February 4, 2012

Oriental Theme Photoshoot for San Francisco Brides Magazine

Since we're still celebrating Chinese New Year, I thought it would be fun to show this awesome photoshoot that we did in collaboration with some pretty extraordinary Event Professionals for San Francisco Brides Magazine.

The magazine wanted a series of photoshoots centered around the different neighborhoods in San Francisco. We got Chinatown--surprise, surprise! My partner in crime for all photoshoots and designer extraordinaire, Gloria Wong, wanted to take a very different spin on our theme. After going through some major challenges, like driving for 7 hours scouting for the ideal location, we were able to take Chinatown out of Chinatown and into the Wine Country! 

Kunde Estate Winery proved to be the perfect setting for our oriental theme, where we created the look of an old Chinese village against the decrepit walls. Jose Villa flew in from Southern Cal as the official photographer for all of the shoots and he captured every last detail beautifully! I have worked with Jose before and I am always in awe at his unobtrusive and effortless approach. 

One of my favorite part was Neil Hunt's brilliant idea to incorporate live chickens, a perfect touch to the air-drying laundry that one can always find in a Chinese village. My good friend and fabulous DJ, Ron Grandia, just happened to have two in his backyard, and he generously lent them to us for this shoot. Special thanks to Joey Cheung of JBeautique for handling the chickens, Apple and Alice, for us the entire time. It was actually a lot of fun to have them wandering around our set the entire time.

Unbeknownst to us until the magazine came out, our shoot actually made on to the cover of the magazine!! A million thanks to a very hard-working team who pulled this off in less than 2 weeks. 

Planning & Production--Jubilee Lau Events
Design & Styling--Gloria Wong Design
Photography--Jose Villa
Floral Design--Hunt Littlefield
Chinese Furniture & Accessories--Old Shanghai
Hand-painted petal fan menu and place cards, calligraphy, & handmade tassels--Mira Aster
Custom-printed fabric--Blueprint Studios
Hanging Fixtures & Production--Enhanced Lighting
Graphic design on fabrics--Amy Hayson

Here's the actual magazine spread:



Though Gloria and I have partnered on quite a few weddings and photoshoots now, for the past 4 years, she still blows me away with her original concepts and level of design detail. I love that she's a color fanatic too, and can tell if a fabric or paper is even slightly off from her pantone color swatches. It is this attention to detail that makes her designs so one-of-a-kind. 

And, here are more detail shots by Jose...






Check out some behind the scenes images here!




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