April 22, 2011
What was Ava Boo saying to me at this moment?
I’m going to go with,
“Get that thing out of my face, FOO.”
For those of you who aren’t as hip as me, FOO is cool kids slang for fool.
What is your caption for this lovely photo?
April 20, 2011
How lucky am I?
I just had dinner (snacks, which I love to call dinner) with some “clients.” I love them. I can honestly say that I LOVE them. Soooo, they’re more like great friends/awesome people we are lucky enough to be able to hang out with. I don’t write that just to write that. I don’t write that just to bullshit. I don’t write that because I want more clients to think I’m cool and to want to hire me. I write that because I feel SO LUCKY that the coolest people end up finding us to shoot their weddings.
This particular wedding,Tara and Brent,was what I consider to be a sort of random wedding — ie, when I don’t have any strong personal connection with the bride or groom to begin with. Brent works with my mom and I went to my mom’s work, she told me he was getting married and told me to go tell him I was a wedding photographer. I went up to him and was like, “YO! I’m a wedding photographer. You should TOTALLY HIRE ME. But I don’t even have a business card, so let me WRITE MY WEBSITE ON A Post-It!”
Smart business move, Kyle. I’m awesome…and classy. What can I say? But long story short, Tara and Brent read the blog for a while, decided they liked our pictures and decided we should shoot their wedding. And it amazes me how they are completely the kind of people that I would adore under any circumstances — not just wedding circumstances, which obviously are a little bit dire on ocassion 
When we got to the U.S. this March, we had just come off of a phenomenal streak of great weddings in Chile during high season. PHENOMENAL. There wasn’t a single couple that we didn’t mesh with. We would be friends with everyone whose big day we photographed even outside of the whole photography thing.
From there, we came straight to the U.S. to photograph the wedding of a bride who was in one of my best friend’s weddings, but we didn’t know her as well before her big day. That couple was amazing too. Actually, that’s an understatement — we had insanely high expectations for their wedding. We had met them in San Francisco for their engagement session at Yerba Buena Gardens, which was super fun. We had worked with Sydney when she was a bridesmaid in Emily’s wedding in Santiago. Yet she and Brian exceeded every opportunity they had to blow our minds with their awesomeness. I KNEW I liked them. I KNEW that their wedding was going to be a great time. But it was beyond that. WAY beyond that.
From here, we head to Virginia, where we will shoot the wedding of close family friends of Isabel and Caroline’s. I have no doubt that they’re going to be just as incredible.
Not to mention that we have received invitations in the mail for upcoming weddings in Buenos Aires, Surrey, England, and then our “Frenchies” also sent us an email to tell us the invite is on the way!
It honestly is mind boggling to me that not only do we get to enjoy the perks of a great job, but that we get to work with people we love. The people that have us photograph their weddings are hilarious and smart and sweet and charming and generally incredible. It never ceases to amaze me. And I hope that never changes.
Tonight, we were sitting, spending time with Tara and Brent, drinking some wine and some beer and just enjoying ourselves. Well, Tara wasn’t drinking any wine or beer because she’s HAVING A BABY, YAY! Though she was still enjoying herself, I think. And I kept wondering to myself — is this for real? Do I really get to keep hanging out with these people and watching them grow as a couple and as human beings, all because I just happened to be lucky enough to meet them through what other people call WORK? Yes, it appears. I am that lucky.
April 19, 2011
On on hand, yes, I’m doing a post like this because I’ve been having some serious writers block lately. I’m lazy. Thinking up new content makes my brain hurt sometimes.
On the other hand, I do think the post is actually beneficial/interesting to readers, especially new readers, or I wouldn’t put it up. I’d rather not post at all than write crap just to write crap.
Cleaning out the archives has been super fun (not). And in the process I have stumbled across many oldies but goodies. So I thought I’d compile a little list of popular posts for people to check out because last year blog traffic doubled and maybe those who haven’t been reading for four years since the blog started, might be interested in reading older posts, but are too overwhelmed to go back in the oh-so-crappily-organized archives (still working hard on that but it’s a massive project). Lindsey inspired this little post full of links when she asked about how Seba and I had first met! So if you have any other questions, please ask in the comments and I will answer away…and if I’ve already written about them, I’ll link to them!
Sadly, none of the old posts have comments, because Intense Debate has not successfully imported my old comments back over. Meaning, that transitioning to the new system, I lost 13,000 comments, approximately. But I like the new system too much to give up on it, and I’m really hoping they find a solution.
With no further ado, I give you some of the favorites from back in the day when this blog was still Just Married Chilean Style.
How Seba and I met.
The story of our big, fat, Chilean wedding part one, part two and the grand finale.
How I was assaulted walking home one night in Santiago.
How I was almost assaulted again, while jogging down Cerro San Cristobal.
The post I have no memory of writing from right after I got ran over by a car.
Then the follow up post when I was more coherent.
Then I was still writing about it.
Pictures of what I looked like afterwards.
Still digesting what happened to me.
Then I had a severe allergic reaction to the bandages they used and had to go back to the hospital.
When I met the guy who hit me.
When I realized that Chile was trying to kill me.Yes, I mean the entire country of Chile.
One year later.
Remnants of the accident.
How we won a free luxury trip down the Amazon. It was amazing.
Why I started my blog. The last line is about how I want to keep it private. Famous last words ☺
How I lost 50 pounds (which now more like 40) part I, part II and part III.
Some categorization of the different types of Gringas who live in Chile.
How I studied abroad for the first time in Chilewhen I was in middle school.
There you have it — my life story in a nut blog-shell.
It’s interesting to have these memories all written out for me. I KNOW that I tend to look upon the past with rose glasses. If it weren’t for many of my old blog posts it would be really easy to forget just how miserable I once was in Chile…and that would make it harder to appreciate just how happy I am living a bi-country life now.
The most popular posts, by far, are the ones about my accident. Me being ran over really sparked people’s interest. Human nature does love a good train car wreck, I suppose. Well, that’s one way to look at it. The other side of the coin is just that you all are incredibly supportive.
For those of you who started reading more recently, I hope those post give you some insight into who I was before I ever became a wedding photographer, before holding a camera was even a twinkle in my eye, before Seba and I were married, before any of this all began.
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