Chris and Katie Humphreys

Indian Wedding Photography in Long Beach, CA!

At the beginning of this month, Chris and I traveled out to Long Beach to photograph Sheena and Mudit's beautiful wedding at the Hyatt in Long Beach.  Their day was incredibly special - nearly 600 family and friends joined Sheena and Mudit for their special day and the best word I can think of to describe their incredible wedding a true celebration.  The joy that was present on their big day was contagious and the entire day was absolutely amazing!

We started off the day photographing Sheena getting ready at the hotel.  Our favorite hair/makeup artist extraordinare, Oscar from Ziba Beauty was there for the day and Sheena of course looked absolutely stunning!

One of the most fun parts of the day was photographing the Baraat where Mudit and his family come to the ceremony site.  All I can say is that his family knows how to celebrate!!  Being able to photograph everyone dancing and walking to the ceremony site with the music was such fun!

When Mudit and his family entered the ceremony site, the bride's family was there to greet them.

Mudit waiting for his bride!

We loved this moment with Sheena's father -

After the ceremony, all of Sheena and Mudit's guests had lunch together and then it was time for the Vidai when Sheena officially said goodbye to her mother and father.  This was a really special time with everyone.


From there, we did some pictures with Sheena and Mudit together at the beach, and then a little later in the evening before they went to their reception.









Sheena and Mudit's reception was also at the Hyatt in Long Beach and their decor was just stunning!  I loved these centerpieces!

Sheena and Mudit had a very special first dance, and then there were some other dances from family members - beautiful!

And, as always, there were also some wonderful toasts :)

Sheena and Mudit know how to throw a great party - their guests were enjoying themselves into the wee hours of the night!!

Sheena and Mudit, thank you so much for letting us share in your wonderful day!  We were so honored to be there and absolutely loved getting to know you and your families!

What you don't normally see....

One of Chris and my favorite parts of working with our wedding clients is getting to design their wedding albums for them!  Albums are such a wonderful way for the process to come full circle after their wedding day, and we love being able to give our couples a true storytelling piece that they can enjoy for many years! I (Katie) really enjoy doing our album designs and each album is custom designed based on the individual couple -  it makes the design process a little longer, but so fun that each album is totally different!

Since we so often share our wedding images but never really share our finished album designs, I thought it might be fun to share two of our more recent album designs.  The first design is from Jaime and John's beautiful wedding (you can see their wedding pictures here!) and Gary and the second design is from Kristin and Gary's amazing day! (you can see their wedding pictures here!)

Many thanks to our clients for letting us get creative and make beautiful books with your images!

To see Jaime and John's wedding album, click here!

To see Kristin and Gary's wedding album, click here!

And since posts are always more fun with pictures, here's one from Jen and Marco's wedding  from this past June - we're working on their album now and can't wait for them to have it!

Senior Pictures in Denver Colorado!

A couple weeks ago, we had the pleasure of doing some senior pictures for the Ede girls - about a year ago, we shot Ben and Megan's beautiful wedding in Denver, CO  (and featured them in a video on our website!).  Ben and Megan introduced us to the Ede family and we were able to take the girls around downtown and do some fun photos in downtown Denver!

First up was Emi - we loved some of these shots we grabbed of her with the umbrella!

Next up was Ali - she wanted something completely different so we went to a nearby park!

And finally, the youngest sister, Tess! (She's not a senior yet, but we thought it would be fun to do some pictures anyway!)

We ended the day having some fun with all three of them!

The whole family!!

Some photos...and a dinner party!

Kristin Hanson  is a friend of ours who also happens to be a fabulous caterer that we've gotten to know recently.  Not only is she warm and fun to be around, but her food is absolutely delicious!!  When she told us that she needed some new pictures for her website, we were happy to help and do some photos for her.  Little did we know that Kristin would be setting up a beautiful dinner party complete with gorgeous place settings, an abundance of great wine, and absolutely scrumptious food!

We invited a handful of friends to come over and enjoy the wonderful food that Kristin was planning to prepare. As Kristin would set up each course, Chris and I would photograph the food and table settings, and then everybody could dig in! :)  We had a fabulous evening enjoying food, wine and great friends as we all ate our way through the multiple courses Kristin prepared!

