(She finally gave me a smile, after trying to get an image of her smiling all day.  Tough cookie!)

I knew from the moment I met Allison and her mother at the Dolce waaay before the wedding that this would be beyond awesome!  Allison + Keith, you two were ah-mazing!  Allison, you and your bridesmaids asked me this once I got to your room, to which I didn’t answer right away.

“Are we the most beautiful wedding party that you have ever photographed?”  (something along those lines.)  For once in a very long time, I truly didn’t know how to respond.  I know I should have said something, so I will say it here: Yes!  Not only were you and Keith, beautiful and full of character, but so was your entire wedding!  So much honesty and love, it is hard to deny the awesomeness of it all, hence the really long wedding blog post!

Thank you, Angelito, for 2nd shooting for me.  His images are mixed in here.  Also I made a brief timelapse of the part of the wedding which I hope you will enjoy.

reception timelapse

Happy and awesome adventures to you all!

~ Ted

Vendors:

Photographer: Ted Nghiem Photography

Make – up: Rebekah Castaneda (I am not sure she has a website, I will just post her email if you are interested in her work- rebekah4mac@yahoo.com)

DJ: DDM entertainment

p.s., I had to take out some images because the number of images on the blog post  out cause it kinda froze some people’s browser.

A preview of yesterday’s wedding.

Allee+Keith at the Dolce Resort in Basking Ridge, NJ.  Can’t wait to finish this set!

But I felt like posting this to my wedding blog cause I was revisiting my Vietnam images.  I have been photographing my nephew since the day I first met him in 2004.  And I got plenty of videos and pictures that his future missus is gonna love.  hehehehe!  Good ol’photographer uncle!

Vincent… our special little guy is becoming a our special little big guy. 

‘

It truly was fun!  now I need to tend to my ringing ears.. so much good, but loud music..hah!

Wait wrong song from a totally different band!  haw haw!

I went up to Brooklyn, for the first time, right after work in Princeton.  And it was pouring out.  The 5D2 is weather proof.. right?  Right??  So I meandered around Brooklyn since I had plenty of time before the show started.  On my train ride up, I came up with this really great engagement session idea!  See?  This is why I meander.  A lot.

The band, Goodnight Blue Moon, “…usually performs as a 7-piece which can involve Vocals, Guitar, Cello, Viola, Mandolin, Banjo, Trumpet, Bells, Drums, Upright Bass….. I’m sure I’m missing something….probably a kazoo or something. All of these elements in support of songs mainly by Erik Elligers and Mathew Crowley, deliver a new and interesting way to hear Americana/Folk-driven music.  Southern rhythms and progressions combine with northern melodies supported by a padding string section provide for a very different listening experience indeed. It almost sounds like ……Connecticut…” Had to pull it off of their bio, as they use a ton of instruments.  They played after a band from Boston called Canary played.  Some good music that night.

Sadly, right after their show I had to hustle to the F train to catch the NJT in time to catch the Dinky to get to my car before the garage locked.  So I hustled.

Sadly, he was a victim of bullying and teasing which led to suicide.  It is another tragedy that we have seen among our youth, Alexander is not alone here.  Countless children, and teenagers, have been bullied to the point where they either commit something as tragic as suicide or even becoming a bully themselves.  It is a vicious cycle, with the only ending being sad.

I do not usually use my wedding blog as a vehicle to put my views onto people.  I believe in discussion and action.  Talk is cheap, action is much more important, but it really does start with talking.

I was once a researcher on child sexual abuse.  While methodically categorizing each kind of abuse, and there is a lot, one of the consistent findings was the abuse was cyclical.  It started with the a parent, or someone the child trusts, onto the child.  The child would either be a continuous victim or the child would tragically commit those very acts on other children creating that vicious cycle of abuse.  For three years, till I graduated from college, I collected that data for the clinic to put into a published journal.  It doesn’t take someone with fancy letters to recognize the problem of this cycle.  They just categorize it into ways that creates a better strategy for therapy.

