The One with the Locks of Love

I have yet to meet a woman that's happy with her hair. Most women have a love-hate relationship with their own hair. Ask any woman about her hair and she will point out something wrong with it. It's too straight, too curly, too thick, too thin, too THIS, too THAT... you get the point. In the last few months, I've received several comments about how beautiful and healthy my long, black hair was and like any other woman I could not fight the internally-wired urges to criticize my hair.

Begin complaining-about-my-hair rant:

My hair is really thick, which makes it heavy. It's wavy in a non-pattern way - there's no rhyme or reason as to how it decides how to wave. Most people actually didn't know how long my hair was because I usually wear it up. Being so heavy AND wavy, with hot weather, it was incredibly annoying.

Okay, rant over.

So I grew out my hair for the wedding so I would have enough hair to curl in an updo. My hairdresser literally would not trim my bangs because she said it needed to be long enough to pin behind my ears. Of course, she was right. Post-wedding, I let it grow for a couple more inches so I would have enough to donate and enough to still look semi-adult age. :)

Awhile back, I heard about this organization called, "Locks of Love." This is their mission statement: Our mission is to return a sense of self, confidence and normalcy to children suffering from hair loss by utilizing donated ponytails to provide the highest quality hair prosthetics to financially disadvantaged children. The children receive hair prostheses free of charge or on a sliding scale, based on financial need. How awesome is that?!



The ironic thing about all of this was that right before I went to finally cut this hair that I've been complaining about for over a year, I actually started rationalizing that maybe it wasn't THAT BAD. That taking almost 45 minutes to flat iron it wasn't THAT BAD. Or the fact that it took hours to air dry, if it even did, wasn't THAT BAD. Or that I felt like Cousin It and not like a Tahitian beauty when my hair was down. Or that I would go through bottles of shampoo and conditioner like no other wasn't THAT BAD either. Luckily, I have a loving husband that helped to remind me of these daily annoyances.

Even though I was still fearing separation anxiety, I bit the bullet and finally got it cut. Here is how long my hair was to begin with. I didn't realize how long it was because it's been so long since I've flat-ironed it! This is the longest my hair has been my whole life.


My wonderful hairdresser put my hair into four ponytails, asked me if I was ready, and snipped them right off. Hair that took me almost three years to grow!




It was weird seeing my hair in ponytails unattached to my head. I really had no idea how long it was!

Walking out of the salon, I felt like I had a wig on. I had not had my hair this short since 2003, which I like to affectionately call the period of "Ol' Skool Jasmine." My hair used to be really short in my college days - so short that my hairdresser used to shave the hair near the nape of my neck.


This was when we were first dating. Probably in the first two months.


:)

So without further ado, here's the new haircut!


The first couple of days was the hardest. I actually kind of missed my hair and felt a bit naked without it. I forgot to only use a little bit of shampoo. Every time I would put on a shirt, I would out of habit pull my hair out of the back of my shirt. I even had a twinge of regret about cutting it.

Two weeks later, I'm quite happy. Even though people keep telling me that I look like I'm 12, I suppose it's better than people saying I look like I'm 40. :)

The One with Jessie & Eric's Wedding

"Does Jessie know that you guys are going to do this?" I asked

"It was her idea." Eric replied.

The groomsmen dressed to the nines in their tuxes and grey ties down to their black and white Vans were getting their 50ccs warmed up in the parking lot of Marina Village. They were planning on riding them down the aisle at the ceremony. Totally cool - just like their wedding!

Awhile back, I had the pleasure of shooting Jessie & Eric's wedding with Melissa Koehler and Ann Pasquini. We started the day at The Dana on Mission Bay where everyone got ready on a beautiful summer day.










The bride's beautiful bouquet. Lilies are such a pretty flower for a bouquet.


Cutie flower girls.




Jessie looking at herself for the first time in the mirror with her gown on.

They decided to have a first look before the ceremony. What a sweet moment.





How rad is this?!
















The reception site.

The One with the New Camera, Canon 5D!

I have long outgrown my camera. Those of you who have shot with me know just how much I complain about my camera. It drives me crazy! I just want to chuck it out the window! And I really did want to throw it at the wall a couple of times. It's been acting up on me the last couple of months and just kind of stalling/freezing like a computer would.

Probably doesn't help that when you hold a high amount of disdain directed toward your gadgets, they tend to KNOW and then behave even worse than before. Don't believe me? Try it out. Go ahead, tell your computer how much you hate it and just watch how it responds this next week. And then come back and proceed to me about how much I am right. Now, of course, if you have a Mac like me, it definitely will not work because of all the LOVE you feel towards it. :)

Back to the subject at hand, I have wanted a new camera for YEARS now. Fortunately, Adam and I have been married for over three months now and are no longer financially feeding the money-hungry creature we call a "wedding." Which means, extra moo-lah for Jasmine's gadgets!

Being the less frugal, bigger spender of the two of us, I could easily spend all our savings on gadgets galore. iPhone? Yup. New 50 1.2 lens? YES. Mac desktop? Oh yeah. However, there are more important things to spend money on, like paying off our debt and keeping ourselves away the perils that we call the "American Economy." So in my mind, there wasn't going to be a new camera coming my way for awhile.

