Smogshoppe wedding; Covid Pandemic marriage First, then BIG Celebrations! - Stacey & Greg

Stacey and Greg got married during COVID pandemic at Honda Civic Center's Parking lot, and then threw a 3-day #wedding celebrations with their loved ones at #TheCulverHotel and #Smoggshope in Los Angeles. We're a team of #weddingphotojournalists and wedding documentary filmmakers, based in Los Angeles and San Diego, California. We're also experienced destination wedding photographers and #weddingvideographers

 

In the midst of COVID pandemic lockdown, Stacey and Greg couldn’t wait to get married.

So they did it one witness (their friend) in the parking lot of Honda Civic Center. The above 10-minute-long wedding film tells a great story about their love, the spontaneous civil ceremony with their masks on, and then finally 3-day-long wedding celebrations with their loved ones 2 years later in Los Angeles, California - at The Culver Hotel in Culver City, and at Smogshoppe in Los Angeles.

I hope you’ve sat through the entire film and felt all the emotions.

Stacey and Greg are the sweetest couple I’ve ever met and people who I’d personally love to keep in my life. Their gesture and appreciation towards “small things” in life is very admirable; “nothing is too small to celebrate,” they say.

As a couple they value supporting each other’s dreams, growth, and joy. They love being with and hosting friends, and they travel to new places, and their favorite activities are eating, strolling through residential neighborhoods, and visiting cemeteries.

“We like to think we’re pretty laid-back, but we also are chronic over-committers. There are too many things we want to do and too little time!” Stacy says. And I, too, am feeling the same way about life in general.

Stacey has two sisters. Her dad is originally from China and her mom was a refugee from Myanmar and moved to San Francisco as a young adult with her parents and 8 other siblings. Chinese was not her first language but she was ethicially Chinese so could communicate with her dad in Chinese. Her mom died pretty suddenly from cancer when Stacey was 10 years old. And our filmmaker Ailin made a little teaser of the wedding film where you could feel her presence everywhere.

The celebration highlight was at the end - a wedding tradition from Greg’s family side, which family members “surprise” or mess with the newlyweds by “decorating” their car on the wedding day. They secretly decided to fill up their Honda CRV with colorful balloons and cover the entire car including windows with colorful post-its. Then they threw some confettis and baby dolls inside of the car. I almost missed this because I had already left the venue as everybody left, but guess what? I had to go back to the venue because I forgot my camera batteries and charger, and so luckily we got to witness their struggles with peeling off all the post-its and clearing space inside of the car. It was purely amazing that I got to capture their family wedding tradition. That was seriously the best ending to their night. xoxo

 

Tribute to mother. Remembering and feeling her presence on the wedding day.

StarWars Wedding, Castaway Wedding - Susan + Denny
 

In a galaxy far, far way…

Life is full of surprises and wonders.

Who knew Susan and Denny would get married when they had met just playing online video games DOTA together with their mutual friends? Susan was never into StarWars before she met Denny. Yet, she got married on the “Star Wars Day” - May, the 4th. It’s super romantic.

Their ring-bearers wore Jedi costumes to the wedding at Castaway in Burbank, California, and they had a little Star Wars elements throughout the wedding day.

The clouds and sun were playing peekaboos all day, casting a warm glow over the serene landscape where Susan and Denny stood hand in hand, surrounded by family and friends. They had exchanged vows just moments ago, and the air was thick with joy and emotion. Susan calls their love “cheesy” - I think it’s her Korean way of being shy about being deeply in love. Their love story had not been devoid of challenges. Over the years, they seemed to learn, challenge each other and grow together, forming a partnership grounded in respect and support.

Their wedding day was a reflection of their journey. Every detail spoke to their shared tastes, from the flowers that adorned the ceremony space to the carefully selected music that played during their first dance. As the reception continued into the night, family and friends raised glasses to toast the newlyweds, each sharing stories of Susan and Denny’s unwavering support for one another. Moments of tenderness and joy punctuated the celebration—laughter during the speeches, tears during the father-daughter and mother-son dances, and the excitement of new beginnings as they cut their cake, plastering each other’s faces with frosting.

Seriously, what a fun day and night it was! Please watch their 10-minute wedding film below as well!

 
Casa Florida Wedding, Miami, Florida - Caitlin + Mike
 

It’s amazing how I get to photograph former client’s family and friends. They’re seriously the best. Actually, it’s the best feeling, knowing that they already know how I photograph and that we’re on the same page about our values in photography. It’s a cliche to say this, but I feel super blessed, really.

Demi, one of Caitlin’s best friends and the officiant for her wedding told me, “When Caitlin was planning her wedding, she kept saying, ‘I want someone like Annie Bang for my wedding. Where can I find someone (a wedding photographer) like Annie Bang?’ Soooo… I was like… ‘how about…. you just hire her for your wedding…and the problem is solved!?!?’”

Brett and I photographed the groom Michael’s brother (Eric)’s wedding in Santa Barbara years ago, and now here we are in 2024, flying out to Florida for Mike and Caitlin.

Caitlin and Mike met summer of 2014 through an adult kickball league (aka "drunk kickball"). Their league met on Friday nights in Coconut Grove - their fav neighborhood in Miami- and it's basically one big rowdy party. They were on different teams. Mike came up to Caitlin & asked if she wanted “a Solo cup of boozy punch & voila, 8.5 years later, here we are.”

As a couple, “we're playful & affectionate, & we laugh together a lot. Humor is a coping mechanism for us. We can usually see the bright side, the big picture, the silver lining...in other words, if it rains on our wedding day, we're still gonna party with a smile on our faces.”

It didn’t rain (only cloudy here and there) on their wedding day; but it poured down the next day - hence, Brett and I were trapped at the airport for hourssss to come back home. haha.

The wedding was at Casa Florida, a super cute, historic & funky motel with tropical Florida Keys vibes, in Miami, Florida, and we really LOVED partying with everyone.