Kristin is exceptionally talented and we feel so lucky that we were able to contribute these photos for her new website that is going to be beautiful!  Kristin loves doing all sorts of events from weddings to dinner parties, so you should definitely keep her in mind if you're looking for some delicious food!

We started off by doing a few head shots for her new site!

The theme of the first course was a rustic Italian feast, and a feast it was!!

From there, we photographed the different place settings as each course came out - I love these menus and settings she designed!

Then.....the crab cakes came out.   Holy cow- these were to die for!! :)

I loved this one of Kristin as she was preparing the food - of course with a smile!

Beautiful summer pasta salad -

And the final course...mmmmmmmm.

Thanks to Kristin, everyone had a great time visiting and chatting together-

Kristin, thank you so much for including us in this project - it was such fun, and we are still talking about how delicious everything was! 

To see Kristin's website and contact her for more information, you can go to www.kristinhanson.net - the new site will be released soon!

Persian Wedding Photography in Los Angeles, CA!

In mid-July, Chris and I had the privilege of shooting Niki and Mark's beautiful wedding near Los Angeles.  Their day was filled with many, many family and friends, bright colors, a backyard reception, and a beautiful traditional Persian ceremony.  I love that celebrating love takes on many different forms, and Mark and Niki's day was such a special celebration!

Below are a few of our favorites from the day, but if you'd like to sign up to be notified when all of NIki and Mark's wedding images are online, please click here to sign the guest book!

Niki and Mark had their ceremony and reception at NIki's parent's home and that afternoon we had a few minutes to do some fun pictures inside the house before going outside.  Niki looked amazing and was so relaxed!

The backyard also made for a beautiful setting  for some pictures, with some really beautiful trees.  I love the peacefulness in this picture.

Chris and I always love great details and Niki and Mark had an absolutely amazing fruit table that was laid out - all fresh fruit that was beautifully arranged and was so exquisite!

I loved this moment right before Niki and her dad walked down the aisle - Niki's dad was so sweet to watch and had the best smile!

During a Persian ceremony, the bride and groom are seated by a table full of gifts and different foods that all symbolize different things.  We loved getting to shoot their ceremony from a different angle than usual!

At the end of the ceremony, all the family and friends bring gifts up to the bride and groom, and I think this is such a special picture of Niki and Mark surrounded by their friends and family!

We got some fun pictures of the two of them right before sunset - they were so sweet obviously so happy together!

Congratulations Niki and Mark!  We were so honored to be part of your day and can't wait to see what's in store for you two! :) Many thanks for including us in such a special celebration!

Taking a little time to Breathe.

"I love a broad margin in my life.  Sometimes, in a summer morning, having taken my accustomed bath, I sat in my sunny doorway from sunrise till noon, rapt in a revery." ~Henry David Thoreau

This past year, Chris and I have been making a conscious effort to take time to really reflect on the bigger picture for our life  - we're lucky enough to have a lifestyle that allows us to work for ourselves, travel, and have a flexible schedule, and we want to make the most of it!  We want to create a lifestyle where there is always space for Life to take place and we don't want our days to become so busy that we lose sight of all the possible life experiences that are available to us.  When we get stuck behind our computers and constantly remain working, it's easy to forget that we need to take time to just breathe and be present.  Our life needs to be about more than just cramming our days full of work, going to bed exhausted, and waking up to repeat this order!  In line with this idea, I've also been reading a great book (thanks to DJ!) called Minute of Margin  that is all about creating margin in our life, whether it's in our time, our finances, or our relationships.  I have been so reminded that our life is not about how busy we can stay, but about how full our life is because of the relationships and adventures that we allow ourselves to take part in. 

So as Chris and I have been reflecting on ways to create margin in our life, we decided this past Saturday that instead of staying home on a non-wedding weekend to "catch up" (there's always more "catching up") we would drive up to Vail and go for a hike together for the day.  We wanted to share these pictures we took of the places that continue to exist around us, even when we are caught up in work or feel stressed out by our to-do list.  These beautiful places are always around us - it's just up to us to take time to enjoy them.  Hopefully you might be reminded, as we were, that we should always make time to "sit in our sunny doorway from sunrise till noon, rapt in a revery." :)