I knew it would be dangerous going into this shoot. Not because I’m afraid of babies, but more so because I’d be afraid of wanting to have my own baby after getting to see Charlie. I was right. Should have known, my intuition is hardly ever wrong. While editing the photos, I couldn’t help but gush.. constantly over just how cute Charlie is. This is not good for Adam and I.

Charleigh and I work together and it has been such a blessing to be her friend. I can’t believe that it’s almost been two years since Adam and I were celebrating at their wedding. Every time I’d see her at work while she was pregnant, I couldn’t help but just smile because I was so happy for her, but also a bit envious of her beautiful pregnant glow. Being able to get a sneak peek of her new family with baby Charlie was such a blessing to me because I got to witness firsthand the joy that is just overflowing from the Sights household. I am so incredibly happy for Char and Brandon and their beautiful baby boy.

Who could say no to that face?

Can you just feel my heart melting? *sigh*

All of these animals were hand painted by Char and Brandon. It’s absolutely amazing. Wow.

Thank you Char and Brandon for sharing Charlie with me for a little bit! He is so precious!

I love a couple that smiles. Joy just oozes out from them and you can’t help but catch it yourself. Elaine and Scott were all smiles all day long and it was such a fun day to capture.

When the bride and groom take a pho lunch break in the middle of their wedding day, man… you’ve hit the jackpot. I texted Adam to make him a little envious of our pho break. In case you don’t know, my husband loves pho and all things noodle and soup. He clarified for me yesterday that he loves me more than noodle soup. Who knew I was such a lucky girl?

The Galangs and I started our day at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church in Rancho Penasquitos, took some shots at Oceanside Pier and then ended up at a beach house in Oceanside.

This dish was from her parents’ wedding.

Pho break!

Marilou and Dan are so cute. I love a man who isn’t afraid to carry a purse.

Oceanside Pier.

Can you say, “CARNE ASADA”? Mmm….

Of course, I couldn’t help but want this cutie to smile for me. He was reluctant so I asked him to make some funny faces and then he smiled. Look at those eyes!

I love how Dan matches Marilou with his purple shirt and tie.

First dance.

Another special thanks to the Galangs for having me again! Check out Daniel’s new blog at http://www.danielgalangblog.com

If one were to dig through my closet, you’d find many random bags and purses there. It’s quite an obsession. A big one. Ever since I was six years old and I had my first toy purse, I’ve always been compelled to carry miscellaneous necessities (in my eyes, at least) along with me wherever I go. Back when I was younger, I used to carry random toys and stuffed animals with me. Maybe even a book or two. As an adult, I have yet to kick this tendency and since my go-to purse right now is a huge Coach one, I carry lots more misc. things with me everywhere I go now. Plus, as I’ve gotten older, my purses seem to continue to grow in size.

Adam probably doesn’t enjoy the fact that I lug around a huge purse, but that’s only because when I need an extra hand, he often has to carry it. But hey, when people need kleenex, hand sanitizer, two kinds of chapstick or lip gloss, pens, gum, tampons, tylenol, eye drops, etc… who has it?! Me! I’m not a light traveler either, but don’t start getting judgmental because when you start asking for Tums or Q-tips, you know who to ask. Miss Carry-it-all.

Isn’t the Boy Scout motto, “Be Prepared”? Well, as the wife of an Eagle Scout, I am proud to say I am.

My affinity for bags and purses is quite easy to manipulate. Put a pattern fabric on a bag and it will be hard for me to walk away from it without purchasing it or thinking of ways of explaining to Adam why I need it. Especially if it’s a really cute and colorful fabric. So when I came across these cute hobo bags on Etsy, I had to bookmark them to save for my future purchases.

These are from Moop’s etsy shop.

These bags are made Retrofied’s etsy shop. They are so many different patterns, it makes me want lots of different ones to match each outfit.

I really love the larger ones because I could carry my laptop around it in. But then, again… do I really need a BIGGER bag?

