Tag Archive for 'Portrait'

Getting Great Wedding Photos, Tip #16: Pause for Magical, Floating Light


toy cam bride

Okay: I’m being (more than) a bit flowery, but I think it’s a valid point.  Light is our medium.

Congratulations, Amy & Osamu!

photo: Gia Canali

Negar & Peter’s Elegant Downtown Los Angeles Wedding

giacanali-051

giacanali-001

Negar and Peter’s wedding was fantastically formal, glamorous, and richly textured in a way that very few weddings here in California ever are.  If I could think of one phrase to describe this wedding, it would definitely be, dressed to the nines.  Of course, that phrase makes a lot of sense when a fashion stylist weds a writer.

{click any image to enlarge}

giacanali-061 giacanali-006 badgley mischka dress giacanali-003 giacanali-004 giacanali-064 giacanali-063

giacanali-007

giacanali-008

giacanali-010

giacanali-049 giacanali-050

Above: Tiny Pine Press designed and handmade these formal letterpress wedding invitations for Negar & Peter.  I love how they look like they might have come out of grandma’s wedding album … or an F Scott Fitzgerald novel.  They make me hope for a return to classical wedding design.

Negar & Peter had a traditional Persian ceremony, fireside, with a beautifully decorated sofreh. In Persian ceremonies, I love when all the girls (sisters, friends, mothers, aunts, etc.) get up and sprinkle the couple with sugar flakes.  What wedding couldn’t use a little sweetness like that?

giacanali-014

giacanali-021 giacanali-015 090giacanali giacanali-023 giacanali-024 giacanali-022 giacanali-026 giacanali-056 giacanali-027

Negar called on her gifted pals, Joseph Free and David Rogers, who are usually busy designing events for Vogue and fashion designers, to design the florals and decor for her wedding. Inspired by their handiwork, and not surprisingly, this is the wedding that made me rethink baby’s breath.  Heaps of lacy-soft baby’s breath and the warm glow of candlelight, it turns out, are pure magic. Here are a few of the intricate and particularly stellar details:

giacanali-5

giacanali-2 giacanali-3 giacanali-7 giacanali-1 giacanali-19 giacanali-4 giacanali-41 giacanali-035 gia146

giacanali-029giacanali-046 giacanali-047

Even the wedding’s tiniest guests were dressed up and ready to party:

giacanali-038 giacanali-037

giacanali-041 giacanali-042 giacanali-045 giacanali-043

giacanali-048

We were honored to have this wedding featured in C Magazine’s C Weddings this April and are doubly thrilled that it’s being shown off on Style Me Pretty {here} today as well.

photographs: Gia Canali; venue, The California Club; invitations: Jennifer Parsons, Tiny Pine Press; floral design: Joseph Free; event decor: David Rogers; gown: Monique Lhuillier; bride’s jewels, vintage Neil Lane; shoes, Valentino

Getting Great Wedding Photographs, Tip #14: Be Thoughtful About Making Your Group Photo List

mother-and-bride

I’ve been told a couple of times that people wish they’d taken the making of their formal group photo “list” more seriously.  So think about the group photos you and your family will really want to have later on.  The truth is that the family photo list is not only an organizational tool, used for estimating time needed for the photographs you want and for calling people into the shots; when wedding days go how they sometimes go, these are the shots your photographer will fight to get.

photo: Gia Canali

Things I Like: Paper (in general &) New Cards by Tiny Pine Press

I’m pretty much smitten with these new business cards made just for me by Jennifer Parsons of Tiny Pine Press.  If you see me soon, you just might get one …

{but in the meantime, click any image to enlarge!}

tinypine-giacanali2

tinypine-giacanali4 tinypine-giacanali1 tinypine-giacanali3

… which reminds me: although it’s always fun to see my photographs in print, this is maybe my favorite “press” ever—front page of the Smyth County (VA) and neighboring county newspapers, with a larger-than-life full color print made from a bleached out Fuji 100c negative.  This image of Jennifer looks somehow just right on newsprint paper.

