Thank you to Ceremony Magazine for choosing to showcase this gorgeous Surf and Sand Wedding on the California Wedding Wave. Natalie & Phil had  an amazing beach front wedding ceremony and an amazing reception, coordinated and designed by Natalie Good with A Good Affair this past August. Natalie’s doggy was also her flower girl! I loved this wedding and I chose it on my website as one of the “featured” wedding galleries. Click the link below to see my wedding on Ceremony’s website/Blog!

Check me out on California Wedding Wave!
http://www.californiaweddingwave.com/2012/01/30/real-wedding-natalie-phil/

This is the blog as promised dedicated to all of wonderfully unique vendors at the Annual Knot party in OC.  Natalie Good with A Good Affair planned and designed the event hosted at one of the best venues in Orange County, Rancho Las Lomas in Silverado Canyon, California. This property is a Spanish Style, mulit-level venue complete with four tigers, including 2 white tigers, zebras, exotic birds, and the entire venue is canopied by trees. It is beautiful. As I said in my previous blog showcasing the design, decor, and venue, this was the best networking party I have ever been to. I cannot say enough great things about it, and it was super swanky and over the top! The sponsoring vendors below are some of the most unique wedding vendors I have seen. The food was great, the decor was gorgeous, the music bumpin’, and drinks and desserts were flowing! It was a great night. Check out all of the wonderful contributing vendors that Natalie put together.

 Natlaie good with A Good Affair Wedding and Event Production designed and coordinated the entire night! Great job Natalie!

Natalie designed and hand-made all the mirrors, as well as set up lounges and vendors throughout! It was cool and surrounded by Yummy dessert vendors!

      Kelley with Lavenders Flowers did all of the gorgeous floral arrangements!

 The Espresso Chauffeur was there to make custom flavored espressos all night.

The red carpet and prints provided to each guest by www.allureventures.com

 Another super unique vendor was the Ice Shavie truck providing custom Ice’s!

I had the opportunity to shoot this years Annual Knot Party in OC. First off, I want say how wonderful this night was! It was really over the top and Natalie with “A Good Affair” really outdid herself with the coordination and design.

The Knot has an annual party every year in OC. This year it was at Rancho Las Lomas, one of the best wedding venues in Orange County. This Spanish styled venue features two white tigers, zebras, birds throughout, and a multi-level venue that keeps you wondering. The night was titled “Cocktails and Connections,” and it was the best Networking event I have ever been to. Everything was amazing, from the food to the unique wedding vendors, not to mention the decor to the floral arrangements were just awesome. If you do not know what The Knot is, you are most obviously not in the wedding business or recently married. The Knot is one of the biggest Wedding Networks for bridal resources. The Knot has a national and local wedding magazine and website for brides looking for ideas, vendors, gowns, and wedding tools. Click on their website for more information on all The Knot has to offer!

I will be posting up a follow up blog to showcase all of the unique vendors, and this blog will be showcasing the amazing design aspects. All the Knot employees were very friendly and gracious. It really was a great night, sorry if you missed it!

Blog 2~ Unique Wedding Vendors of the Knot Party!
http://jaimeehubert.blogspot.com/2011/09/this-is-blog-as-promised-dedicated-to.html

The Knot Website:
http://wedding.theknot.com/?tksite=0&MsdVisit=1

Event Coordinator~ A Good Affair
http://www.agoodaffair.com/

 The lounge area with all the desserts was transformed from the usual brick patio!

 Natalie Good with A Good Affair coordinated and designed the entire event!

 The downstairs at Rancho Las Lomas was complete with couches and sitting areas, food vendors, elaborate tables, and a dance floor!

 The evening started out with a cocktail hour complete with hors d’oeuveres, a full bar, and the wonderful signature cocktail!

 The bump was also acknowledged which is a resource for expecting Mothers. They also have a magazine and online resource.

Just in case you missed the first blog on this engagement shoot I attached it below. This was a GREAT shoot, and I had a lot of images and versatility that I wanted to show. The first half of the shoot was shot in Downtown Laguna Beach, which is very urban and colorful. The downtown area has a lot of nooks and cranny’s where you can put a couple to make it look like you were at several locations. Natalie and Phil changed a few times as well to make it look like different places on different days. After we shot the urban downtown shots, we did some boardwalk and beach shooting. I am not a huge fan of shooting on the sand and/or at the beach. Unless I can use a downtown area next to the beach or it is the couples favorite place to be,  I try and talk my clients out of it. At this point, beach engagement shoots are very cliche, but if I can include things other then just the beach it can add to the shoot. With every couple the engagement shoot is about who you are as a couple, that is what I strive to capture. The love, happiness, sexy chemistry, etc. I like to capture it all and talk to the couple as we shoot to get them comfortable and forget we are shooting. I get a more natural feel when the couple is comfortable and into one another. I encourage my clients to dress how they normally would and not to get to “dressy” or formal for the shoot. That is what the wedding day is for. With this couple I really wanted some rustic and sexy shots as well, so I shot them in the brush off of the side of the road in Laguna Beach. We had a great time, Natalie and Phil are naturals in front of the camera. They will be wed the first weekend of August at the Surf and Sand in Laguna Beach coordinated by the wonderful Natalie Good with A Good Affair, and their pics are going to be AWESOME. We will do an underwater trash your dress session as well that will be tons of fun and very sexy! 🙂

PART 1 of this engagement shoot- Urban Downtown Laguna Beach
http://jaimeehubert.blogspot.com/2011/05/hot-laguna-beach-engagement-shoot.html

                     

 What is “With This Ring“…..and How could my ring really save a life?