Zandi is an amazingly talented singer and performer and I have always admired her from afar ever since the first time she blew our minds at UCSD APSA’s Talent Show. I also regularly follow her YouTube video series and continue to be in awe at the voice that God has given her. (Check them out: zsos music). Some musical artists out there can sing and then there are those that can SANG! And Zandi is one that can SANG. Really. I’ve always loved listening to her and watching just how God works in her life.

Not surprisingly, she comes from a family of songbirds - five sisters actually, and their Mom is also a songbird herself! Zandi and Rich were blessed with a special performance from so many loved ones and I was floored by all the talent overflowing at their wedding reception.

After shooting her wedding with the Galangs (Daniel and Vaness), I was also not surprised to learn just beautiful Zandi really is, inside and out.

Weddings are SO much fun when the couple loves to ham it up for your camera. I love it when people act silly and goofy for me and it just makes the whole day incredibly fun to shoot. And then before you know it, you’ve shot 2000+ photos and can’t pick your favorites!

Zandi wore her mom’s wedding dress.

So beautiful. Gosh, I love brides on wedding days… they just glow!

Their impromptu “first look”

Don’t they just look so bad ass?! I love it when clients let go of all inhibitions!

I LOVED these cranes decorated all throughout the backyard.

Rich’s vows were so touching and straight from the heart. I couldn’t hold back my tears!

And then Zandi’s were so pure and genuine. These two were meant for each other!

I loved the cherry blossoms in this tree - so delicate, yet romantic.

They’ll be welcoming a baby boy in August! Can you believe how cute Zandi is? God willing, when I get to be preggers, I KNOW I won’t be small and cute… at all.

They’re going to have such beautiful babies.

The couple during the maid of honor speech. And to honor Rich’s heritage, they dressed up in traditional Korean wear. Such bold colors and perfect for pictures!

Cupcakes!

More paper cranes…

Thank you Zandi and Rich for allowing me to share in a little morsel of the love story God is writing for you and your family. It was such a blessing to be a part of your special day! Can’t wait to meet your little boy soon!

And a special thanks to the Galangs for having me come along! It was fun shooting with you BOTH!

Check out the slideshow!

Dear Adam,

I can’t believe April is already over. It flew by so quickly just like a blur. I think I was definitely right when I predicted a month ago that it was the calm before the storm. It’s definitely quite “stormy” at the moment. This is going to be a long letter…

Just right now, you went home after spending the whole weekend with me. An eventful one at that, but you helped me all weekend with packing and cleaning up this apartment of mine. Thank you. I know I already told you several times, but I wanted to say it again because even though I know you despise all “my stuff,” you still chose to help me and make this whole moving process smoother and easier for me. Thank you.

The first weekend of the month we had our invitations work party. I am so thankful that we have such great friends that are willing to come and be tortured by pink paper, stamps, double-sided tape, ribbon, envelopes and boxes. You were the cutest stamper. And you took my gentle, loving criticism very well about how you were doing with stamping. It was great to finally see what I’ve been envisioning in my mind for months finally come to fruition. They turned out great and finally sending them out was such a relief! Now we just have to wait for reply cards and I love that you’ve been keeping me informed almost everyday about who is coming and who is not. This wedding is actually happening!

(Invitations Work Party Friends :: April 2008)

Early this month, my wedding gown finally arrived. I was super nervous to go see it because I’d be trying on MY dress. The one I’M going to wear. When I tried it on, Dexie was so super surprised that it was kind of big on me. So when she measured me and found out that I had lost two inches in almost all my measurements she was so impressed! So was I! I didn’t know what I was more excited about… the fact my dress finally arrived OR the fact that I lost weight! I think it honestly might be the latter. I have to say that I cannot wait for you to see me in that dress. I have such a hard time keeping surprises from you that it’s taking just about all my strength to keep from not showing you what it looks like. I hope you’ll like it. It really is so pretty.

