Charles Lauren Films: The Blog

Chi and Mike had a perfect wedding – and a long one! We started at home with a Tea Ceremony, followed by a quick trip to the Nixon Library for the ceremony and reception. This was the same day edit shown during cocktail hour of highlights from the morning’s Tea Ceremony and lunch! More highlights to come!

Morning Tea Ceremony // 6.20.2010 from Charles Lauren Films on Vimeo.

Rick and Judy picked a beautiful day for their wedding! It rained the night before, so the sky was clear, the sun was low and orange, the church was ornate and somehow her shoes got hung on the lights above her dressing room! The ceremony took place at St. Anthony’s Catholic Church in Long Beach, they took photos at Rainbow Lagoon and Rainbow Harbor, and the Reception was at The Grand. Photography by CW Photography. Congratulations!

Judy + Rick // 2.20.2010 // Same Day Edit from Charles Lauren Films on Vimeo.

We had such a good time at this fall harvest themed wedding! There were pumpkins, s’mores, candles and love! Congratulations!

Elisa + Benjamin // 10.03.09 // Same Day Edit from Charles Lauren Films on Vimeo.

We started at Monee’s house which is literally down the street from her childhood church, Saint Mark’s Coptic Orthodox Church in Los Angeles. After the robes and crowns of this traditional ceremony are taken off, the packed church heads to the amazing hotel Casa Del Mar in Santa Monica. We all get some shots on the sand and head in for a lot of fun. Tons of people, tons of fun and laughter and tons of love. The coordinator was Terri Castillo from Bellisimo Events.

Congratulations! We loved the candy bar!

Monee + Mena // 09.06.09 // Same Day Edit from Charles Lauren Films on Vimeo.

There is much more to come for this rocking and sexy couple! We can’t say enough about the whole bridal party, the song writing family, the location, the chinese lanterns, the trains, the beautiful sunny day and the great dress! Wow!

Congratulations Kristin and Mark!

Kristin + Mark’s Preview 8.15.2009 from Charles Lauren Films on Vimeo.

This was a fantastic day for us and Alvin + Ann Marie! They had amazing locations so we were able to get some amazing shots. It also helped that Alvin and Ann Marie are so in love. Their pre-ceremony was at the Hilton in Long Beach- which is where they had their first look.  We teamed up with Nate and Jaclyn from The Image is Found who are super creative photographers, so we worked well together, since we like being super creative too!

Their wedding then went to St. Anthony’s church and then the Museum of Latin American Art (MOLAA). Being at MOLAA was awesome because through our years in Long Beach we’ve done many video projects for them. We have seen MOLAA become what it is today, thanks in large part to the former museum director, Gregorio Luke. He has now left that position, since the museum is finally completed. If he had not been the vision behind the museum Alvin and Ann wouldn’t have had such a cool dive to have their reception at!

All in all everything turned out amazing, as you will see from this clip. Congratulations once more to Alvin and Ann Marie- you guys are truly one of a kind!

Alvin + Ann Marie’s Wedding Highlights from Charles Lauren Films on Vimeo.

This was the wedding of Kirsten and Gavin. They had their wedding at the Hotel Laguna which is usually pretty busy in the summer, but on their wedding night they were just about the only ones on the beach – except another bride and groom with their photographer! David and I felt sad for the other bride and groom because they were really get some great shots with the photographer, but there was no videographer- which I know they will regret. Thankfully, Kirsten and Gavin had a videographer to capture their amazing day- because you definitely can’t just send back pictures to New Zealand, which is where they are originally from! They were both born there and their mothers were best friends while they were growing up. Kirsten family moved to California though- so it wouldn’t be until later when Gavin would hook up with her again. We made them a highlight reel right away so they could show all of their relatives back in New Zealand who were unable to attend. Take a look…

Jocelyn and Miguel’s wedding was a blast! It started out at the Westin in Pasadena and then we moved to St. Andrew’s for a beautiful ceremony and finally back to the Westin for the reception to finish it off. Joce and Mick had 18 bridesmaids in all, which made for a fun and zany wedding day.

We again had th pleasure of working with Taipei LA which we had worked with before on Jerrica and Roger’s Wedding whose same day edit is in a previous post as well. Tommy from Taipei LA did a fabulous job and we had a great time with him.

All in all it was an awesome wedding celebration and the Pasadena Rose Parade has nothing on Joce’s red rose centerpieces! The room looked phenomenal thanks to Darling Flowers and the hard work of Carla with Morningdawn Creations event planning.

And again it was a great party thanks to Sean at J+M Entertainment, who we haven’t worked with before but definitely would love to see at another great event, since he was always keeping us in the loop before starting any special event. Although we are always ready to go, it definitely is nice to have a few second warning so we are ready to capture the memories as they unfold.

It was a stellar cast of vendors and guests to be sure- take a look -

This was the wedding of Carriane and Lalo Chavez. It was simply fantastic. David and I loaded up our camera gear and headed down south to San Diego County for their wedding in Fallbrook. Carriane and Lalo were first getting ready at the hotel Pala and then headed off to The Grand Tradition for their ceremony and reception.

The location was looking great and it was just chilly enough to be delightful. However, nothing was cold about the reception, the partying was not stop thanks to Jason at Visions Entertainment. We’ve worked with him many times before and he is one of our favorite DJs around. After you watch this clip scroll down to the post labeled Saint Monica’s and the Biltmore- we also did that wedding with him, among many others. It’s so important to have a good DJ and Jason always delivers.

All in all it was a great wedding from the horse drawn carriage ride down the isle to the grand exit with sparklers Carriane and Lalo will cherish this wedding day for the rest of their lives.

This was the wedding of Ashley and Michael Hontz. We had been awaiting this wedding for some time, since Michael’s Mom had called us almost a year ago to book us for the date. She had been at another wedding we filmed and saw our work- and loved it- of course!
Their wedding was held at the Padua Hills Theatre and Dining Room in Claremont- which strangely we had never been to before- except once, which as it turned out, was the week before theirs. Teresa + Matthew’s wedding! We will post their same day edit soon. It’s a great venue. It is right at the base of the mountains in a wilderness area. Right off of Baseline/Mt. Baldy Road. That was pretty exciting, since it’s nestled in an olive grove. It also has some great scenic views of the valley below.
We filmed their wedding two days after we got back from our trip to the east coast (more on that later), so we were nicely rested and pretty much ready to head back into the season of weddings, as always!
Congrats once again to the Hontz and Alten family!