Cee Gets MARRIED!

We don't often make many posts about things other than photography on this blog, but we're hoping to change that this year.  And what better to post about than my wedding last September!

I think the first thing my Mom said when Ken and I announced we were engaged all the way back in September of 2011 was "FINALLY!" which we soon discovered we'd hear quite often during our year-long engagement.  But we couldn't deny the truth in that word...we had been dating for 8 years before we decided to make it official.  

As a wedding photographer, you may think I was a proactive bride who immediately began planning the big day.  Not so much!  Though we did make the important decisions right away: style, number of guests, colors, wedding party and, of course, photographer.  Linda told me almost immediately "I'm not taking your wedding pictures," and I couldn't help but agree with her, she was my Maid of Honor, afterall and I suppose I couldn't very well have her as both...so she tells me.  Despite a tight budget I know that photography is not something to skimp on and I delegated a substantial portion of the wedding funds to a photographer I trusted to capture the day's events.  I have to tell you, it was some of the best money I ever spent!

As for the planning, I admit, I had some pretty lofty design goals for the wedding: Design my own invitations and paper goods, find an incredibly spectacular statement necklace, fold and display 1000 paper cranes and ultimately arrive on the other side a happy and blushing bride.  Thank goodness for friends and family...especially my Mom and Linda!  I'm not quite sure I would have made it to the end in one piece without them!

Fast forward to September 29, 2012. Ken and I were married at Capitol Park in Downtown Sacramento amongst our family, closest friends, and 1,000+ paper cranes.  Our dear friend, Rudy, officiated our wedding ceremony and gave a beautiful speech that was straight from the heart.  Though Linda and I have been to many many weddings and worked with many brides, it's hard to imagine what being at the altar feels like until you're finally standing there placing a ring on your new husband's finger...to say it's a life changing moment feels like a bit of an understatement.  Afterwards, we enjoyed a casual lounge reception at MIX Downtown.  Our friends and family gave some truly amazing speeches (Linda totally killed the MOH speech--she had a customized slideshow story with music and everything!  That's going to be hard to beat!) we danced the night away and ended the night walking barefoot back to our hotel with tummies full of 2am Korean tacos.

After brunch the next day we were MORE than ready to hop our plane bound for Maui to enjoy a little sand, sun and SPAM!

It's hard to believe that was just a little more than three months ago, and I'm sure before I know it I'll be saying "It's hard to believe that was 20 years ago!" but time flies when you're having fun.  And I gotta say, being married is damn fun.

(l-r) Brian, Linda, Laura, Alex, Ken, Corey, Kate, Stacy, Ryan, Philip, Mari & Nick

Made by lovely bridesmaid, Kate! 

Goose, anyone?

*Photography by the ever-wonderful, Carmen Salazar Photography

Sacramento Portrait Photographer - Seniors

School is about to start, and for all of you high school seniors out there you know it's time to cram in those high school memories before you venture off into college life, or "the real world," as everyone seems to be calling it now-a-days.  These two cousins, Bree and Maurin, were so gracious to pose for us on one of the first warm days of summer in Sacramento.  We ventured out to the newly revamped R Street in downtown Sacramento to poke around and find fun spots to photograph.  

We had so much fun with them and we love photographing high school seniors in pairs or groups.  It makes for great spontaneous laughing shots (like a few of the ones below!)  Not to mention, it's great to have pictures of you and your friends that you can look back on.  I know Linda and I have some great/embarrassing old photos of us back in High School that we'll have fun looking at when we're old and grey.

Don't you agree that these types of senior shots are so much better than the ones that end up in your yearbook?  My parents have kept my High School Senior portrait (you know, with the classic black velvet smock-thing and the pearls) on their bookshelf for years, if only they had one like this, I think I might be less embarrassed of it now!

Not that Bree and Maurin have to worry about that...it REALLY helps that they're so photogenic! Thanks for a great day, ladies.  Best of luck in the new school year!

Food Photography - The BEST Birthday Cake!

Although, Sacramento will always be home and it's sometimes rough being away from family, friends, Linda and my biz living in the bay area has it's perks.  One perk being a bart ride away from hanging out with my cousin, Laura!  After a delish, but after a rather un-birthday-like cake last year I decided that we should up the ante and do something a little more spectacular.

I'm a bit of a pinterest feind. (follow me on pinterest HERE) So I opted to make a "pinterest-worthy" cake for her birthday.  I took the design inspiration from another cake, and made it more Laura-like by combining the BEST yellow cake with a light chocolate butter cream and a rich chocolate ganache.  Finish that off with some edible heart-shaped gold sprinkles and you have the prettiest cake that you ever wanted to eat!

Laura made SUPER adorable precious stone wine stoppers! 

I kick myself because I have no pictures of the cake sliced (sorry, dear readers, but I confess I was much too busy eating it to pick up my camera.)

Want to make it too??
Yeah, you do.


Martha Stewart's Versatile Vanilla Cake

2 sticks (1 cup) softened unsalted butter
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 large eggs
3 large egg yolks
2 tsp vanilla extract (use the good stuff, it's worth it!)
1 cup low fat buttermilk

Preheat oven to 350. Butter and flour 2 8-inch baking pans.  If you are crazy like I am, you will add rounds of parchment on the bottom of the pans for easy removal.  Not necessary if you trust your pans and your buttering skills!
Cream together butter and sugar with an electric mixer until fluffy.  Beat in eggs, yolks and vanilla.  Combine remaning dry ingredients.  Alternately beat in dry mixture with the buttermilk into the butter/sugar mixture.  Martha recommends that you start and end with the flour mixture, but we can't all be as perfect as she, so don't sweat the small stuff.  It all tastes delish in the end!  Divide the batter between the two cake pans and smooth to the edges.  Bake them for approx 30-35 mins.  Run a knife around the edges of the pans and invert the cakes on to a wire rack to cool completely.  ...And I mean COMPLETELY.

Light Chocolate Buttercream

1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks) room temp
3 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp vanilla extract
4 tbsp milk or heavy cream (depending on how naughty you feel, it honestly doesn't make a huge taste difference)

Cream butter until fluffy.  Add the powdered sugar and cocoa with the mixer off (Genius me did it with the mixer on low and I came out looking worse for the wear.)  Mix them in slowly and bring the mixer up to speed and add the remaining ingredients.  Add more milk/cream if you think the frosting should be thinned a bit.

Dark Chocolate Ganache

1 package dark chocolate chip
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 tsp vanilla

In a double boiler melt the chocolate chips and heavy cream together.  The trick to a double boiler is to not let the simmering water touch the bowl hovering over it containing all your ingredients.  Despite the name "boiler" you should actually NOT have your water boiling.  Off the heat add your vanilla and mix.  Stick this in the fridge for a bit while you frost your cake.

Cake! Assemble!

If your cake is not cool, the buttercream WILL melt and you will have a mess on your hands.  A delicious mess, but a mess all the same.  This cake is amazing because you barely need to trim the top to have them fit together perfectly, but if you do need to trim some then go ahead and do so.  Frost your cake with as much buttercream as you want.  The whole batch covers and fills the cake quite generously.
Hopefully your ganache is not scaldingly hot by now.  It should be warm, but not hot.  Again, if it's hot the buttercream will melt.  Spoon the ganache on top of your frosted cake and use an offset spatula to push the ganache over the edges and let it do it's natural drippy thing.
Add your sprinkles or edible glitter as soon as you're done with this step.

Make sure to refrigerate your cake until about 1-2 hours before you're ready to eat it....if you can wait that long :)