I just returned from the best Leave I have ever taken! Was it because I got married to the most beautiful and wonderful and amazing woman EVAR? Probably! So here I will recount the happenings of said Leave. First off, CRAZY weather in California; well, for California standards that is. The weather people say it was the worst recorded storm in the past 89 years. And we got married at the worst part of it! Did that mess things up? I say no. Our photographers were outstanding and very creative. We got some shots of the two of us under an umbrella and running from the rain. Very well done. And since the rain messed with our chances of any outdoor shots they offered to do another shoot after the weather cleared… no extra charge! But we’ll get into that later.
Then, of course, Christmas came! Fun Christmas. Out first time joining the ranks of the people who have multiple families to see. Multiple in this case is more than two just cause many people come preinstalled with a separated family. Anywho. We went to my dad’s for Christmas Eve. Then my mom’s for Christmas morning and off to her dad’s that night. We got lucky with her mom though… she was already in town for the wedding. No trip to Utah this Christmas!
- Next To Normal
Next on our Cali trip we went to a show with her sister Nesha in LA at the Ahmanson Theatre. “Next to Normal” was amazing. It was seriously a crazy show. The only shot we could get was with my Android because they don’t allow cameras in the theatre. They are serious camera Nazis! Like I said though… the show was amazing.
Kealy and I are still in the planning mode for our honeymoon. Crossing our fingers for Paris! It just wasn’t a feasible idea to do it while on leave DURING the holidays. Especially with what we want to do. So we went to San Diego for a few days. Sort of a pre-mini-honeymoon. That also gave us the chance of hitting up the local Marine Base and getting her put on my insurance and whatnot. San Diego was beautiful and fun. And unlike our wedding, the weather was perfect. We stayed at the Marriott that had the marina. AMAZING VIEW!
- Room With A View
Boy does that city sparkle at night! Kealy’s sister Marni got us a gift card to the Steakhouse. Best. Porterhouse. Ever. We went out later on and walked around the Gas Lamp District. Took a few photos there too. The end of our San Diego trip was topped off with the San Diego Wild Animal Park. It was my first time and holy crap was it fun! Everything was continuously in good upkeep (compared to the LA Zoo). And the tour that you take brings you right out to there Africa exhibit. Except it’s not an exhibit. It is acres and acres of open land where the animals all live together. Not in separate cages. It’s part of there plan to reintegrate them back in the African wildlife. There was an animal (I can’t remember which) that was born and raised in captivity. So they, little by little, introduce it to other animals it had never seen before to help make a smoother transition.
So they put it next to the zebras. Pretty thoughtful way of doing things in my opinion. My favorite part was the lorikeet area. You feed the birds while they are perched on you hand! So much fun! They can be a little aggressive though when they get hungry. Best thing to do is hog all the food till it’s gone. They’re definitely in charge! Oh, we got to see a silverback pee.
- Roy and Benny
One of the last things we did was the second shoot of our wedding photos. That was so much fun. We’ve actually become very good friends with our photographers. Roy Iswanto is pretty much my mentor. And Benny Liem is a photographic GENIUS! I’m very jealous of them and their “equipment.” No… equipment doesn’t mean the junk in their pants. Get your head outta the gutter! I’m talking about their CAMERA equipment! Mainly just the fact that they have full frame sensors and I don’t. Not yet… And between the two of them they have an amazing collection of some of the most beautiful lenses ever. Very jealous. Ahem… as I was saying. Both are very good photographers and very professional. They can make anything look beautiful. They took us to Downtown Fullerton, which is beautiful. But, to the untrained eye, kinda uneventful. Needless to say, some of my favorite wedding photos came from there. They are both absolute geniuses.
To finish off this post I’m gonna put up one of my favorites from the wedding:
- Roy and Benz Photography
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Thank you all for stopping by!
Stephen Meese Photography 