Last April I flew to the United Kingdom for a few shooting assignments. This was only my second time in London, and the town was absolutely buzzing with energy in anticipation of the Royal Wedding that same weekend. OK, so I wasn’t there to photograph Kate and William (I guess my application must’ve gotten lost in the mail) but I was going to shoot my equally beautiful friends Yuki and Simon for their wedding at The Grove in the south of England.

Yuki and I met eight summers ago in New York during our old firm’s analyst training program – I was to be based in New York and Yuki in Tokyo. Years later, we both coincidentally transferred to Hong Kong and found ourselves sitting two office rows away from each other. Shortly afterwards, she introduced me to Simon, a banker she had met while working on a deal in London. I admittedly was skeptical of anyone finding romance in the investment banking world, but Simon was one of the most kind and genuine persons I’d ever met in Hong Kong. Yuki and Simon later moved back to London but I was lucky enough to shoot a portrait session with the two of them around Hong Kong – as a keepsake before they bid farewell to the city. They loved the photos we took that afternoon but the greatest compliment came over a year later when they graciously asked to me to be their wedding photographer as well.

Simon is from Northern Germany and Yuki from Tokyo, so the guest list had an eclectic mix from all around the world. I also picked up a handy German phrase – Wunderbar! – which means wonderful!

Bridesmaids morning prep




Groomsmen morning prep

Wedding Ceremony

English afternoon tea

Yuki’s adorable mom comes to the realization that her daughter is all grown-up =)

Cocktail and Reception

I first met Natasha and Ben over drinks in Central, nearly a year ago. Even for a Friday at the end of a long work week, Natasha was overflowing with energy which I later learned was completely normal. Ben, who is from the Midwest, told me about how Natasha, who is from HK, and his career path had lead him back to Asia years after they had first met as students in Inner Mongolia – first Singapore, Vietnam and eventually Hong Kong. Its crazy the stories that are behind how many of us find our way here.

Natasha and Ben LOVE Hong Kong, so last year when we planned their engagement session it wasn’t hard to come up with some locations.
 

Here are some shots from the Whitty Street Tram Depot, Central’s wet markets and SoHo..

Fast forward to their wedding morning last April…

Scheduling forced us to break away slightly from tradition by meeting before the ceremony – but that didn’t seem to take anything away from the moment.

It had been raining all morning but we pushed on and with some luck we got some great group formals on top of IFC.

The ceremony was inside the Golden Star ferry!

Dinner was at the Watermark and the first dance was to Dirty Dancing (no one puts baby in a corner!)!

Last November, in the middle of last year’s Hong Kong wedding season I had the pleasure of photographing the wedding of Wendy and CK. Wendy and I first met over drinks – we were introduced by her piano teacher who is also a good friend of mine. CK, the groom, has been a film photography enthusiast for years, but now he shoots with a Nikon D700. So yeah, we get along well =)

Wendy has been one of those invaluable supporters of mine that I mentioned in an earlier blog post, particularly with tidbits of legal advice as I was rummaging through paperwork to get my business started. So I really wanted to get a ton of great shots on her wedding day. Fortunately, the bride and groom choose some beautiful venues for their wedding day: prep at the Upper House, ceremony at Union Church and reception and tea ceremony at China Club.

The Upper House, Pacific Place

Union Church, Midlevels

China Club, Central

…and one more portrait at Upper House before the night ended.

The first time I saw James was in 2008 when he was performing “hand filter” jokes on the stage of Hong Kong’s TakeOut Comedy club. He was one of several awesome comedians that night serving up good old fashioned American humor. Little did I know that behind the funny man was an equally hilarious girlfriend named Stéphanie, and that they would eventually ask me to photograph their wedding which was last October. I also later learned that James is not only quite the romantic, but he does not easily shy away from public singing or lewd dancing.

You’ll see what I mean in the shots below from their wedding day, which conveniently started down the street from the studio in their Causeway Bay apartment before moving to the American Club in Tai Tam for the ceremony and banquet =)

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James proposed at an art class with this painting

the wedding party walk from Victoria Park

James sings “Nametag,” a song he wrote for Stéphanie

The American Club

the cracker jacks wedding ring box

tea ceremony

wedding cake

first dance

best striptease at a wedding ever

dance floor is open!

Officiant Thomas stocks his shopping cart

mini slideshow of the wedding photobooth!

As part of my trip back to the US earlier in the year, I drove up to Montreal to photograph a wedding for Yvonne and Michael (you can see shots from the engagement session in New York in an earlier post). Yvonne and I first met when we were both young, bright-eyed and bushy tailed interns at the NY firm that would eventually hire us for our first full-time jobs. Several years later, she left the firm to pursue education and eventually teach grade school in the South Bronx. She has been an absolute inspiration to me.

So I was excited to be able to shoot her marriage with Michael, while also being able to revisit one of my favorite cities in the world, Montreal. The rehearsal dinner was held at a traditional Quebec maple sugar shack. The following day we shot some prep and portraits at the Chateau Vaudreuil before driving to Au Vieux Moulin for the reception and dinner.

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rehearsal dinner at the Sucrerie de la Montagne

wedding morning

the Vietnamese áo dài

Michael’s friends show us how its done in Germany

the “Shoe Game”

proud parents of the bride

Before heading to Montreal to shoot Yvonne and Michael’s wedding, I had a chance to grab both of them after work in New York on a Friday afternoon to take some engagement session photos. We decided to walk around what is probably one of the most photographed areas of the city, Central Park. But since I started my photography professionally after my move from New York, I never really had a chance to properly photograph it. So I was particularly excited to get some pre-wedding portraits with the green foliage background and various architecture that is much harder to find in Hong Kong.

We hung out around the Bethesda Fountain area, where Yvonne and Michael showed off their ballroom dance skills (I later found out that the waltz was rehearsal for their first dance)!

More to come from the wedding day shortly…

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…a beautiful venue

…happy kids

…a beautiful ceremony

…music, and of course dancing!

Festivities began inside the bride’s family home in New Territories, before making our way to the beautifully sunlit King Huy Hall in Clear Water Bay for the marriage ceremony. The day ended with their banquet held upstairs at Lee Theatre in Causeway Bay.

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I had scouted a few locations in the park that I liked the day before, but beyond that we also revisited a few spots near the marriage registry office to reenact some shots and poses from their original wedding photos from four years ago. Awwww! great idea!

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