This last Saturday Me Ra Koh Photography shot a Korean wedding. The vibrant colors of the women’s Hanbok dresses were breathtaking. But what moved me the most was seeing the bride’s Halmoni, her Korean grandmother.

My Halmoni died a few years ago, and it’s still hard to believe she’s no longer with us. When she was forty she converted to Christianity, and for the next forty years she prayed every morning for her children and grandchildren. Like clock work, she would wake up at 4am and pray for two hours. I went to her house one morning at 4 am to sit and pray with her, but I was so overwhelmed by her passionate cry to God I could only listen in awe.

When you haven’t lost a family member, you can tend to think they will always be there. There was a time when I couldn’t picture life without Halmoni making rice and kimchee for her grandchildren–Or throwing shoes at my little brother b/c she wanted him to stay home today. As a child, I didn’t realize she was the glue to our family. Because of her, my aunts and uncles and parents all lived on the same block for years. And there are days when I would give the world to be a little girl again, running from one auntie’s house to the next.

My dad was in his twenties when he left all that he knew in Korea to start a new life in America. But before he left my uncle captured this photo of my dad and Halmoni laughing on the floor together. My Halmoni was more of a serious nature, but it was my dad–her little boy–that could always make her smile.

This picture will always be among my most treasured. It’s amazing how much one image can say about a relationship.

These days I often find myself shadowing grandparents at weddings. Sometimes our clients are younger, and I wonder if they feel like their grandparents will be around forever. Now that I’ve lost my Halmoni I know better. And without realizing it, my heart goes searching for the moments shared between grandparent and grandchild–moments that show the obvious gap in generations but at the same time tell of the comfort and love we have always felt from our grandparents.

When you have a minute check out the write up that BluDomain did about our studio today. It’s part of the August 29th 2006 blog entry.

Their blog is amazing, always filled with great info for photographers! Definitely bookmark it if your a photographer!

Me Ra Koh Photography is thrilled to be one of their Blu Star Photographers! How fun!!

Today was a big day for Me Ra Koh Photography! I checked our statistics for the month of August, and we broke 2,000 “unique visitors”, and it’s not even the end of August yet.

As of today at 5:30pm, we’ve had 2038 Unique Visitors, 2825 Number of Visits (return visits), and 14686 Pages Viewed on our Website for August! We’re even averaging 100 Unique Visitors every day from all over the world. (Unique Visitors are people who have never visited our website.) As part of our stats report we have this great map of the world which shows us the different cities and countries people are at that view our site. I’m overwhelmed at how many people from Seattle to South Africa to Thailand are finding us.

Ever since we went live with our new site and at the same time gained more national and international publicity, the exposure to our site and work has exploded. I’ve got to thank BluDomain for the great design they did on our site. And I especially want to thank True Tone Productions for the incredible music they wrote just for our site. Our success has not been found by doing it all on your own. Both these companies have been such a great help to us, and we can’t thank them enough!

Back in July Me Ra Koh Photography received a call from a couple in Atlanta, GA. Gita and Nick were in Seattle for a short amount of time and asked if we could do an engagement session for them. They had come to love the Seattle scenery and wanted a photo shoot that would remind them of their time here. What better place than the wide open fields and lighthouse beach at Discovery Park.

Gita and Nick are one of those couples that make you richer from spending time with them. Nick adores Gita to such moving levels that if you didn’t believe in a Prince Charming before, you do after seeing Nick with Gita. And Gita is so striking it’s impossible to take a bad picture of her.

Here are a few of our favorites, but check out Gita and Nick’s Slideshow for the rest. The music we chose for this slideshow is a track titled Sea Breeze by Tyrone Wells. It seemed to fit these two perfectly.

The lighthouse.

A different kind of “ring” shot.

This is one of my favorite shots! It was almost like the clouds crawled to the top corner of the frame to accent the image just right. You’ve got to love it when every thing comes together so wonderfully.

It was an honor Gita and Nick! I had the most wonderful time with you both!

We just got an email this morning that one of our weddings from last year has been featured on the top of Real Weddings since Friday. The Wedding Channel is saying they’ll keep it at the top until next Friday, so check it out if you have a chance!

Who’s the couple? Jon and Heidi Bruch from Seattle, WA. Congrats you two!!

I don’t know what could be more beautiful than a wedding in the wine country of Sonoma, CA.

Shannon and Rob’s location was a romantic place called Pavel Villa that was tucked away in the hills of Glen Ellen. Coming upon it, after driving up the twisting back roads, felt as if you’d stumbled into a fairy tale. We arrived close to 9:30am, and the villa was fogged over. But it was still breathtaking, as Brian and I watched the fog slowly crawl out of the villa’s vineyard.

Below are a few of our favorites, but check out Rob and Shannon’s slideshow for all the rest. If you’re having trouble uploading the slideshow, you may need a newer version of flash. Click here to download an updated flash program (it’s free ;)).

Her dress—wait till you see her veil!

Shannon and Rob surrounded by the vineyard.

Brian and I see such different things at every wedding. For this wedding, Brian was dialed in to all those small moments of passion. These next two images blew me away in how he caught the passion between Rob and Shannon.

