Amber Events featured on Christine Chang's Photo Blog

What a lovely surprise to see an Amber Events shout out on Christine Chang's Blog! Christine is a phenomenal photographer who features video tutorials and advice columns for brides and budding photographers alike. We had the pleasure of going to Mexico with her for Mark & Jessica's wedding. It was nice to see her unwind as guest for that one.  She deserves it. This is a hard working gal! Thanks CC!

Wedding Industry Experts - Question # 8

Q. What do you do to prepare for a first meeting with a client? 

A. Initial consult meetings are done after a bit of email exchange or phone time, after the bride or groom has been informed of  my planning rates, and after  he or she has filled out a questionnaire that helps me gauge if they are realistic or not. I don't have time to meet with clients who have impossible budgets. In this pre-meeting stage I'm also sniffing out the crazies--if you text me on a Sunday morning why on earth would I sign up to work with you for one year???? You crazy.

Once a meeting is actually set I have a pretty good idea that this is the type of couple I want to work with, but sometimes I do get surprised. In order to do a great job I have to genuinely LIKE my clients! I'm happy to say that I truly adore my clients.

Meetings are a combination of getting to know the couple on a personal level, showing my portfolio, and seeing if we are the right fit for each other. I believe that this is a chemistry based relationship and we all have to be on the same page. As much as they are interviewing me, I'm interviewing them and sometimes I have not accepted a client because it did not feel right.

Engagement session featured on Grey Likes Weddings

 Mark and Jessica's engagement photos were featured on Grey Likes Wedding's site and we are very happy to share them with you! Caroline Tran is the photographer who captured this couple so beautifully both for this engagement session and their wedding at Bel Air Bay Club. The wedding photos are soon to come, but for now please enjoy these images. I especially love that they used their own canoe in a nearby Venice Canal. What a perfect date!

Pretty Pictures: Underwater Canines

I wouldn't go as far to say that these pictures fit the category of Pretty Pictures, but I just couldn't help but sharing how cool these are! Seth Casteel is the very talented lifestyle pet photographer from Little Friend's Photo. This underwater experiment was to showcase how dogs playing fetch look like under water.  Drink a glass of wine, I'm sure these images will end up looking 10x more amusing.

After spending a week with my family and their two dogs, Penny and Benji, I realize how people like they can be. Penny is a little hot dog and Benji a black lab (similar to the one pictured below). Their expressive eyes and and desire to please make them the most perfect companion. 

I loved playing fetch with them too! Well that's till their toys got so slobbered on, I called it quits. 

Even my neighbor just got himself the cutest Boston Terrier, and quite frankly...I'm jealous. 

This Boston Terrier wears T-shirts every other day with cool messages on them, like "California Cool" and "I'm the Man". 

Okay, I think I need to get myself one of these cool guys. I'm more convinced the more I write. 

For now, I'll have to settle by looking at their pictures.

Wedding Industry Experts - Question # 7

Today's answers are hilarious but make my stomach turn at the thought of some of those things happening to me! Check out the Wedding Industry Experts to see what everyone else had to say to this week's question.

Q. What is the worst thing that has happened at a wedding and how did you deal with it?

A. One wedding day I awoke to the sound of my cell phone ringing and my groom Matt telling me that a part of Broadway Street was being shut down for the Golden Dragon Parade. Uh, oh. Marvimon, the fabulous venue where their wedding and reception was being held, is located on Broadway, right on the edge of Chinatown . I pulled up maps of the parade route and breathed a sigh of relief when I saw that the parade ended 1/2 of a mile from Marvimon. I knew it was still going to be a sticky traffic situation, so I emailed all of the vendors and told them an alternate route to take to get there.

I asked one of my assistants to pick up a few dozen Krispy Kreme doughnuts on her way in that morning as I wanted everyone working that day to be hyped up on sugar and happy. The vendors started rolling in on time and things were looking good. At noon, the situation took a bad turn. Traffic police pulled up in front of us and started setting out cones to shut Broadway down right where we were! Big problem. I started getting calls from the servers who were trying to get to us and they said that there were blockades north of us as well. Huge problem. We were barricaded in!

Jeff, the Marvimon site manager, and I went to talk to the traffic officer to explain the situation. At first he would not relent, but after begging, asking to talk to a supervisor, and finally bribing him with doughnuts and red velvet cupcakes he gave us permission to let our valets park cars on the blocked off street. One crisis solved, now to get our guests through the barricades...

Jeff spoke to the officers north of us and finally got permission to let the wedding guests onto the closed street, and once we routed out a way get them to us, I called Matt's mom and asked her to spread the word to the guests.

People had trouble getting to us, but once they arrived, things just fell into place beautifully. We started the ceremony 10 minutes after our scheduled start time.