorn:
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