Happy Earth Day

While Carmen was searching on the inter-web for Bar Keepers Friend (her new found favorite cleanser) she stumbled upon the fantastic Yellow Owl Workshop after many cross reference searches. Yellow Owl Workshop is an amazingly creative site that has some really neat and whimsical creations from cards to paintings to limited edition silkscreen prints. And if you have a chance, check out their blog, we guarantee you will have a ton of fun. :) And of course on that blog, we've stumbled on a really nifty idea for Wedding Invites and Save the Date cards utilizing found linen postcards. So go wild, be that creative self that you are and have a blast experimenting and designing your very own unique wedding invites and save the date cards from that stack of old linen postcards, magazines or anything else that is just waiting for a second chance at life. Like Yellow Owl Workshop says, "Recycle is Beautiful." Happy Earth Day.

We wanted to announce a new design blog from our friend Savita of Savita Design. Savita and Ravi were wedding client's of ours back in 2008 and we quickly became friends. Savita is a designer and Ravi a filmmaker/editor. Savita's wedding was held at Marvimon, Los Angeles and it was a beautiful urban style wedding (think outdoor patio loft style complimented with modern chic appeal). Since Savita was a creative soul like our many other clientele, she decided to create her own wedding album. So we wanted to share both Savita's design insight along with her blog about the custom wedding album she has designed with our wedding photography. Yeah, you rock Savita! Love you too Ravi :). http://savitadesign.wordpress.com/2009/04/11/wedding-album-project/

Bev + Ja's Crazy Wedding

We just received an email notice from one of our awesome wedding client: Beverly and Ja Tecson. They have just updated their wedding website with our images. Bev + Ja are also a husband and wife wedding photography dynamic duo team just like us. So it was no surprise that we all hit it off very quickly from our initial consultation back in Jan 2008. We were delighted, excited and honored to be Beverly + Ja's official wedding photographer. It seems that we have become the photographer's wedding photographer premier choice. Not an easy feat to please this elite group of photographers. What an honor it is to be recognized by your own peers in the industry. It is absolutely the best compliments that we can get. Many thanks Beverly and Ja Tecson for giving us complete creative freedom with the photo shoot!

P.S, make sure to explore their website fully as they have listed all of their creative wedding vendors. Kelley of Picture Perfect Events was the awesome wedding coordinator for Bev + Ja's magical wedding. And we also had the pleasure working with Lloyd of Red 5 Studios.

Wedding Stimulus Plan

Spring is upon us and as of today, we officially will spring our clock forward inching into wedding fever pitch mode. This is an exciting time for the brides to be as you put on your hat(s) during your research mode.  Even though,  the doom and gloom recession message is all over the world,  fret not because we want to encourage all brides to think outside of the box during this crazy time. Who says it's all doom and gloom, bah humbag.

We want to remind you to stay calm, take a deep breath and stay focus on that beautiful dream wedding you have dreamt of. Don't get distracted by the ugly news of the recession. As a matter of fact, this is the best time for the brides. This is such a wonderful time to get married because there are so many incentives available to brides that did not exist six months ago. So don't be afraid to inquire about discounts, special offers and customizing your purchases.

There are so many talented creative wedding vendors available and ready to help you make your big day a fun and happy place for your family and friends. Remember that it's still important to hire the professional vendors especially during this time cause the pros have tons of experience to guide you and plan your dream wedding while saving you money in the long run by trimming the fat and helping you keep your event lean.  For example, we highly recommend hiring a wedding coordinator, not because they will help make your life easier but with their huge wedding vendor network, they can also help you save a bundle in areas where a bride would normally not have access to such as location, catering, photography, etc. due to their many years of personal working relationship they have established.

Be flexible. If you can just let go a bit and step outside of the box, you will allow your creative juice to flow and you just might surprise yourself with all of the inventive ways you can personalized your wedding within your budget. For example, we are starting to see more picnic wedding themes this year and of course, Los Angeles is the place to be with all of the wonderful public spaces, not to mention the endless sunny days. 

