Levi is Owen's younger brother and it was his very first birthday. And Dana Grant Photography was there to document yet another historic event in the life of The Rachunok Family!
This party was a pirate theme and it was lots of fun!
The Birthday Boy!
Aunt Amy and Pirate Owen.
Owen enjoys a snow cone.
Levi did NOT enjoy his cake!
But he did enjoy this niefty piece of cardboard.....
....and this snow cone.....
....and being tossed in the air!
I love shooting kids eating. And they kept yelling, "El Pollo Loco!"
Aren't we cute?! Melody, Levi and Dana. (Thanks Amy!)
A couple of weeks ago we did a blog about this Launch Party we went to that was being filmed for Lifetime's Top This Party. Well, it airs tonight at 10pm. I can't wait to see our friend Lauren of Prince Events on this show. And it's fun to see if we show up somewhere in the background since we were there while they filmed the party. See if you can spot us!
Saturday evening we were invited to a fabulous Launch Party at the Long Beach Airplane Hanger hosted by our fabulous friend, Lauren Reeves of Prince Events. This was no small shindig! Besides having amazing details and decor (worth over $120,000!) the party was filmed for Lifetime Network's Top This Party which will be airing Feb 8th at 10pm.
Saturday we shot a fun 50th anniversary party at The Mission Inn in downtown Riverside. We had such a great time with this lovely family. Both of us even got teary-eyed during the slide show and dances. It's just so awesome to see a couple make it fifty years!
The Mission Inn.
Evey and Ron 50 years ago!
Evey and Ron today.
My dear friend Evey who was named after her Grandma Evey. I just love this..
The same best man that gave the toast at their wedding, their brother Charlie.
Watching the slideshow.
I love the reactions while people watch:
All the kids come up and hug their parents while they dance.
Shawn and Cassie are friends/clients of ours and we love them! They invited us as friends to their rehearsal and dinner but of course we HAD to bring a camera to snap a few. So here's just a couple of fun pics! We can't wait to shoot their wedding Saturday. It's going to be really hot yet amazing day!
Her bow bouquet.
The guys.
I love this one of the Bos Brothers.
The couple of honor.
Giving out the gifts collage:
Did I say that WE HAVE THE BEST CLIENTS EVER?!?!? Because we do. We were not expecting to get any gift. But we were pleasantly surprised when they gave us shot glasses (we collect them) with our names on it. How cool!
Thank you Shawn and Cassie and family for a wonderful evening and our gifts!
Tiffani and Garret are a super cute couple of ours that really appreciates what we do. Tiffani LOVES pictures and wants them for everything! So I shot her shower a couple of weeks ago and we both shot the rehearsal this evening. Their wedding is tomorrow and we can hardly wait! Everyone in the wedding is great!
Here's a little collage from the shower. So much girl fun!!
I loved this one of them walking down the aisle. They'll be married when they do this tomorrow!
She made the tags and got us gifts!! I got one of my fave CAO Moontrance cigars and some awesome headbands (how did she know?) and Jeremy got one of his fave cigars Romeo y Julieta and some awesome vintage prints of cigars. How thoughtful!
At Taps we went outside for a little shoot.
They were playing one of Garret's songs by Bob Marley, No Woman, No Cry.
Dancing.
The guys with their cool mug and beer gifts they got.
The fun girls.
Thank you so much for dinner and for the gifts and for everything. Can't wait for the wedding tomorrow!
One of my favorite stories about Geoge is when he started calling himself "Cinderfather". It's a term he came up with one year as a joke to mean he is a mistreated step dad. Like Cinderella is abused by her step mom, he is mistreated by me, his step daughter! He turned the big 60 and we had a little party at the Old Spaghetti Factory.
His cake said "You've still got it baby!" (My mom's doing of course.)
Hula games.
Me attempting to hula.
I've never seen Jeremy move like this! And he actually won the game! Who knew?
Jeremy trying to get the blindfold on but his head is too big!
George with two of his Grandsons.
We hope you had a great Birthday George! You are loved!
On Sunday we went to our best family's Baby Shower. It was an extremely hot but fun day!
The invitation for their shower that came out soooo cute! Front: His name is Levi so this is fitting. Melody's sister Amy came up with this great idea!
Inside: Little back story; Jeremy R's grandpa and dad are named Steve, which is Levi's middle name. And Grandpa Steve was a professional baseball player and these are some articles they did about him in the newspaper:
Some of the cool details.
I love watching kids eat!
Why our parties are always fun.
The most beautiful daughter and mom, Destinie and Shellie.
Chrissy, Destinie, Melody, Misheal, Amy, Shellie and Dana.
Today we shot a fun Bat Mitzvah in a cute room at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. Sophie choose a vintage fashion theme that I, of course can appreciate! Everything was so cute and Sophie's personality came through every detail. The family was so fun and nice to be around. They all just love each other so much!
Some of the table details.
Sophie.
The vintage dresses.