Lucky for me though, Nate and Jaclyn of The Image is Found had a huge sale of all their Canon equipment. (Unluckily that they are switching back to Nikon, but that's a discussion for another day.) It was an opportunity that could not be passed on, so after running it by the hubby... I purchased it! It's used, but like Wayne said, it has really good mojo on it. :)

And it arrived this week in all it's Canon glory...










I've been playing with it the last couple of days and it's been AMAZING. I am such a blessed gal. It is absolutely a pleasure to use. And I get to try it out this weekend with Melissa Koehler. Can't wait!

The One with Dad's Dinner

Food is at the core of my family. Everything has always revolved around food. When my family and I eat lunch, we are already plotting out our dinner. The wonderful thing about inheriting Adam's family is that his family is the same way. Food is an integral part of their family too.

My dad and grandpa are both chefs. They've cooked for my family all of my life until I left for college and I have to say that more often than not, I crave a home-cooked meal from home whenever I get a big "I-want-Chinese-food!!!" craving.

So when my dad came to the San Diego location of City Wok, whom he works for, it was special treat to get a meal-cooked-by-Dad. Made me feel right at home again.

An inside joke with my family is that you can always expect Adam to finish the soup. My husband LOVES soup. And by LOVE, I mean if he could choose only one meal to eat for the all the rest of his days, it would be hands down, soup... in particular, noodle soup. Every time he cooks soup for dinner, I am always taken aback by quickly he finishes his first bowl (out of many) because it's a hot bowl of soup. He has developed a tolerance of some sort to the heat, I suppose. So the first course of many was of course SOUP FOR ADAM. And did he finish it all? Do you really have to ask?



We also had delish egg rolls. Mmmm...



And then we had lots of dishes to eat, including Salt & Pepper Tofu, Fried Rice, and Veggie Medley. Yum-O! I know everyone says that their mom or dad cooks the best, but in my case, it's TRUE! And apparently, when we eat... we eat a lot. Did I mention this meal was only shared by the two of us?

We had a lovely conversation over dinner and it was nice to reconnect with family. Thanks for dinner Dad! It made me feel like I was a home.

(photos from my P&S)

The One with the Flickr Mosiac

My good friend, Kelly (who makes super rad cards!), put this on her blog and I found it intriguing and wanted to try it out for myself.

Here are the instructions:
1) Answer 12 questions
2) Put those answers into the search function on Flickr
3) Pick your favorite photo from the first page of each search
4) Take those URLs and input them into Mosaic Maker to get your mosaic

Sounds like fun! Adam is watching football right now and after all that college football yesterday, I'm a little football-ed out. This is what I came up with.

1. What is your first name? Jasmine
2. What is your favorite food? anything with shrimp
3. What high school did you attend? Rosemead High
4. What is your favorite color? blue, but apparently to everyone else - brown
5. Who is your celebrity crush? right now? Probably Lee Pace
6. Favorite drink? Chai Tea Latte at Starbucks with soy :)
7. Dream vacation? Santorini (ah, one can dream)
8. Favorite dessert? frozen yogurt at Nuyo!
9. What do you want to be when you grow up? But I'm grown up already! :) Back then, I wanted to be a doctor
10. What do you love most in life? God and then Adam. :)
11. One word to describe you? compassionate
12. Your Flickr name? Jasmine.Marie

Here's the mosaic:


Apparently, a lot of people name their dogs, Jasmine. Why save a beautiful name like that for a dog is beyond me. :) I love that second shot with the girl with the shirt, "Who you calling shrimp?" And that last shot is actually of me on a La Jolla Photowalk taken by my good friend Bryan.

I'd love see other mosaics! Try it out. It was actually quite fun. I'm going to set it to my desktop background right now, so I can stare at those cupcakes and yogurt all day long. hehehe.

The One with Sandy & Dave's Wedding

I am a firm believer that God is a masterful planner. He really has a way with weaving together the sweetest love stories. I can't wait to go to Heaven someday and go back and look at the intricacies of my own life because I am thoroughly enjoying the love story He's written for Adam and I.

Sandy and Dave were destined to meet and fall in love. They went to the same high school and didn't meet again until years later. They were surprised to know that God had made their paths cross again, this time in His perfect timing.

Their wedding was held at the El Cajon Seventh-Day Adventist Church. It has a beautiful sanctuary in a circular building with tall ceilings. Daniel and Kevin came along to help me and I couldn't have done it with my boys backing me up.










Sandy had a beautiful vintage wedding gown. I love vintage dresses!






Sandy was so easy to photograph because she was constantly smiling all day long. A happy bride is a smiling one!

And because no post of Jasmine's is without kiddies... here are some of my fave kid shots.


This cutie just shone so brightly all day - she smiles from ear to ear!


And then when she put on her flower girl dress, she just kept twirling in it.


Another flower girl getting her hair done. I love the little delicate flowers.


The bible bearer. Look at those eyes!

This wedding was definitely a community effort. You just knew that Sandy and Dave were deeply loved by their friends and family because of how much time and effort they put into making this day a special one for them. I love this shot of a fruit plate that they made! Not bought... MADE!









I had showed her my LCD earlier that day and from then on, she wanted to see the photos of herself! Not exactly the best thing to happen during a ceremony.




















Their super yummy cake... I could have eaten five slices, easily.

Sandy and Dave, I hope that your move to Arizona was a smooth one. Thank you for having us come out to capture your wedding day. We wish you many years full of God's blessings!