The point here is that bullying, whether it is physical or online, is really prevalent in our society that many have created organizations and clinics to not only create awareness but social activeness to stop bullying.

Hooray for Kindess was started by my buds at the wedding chicks to help support bullybust.  Truly it is a good way to start.  Parents, please talk to your children.  Create an atmosphere open to discussion where trust is developed and wisdom grown.  It really does start at home.  Look, I am not a parent, but I am an uncle and I will not preach my values onto you.  The safety of my nephew is as important to me as to his parents!  But don’t you agree that seeing someone so young take their life as tragic and sad?  Check out their drive, donate.  If you donate you get some spiffy thing or service (yours truly … hehehe, is also participating) in return.  But even then.  Please be active in your child’s life.  Help them fully develop into the intelligent, creative, athletic, world changer that they can be.  They can’t get there without help.

www.hoorayforkindness.com :: shouldn’t we all be kind to each other 365 days of the year?

Cool huh?  I am steadily becoming a hot item!  SWEETTTT!!  haha!

Nah, it is another cool way to find me and honestly, from the sound of the site name to the overall message of that particular community, it feels like a right fit with me.  If anything, I love that member badge.

The way I see it, and I will be abs-oh-lutely blunt here, I am in no way stylish or very fashionable.  What I am instead, a dedicated adventurer who happens to enjoy photographing weddings and couples who love adventures as well!  As I wrote in my mini description there, I like honesty and just seek out honest emotions and feelings.  I don’t dig the superficial.  To me, honesty is the best policy.

I do what mamma and pappa taught me to be and act.

Okay back to cooking!  Since it is winter and I have time, I have been researching new ideas for weddings- from business to imagery, and cooking!

I met Zack from a photography forum that we both visit and began working on this logo for my business since the beginning of December!  It was great experience!  I gave him a couple things that I needed from the design- it has to be clean, simple, and modern and if he could somehow incorporate my passion of travel into it that would be awesome!   I told him that my color of preference is Orange, and since my backgrounds to my sites have been white to keep it simple that way.  I chose orange because it is my favorite color and my favorite fruit, mangos, are predominantly orange.  With that in mind he worked diligently over the holidays, even though I said that he doesn’t need to and that I am in no rush for the logos.  During the course of the work, it was a nice and cordial back and forth with different designs and thoughts that brought us to the final image.   And lo and behold he delivered!  I am pretty proud of what was made.

Thanks, Zack!

Go check him out!  A real blast to work with if you are in need of graphic design work.

zackbaldwin dot com

I don’t think that I am going to make a big promise or resolution since most big resolutions never see fruitation.  It has been well documented to keep resolutions, or goals, small as they tend to be the ones well kept!  On Christmas my brother asked me what my resolution will be over the fire and hot chocolate sit down.

I said to live.  He responds that’s it?

Yup!  I am sure there can be others that are worth mentioning-

• Become a better photographer
• Make a better financial outlook for myself and my future
• Travel more

Those are all worth mentioning and notable to improve upon, but those are things I do constantly already do.

But living…

I mean actually living!  I am pretty sure I am not the only one who feels, on occasion, days when the mundane and trivial creeps up to pull you down.  And you feel like caving in.  That.  I want to rid my life of that or at least have less of it.  I want to be able to appreciate everything that I have and experienced, regardless of what those experiences are.  [note: the accident]

It’s always worth mentioning and reflecting upon- that accident really could have been so much worse and I was literally close to the light pole as I took my roll and tumble.  What could have been, I will say it loosely cause I sure don’t like it, worse I walked away with just a fractured wrist.  I think most victims of being hit or in an accident can relate of their near-worst-possible case events that they seen things flash before their eyes at that second.  And when the adrenaline subsides, the fears, memories, sadness, pain, and loss all rush in like a tsunami.

Money?  Skills?  All worthwhile, but they come and go.  Experiences and life, are the more scarce and much more of a necessity.  Those are more important to me.

So yes, Dave, my 2012 New Year’s resolution and onwards is to “live.”

What is yours?