We write this on Thursday night, with New Year's approaching on Sunday. It seems like ...(not yesterday, but you get the idea) that we met Bethany and Wade on January 8th for our first wedding of the year at Biola University.
Forty events later, our recap reel of the year:
1/14: The Russian klezmer band at Rosie's bat mitzvah. Those guys never cracked a smile, but sure could swing.
2/11: Haroula and Alan's Greek wedding in Northridge. The Greeks--they sure know how to dance. On the floor, with wine glasses resting on their foreheads. Amazing stuff. We asked Haroula that night when she was returning from her honeymoon. "Never," she said. "I'm moving to Greece. Tomorrow."
3/5: Our favorite wedding of the year, the second time around for our friend Richard and his lovely bride Lisa, in Issy's comfortable living room. Big churches and temples are nice, but nothing beats a home wedding for closeness.
4/8: Our first visit to the fabulous new home of the Malibu Jewish Community Center for Sean's bar mitzvah. A photographer's dream. The place is swimming with light. Sean's blue eyes sparled from the daylight.
4/9: We've done a lot of bar mitzvahs at the
Manhattan Beach Marriott but this was our first wedding there, overlooking the lush green golf course. A great setting for a wedding. Just ask Wendy and Dima!
May: We're not naming any names, but one May bride had a huge, tattoo in the most unlikeliest of places--a portion of the body worshipped by men's magazines. We gulped. How's that going to look in a white wedding shot? Luckily, it was covered by the wedding dress, and the bride looked absolutely radiant.
6/6: Who could forget the couple who wanted to walk down the aisle at 6:06 p.m. on June, 6, 2006? In a Los Angeles restaurant absolutely dripping in blood red motif. Well, made for one interesting evening. And great, memorable pix.
7/15: An afternoon at our favorite local hotel, the
Manhattan Beach Belamar, where Jane and Brian walked down the aisle--and posed effortlessly by the pool and ocean.
8/19: Our first of three 2006 visits to the historic
Wayfarers Chapel in Palos Verdes for Marisa and Oliver's wedding at the "church in the trees." If you've never had the experience, you've got to check it out. The most unique wedding setting in Los Angeles.
9/30: The big one. Kristina and Vazken at a huge Armenian church in Hollywood, followed by an incredible photo shoot at historic Union Station in downtown Los Angeles and reception in the Valley. Our couple were so happy being together, they seemed like they'd just met--in fact, they'd eloped three years earlier in Las Vegas. They just wanted to make it official.
10/7: Our first time to
Congregation Ner Tamid in Palos Verdes. Like in Malibu, Ner Tamid is also really generous with light. Ner Tamid is high atop a hill in PV, overlooking the city below. We love it there and look forward to returning in 2007.
11/25: Noah's bar mitzvah at Temple Israel of Hollywood and party at the Lakeside Golf Club. The first bar mitzvah we've ever attended with a high octane rock and roll band,
Can't Sit Down. Such energy! No more DJs folks--live musicians are the real thing.
Here's to more live music in 2007! As the bar mitzvah boy himself put it, "rock on!"
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