Your car got towed this month. That was an experience all in itself. After over a year of parking the fire lane whenever you dropped by real quick, your Subaru was towed away. I felt absolutely horrible because you had come to visit me. It was also infuriating that they towed it… were they just waiting for you to leave your car? You really only had visited me for less then 15 minutes. Boo. Finally after midnight and several hundred dollars later, you got your car back from the tow yard. Needless to say, we learned our lesson.

This month, I took a 4-week intensive at The Rock Harbor Church in Costa Mesa put on by Dane Sanders, Jessica Claire and Mike Colon. It was such an incredible blessing in my life to be able to go to this and I had an amazing time each week. A part of our assignment was to try to take 100 pictures everyday. This was somehow magically interpreted as “try to take as many photos of Adam everyday without him getting mad at me and see if I can get close to 100 of them.” You were quite gracious about it for probably the first 20. I did get some nice shots of you this month and I am still on cloud nine because Mike Colon said that my photo of you was interesting.

(Missional Photography Workshop :: April 2008)

(Mike Colon :: April 2008)

(My “Interesting” Photo :: April 2008)

We started to receive gifts from our registry this month in large numbers. It’s weird that the items we spent days scanning in January are sitting in your house (and your parents’ house) right now. I guess it never really sunk in that people would actually BUY these things for us. I feel incredibly blessed and grateful that people have been so very generous. Opening presents has been super fun with you. Your expressions are priceless.

(Opening gifts :: April 2008)

(More priceless expressions :: April 2008)

(My own expression :: April 2008)

(Fragile: Handle with Care :: April 2008)

We celebrated our 6-year anniversary this month. I cannot believe it’s been 6 whole years with you. When I look back and think about just how much we’ve been through, I find it challenging to wrap my head around it all and fully comprehend just how much God has blessed us. You left the sweetest card on my car on our anniversary that brought me to tears. I bought you some pajamas pants because the ones I borrowed from you that “mysteriously” walked away from your home and has found its way into my apt might not return… Here’s hoping that God gives us many, many more anniversaries to celebrate in the years to come.

(Anniversary :: April 2008)

We had a bridal shower frenzy-filled weekend April 11th-13th. Your sister Lauren and your mom’s friend Mrs. Bolos both threw bridal showers up in the Bay Area. All in one weekend! We flew Virgin America and it was so much fun! From the cool mood lights, to the interactive LCD screens, to the super cool remote control… it was so much fun. I don’t think I ever want to fly Southwest again. *wink*

(Feet at the airport :: April 2008)

(Virgin America :: April 2008)

The bridal showers were amazing. Lauren’s was in Sacramento at a restaurant in the Sheraton hotel. The food was great and the company was wonderful. Oh… and the cake… AMAZING. Yum. It was nice that you got to spend time one-on-one with your grandpa while the ladies were out “showering” me. It is always a pleasure to see your family and I love that they are becoming more and more, MY family too.

(Lauren’s Shower :: April 2008)

(Hanging out with family in Sacramento :: April 2008)

Mrs. Bolos’ shower was also very fun. She has a beautiful patio/deck that overlooks the city where the tables were set up. The food again was delicious and it was nice to meet your mom’s friends. We played a game where we had to figure out the identity of all these different white powders. By the end of it, I was guessing that everything was sugar. Hehe. We also played the toilet paper bridal gown game. Your sister helped make a really beautiful one on Allison. At both showers, I was glad that you had the chance to say hello and watching you re-open the gifts back at your parents’ house was fun.

(Mrs. Bolos’ Shower :: April 2008)

(Opening gifts :: April 2008)

That weekend was definitely a crazy one, but it definitely gave us a taste of what to expect. People said the sweetest things about us and had the nicest best wishes for us. It really excites me to see everyone in July at the wedding.