Thanks for asking, I am going to tell you. About 4 years ago, Ali Eastburn started WTR when one night she had a vision much like Oscar Schindler. She imagined him in the movie looking down at his lapel and weeping because his gold lapel was worth 2 more lives, his watch worth 5 more lives….these things of value really equal life. Today….that is still the case!!! When Ali looked down at her wedding ring retailed at over $20,000 she knew she was being called to give it up, to start a charity through radical giving, and to give life to people in need of clean drinking water.

When Ali called me to tell me she wanted to start this charity I thought it was a wonderful idea, until she asked if I would give up my wedding ring. I laughed and replied “Heck NO!” However after hearing her story and realizing the value of my jewelry, I looked down at my $10,000 ring and Movado watch and new I had to do something as well. I told her she could have my first wedding ring, and I took the diamond out of my newer wedding ring and replaced it with a man made diamond. (nobody could tell the difference) I felt really good about it, and have not missed my diamonds since. To date, With This Ring has dug over a dozen wells in Ghana Africa, and is supplying clean drinking water to hundreds of African tribesman. The women of these tribes walk up to 7 miles a day to get un-clean drinking water. The water is infested with parasites and kills their people. The young girls cannot go to school as their job is to fetch the unclean water. Now through the efforts of WTR, hundreds of women and girls days are freed up for education, parasites are gone, and lives are being saved and transformed.

The wonderful part of this charity is the full circle effect it has on everyone. To radically give changes you and to radically receive changes them. The rings and jewelry that are donated are put up for auction at Bidding For Good, thus having a story and great meaning behind them. You can buy the jewelry and know that you are helping an amazing cause, and that someone gave up that ring making it that much more meaningful for the buyer. It is a great charity, and I encourage you to check out their website, follow their blog, and check out their auctions. Also, if you feel led, consider radically giving yourself. Do you need your diamonds, would fake ones make a difference to you? Real ones make a difference to them! You could even consider gold, other jewelry or a cash donation as well. You have more power to help then you think.

The pictures below are from the WTR Charity Gala held at the Disney Hotel, where more then 300 people were in attendance and over $30,000 was raised. Natalie Good with A Good Affair coordinated the event and did a great job as always!  www.agoodaffair.com

With This Ring Website:
http://www.withthisring.org/

Living Water Internationals Website: (find WTR on the homepage)
http://www.water.cc/

A picture taken by Ali of the drinking water used by a tribe in Ghana that she visited, they now have clean drinking water!

This women bought a ring and loves to tell the story, she also donated enough money that night to finish digging the well that her ring was supporting and is planning a trip to Africa to visit the well! AMAZING!

So maybe my blogs are being read, because here is another simple and awesome backyard wedding! I LOVE backyard weddings, especially daytime weddings. They are always so calm and easygoing. They have a feeling of it being all about the couple. Backyard weddings are not about the venue or putting on a show, they are about the unity and love of the couple. Usually everyone there is special and important to the couple so it is always a meaningful day. This wedding in particular was very meaningful because the groom is like family to me. Joe & Sandy met at our home church that we all belong to called, The Well. It was a special wedding and God has brought them together after all of these years of knowing each other. The wedding was set on top of a small creek in a great backyard. They rented tables and chairs, and surprisingly the food was done by the grooms twin sister. I was worried since the catering was not done by a company, and to my surprise it was better then any catering company. Natalie, with A Good Affair, was hired to do day of coordination for the event. She was there to oversee the day, timeline, put out small fires, help with everything, and she did the florals. Natalie is great to work with and ALWAYS does a great job.

I have had more and more couples every year have a simpler and smaller wedding. Many couples are spending a majority of their wedding budget on me (a seasoned photographer) and opting to have a backyard wedding, a beach or park wedding, a destination wedding, or something smaller or simpler then originally anticipated. Not just to save on money, but also to save on stress and to do something a little different. Backyard weddings can be a bit more themed or personal and you can do something less cookie cutter then an already themed venue.

Congrats Joe & Sandy……may your lives together be better then even God could have dreamed! I am very happy for you!

Another great wedding coordinated by Natalie Good, owner of A Good Affair Event Production. Natalie and I have worked together for years and I always love her weddings. They are not cookie cutter and each has it’s own uniqueness and classy flair. I personally love her taste. Tom and Liz Pinkava recently wed and we did the Getting Ready shots at The Biltmore in downtown LA, which was an awesome place for bridal portraits! Then we were off for a Catholic Mass wedding ceremony and a great reception at La Canada Flintridge Country Club. The wedding from beginning to end was classy. The reception had a great Mariachi during dinner and Andy Nation for Emcee and DJ. If you ever need a DJ, Andy Nation is GREAT! Ask him about his Venice Dance! Loved the bouquet and the purple heels! Natalie also did the florals on this event, and does a unique awesome job every time! I don’t do that many Los Angeles Weddings, so it is always a different vibe being in Downtown LA vs. OC.

A Good Affair Event Production (Also did florals)
www.agoodaffair.com

Andy Nation- Awesome Wedding DJ
http://www.justimaginedj.com/

La Canada Flintridge Country Club
http://www.lcfcountryclub.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=58&Itemid=30