Josh and Christina Dyczewski

Josh and Christina's wedding this weekend was a blast! The wedding was in Santa Clarita, and the reception in Burbank. I know Christina because she was a leader in the high school youth group at Calvary Chapel SB when I was in high school. Here are some of the images from the day:

A friend, Dan Ramming, shot photos with me and this is one of the many sweet shots that he pulled. I shot Dan's wedding a couple of years ago, and his wife Stephanie was one of the bridesmaids in this wedding. I got to hang out with Steph and also Lauren Hersey (she built the cake for Andy and Carly) on the drives from SB. We had a good time :)
The ceremony was really nice. It was in this cool outside amphitheater with a bunch of cool trees.
I love these old light posts that they had there!
There was so much fun dancing going on at the reception!
Y-M-C-A!
Josh and Christina are awesome people. It was a blessing and an encouragement to be part of their day :)

To view more photos, you can see the slideshow by clicking HERE. Thanks! 

Ryan Ordained

I want to throw a shout out to Ryan who was ordained at Reality this Sunday. Being ordained is basically just the church formally recognizing that you are a minister of the gospel. Ryan has been the youth pastor there for the last two years and he loves it. I super stoked for him!
He also taught for the main services at church and it was really good. You can hear his message if you want on the Reality podcast. Just go to iTunes and search Reality Carpinteria, and then find the one with Ryan Hillner teaching.

Andy and Carly Schmiess

So this morning it was totally raining! I was worried for my friends Andy and Carly because rain and outside weddings don't mix that well. God hooked it up though and sent some good weather for the wedding :) I've known the Gray family for a really long time through Calvary Chapel. Carly's parents and mine have been friends for a long time, and we were all running around Pebble Hill together as kids. I met Andy about 5 years ago, and we've been good friends. We've stormed his hometown of Salinas and surfed together, Costa Rica trips, youth group... I was SO glad that I could be there to photograph their wedding!
It was a Montecito backyard wedding. It was AMAZING!!
From the rain this morning to this:
Seany, "...the ring is a symbol of their undying love... cat?" It's an outside wedding, and the cat was curious about what was going on :)
I love this shot!
The amazing mother/daughter tag team, Lauren and Geralynn Hersey, built this beautiful cake!
I had such a good time today!!! See more of the photos by CLICKING HERE. Thanks for reading :)

Matt and Abby Crescitelli

I had the pleasure of shooting Matt and Abby's wedding in Santa Barbara! I know Abby from high school and the youth group at Calvary Chapel, where they had their ceremony. Here are some of the shots:

Besides the fact that the entire day was just sweet, I really loved that Matt and Abby put their own personal touch on what happened at their wedding. I was at the hair salon with Abby and her sisters in the morning, and she was telling me that they got a special Mario Bros wedding cake. What? Matt and Abby both work at video game stores... Her phone rings, and the ringtone is the Mario Bros song. Abby mentioned that they had a few other surprises up their sleeves that i should look out for. During the ceremony it was at the part where Pastor Troy says, "I now pronounce you man and wife, Matt you may kiss your bride," and they kiss, but before they were done, they had arranged for a special sound effect to be played: the victory sound from Final Fantasy VII! It was so rad!!

You can listen to this sweet sound by CLICKING HERE!
Their first dance was awesome!! It started out with a nice Aerosmith jam, but them turned into The Evolution of Dance. You're like what? Check out what that means by CLICKING HERE. Although with 72 million views on youtube, you've probably already seen it :) Matt and Abby executed it wonderfully. It was a lot of fun.
Is that their wedding cake? Heck yeah, it's a Super Mario Bros wedding cake!!!!
Having one of the sections as a warp tube made my day! I grew up playing Mario Bros too, didn't everyone?

Matt and Abby's wedding was awesome! I'm so glad that I got to be there for it :)

See a slideshow with more photos by CLICKING HERE. Thanks!

Bay to Breakers

This weekend I did Bay to Breakers in SF. I'm not going to lie, this was one of the craziest scenes that I have ever seen. It felt like a mix between running with the bulls in Spain and halloween in Isla Vista. There were SO many people, and SO many ridiculous costumes. You maybe wouldn't even know that it is an athletic event (it's a 12k run for charity) because of all the alcohol and craziness that's going on. If you even get a chance, I'd recommend seeing this spectacle sometime in your life. Just thousands of people in costumes, partying in the streets of San Francisco. We didn't have extreme costumes, sorry. Maybe next year I'll step it up a couple of notches :) I went with my friends Michael and Alexis.Yeah, I guess clothing is optional... either that, or his costume is his birthday suit. Oops.

Is Elvis dead? Hmm...

Getting carried away in a shopping cart... I think that means that this guy was having too much fun earlier. Oops.

