Melanie + Wesley – Wedding at Westin St. Francis

When I met Melanie and Wesley Rodriguez for the first pre-wedding consultation, I knew the moment they walked through the door this was going to be a great meeting. As we spent the next couple of hours getting to know each other, I could certainly see the love, admiration, and respect they had for each other; after fifteen years, the spark was still there and still strong. Those same feelings were quite clear during our engagement session at the Westin St. Francis earlier this year and if these two are always fun like this, then I knew their wedding was going to be rocking. I was wrong; it was a ROCKING wedding!!

High on the 31st floor of the Westin St. Francis Modern Tower in the Bayview Suite with a beautiful panoramic view of San Francisco, Melanie and her six bridesmaid had their hair and make-up done by the amazing Joli de Jackie. Her work is absolutely stunning and she was a great joy to work with. We highly recommend her for wedding make-up. On the other side of the same floor, Wesley and his groomsmen cleaned up nicely in the Bridgeview Suite with an equally impressive view of the City.

The bride and groom wanted to get the formal portraits out-of-the-way before the start of the wedding ceremony, so we used the opportunity to photograph them around and about Powell Street and Geary Street including a fun in-the-middle of the street portrait shot of just the bride and groom. We also did a number of the formal portraits in front of the altar setup in the Alexandra Room with the entire bridal party as well as with the parents and extended family.

The wedding ceremony, held in the Alexandra Room, was both amazing and emotional. Witnessed by friends and family, the bride teared up emotional joy during the vows and we captured tear drops from the groom as well. It was a beautiful and intimate ceremony that we were honored to document. Directly afterward the guest with the bride, groom, and wedding party met in the Victor Room for cocktail hour while the Alexandra Room was being setup for the wedding reception. Marylou’s Florist did amazing work with the bouquets, corsage, and flowers for the reception. The wedding cake by Cecile of Cakework was stunning and we loved how each of the tables had a custom designed and decorated wedding cake that looked so good, it almost looked unreal! A shout-out to the amazing DJ and master of ceremonies, Aaron Dalugdug! He was an extreme pleasure to work with and he kept the wedding guest ROCKING it hard! If you need a wedding DJ, give him a call!

For this wedding, our friends at Canon and B&H loaned up some nice “toys” to try out. Canon sent me their newest professional 1D-series dSLR, the 1D Mark IV (review post soon) as well as the Canon EF 24mm f/1.4L II USM wide-angle lens (which is great as I’ve shot more and more weddings with fast prime glass). B&H provided me with the new Canon 70-200mm Mark II as well as a Nikon 70-200 Mark II for the Nikon shooters on our team. I also wanted to take a moment to talk about the importance of having a plan and backup equipment in case of catastrophic failure and placing trust in a reputable business. I rented an Epson P-6000 backup device from BorrowLenses.com to easily backup all the photos taken by our photographers for safety reason. I made sure to fully charge it and test it the night before (as we normally do with all our equipment), but as luck would have it, the P-6000 refused to turn-on and work on the day of the wedding; Murphy’s law I’m sure. Fortunately we always pack our MacBook Pro laptop with external card readers to do sideshows and served as an excellent backup for all the photos taken. A quick call to BorrowLenses.com resulted in a personal drop-off of a replacement unit to my house, complete with excellent and friendly service. That’s what I continue to use and highly recommend BorrowLenses.com to anyone looking to rent photography equipment.

I would like to thank our amazing photographers of the Bui Photography team: Eric Lee and Rendy Lai for their invaluable assisted coverage as well as Joey Chandler of Joey Chandler Photography for filling in for one of our unavailable photographers.

And last, but certainly by no means least, thank you to Melanie and Wesley for allowing us the honor of being your wedding photographer! It was a beautiful day and we loved getting to know the both of you!

Assistant Wedding Photographers: Eric Lee, Rendy Lai, and Joey Chandler
Wedding Venue: Westin St. Francis, San Francisco, CA
Florist: Marylou’s Florist
DJ and Emcee: Aaron Dalugdug
Hair and Makeup: Joli de Jackie
Bakery: Cecile from Cakework
Wedding Coordinator: Christina Watson