Maddie and Andre’s wedding was a dream. Located at the historic Empire Mine in Grass Valley California, I knew this wedding would be one of my favorites of the year. Surrounded by over 150 of their closest friends, family, and adorable son, they became Mr. and Mrs. Salonga on a warm summer afternoon.

Maddie grew up in the area and loved this gem of a location for a long time. Andre didn’t mind, for he was going to marry the love of his life.

They met some years back working at the Boys and Girls club. Friendship bonded them, and love grew them closer together. They were just so happy to be marrying each other, and it was the sweetest thing to capture.

14 of their best friends were apart of their bridal party. The ladies wore mismatched bridesmaids gowns, which I absolutely adore. The gents wore Barongs, which is a traditional Pilipino shirt worn at weddings and formal events. I love that both personal preference and family tradition was honored in their attire. 

The ceremony took place in front of the historic and beautiful Empire Cottage. It was sweet and intimate. They shared personal vows, laughs, and tears, and said their “I do’s”.

We shot family photos, then took portraits of the newlyweds, and made our way back to the reception for a grand entrance, dinner, and all the dances.

After their first dance, the DJ handed Maddie a microphone, and she melted everyone’s hearts with her voice. She surprised Andre by singing him a song, and it was absolutely perfect.

We had a blast taking photos around the property. I’ll let the photos speak for themselves.

I’m so happy I got to photograph this wedding. Their beauty and love was easy to capture and so wonderful to be around.

Thanks to all of these vendors for making their wedding day so amazing and especially Maddie and Andre for loving one another so deeply! Your wedding was wonderful.

 I wish them a lifetime of happiness and hope they love all the photos. Hope you enjoyed a glimpse of their wedding (shared roughly 100 photos out of the 1,000+ delivered in their wedding gallery)

Coordination Bungalow Event Planning

Venue Empire Mine 

Coordination Bungalow Style 

Catering Antonio Catering 

Florals Roxie’s Floral Design

DJ  Primoktz 

Dress BHLDN

Nothing like a mid week escape to the lake to celebrate America’s birthday. We camped from Tuesday to Thursday at a Rollin’s Lake in Grass Valley, CA.

I’m so amazed by what beautiful bodies of water and nature are so close to us. This spot is about an hour away from where we live in Sacramento, but feels a lot further. 

We camped with my in laws and some of Anna’s cousins. Between two lake front camp sites it felt like we had the entire place to ourselves.

Across the water was a view of pine trees, and it was stunning. In the morning, there was a low fog over the water. The water was SO WARM! I could hardly believe how easy it was to stroll right in. We swam, we floated, we ate & drank, and swam some more. 

It’s been quite hard to get back into work after a mid week day off, but it sure was worth it to spend quality time outdoors with friends and family.

I kept my phone in airplane mode the entire time, and occasionally snapped photos on my DSLR.

I call my Canon 6d my “travel cam”. It’s typically my 2nd/back up body when I shoot weddings, but it comes in so handy on adventures. It’s light weight, and with a 50mm lens on it, perfect for capturing portraits of cute humans, yummy food, and beautiful landscape. 

The photos were taken between myself and Anna. I love that my wife had fun shooting with my camera. She did a great job and captured so many sweet moments of everyone.

I hope you enjoyed this personal post, had a wonderful holiday, and survived the rest of the work week! Thank goodness it’s Friday!

Until next time!

Christina xo

Summer is always the busiest season for me. Between the warm and long days of wanting to go swim, and capturing lots of love at summer weddings, the calendar always fills up quickly. 

Thankfully my wife is on summer break from teaching, and the contrast of our schedules works really well. She’s home, so despite all the photos I need to edit, we still get to spend time with each other and I am spoiled from all of her cooking. For example, yesterday she made a cherry pie and vegetable curry. I am still full, and extra thankful she doesn’t have to go to work so I get a break from doing the dishes. That’s love! Plus, I got to bring Anna to my shoot yesterday where she modeled! 

While trying to maintain my weekly blog quota, I thought I’d share with you my crazy shoot agenda from the weekend!

1. Maddie and Andre’s Wedding at Empire Mine on Friday

2. 2nd photographer for Wes Davis Photography at Aurora and John’s wedding in Fair Oaks on Saturday

3. Family shoot with Reese, Caroline, and their newborn baby Olympia on Sunday

4. Shoot at Wild Heart Beauty of Misty’s new brow makeup line on Monday

I started feeling a bit overwhelmed yesterday at the reality of how much work there still is to do and rest I need to catch up on, but Anna reminded me to compartmentalize and that I don’t have to do everything at once! Last night we enjoyed our curry to old episodes of Game of Thrones and I drifted off to sleep easily around 9pm.

After a solid night’s sleep, it was no trouble to wake up at 5 to start laundry and start editing.  I woke up refreshed and ready to work, and came up with a strategy to get stuff done!  Something about checking boxes off a list is so motivating, so I’ve already culled, edited, and delivered shoots #3 and #4.  I’ll drop off the photos I shot for Wes later today, so #2 is basically checked off.  That leaves my focus on shoot #1! The beautiful wedding of Andre and Maddie.

I cull the photos first, which is selecting the best of the best. From there, I upload those images into Lightroom to start the editing process. I use presets (similar to filters if you don’t know that lingo) I’ve made that are applied upon importing, then I go through each image and make tweaks and adjustments as necessary. I also arrange the photos in an order that flows and tells the best story of the love and their day. 

Anna and I are finally going on our honeymoon in just about two weeks, so my goal is to finish the wedding by then, if not sooner. Typically once I get on a roll I can’t stop. I like to edit when it’s dark so I’ll usually take a night or two and stay up later than my typical early bed time and edit away.

I’d better get back to work, but thanks for reading.

While each of these shoots deserve their own blog post (coming soon), I thought I’d share a few previews that I’ve edited so far from shoots 1, 3, and 4. 

See you next week!

Christina