Shannon wore a beautiful long, Spanish veil, similar to what her mom wore on her wedding day. If I got to choose my veil all over again, it would definitely be Shannon’s!

I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a dad so proud. Shannon’s father is also a photographer, which made it that much more of an honor to shoot his daughter’s wedding.

Their friends’ excitement for the day made every thing that much better!

We also played a song from Trio Solea on the slideshow. They are an incredible Latin band that played throughout the evening. We’ve been playing their CD at all our summer dinner parties ever since we got home. A new favorite for Me Ra Koh Photography!

The Pavel Villa after sunset. Each moment, right until the last, was perfect.

Congrats Rob and Shannon!!! We had the most wonderful time!

July was the craziest and most fun month for Me Ra Koh Photography!

Five days after we shot the VH1’s My Big Fat Fabulous Wedding series in Maui, Brian and I hopped back on a plane to head to a different destination wedding in the beautiful Sonoma Valley. The heart of wine country.

We’d been so excited for this wedding for two reasons; Shannon and Rob are a great couple and had put such creativity into all the details. The second reason, we were finally going to meet Event Planner, David Aten with Melissa Teaff Catering. He’d been working with Shannon and I for months, and I was so excited for us to meet face to face.

The right Event Planner can put every one at ease, especially the bride, and David Aten has got to be one of the best! He had every detail that Shannon desired in it’s place from Gerber Daisy’s tied to the backs of every chair to the food’s artistic presentation (no wonder they’re on the cover of Food and Wine Magazine this month) to chocolate suede sofas brought in for guests and so much more. David made sure every single moment of the day happened as planned. When you’re planning a destination wedding for 200 plus people, the ability to pull the whole event off without any hiccups can be so stressful. But David accomplished this as if it was effortless.

Below are some detail shots to paint the picture for you. But be sure to check back b/c we’re almost done with the slideshow of the wedding day. The beauty of this wedding could not have happened without Shannon’s vision of a romantic wine country wedding and David Aten’s talent! We can’t wait to show you the whole day!

The man himself with Shannon.

A shot during the ceremony. Check out the Gerber Daisies on the backs of the chairs. Perfect Shannon!

Right after the ceremony, David ushered the guests to a cocktail hour. Then he and his staff turned the ceremony site into an elegant, wine-country, sit down dinner.

The cake was perfected.

And the food display was artistic in its display of vibrant summer colors!

You don’t have to be getting married in the Napa Valley to have David help with your event. They go every where! To read more about David Aten click his name or pick up an August issue of Food and Wine.

If you are a bride or photographer that has worked with an excellent Event Planner or Wedding Coordinator, post a comment and tell us their name, website link, and why you’d refer them! We’d love to hear!

Enjoy!

The other night we got to have dinner with some new friends, David and Erin Streams. David and Erin attended one of our PUG groups, and Brian and I have had the best time getting to know them. They made this incredible BBQ chicken served with tangy lemon margaritas, blueberry cookies for dessert, I was in heaven.

I also have to say that if you ever need help with home design, Erin is amazing! Her house just blew me away with paint colors, fabrics for her curtains…she even stressed the wood on the frames hanging in her kids bathroom!

David and Erin are both wedding photographers. You can check out their site here. If you are ever booked and need a good couple to refer your client to, you can’t go wrong with these two. They are just to great for words!

At the VERY end of the night, when our kids were going downhill into “meltdown stage”, we decided to pull out the camera and take a picture with all our kids. It was hilarious!

From left, David, Erin and their three boys (yes, they have three! :)), me, Pascaline, Brian and little Blazey.

We’re back from a couple weeks of travel for destination weddings, and I’m so excited for you to see the slideshows! Our first wedding was my little brother’s in Maui. It was an amazing experience from both the perspective of a sister and photographer. As many of you know, VH1 called our studio several months ago because they were looking for couples to interview for their My Big Fat Fabulous Weddings show. This will be a new series starting sometime between this fall and January. (We’ll keep you updated!) Out of all the couples they interviewed, Shae and Erica were picked to be on of their eight shows. Without question, I think my brother and new sister-in-law are fabulous! But the way they did their wedding, took my breath away! Brian and I can see why VH1 thought this would be the perfect Fabulous Wedding.

Erica’s style and attention to detail was amazing. She bought hundreds of shells from remote beaches around the world to use for centerpieces, menus, and name cards. They had a cigar bar with custom rolled Cuban cigars. There was also an elaborate cookie cake made with hundreds of cookies decorated as hula dancers, palm trees, dolphins swimming. Their friend, Phoenix Stone, an up and coming pop country singer, flew in to sing the song for their first dance. The working title is “The Best Year of My Life” off his upcoming new album release. We had NINE cameras filming, five production crew, Brian and I shooting the photography, it was quite the experience…bit cozy at times! I could literally go on and one with all the amazing details. But check out the slideshow to see it for yourself!

Click here to view Shae and Erica Hong’s Wedding Slideshow. And be sure to check back for the next wedding in Sonoma, CA wine country!