Julie and Greg had their first date at Alki Beach so that’s where we met for their engagement portraits. I told them to bring their smiles and they brought plenty of that. I have to thank Rhona and Bennett for referring such a terrific couple to us.
Julie and Greg, it was a lot of fun photographing you guys and I look forward to your wedding! Your wedding day will be beautiful… I already know it. To view more images CLICK HERE (Password Required)
Todd H Kim Photography | Living Life Media | Seattle Weddings
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Congratulations Kevin and Alice. Thank you for allowing us to be a part of your special day. It was an honor to meet your family and friends and we pray God would bless your marriage. You guys made making beautiful wedding photographs look easy.
Sarah… thank you for somehow finding us and introducing us to your sister. Your adorable daughter brought so many smiles to my face. It will be so funny when she grows up and realizes how she added “something extra” to this wedding by being herself during the ceremony.
The flower pup was so cute…
There’s a few more images in the Featured Wedding link on the menu and you can view more pictures HERE (password required).
Seattle Wedding Photographers | Todd H Kim Photography | Living Life Media
There’s something about Catholic churches that bring a lot of adjectives to my mind. It seems like every city has at least one magnificent Catholic church that stands tall as a landmark. In Seattle, there are quite a few. I can think of St. James Cathedral as being one of the most beautiful. Another one where we have a wedding scheduled for tomorrow is the Blessed Sacrament Church near the U-District. In the Nisqually earthquake of February 28, 2001 this church was heavily damaged. It was restored and remains one of Seattle’s historic landmarks. You can see it every time you drive by on I-5 in between the UW and Northgate Mall exit. Here’s a few pictures I’ve taken from Blessed Sacrament Church in Seattle.
Living Life Media | Todd H Kim Photography
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Tony and Trinh’s wedding had it all! A traditional Vietnamese tea ceremony, a traditional Catholic wedding ceremony and a crazy wild wedding reception at the New Kowloon Seafood Restaurant in the International District of Seattle. Their wedding ceremony was at the St. Pius X Catholic Church in Mountlake Terrace.
This is only a preview of some of their amazing wedding pictures. We’ll post their wedding slideshow in the near future.
We really enjoyed taking Tony and Trinh’s wedding pictures and engagement pictures. They treated us like family. Tony’s humor and Trinh’s smile were always keeping us on our toes. They even invited us to sit with them at their dinner table during the reception which was a first, but knowing how much of a people person Tony and Trinh are it didn’t surprise us. We’ll have their slide show up with pictures from the reception in a few weeks…
Are these not the most adorable little flower girls!
Todd H Kim Photography | Living Life Media
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Green Lake Park in Seattle may be the city’s most popular location for those looking for a place to run or walk, but my personal favorite park of late is the 1.6 mile path along Elliott Bay that Myrtle Edwards Park offers. I normally side park near the “DNA” like Amgen double helix bridge that provides access from Elliott Avenue to the paved path of Myrtle Edwards Park. There usually aren’t too many people along the path, unlike Green Lake Park which can get busy with traffic from runners, walkers, cyclists and roller bladers. The best thing about running along Elliott Bay is the scenery continually changes. You can see the Olympic Mountains in the distance, sail boats in the ocean and amazing sunsets like the one pictured above. Seattle is pretty amazing.
The end of the path along Myrtle Edwards Park leads to the new SAM Olympic Sculpture Park. The picture above was taken after I had finished my run and my wife caught up with me from her walk. The picture was taken with our little Fuji F20 in the sunset setting. The camera was set to 10 second delay shutter resting on a concrete seat. The settings were iso 100 and f8. I don’t remember how long shutter speed was, but the concrete seat acted like a tripod so there wasnt any vibration. I cropped the picture slightly and that’s all! It’s got a slight 3D look to it I think, but the suns doing amazing things to the clouds, sky and water.
When we were walking back to our car, I noticed a photographer doing what appeared to be a “trash the dress” session with a handsome couple in the water. I couldnt tell if it was an engagement session or a follow up to the couples wedding day session, but it looked fun.
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There’s a great website with terrific wedding tips called Blog-O-Rama. This week they are featuring:
Preston Bailey is an internationally celebrated event designer and wedding planner with clients that include Donald Trump, Middle East Royalty and Oprah Winfrey. Watch as Preston gives us his specials tips on how to make your own flower centerpieces! For more Preston inspiration check out this link on flowers.
I love how Preston Bailey shows you how to turn a rose into a beautiful centerpiece for your reception table. Adding a few candles to something like this will not only look beautiful and elegant, but save you money as well.
Download the video Here
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I don’t know why but a lot of newly married couples gain 10 or 15 or 20 lbs of weight during their first two years of marriage. The bad news for them is every year the weight keeps going up. This doesn’t just apply to women, but also to men. I don’t want to talk about all the various reasons for this weight gain, but if you are not in this group, bless you.
AskMen.com was asked why women change after marriage and it pertained to weight gain. It might be slightly offensive to some so don’t click the link if you don’t want to read what they say, but the weight gain applies to both men and women after marriage.
Ludwig Borne put it best when he said, “A sweetheart is milk, a bride is butter and a wife is cheese.”