tinypine-giacanali9 tinypine-giacanali10

photographs: Gia Canali

Jillian & Dax’s Romantic Handmade Everything California Mountain Elopement

giacanali-20

Seeing two of your beloved friends marry is its own particular joy, and although I might be (therefore) biased in saying so, Jillian & Dax’s super-secret informal mountain wedding celebration was just about perfect: romantic, personal, and really laid-back.  Everything was handmade. Everything. And everyone who came pitched in to make the wedding happen.  One friend made the cake, another painted the wooden cake-toppers.  One friend did Jillian’s makeup (actually, the same friend who painted the cake toppers); another did Jillian’s hair.  Of course, I took the photographs.  My husband Matt was making fruit salad until just before he started taking pictures himself. Their friend, Kelly, who married them also barbequed the meat for dinner.  Lots of folks pitched in to make dinner … and the tissue paper pom poms you can just barely see in the few reception photos.  I was “off-duty” at the reception; we just set up a photo booth and let people snap pictures of themselves which are too, too hilarious to share on this blog.

giacanali-01 giacanali-22 giacanali-60 giacanali-24 giacanali-35

Jillian made her own wedding gown, including the pattern for it.  She deconstructed a vintage dress to make the pattern for the bodice, sewed it, and then began to work on the doilies.  It took three weeks and over two miles of crochet yarn to complete the effect.  I am still marveling at all the detail.  Nobody I know can envision a wildly ambitious project and then pull it off like Jillian can.

giacanali-29 giacanali-05 giacanali-16 giacanali-03 giacanali-23

giacanali-15

giacanali-02

giacanali-14 giacanali-17 giacanali-32 giacanali-12 giacanali-27 giacanali-25 giacanali-13

If you look closely at those little cake-toppers, you’ll see that they’re “dressed” just as Jillian, Dax, and their daughter Phi were, right down to the tiniest details (even Dax’s ascot—Jillian made the real life version from the lining of her dress!).  After the cake-cutting, Jillian changed into a custom-made safari suit to match Dax’s. How cute is that?

giacanali-08 giacanali-11 giacanali-07 giacanali-30 giacanali-18 giacanali-19

photographs: Gia Canali; hair, Angelina Yuge, 562.686.6200 (she is actually a makeup artist!); makeup, Nicole Burg, 818.970.9582; cake topper forms, Goose Grease Undone (she also makes custom-painted ones, here); Dax and Jillian’s custom safari suits, safarisuits.biz; flowers, LA Flower Mart, arranged by the bride.  We’re thrilled and honored that Jillian & Dax’s wedding is being featured over on {100 Layer Cake} today!

Real Weddings :: Eunice & Daniel: One Lucky Wedding

giacanali-lucky-1624

Welcome to Eunice & Daniel’s wedding!  Eunice and her sister Sabrina own Hello!Lucky, while Daniel designs video games at Three Rings, and frankly, I can’t think of a craftier, more inventive—or more exuberant!—crew to plan a wedding.  Eunice designed pretty much everything and she and her friends, led by sister and maid-of-honor, Sabrina, worked tirelessly to make sure those designs became a reality. Much of the inspiration for the wedding’s design is from Tim Walker’s photographs.  Walker’s work has always fascinated me, as it demonstrates, in intricate detail, how Britain was, is, and always will be a magical place, if improbably so.  See his work, if you aren’t already familiar with it.  You’ll know what I mean.  The little stage Eunice and Daniel were married on and the whimsical parade to the ceremony site, led by Daniel with his white unicorn, are lifted straight from Walker’s (or … Eunice-and-Daniel’s) imagination.