The loving family.
I love this moment!
Having fun dressed up!
Sophie, her sisters, brother and Dad gave speeches.
Instead of having a guest book, they had everyone sign this!
We had such a great time with everyone. Thank you for having us!
One of my favorite movies of all time, Dirty Dancing had a 20 year anniversary showing on the big screen Wednesday! It's hard to believe I was only 6ish when it came out! So I wouldn't miss this if my life depended on it! I love the story. I think when you grow up watching a movie, it has so many different levels of meaning to you. It reminds me of good times growing up, watching it with my best friends and the songs are some of my favorites. It just made me wish I could dance! But at no time do I ever know what my arms and legs are doing! (as you can tell from the photos I'm in below).
Dirty Dancing on the big screen.
Hey, I'm being phased out of the group.
....this is better. Tiffany, Amy, Melody and Dan-y (have to add a "y" so I fit in.)
Amy and her antics!
Because being nerdy is sooo much fun! Don't judge us. We had "Time of our Lives!"
So I borrowed my mom's little point and shoot camera for the week so I could fit it in my purse while we went out. (And also to blog stuff while we were in Vegas.) Well, I'm so smart, I couldn't download them to my computer! So I had to wait until now to actually use the point and shoot stuff. Oh and my plug broke so I couldn't use my laptop. Fun!
Since I couldn't do this in real time, I thought I'd do some high points and of course the inevitable low points.
High Points: Inn n Out: We were starving since the first seminar got started late, so we went to Inn N Out at 11pm.
It was the best burger & animal cheese fries I've ever had in my whole life.
Party number one at Bahama Breeze with the DWF buddies:
Me and Jenn having a blast in 06, taken by Becker.
We also went to Becker's party, from which we have no pics but its worth mentioning. There was so many party peeps in his suite at The Hotel that you couldn't move or breathe. He's so popular!
The very next day, we had the dessert shoot with the convention. JMC and David Beckstead showed us how they shoot and then how they processed the images they took the very next day.
They had a bride and groom and a cool old car.
Jeremy got this shot of JMC chasing his bride, trying to light her on fire. (He has a bride on fire on site.)
I love old cars, especially red ones!
JMC's idea of a bride in the trunk. Love it. I hope he puts his version on his blog soon.
Us in the cold, windy dessert.
After the convention was over, went to the Anti Party at a Dive Bar called Double Down Saloon. Their speciality drink just happens to be concoction that's delicious, effective and called "ass juice".
Self portrait in the bathroom. If anyone has ever been to Showcase in Crown Town, it's just like it.
The effects of our "special drink". ---Jeremy's note: If you're in town, make sure to try the ass juice.----
Saturday afternoon driving around Fremont Street trying to find cool spots to shoot our wedding on Sunday.
In case you didn't know, Jeremy LOVES cigars.
I got an idea to shoot this spot with our bride, check it out on the next blog.
Now some low points:
Almost losing my wallet, losing Jeremy's phone, ass juice (I have to put it in this category as well since after my two shots I got sick) and my plug to my laptop burning out. Also, we got up early Monday through Saturday for the convention/book-making class. It was all worth it but we're still exhausted!
I had the honor of shooting for the lovely Jules Bianchi, one of my favorite photogs! It was a soiree for the vendors of Los Angeles Weddings Magazine. We had a lots of fun and even received a whole gift bag filled with goodies!
Some details:
So this has got to be one of the coolest things ever, Red Cheese :
Dana and Jeremy
Dana and Jules Bianchi (she knows how to pose. I on the other hand....)
Our good friends, The Picous had us do their work Christmas Party Monday evening. I have only one picture for your viewing pleasure. It pretty much sums up the night:
Yes, a group of adults actually played a game of Chubby Bunny. Fun was had by all!
The DWF (Digital Wedding Forum) had a convention in Vegas. But before I went, I found out my favorite comedian, Dane Cook (if you haven't heard of him, you have to check him out, he's hysterical!) was going to be at the Mandalay Bay one night before. They wouldn't let people in with cameras so I have no photos of the show :( but it was worth mentioning!
The very next night was the DWF convention where hundreds of photographers get together to learn and party for the week. Some of the most amazing photographers (and all my favorites) were there. Here's a list of my absolute favorites:
Mandy Marie (one of the funnist people in the world to hang out with and I get to 2nd shoot with her this month too!) They are all a huge inspiration to me.)
On the way home from Vegas, we usually stop at Jeremy's with our friends. Not only is it a place to get food and use the restroom but we like to stop there and take pictures of the sign since Jeremy is my husband's name.
Sunday morning I shot for South Hills, a church in Corona. They needed some pictures of the church that will be used for some promotional materials designed by Hydrate Studios.
The Sonksens. Chris is the pastor.
Conveniently located inside is a Starbucks. Thank God for coffee! (Of course I only use it for medicinal purposes!)
I loved this cross with the clouds in the morning.