(SFO International Airport :: April 2008)

The weekend after that, Jackie and Jeffrey came to visit us for a weekend since they were both on Spring Break. You were gracious enough to share me that weekend. We also had our engagement session that Saturday with Jenetta. It was so much fun! Who knew? It was kind of a gloomy day, but Jenetta took some amazing shots of us and it was really nice to get some professional photos done of us. She found such sweet spots around UCSD and I love the photos so much. It was nice to have someone capture moments between you and me that normally aren’t captured on film to remember for always. That same weekend, Jackie and Jeffrey helped us to finish our invitations and we finally sent them off! YAY!

(My fave of the engagement photos :: April 2008)

And the last weekend of the month, I shot my first wedding as a “fourth shooter” with Jen Harris, Melissa McClure and Jared Slack. It was an amazing experience and I learned SO much from them. And I realized that I think I would actually really enjoy shooting weddings. It was so much fun to shoot with them and they were so nice about answering questions and sharing equipment. God couldn’t have blessed me with better friends. I still have lots to learn, but I’m so excited right now! It was quite an exhausting day and when I went home that night, it was such a sweet surprise to have you be there with soup for me to eat. And on top of that, you massaged my feet, which I totally needed that night. I could get used to this, you know.

(My fave shot from the wedding :: April 2008)

*exhale* Phew… that was an amazing month. I didn’t even include EVERYTHING we did, but man… this storm is sure brewing up and it doesn’t look like it’ll be going away until maybe after the wedding. We’ll be moving into our new apt this Friday and I don’t think it’ll make sense until weeks from now that we’ve got a home of our own now.

Amidst all the madness though, I’m glad that I’ve got you by my side. You are my rock. You really are. You keep me centered when I go about on my own antics and stress myself out about all the things I find myself doing. You are so mild and even keel… and I’m not. I’m up and down and all around. But still, you love me. When I feel like there’s absolutely no reason for you to love me, you tell me you do and all is right in the universe. When it’s just you and me in the world, I feel everything just melts away and I can take on anything because I’ve got you by my side. Thank you for lifting me up so I could shine this month. I needed that and you were there to help me.

It’ll be exactly two months tomorrow until our wedding. I cannot wait to be your wife, Adam. Thank you for choosing me. I love you!

With all my heart,
Jasmine

I’m hoping to do a monthly feature on my blog, in homage to one of my all-time fave blogs (Dooce), who writes a monthly newsletter to her daughter Leta. It is something I am planning on doing when Adam and I have children someday, God willing. However, since we currently have no children of our own, I thought I could write an open love letter monthly to my lovely, Adam. And when we do have children of our own, it’s too bad for Adam.

So here goes nothing:

(New Year’s Eve :: January 2008)

Dear Adam,

I can’t believe it’s already April. It seems like the short amount of time we have before our wedding just keeps flying by faster and faster. My countdown widget is telling me that we have less than 95 days until our wedding. I remember when that number was way over 200 and I thought our wedding day would never get here. Now that it’s quickly approaching, I have to say that I kind of wish it’d slow down a bit. Not just because my to-do list never seems to end and instead keeps on growing at a rate that is faster than the rate I complete the tasks… but more so because I feel like I need to enjoy this “calm before the storm” with you.

It does feel like it’s the “calm before the storm” because looking at our schedules in the next three months, it looks jam-packed and that’s all that we know of right now. I’m sure new things will keep popping up. Even within this upcoming month, we have tons of changes occurring and right now, I feel like I’m just trying to soak it all before it becomes a fast blur to July. We’ve got packing, moving, unpacking, finishing up the school year, all the last minute wedding preparations, showers, etc. Every weekend seems to be just about soaked up with something to do.

While working on wedding stuff yesterday, I came across these photos of us from Mike and Kelly’s wedding last May.