{click any image to enlarge the gallery}

giacanali-lucky-3591 giacanali-lucky-3607 giacanali-lucky-3592 giacanali-lucky-3620 giacanali-lucky-3642 giacanali-lucky-1249 giacanali-lucky-3507

Below: a few images from the ceremony. I love the flower girls dumping the confetti on each other!!  The stage was lovingly made by the crew at Because We Can and painted by Eunice and friends.  (The stage now has a home behind Eunice & Daniel’s bed, which is the perfect sort of re-purposing of wedding decor, I think).  Eunice designed her dress and her friend and colleague, Hello!Lucky’s London office head, Iain Harris Bartlett, sewed it for her.

giacanali-lucky-3595 giacanali-lucky-3610 giacanali-lucky-3550

giacanali-lucky-3553 giacanali-lucky-2388 giacanali-lucky-3556

flower girls lucky ceremony overview giacanali-lucky-3576 giacanali-lucky-3578

giacanali-lucky-3527 giacanali-lucky-3529 giacanali-lucky-3528

The day passed by at lightning speed, as it really always does at weddings.  I was so happy to have a few moments with Eunice and Daniel along the winding dirt road and in the wide, grassy fields at {Wilbur Hot Springs}.

giacanali-lucky-3715

giacanali-lucky-3695 giacanali-lucky-1582-Edit giacanali-lucky-3692

giacanali-lucky-1591

giacanali-lucky-3723

The details of this wedding were myriad, intricate, and marvelous.  Nearly everything was made by hand, and much of it by Eunice, Daniel, and their friends. There was so much to look at (and photograph and share!) that I needed a dedicated post to do those details any sort of justice at all.  Here are just a few, though.  Sharla Flock designed the florals, which were rich and varied and added so much color and texture to the wedding.  The cake topper is hilariously cute (worth clicking to enlarge!).

giacanali-lucky-3656 giacanali-lucky-3728 giacanali-lucky-3669 giacanali-lucky-3647 giacanali-lucky-3524 giacanali-lucky-3523 giacanali-lucky-3613 giacanali-lucky-3707 giacanali-lucky-3667

The guests were dressed to match the wedding perfectly, even the littlest ones.  It gave me the feeling that we were all in a movie we couldn’t see being filmed.

giacanali-lucky-3636 giacanali-lucky-1639 giacanali-lucky1265

giacanali-lucky-1356 giacanali-lucky-3683 giacanali-lucky-1250

As night fell, the party began in earnest.  There was square-dancing and Eunice’s sister, Sabrina, sang a song.  Their father accompanied the band on his mandolin for another song.  And, yes, Eunice and Daniel really did cut the cake with a cleaver.  I think Daniel might have a collection …

giacanali-lucky-2705

giacanali-lucky-1816 giacanali-lucky-1821-2

giacanali-lucky-1963 giacanali-lucky-2886

giacanali-lucky-2010 giacanali-lucky-2079

For fewer, larger photographs, please see {this gallery} on my main site.  And satisfy your floral-detail-loving-cravings {here}.  Hello!Lucky posted a great feature on their, site, too, complete with a gallery and diy wedding project instructionals, and it’s {here}.

photographs by Gia Canali; wedding design, Hello!Lucky; paper goods, Hello!Lucky and Joel Dewberry; wedding planning, Lisa Feldman Designs; Daniel’s dapper suit, Al’s Attire; bridesmaid’s dresses, Al’s Attire and Jessica Bobillot; Eunice’s fascinator, Jennifer Behr; cake topper, Publique Living;  stage, wooden table “numbers,” and parade props, Because We Can and Hello!Lucky; lighting design, Jimmy Duhig, Creative Lighting Design; Eunice designed her dress and it was handsewn by her friend Iain Harris Bartlett. Go handmade!!

Wishing You a Very Merry Happy Christmas!

merry christmas

Merry Christmas, friends.  I hope the holidays are dazzling and warm for you this year.

photo: Gia Canali

Happy Weekend!

flowergirl and ringbearer

I found this photo while I was digging through my archives, searching for something else.  It’s such a happy find!  LA is a bit dreary today, even though we are all pretty thrilled about the rain (we wait for it ever-so-long …).

photo: Gia Canali