Long's Photography: Thao and Johnny

I am a self admitted work-aholic (like you can't already tell by the blog!). This year, my birthday happened to fall on a Saturday, and being crazy, I decided to take a wedding. I know most of you think I am nuts, but it was so much fun! My good friend Monica from IMJ Photography came in from Gainesville to help me out and we had an absolute blast at Thao and Johnny's wedding!

I have to admit that I was intimidated at first-- a full Catholic mass mostly in Vietnamese!? But I found that it really freed me creatively to focus on everyone's reactions since I could not understand a word that was being said! I am really happy with the end result-- it is spontaneous, beautiful and real.

The "hardware".

It was really cool to have free reign of a church-- most churches really limit where we can be during the ceremony. This corner of the room allowed me to get wonderful reaction shots during the ceremony.

I think the ringbearer might have been at the bachelor party-- the 90 minute mass was a challenge for him to stay awake!

I impressed myself on Saturday... I don't think I have ever shot that many formal groups in that timeframe before. Thao and Johnny were such troopers as we did a million family groupings!

The reception decor was absolutely stunning! The guests were really pampered through the seven course meal!

After dinner, Thao changed into a traditional dress and the couple had their first dance.

I really enjoyed learning another culture's wedding traditions. I think my favorite was the toasts. The bride and groom go to each table and one person from the table gives them a toast. It was so funny to watch their reactions as table after table wished them lots of children!