Now before everyone sends hate mail and death threats, let me add that my theory applies to both genders. To a woman a boyfriend is like wine, a groom is like cocktails and a husband is like flat beer.
I’m sorry to say Rebekah and I’ve also gained about 15-20 lbs in our 2 years of marriage. We joined a health club last year when we started to notice our weight going up and our health level going down, but with our different schedules it was difficult to go together and honestly, we weren’t motivated.
We quit the gym membership because it was a waste. We’ve been trying to control our diet a little more and taking walks together. As for me, I need a little more of a high impact workout to feel like I’ve really worked out. When I saw the new Nike + Ipod Nano workout program I got very interested. Basically, a little sensor chip goes into your Nike shoes and another part fits into your Apple Ipod Nano. They sync with each other and calculate your progress as your take your run/walk in real time. It is very well integrated and using ITunes and Nike.com software, it graphs your workout for you. Pretty amazing stuff and for a guy like me, it can get addictive and serve as real motivation. I just did my first run and it was so sad because I realized how out of shape I was right now. I didnt even do a full mile and I felt like throwing up after wards.
Anyway, this is also a great tool for those who are planning to get married. You can use it to get in shape so you look perfect on your wedding day!
If you don’t have an Ipod Nano, you need to buy one. I would recommend getting a reconditioned model from Apple. A 2 gig model currently costs $99 versus $149 new.
You also need the sport kit that includes the sensors and some running shoes. If you just bought some new running shoes that aren’t Nike, you can still use the kit with a work around. Here’s to staying healthy before and after marriage!
PS After I do a few more runs, I’m going to add a widget on the right side of my blog that keeps track of my runs. You’ll see what I’m talking about in a few days…
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There was a time when I was in the fine jewelry business. That was about 12 years ago in Tacoma and I learned all you can about diamonds and wedding rings. I even took some courses with the GIA (Gemological Institute of America). When I bought my wife a wedding ring (pictured below), I fell in love with the design of the ring from one of Simon G’s wedding ring collection.
Today, I went shopping for wedding rings all over again because my wife’s cousin is planning to purchase an engagement wedding ring and he wanted my help. First, we went to EE Robbins in Seattle because we’ve heard so many good things about them. They were totally professional, offered us drinks and things to eat and explained everything about the 4C’s of a great diamond. You know what they are… cut, clarity, color and carat weight. They carry the Simon G collection as well as designs from other well known wedding ring designers. Ask for Chelsea if you go in to the downtown Seattle store, she has a wonderfully bright personality and of course she is very knowledgeable about diamonds.
Next we went to Tiffany and Co. in the Pacific Place Shopping Center. The sales consultant had slightly more of a we’re the best attitude [nose level slightly higher =], but he was very accommodating and helpful. I really couldn’t complain and there’s a reason why he was that way. Tiffany rings are absolutely beautiful. My wife’s cousin fell in love with one of their rings right away until he saw the price tag. Fortunately, Tiffany’s offers all kinds of various combinations of diamond quality and size so the sales consultant was able to locate one with the same design in the price point he had in mind. We’re supposed to go see it on Tuesday when they ship it here from the East coast.
Following that, we went to Cartier to see what engagement rings they had to offer. Wow, this time we saw security guards right next to the sales consultant. A wonderfully proud lady helped us out and she was very helpful too. She was very proud of Cartier. We also stopped by Nordstrom’s fine jewelry department, but their collection was limited.
I have a feeling my wife’s cousin will go with either the Tiffany engagement ring or go with a design we found at EE Robbins. By the way, going from white gold to platinum raised the price by $1000. What in the world? Something only a woman can appreciate I guess.
Oh… so if you want a custom made engagement wedding ring of the highest quality you should check out J. Lewis Jewelry in Bellevue, WA. Our wedding clients, Alice and Kevin, had their wedding ring custom made there and it turned out wonderful. It’s pictured below… It’ll cost you though so be prepared.
Photos by Todd Kim
Edit: Today is August 30, 2007 and it is being reported all the remaining hostages have been freed. Thank you for your prayers.
Because this is my business blog and mostly about photography and weddings, I’ve held back on writing a post about something that is happening in the world right now that is affecting me. A friend of Rebekah and mine, who we knew from our time in Central Asia is currently one of 21 hostages kidnapped by the Taliban in Afghanistan. Her name is Lim Hyun Ju and she is a nurse. She went to Afghanistan a little over 3 years ago to serve at a hospital and do missionary work. 2 of the hostages have already been killed and the Taliban are threatening to kill more unless their demands are met. It is a very difficult political and human situation with none of the answers being easy. Would you pray for the safe release of the remaining hostages, wisdom of the leaders to make the right decisions and also for the suffering people of war torn Afghanistan. Thank you and God bless.
If you would like to read more about this situation from a local pastor here in Seattle, Click Here.
A picture of our friend Lim Hyun Ju
A picture of Rebekah with three other aid workers, including Hyun Ju on the left. Picture taken in Afghanistan in 2004.
A picture of Afghan people waiting for medicine being prepared by Rebekah
Thanks for your time…
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