Chris and Tracey in San Francisco

January 5th, 2010:

When Felicia and I got married, we raised a lot of eyebrows with our very modest guest list of 40 — the typical Singaporean wedding, Chinese banquet style, usually runs from 200 to 600 guests… yes 600.

Much like us, Chris & Tracey opted to keep things simple & elegant with a 28-person guest list, and a civil ceremony in San Francisco’s magnificent Beaux Arts City Hall, witnessed by their closest & dearest family and friends from all over the western United States.

Yes, that’s the Transamerica building right outside their window. And, yes I had to limit the number of pictures of this killer vantage point for the sake of brevity.  I am a sucker for 39 floors up.

This one is by Felicia, who ran all the way around the courthouse on her tippy-toes to catch this point of view (her heels echoed on the marble floors in the vastness of this place – so yes, she diligently spent the entire ceremony on her toes).  I am ducking beneath the railing about 8′ behind Chris.

The kiss – captured by Felicia, I was behind Tracey, but I found that I loved Felicia’s angle more.

This place is epic – stunning light and fantastic stone!

City Hall is truly a breathtaking venue, and I could have easily spent a few more hours shooting in the beautiful soft light flooding through the glazed windows. However, San Francisco has so much to offer, so we all jumped in the limo and headed over to the Palace of Fine Arts – which unfortunately was mostly closed for repairs. We shot the few pictures we could, and not to be deterred, despite the rain, made a beeline to Fort Point for some requisite photos with the Golden Gate Bridge. There, we managed a few shots before the sky got really angry and started furiously pelting us with raindrops. Dang.

Their reception was hosted at ‘Silks’ of The Mandarin Oriental, where the 120-seat restaurant was closed for Chris & Tracey’s exclusive use.

Felicia and I don’t usually have the opportunity to enjoy the food at wedding receptions, but because of the intimate, relaxed nature of the reception, we actually got to take turns to sit down and be totally spoiled by the impeccable menu: we both had the amazing dungeness crab appetizer, rack of lamb for me (in the rank of wedding meal selections, I will ALWAYS pick the lamb) and venison for the Lady, and in lieu of wedding cake, a yuzu crème brûlée for me / a bourbon-infused pecan pie  (which, though humble-sounding, actually turned out more like a very decadent millefeuille) for Felicia.

Congrats again to this freaking cool couple!