Cory + Leanne Wedding

Aldergrove United Church
Langley Banquet Hall
May 19, 2007

Leanne was no bridezilla. She was so cool about some of the not-so-minor wedding details that didn't turn out the way she would've wanted them to - that included the weather. We were supposed to have portraits done at Aldergrove Lake but after the ceremony, it was pouring rain. No big deal. We'll just get the photos done inside the church. Nothing was going to ruin their day.

The night continued to be a fun and lively event interspersed with heartwarming speeches and laugh-out-loud toasts.

You can view the highlights of the day here.

p-book: Andrew + Debra Guestbook

Guestbook to be used at Andrew and Debra's wedding reception in July.

The rest of the p-book can be viewed here.

e-shoot: Andrew + Debra

Rocky Point Park
May 12, 2007

We woke up to a fine day on May 12 assuring us of perfect lighting conditions for our afternoon e-shoot with Andrew and Debra. We met them at the playground area of Rocky Point Park with their sweet and pretty daughters Adora and Teela. We started and ended the day with shots of the kids and the family. Below are our favorite shots of what happened in between:


We didn't have much trouble setting up the shots as Andrew seemed to always know what to do! We hope we captured the sweetness and the wonderful love these two have for each other in more of our featured shots that you can view here.

p-book: Bong + Fe Guestbook

Guestbook to be used at Bong and Fe's Reception at Newlands Golf and Country Club on June 10, 2007.

The rest of the p-book can be viewed here.

What's the Word?

A Guide to Pelaez Photography Vocab

Pelaez Photography aims to offer distinct quality service to our clients. To set ourselves apart from the others, we have developed our own vocab on our daily discussions of our products and services. The purpose of this post is to provide our current clients and prospective inquirers a guide to Pelaez Photography slang relative to our business. For today's lesson, we have the following terminologies:

e-shoot - Engagement Photo Shoot

Two hours of fun and casual pictorial with our bride&grooms-to-be. It's a time for us to get to know our couples better and build a rapport with them to make them comfortable with us before the wedding. This service may be availed on its own or as part of our wedding photography service packages.

p-books - Pelaez Photography Photo books

This is not your typical photo albums. Our p-books contain pages graphically designed with your photos. They're all hard bound and you can display them in your home like coffee table books.

Currently, we offer 2 photobooks:

• guestbook - a 20-page hard-bound book containing pages of your photos graphically designed with room for your guests to leave you well wishes. Perfect alternative to wedding guestbooks. For our wedding photography service clients, the photos printed on the pages will be taken from the e-shoot. Each guestbook is uniquely designed for each client.
• storybook - we promise you a story and you can retell the story through our storybooks. We will visually document your story with shots we take from the event, laid out like a magazine editorial and printed into a hard-bound coffee table book. Each story is unique, therefore, each storybook is uniquely designed for each client.

Stay tuned for our next lesson!

e-shoot: Bong + Fe

April 28, 2007
White Rock
and
May 5, 2007
Bear Creek Park

Our good friends Bong and Fe are getting their marriage vows renewed this June. What better gift to give them but a visual documentation of their love and commitment? So, one fine Saturday afternoon, we brought the WHOLE family to White Rock to shoot engagement and family portraits. I tell you, it was one very hectic time! The following week, we decided to take them out again for a quieter and sweeter shoot at Bear Creek Park. It was actually a diversion to keep them away from home for a couple of hours until other family members and friends plan for a surprise wedding shower. The ruse worked and at the same time, we were able to take great shots! Here are some of our favorites:


View more photos here.

Congratulations, you guys! We're so happy for you and can't wait to shoot more on your D-Day!

i carry your heart with me

I have been a Grey's Anatomy junkie eversince the show hit the tube with its first episode. Years ago, I used to be an ER fan rooting for George Clooney's and Julianna Margulies's characters' love story. It's a wonder that ER is still going strong after all these years. I honestly didn't think that anybody still watches that show but critics say that their medical storylines are more believable than Grey's.

I tune in once or twice and was really only interested in Abby (Maura Tierney) and Luka's (Goran Visnjic) storyline. I was happy to see the last episode showing the two of them getting married. When it was Abby's turn to say her vows she quoted lines from the lovely poem by e.e. cummings "i carry your heart with me".

i carry your heart with me
by e. e. cummings

i carry your heart with me (i carry it in
my heart) i am never without it (anywhere i go you go, my dear;
and whatever is done by only me is your doing, my darling)
i fear
no fate (for you are my fate, my sweet) i want
no world (for beautiful you are my world, my true)
and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you
here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows
higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart (i carry it in my heart)

Details, details, details...

Project Catwalk, the UK version of Project Runway, is one of my guilty pleasures on TV. It's down to the 3 finalists - the larger-than-life cross dresser, Wayne; the ambitiously "wicked" 20-year-old fashion student, Luke; and the outspoken anti-thesis of a fashionista, Monica. I don't really have a favorite and I don't really see a clear front runner which is why I can't wait to see their collections on the runway in the season finale next Monday.

In last Monday's episode, Every Girl's Dream, their challenge was a project that I'm familiar with myself - a wedding gown for a local UK celebrity. When I was planning my wedding 4 years ago, I leafed through a number of wedding mags before I found the one which served as the inspiration for my wedding gown. Below are photos of the gown from Romona Keveza's Legendary Brides collection 2003.

My designer and I made some minor modifications to the design. Instead of the gown being done in pure satin, I asked for the ruffles to be made from organza and added a sprinkling of shiny beads on the bodice and the train of the gown. Here's the sketch of the gown and photos of the dress on our wedding day.

This day is supposed to be a once-in-a-lifetime event, thus the pressure and stress that every bride feels to make every detail perfect. I wouldn't say my gown was perfect but looking back now, I still would've chosen the same simple design.

While the gown may be one of the biggest and probably the first thing brides think about as soon as The Question is answered, there are still hundreds of other decisions to define that one fine day. Here are a couple more "small" details from my own wedding:


My wedding shoes - I was inspired by Max Azria's daughter (if I remember correctly) to print our names and our wedding date on the bottom of the soles. Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of the shoes I copied the design from. Solea, "borrowed" it from me because they loved the design so much they wanted to make a sample for future clients.



My bridesmaid's dresses - I was inspired by the Watters Bridesmaids dress on the left to hand paint flowers on my bridesmaid's dresses.



My flowergirl's dresses - inspired by a flowergirl's dress I saw on theknot.com.



I can't wait to check out these details on our clients' wedding day. I hope we capture them well for our brides to remember and wonder "now, why did I even stress about that?"

- Gracci