(Mike & Kelly’s Wedding :: May 2007)

First of all, I cannot believe it’s been almost a year since Mike & Kelly’s amazing wedding. (They had an awesome photobooth at the wedding done by the even more amazing Boutwells.) Secondly, these photos reminded me of the fact that it’s almost been a year since you and I have been engaged. We were very much in that “we just got engaged” high when these photos were taken of us and it was nice to think back to that time when we were just engaged and maybe this wedding stuff was only a dream.

And now Vaness and Daniel are engaged too! I am so happy for them. It has been such a blessing to us to be able to be friends with them and watch them grow in their own relationship with each other and God.

We are going to take our engagement photos this month. Even though I am super excited about this, I am also super nervous. I love hiding behind my camera. The fact that we’ll be in FRONT of a camera makes me nervous. I’m sure it’ll be fun once we get used to it, but it’ll be weird for me. I’ve been on a dress-obsession as of late in pursuit of the perfect engagement session dress. Hopefully I’ll stop being indecisive and just choose one. Or two maybe. I’m glad that we chose to our e-session at UCSD and not the beach. It just feels more “us” at UCSD. Plus, were just big dorks anyway… and if taking photos at UCSD makes us even bigger dorks, then that’s even more so “us.”

I like that you’re my college sweetheart.

(Garage Sale :: March 2008)

One of the upcoming changes that I am the most excited about within this next month is that we’re going to move into our new apartment. I don’t know what it is about this that I find exhilarating. More exciting than the fact that we’ll have “our home” and we can do what we want with our home, I think I’m looking forward to not having to say goodbye to you at the end of the night. Oooh, and having you come home to me, or me to come home to you. Sounds kind of silly I suppose, but I hate saying goodbye to you when you drop me off. I really do.

This past month, your mom came down and helped us with selling our junk at the garage sale. You drew me the cutest diagram last month explaining how when the stuff leaves the apt, it does NOT go back into the apt in the case when it does not sell. Being the more “pack-ratty” of the two of us, I didn’t quite understand where your excitement and tenacity to get rid of “Jasmine’s stuff” came from. I guess that’s why this relationship works. If both of us were pack-rats, it’d be the end of us.

I was super amazed when people started buying our old junk. Truly amazed. Like, who would want “fill in the blank”? People actually do! What a concept! And we made more than we needed to help offset moving costs. God is so good.

(Garage Sale :: March 2008)

I think the highlight of the garage sale was when that lamp of yours that I’ve been trying to get rid of for years made it’s appearance at the garage sale. You put the funniest card on it and made a good several people laugh. I love your sense of humor. I might not have always understood it, but now that I’m starting to really “get it,” I think I actually kind of like it.

(Garage Sale :: March 2008)

Y’know, I think one lady was really going to buy the lamp, but alas… the lamp did not sell. I guess we’re stuck with it for a little longer. Unless it just so happens to not find it’s way into our moving truck. “Where did it go?” asks Adam. “I don’t know,” says Jasmine innocently.

Hehehe.

Out of everything happening this upcoming month, what I am looking forward to most is our 6 year anniversary on April 11th. When I look back and think about how you and I have known and dated each other for all of our twenties, it is amazing to me that you still love me. When we met sophomore year at UCSD, I totally remember thinking, “What are the chances that you break up with your girlfriend, I break up with my boyfriend, you and I become friends, and then we date each other?” Ha! Yeah right!

(Our Engagement :: May 2007)

Well, God had a much better plan than I did and not only was He right in that you and I would end up dating… He was right when He whispered to me over and over early on before we were even dating, that you… Adam Ko, would be “the one” for me. I laughed in God’s face when He told me that six years ago. Literally laughed in His face. Thought I was hearing voices in my head. But now I suppose He’s the one laughing and smiling now, because six years later… I’m about to marry “the one” He’s created for me. I am so blessed to be your fiancee. Truly blessed.

Happy early anniversary love!

(And PLEASE don’t buy me that dang Coors Light hat for our anniversary. No, it will NOT be funny.)

Your love,
Jasmine