Lastly, remember to have fun and make sure not to loose focus on why you are getting married...for LOVE. And love is all you need, everything else is easy peasy.

So just take a deep breath, breathe, relax and have fun planning your wedding with your dream team!

Knitted Ring Pillow

We are so thrilled that our dear friend Megumi and Jason is finally getting hicthed...Yeah! 

Meg has started a blog for her out of state families and friends from the east coast all the way to Japan in order for them to be a part of the process. And we are so honored to be a part of this happy event. 

We also wanted to share her blog with everyone because Megumi is a super talented artist based in Silverlake. Follow Meg and she will show you nifty wedding ideas without breaking the bank. Who says you can't have a chic wedding in a recession. All of her precious creations are one of a kind tailor made for her clients just like the fantastic crochet ring pillow feature in the photo above. So go and check out M+J's blogspot at http://megandjasonwedding.blogspot.com and I hope you will have as much fun as we have being inspired by Meg's magic handy work. Contact: itomeg(at)gmail.com.

Kanzius Cancer Research Foundation

I've just found out Mr. John Kanzius of The Kanzius Cancer Research Foundation has just past away Feb 18th, 2009. His cancer invention was entering the final stages of animal testing and nearing the time when it would become available for human clinical trials, which is huge. John's revolutionary cancer treatment could possibly be the "it" cure for all cancer for human kind. Just imagine that. My father was a victim of liver cancer and I know that he would have had a fighting chance with the clinical trial. So I urge you please visit the foundation's website at: www.KanziusCancerResearch.com and help defeat cancer for all humanity. 

Thank you from the bottom of my heart Mr. John Kanzius, you have given the world such an amazing gift.

PDN Wedding Issue

We just got interviewed this week by PDN for their annual wedding edition. Photographic District News aka PDN is the premier photography magazine servicing the professional industry with up to date business and artistic trends, reviews plus social and political issues that affects the photographic community. So it was an honor for us to say the least. 

Although, this is not the first time that we have been mentioned on PDN. Back in 2000, our unique commercial portfolio caught the attention of PDN's editor and gave us a 3 1/2 page feature review on our work and creative approach with our little 4x5 portfolio size titled "Steven Lam Has a Tiny Portfolio".  And just recently back in May 2007, our photography was featured on PDN's Players through the beautiful portfolio design by the multi-talented Tolleson Design from San Francisco.

So stay tuned and cross your fingers that our interview will make it to the 2009 wedding issue pages.

Cheers!

Welcome

Well hello everyone and welcome. We are finally going to start our official blog. Well, technically, we had this blog registered back in 2006 and wow how time flies when you're having fun. So, 3 years later, we now will start posting more blogs routinely, so please do visit us often or just whenever you have a chance. Until then, stay tune for our upcoming blogs. Thanks for stopping by. Cheers :)

Breanne + Andrew's Riviera Maya Wedding Feature on Australia's Cosmopolitan Bride

We are so happy to find out Breanne + Andrew's wedding just got featured in Australia's Cosmopolitan Bride.

When we got our initial email from Australia's celebrity/TV presenter Breanne Bergs inquiring about our wedding services, we had no idea what we got ourselves into. As we started to talk more with Breanne via email of course, we got really excited about her wedding visions. Starting with the intimate wedding location at Al Cielo and with an intimate guests list consisting of just their closest friends and family member, we knew this event was going to be an extraordinary wedding event with it's low key setting yet gorgeously done up. We had a blast shooting B+A's wedding in the Riviera Maya locale. The caribbean water was the perfect backdrop for the wedding shoot and the images was brilliant!

Acura LA Bike Tour 2008

21 Miles later...Yah!



4:15am at the starting line...Brrrr



Glad we made it to the finish line



Oh no, man down



Once a year, the streets of LA gets shut down for the Acura Bike Tour, 5K Run and the big kahuna of them all, the LA Marathon.

