June 11th, 2017 was the day that Mina went Ham! To clear up any confusion, Paul's last name is Ham, hence their clever wedding hashtag - #MINAGOESHAM.
Paul and Mina's wedding was one to remember! They were surrounded by a plethora of family and friends from near and far - some came from Korea and Singapore just to be with them!
It was such a special day full of celebration, unity and love. Our venue for this beautiful Southern California wedding was at The Portofino Hotel and Marina Hotel in Redondo Beach. My team and I arrived nice and early to scout around to get ideas where we can take the photos for the day. We then greeted Paul and Mina, separately, since we were doing a "first look". The first look is the moment where we capture the bride and groom's reactions when they first see each other that day all dressed up moments before the ceremony.
I went to photograph Mina with her bridesmaids and our second photographer went with Paul and his groomsmen. We captured some detail shots of the dress, shoes and of them getting ready. The girls were having a good time hanging out and sipping some bubbly. One of the girls accidentally got some oil spilled on her dress - that is why you will see a photo of the girls together by the hallway closet with an arm coming out from there toasting with the rest of them. Her dress was eventually fixed, thanks to the wonderful coordinator, Amy Park (White Blossom Events), who came to the rescue! Meanwhile, the guys were having their own photoshoot going on. They were looking pretty suave with their suits. We captured them together telling jokes and just kicking back before the ceremony started.
Then it was time for the first look! We decided to go to the area of the hotel where the ocean was in our background. It made for a spectacular backdrop! I think we were just as excited as Paul and Mina were to see each other! You can tell by the look on Paul's face that he was very happy to see Mina in her dress, of course, she rocked that dress!! We took some photos of the entire wedding party. We got pretty creative with some of our shots by playing around with different angles and off camera lighting.
It was then time for the ceremony. The entire ceremony area looked beautiful. Everyone was starting to get very emotional and it really shows with the tears of joy on Mina's face. Right after the ceremony, we stayed to take photos of the newlyweds with their family. While I was doing that, our second photographer captured the detail shots and then headed over to take some group photos at the cocktail hour. This is when it's essential to have a second photographer, we can be at two places at the same time to capture everything that is going on.
The reception was underway. Right after the grand entrance, they went into the dances. The first dance as husband and wife was amazing, you can really tell they were having such a good time. There were a few toasts/speeches, during that time I had my assistant get their rings so while everyone was eating their dinner, we were able to take the ring shots. Then we took Paul and Mina outside to get some beautiful sunset photos. They then went back and started the party and boy, they had some moves!
Please enjoy some of the photos from that wonderful day. Thank you Paul and Mina and congratulations to you both!
