Congrats to Kim who wins the cake charms and a wedding planner! Kim and Ryan will be getting married in Yosemite this June and we had a quick engagement shoot with them and their cute puppy a few months ago. She won the charms by being the first person to email me about the cake charm tradition.

So, what are cake charms?

During Victorian times, small charms were baked into the bride's wedding cake. During the reception, each bridesmaid pulls a ribbon with the charm revealing her fortune. You can keep the tradition alive by placing these charms between the layers of the wedding cake, letting the ribbons drape along the sides. Some brides choose not to have a traditional bouquet toss doing this instead. Cake charms are very popular in the South but the tradition has been showing up in weddings all over. The traditional charms include keys, wedding bells, hearts, clovers and baby carriages but you can also get all sort of different ones like magic lamps, dollar trees, rocking chairs and anchors.

Labels: wedding

Thank you for voting for Polka Photos as the hottest wedding photographer in My Fox LA's Hot List contest. Winners will be announced later today so please keep your fingers crossed!

As promised, we had a contest of our own at Polka Photos and we have winners!!!

The Best Comment Prize goes to Bernadette who has her choice of an 8X10 print or other mystery prizes. Congrats and thank you for the beautiful sentiment!

Please vote for us here:
http://myfoxla.cityvoter.com/Details.aspx?business=56709


THREE easy steps to vote on MyFoxLA:

1. Click on the vote button.


2. Fill in your email address & press Send My Ballot.


But wait, you're not done yet.....


3. Fox requires confirmation of votes by email. Go to your Inbox, open up the email from Fox and click the link in the message confirming your vote.


Thank you!!!!


Vote by Friday Nov. 23 and then send me an email at info @ polkaphotos.com & you'll be eligible to win a prize! For former clients, I'll be giving away one 8X10 print. Everyone else is eligible to win either a set of Hallmark cake pulls or a photo album!

There will also be another prize for best comment as judged by Michael. So if you are writing a comment, please email me at info @ polkaphotos.com with your name and a copy of the comment you left on MyFoxLA to be entered in the prize giveaway.

Labels: Los Angeles, Shameless Self-Promotion, wedding

Ventura, California


Some of the kids started making shadow puppets in front of the slideshow.

Labels: beach, California, wedding

Hello! Michael & I are back from a destination wedding in the beautiful Dominican Republic. I'm going to be busy finishing up a bunch of weddings these next few weeks but here's a few quick photos from our trip. More to come soon!

Labels: destination wedding, Dominican Republic, Punta Cana, travel photography

Lancaster, California
The day before Cathy and Jake's wedding it rained and rained and rained. Since their wedding was going to be outdoors, I was keeping my fingers crossed that the rain would stay away for a few hours. Luckily, the weather cooperated.

Cathy and Jake were one of the most relaxed couples I've ever met. Although the bride was anxious to get the ceremony started, she didn't look a bit nervous.

Here's Jake and his groomsmen

Holding the ring


You may kiss the bride!


The toast


I love this photo of the bride and groom dancing - it's romantic and sexy at the same time


Dollar dance dough. The DJ played awesome salsas and cumbias all night long.


Here's their adorable caketopper


And the delicious cake

Labels: California, wedding