Merry Christmas everyone! Today or should it be Yesterday now, was Christmas, but it was also my dad’s birthday! We all celebrated at the Marriott in Fullerton with close family and friends. Everyone brought something special to the table too, in essence creating a sort of mini wedding! Photobooth, photographer, videographer, makeshift DJ, haha – But I’ll go into more detail with that when I post up pictures this week.
So there’s only 6 more days till I take off now to Thailand and I’ve been slowly but surely preparing for my first International wedding and there’s just so much I’ve learned. Other than preparing the flight, transportation, and lodging – not to forget making sure everything with the bride and groom are communicated properly, settled, and they get everything they want – there seemed to be just so much more that you wouldn’t normally think of. I’m running into International issues and differences like the socket type and voltage of the electricity there, or the possibility of things not working there or even being lost. I also had to worry about making sure all my equipment was inventoried, accounted for, all the serial #’s were recorded and everything was packaged properly so nothing breaks. I also didn’t want to forget anything! On top of all of this, I have to make sure I’m on the same page as my couple, since there is different jargon and expectations. An Engagement Session here, or E-Session is called a prenuptial session there, makes sense! But it took me a while to figure it out. A video slideshow or montage is called an AVP – Audio Visual Projection. And believe me, it took a while for me to figure some of this stuff out. Either way I realized how HARD it is to prepare for an International wedding, but hey, if you want it to be perfect you got to prepare right?! And I have to make sure I can stay sane during this 18 hour flight! At least I have Harry Potter and Spartacus!
Anyway, I think I’m all ready to go, I’ll be blogging my trip while I’m there and posting a bunch of pictures from the Engagement Shoot, to the rehearsal dinner cruise, to the wedding, and even all of the site seeing in between. Here’s a picture of all the stuff I’m planning to bring in my trip inventory, minus some things like my pen tablet, battery chargers, the camera I was shooting with, and card reader. Its all being packed early so I can get everything approved by the appropriate authorities to bring overseas and back. But I hope this kind of gives you a feel of how much things I will need to bring to do all the work I plan to do, and how important it is to make sure I keep everything accounted for. So if you’re a future bride or groom and want to fly over you’re photographer, make sure they’re well equipped and prepared, at least as prepared as I am because its not something to joke around with! I hope everything goes smoothly, I can’t wait!
