Janice and Stephen serenaded their guests with a song titled, “Undeserved Love.” It really stuck with me and made me think a lot about how much God loves us and just how incredibly undeserving we are of that. Unconditional love is a concept I think I’ll never fully understand, but I’m glad that God loves us unconditionally.

As a photographer, it was beautiful to see the love between Janice and Stephen on their wedding day and the love that poured out from their family and friends in fellowship. They had already had their formal engagement photos taken in Hong Kong, but I was very flattered when they asked me to capture their Western-style wedding in Los Angeles.

Proof that UCLA and USC can love each other! Janice went to USC, Stephen went to UCLA and they still got married!

The wedding was held at the Chinese Bible Church of West LA. A beautiful, old church with lots of history and character.

I loved the peonies!

Janice and her mother.

Stephen practicing pulling the veil over Janice’s head.

Such precious and CUTE flower girls. I couldn’t help, but follow them around with my camera. Can’t help but be drawn to kids!

Easily, the most organized and biggest group shot I have ever taken.

The Chinese character for “double happiness.”

I always love me some Chinese food. In fact, I often crave home-cooked meals. Total comfort food. Janice and Stephen brought the idea of “Chinese buffet” to a whole other level. Kevin and I were just drooling while taking these food shots!

The serenade from the bride and groom.

Thanks Janice and Stephen for sharing your special day with me! Thanks Kevin for coming out and second-shooting with me! And a special thanks to Cindy and Daniel of Orange Turtle Photography for referring me!

San Diego radio stations stink. It’s a strong statement to make, but when you grow up in LA where there’s a plethora of great music on a huge variety of stations, San Diego stations pale in comparison. My sister will often visit San Diego and we’ll be riding the car together with the radio on. A song will come on that’s considered “fairly new” in my eyes, only to have my sister respond that it’s been playing in LA for months. And I don’t know about you, but I often feel like our stations play the same stuff over and over and over and over again.

So when Sophie 103.7 came around a little over a year ago, it was such so refreshing to finally have some a great radio station in town. They often plays songs MONTHS before the other stations even start playing them. For example, Jason Mraz’s song “I’m Your’s” is now considered to be a little “old” on other stations, but it had been playing on Sophie since June of last year.

The songs they play are what would come on my iPod on shuffle. I lost my iPod on a plane and there’s been a void in the music I play in the car. One can only carry so many CDs. Plus, I spent a lot of time making playlists to fit my every mood. So when I lost my iPod, I didn’t grieve over the fact that I lost the physical mp3 player. I grieved and mourned for months for the loss of my playlists. I’ve been hoping that a special somebody who will remain unnamed Adam would have gotten the hint that I’m in need of a new iPod but I don’t think he’s caught on to my numerous hints.

Plus they have all these music lounges! They had some free ones last year and I got to go one with Anna Nalick.

Since the loss of my iPod, Sophie has helped to fill a void in my music life. Being a SoCal girl all my life, I was always intrigued whenever NorCal people would rave about their great music in the Bay. I heard numerous times about this radio station, Alice, and how wonderful it was. I remember thinking it was strange to name a radio station after a girl, but when I saw the Sophie 103.7 billboard over a year ago… I couldn’t help but wonder if it was the same wonderful radio station like Alice that every Bay Area person talked about.

Turns out, Sophie is a sister station to Alice! I’m so glad that they’re here in San Diego. They’ve filled a huge void the San Diego radio stations that’s been missing for as long as I’ve been down here.

When I created my iPod playlists, instead of naming them, punk rock or alternative what not, I actually named them with real names. Names that I have had bookmarked for years because like every other girl out there, I have my secret list in my head that I’ve started since I was a young girl playing house with my dolls and stuffed animals of what I want to name my kids someday. Since I do not plan on having 20+ kids, I figured I might as well use the names somewhere. So I had lists named: Dakota, Lorelai, Ryan, Kairi, Aslan, Roxy, etc., with music according to what I felt defined those names to me.

So it’s probably not a coincidence that I love a radio station with the name, Sophie.