Giants vs Astros

I went to a Giant's game today! It was really hot out, but lots of fun. I went with my drafting teacher from school and one of the other kids from class. Our teacher, Sara, has four of the absolute best season tickets that you can get for the Giants. They are by the third base line, right next to the dugout. I could touch the field! I normally get cheaper tickets for games, so this was a nice treat. 

Langhorne Slim and the War Eagles

I saw one of the coolest alt-country bands tonight! Langhorne Slim  put on such a fun show!!! I was SO stoked to see them play. They have really good music, and a really good performance to go with it.

Grandpa Roy's Memorial Service

We had a memorial service for my grandpa this weekend down in LA. I'm not going to lie, it was pretty bittersweet. I looked through all of my old photos (I have more photos than China has people) for ones with my grandpa and other family for a slideshow that my dad was putting together. It was like a memory flood. So much history, not just of my grandpa, but so many other things. It was totally overwhelming. This all happened at the same time as all of my finals for school, so I wasn't around to study because I had to be in LA for the weekend. Anyway, the service went well, and it was really nice to see some of the extended family since my travel habit made me miss being home for the holidays the last two years. This is my Aunt Jenny reading a short history of my grandpa.

These are my wonderful grandmas, Bonnie and Yas.

My cousin Aaron, younger brother Mikey, Me, older brother Daniel, and long time family friend Brandon.

My mom's cousin Kathy's husband, Daniel, and their son Carter. Cute eyepatches, right?

Uncle Chris and Aunt Lynn

Uncle Kenny and Aunt Mary

My mom's cousin John's wife Micaela and their daughter Giulia.

The service was at a Chinese restaurant, but I'm not totally sure why. It's not like Panda Express chinese food either, we had jellyfish, roasted ducks, and whole fishes. I guess I'm a little more into American Chinese foods.

Aunt Jenny and my cousin Mikiko.

Ray and his daughter Valerie.

Mikiko and Mika were wearing almost the same dress by chance. They both got so much bigger then the last time I saw either of them. Time flies or I'm just older then I feel.

I really like this picture of Giulia.
This is a photo of my mom's side of the family in the backyard of my grandparents' house.
Daniel is passed out on the couch with our dog Sandy, who unfortunately was hit by a car about a week ago. It's pretty sad that they might have to make her a tripod, but I'm glad she's still alive.

Ryan and Zoe

My best friend Ryan got engaged about a month ago! I've known him since elementary school, we traveled all over the world together, we started this business together. I'm SO happy for him and Zoe!! I've known Zoe for like 5 years. She is tons of fun, and I'm glad that they will be tying the knot this summer! Zoe plays keyboard in Dominic's band, so Ryan came up to see her while she was in SF and we all went to dinner together.

Dominic Balli

My friend from Carpinteria, Dominic has a rock/reggae band and they played at Mojito's in SF. His new cd, Public announcement, is SO good!! I think that you would like it :) Check out his website or myspace.

Exotic

I had an assignment for school where we had to make up a restaurant and design a menu and corollary items for that restaurant. My restaurant was called "Exotic" and it's speciality was serving rare animal dishes that you couldn't find anywhere. I'm not an animal hater, but I just thought that there would be people who are curious what tiger meat tastes like. Oops. Other items on the menu included Eagle Egg Omelets, Lion Burgers, Great White Shark Fillet, and Scorpion Salad. If you can't tell, I had some fun with this assignment :)

Stockton?

Some of my favorite people live in beautiful Stockton, Ca. and I went to visit them this weekend. We had a really nice BBQ and just hung out and caught up. This cute kid is Trent:

The guy working the grill is Casey, who I met down in Carpinteria when we were both helping with the youth group at Reality. His wife Hope is holding the food. They are so much fun! I shot their wedding a couple of years ago too :) Speaking of weddings, if you look at the picture below this one, you'll see a couple holding hands by the window, Lea and Brian. I'm super excited to be shooting their wedding this summer as well!

So the BBQ was over, and Hope's brother is a tattoo artist. Someone mentioned something about wanting to get a tattoo, and before you knew it, the livingroom turned into a tattoo parlor! Cool right? If I had any good ideas I would have jumped on that train, but I guess there's always next time :) The guy below is Matt getting his first tattoo.

The next two people are Trent's mom and dad, Christian and Michelle. They got matching anchors behind their ears. 

Oh yeah, so this was all for Matt's 21st birthday, I almost forgot. Make a wish birthday boy!

Casey and Hope are hecka cute!

These pics are from the church that they all go to, Reality Stockton. Matt was leading worship on guitar, Casey plays drums and Christian played bass. Oh yeah, Hope's other brother Josh is the pastor. Lots of good times!