Here's our two cents of the event. Woke up at 3am way before the crack of dawn, WTF!! Yeah, we didn't even know what we got ourselves into. Wifey almost wanted to kill me when she found out the wake up and start time...yikes! So we ran through our check list: We got our bikes tuned up, got our gloves (muy importante), windbreaker, helmet, bibs for our shirt, bike and helmet, water bottle, power bar, cash for parking, directions, all checked. And we're off!

Fireworks and the bike tour start gun goes off at 5:45am. It's way too early and cold (50 degrees) for us to make sense of this all. Thank goodness our adrenaline was in full throttle.

What's great about the Acura Bike Tour IS NOT A RACE! I repeat, THE BIKE TOUR IS NOT A RACE! It is purely for enjoyment purpose and a chance for all bikers of all skill levels to unite and ride together on a route through LA. Beginners are totally welcome. The minimum speed you have to maintain is 9 mph and you're set! Easy.

This is our first year at the Acura Bike Tour and man despite the early am traffic, parking congestion and of course the 21 miles bike ride. It was all worth it. Yupe, we are officially hooked. This is one of those event that just can't be missed if you have a wee bit of that bicycling spirit in you. The thrill of riding with an estimated 15,000 fellow bike enthusiast is reason enough for us to be here. The icing on the cake is being able to tour the various part of Los Angeles with no cars on the streets, that is absolutely priceless. The bike tour allowed us to rediscover the city again at a slower pace and it was such a pleasure. Places we've been and would not dare be in at the wee crack of dawn. With the streets closed off to autos, giving us the privileged to ride and appreciate the natural raw urban beauty of this city is just way too cool of an experience to pass off. Too often we tend to drive hurriedly from point A to point B with blinders on and missed all of the nuances in between our journey. This tour really gave us a chance to feel the heart beat of LA in the flesh, uninterrupted, unfiltered, traffic free, smog free and 90% people free! Nothing but you and the spinning sounds of wheels hitting the pavements, that's it. No honking, no road rage shouting matches, no sirens, no machinery or factory sounds. Just us and the city! Wow, what a day! We were also lucky enough to have our family there for support at the finish line.

We hope we will be lucky enough to continue this tradition annually and join our fellow Los Angeles bikers from all walks of life, nationalities and ethnicities. From kids to elders, this event is a must if you call yourself Angelinos.

Okay, now you wanna ride, what to do. Well the official website sucks.
The website do not have any specific details or giving you any other options to sign up except through their website which they charge an online registration fee on top of the Bike Tour registration fee. This event is organized by Divine so the website is a bit self serving to help generate addition cashflow for them. My advice is to wait and drive down to the Life Expo which takes place at the LA Convention Center during the two days prior to the Marathon and Bike Tour event day. This way, you can save some money from the online registration service fee hacked by Divine. Even if you sign up online and pay for the convenient service fee, you still have to drive down to the Life Expo to pick up your goodie bag which will have your bib and race's number and instruction, route map, etc. Therefore, save yourself a few bucks and just head down to the Life Expo, wait in line a bit and then just register and pick up all of your goodies all in one stop. Make sure to go and register early if you want to grab your free t-shirt in small sizes. Otherwise, by the last day of the Expo, all they have left is Large sizes.

IMPORTANT
Please note that The Marathon and Bike Tour route might share route but they may not have the same starting and ending location. This changes so make sure to read up ask all of these important questions at the registration desk at the Expo including parking location, very important. For the bike tour, make sure to get there a couple of hours early if you can to avoid traffic from the freeway exit and into the parking lot.

I've added addition links below since it is so hard to find any info for the Acura Bike Tour due to the overshadowing by the LA Marathon event.


Acuralabiketour.com

Facebook Acura LA Bike Tour

Not Bike Tour related but have some really helpful biking articles

Myra VanInwegen's Bike Articles

Test Blog

Test blog.