Ceremony and Reception:  Houston Yacht Club, Houston, Texas

We finished off the May wedding days with Nathalie and Alex’ celebration in Houston, Texas.

From Nathalie about how they met:

We met during freshmen year at the University of Texas. We were neighbors at the University Towers and were introduced by our roomates Danielle and Daniel, who already knew each other.

We met Nathalie at her brother’s wedding a couple of years ago in Fort Worth, Texas.  We also photographed one of her close friends wedding last year, Ashley and Jimmy.  So we knew going in that the wedding is going to be great and the reception is going to be a lot of fun!

Nathalie’s sister, Megan, who graduated from culinary school, made their wedding cake!

We started the day at Nathalie parents’ house:

Alex gave her a present of a map of Galveston Bay, as Nathalie loves sailing since childhood.

Nathalie gave Alex a Ketubah.

Congratulations Nathalie and Alex!!!

Ceremony and Reception:  The Gallery, Houston, Texas

Two M.D.’s in love.

Tina and Chase knew each other while they were in medical school at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio (Chase has just graduated last year).

This is the story of how they have met, according to Tina:

Chase and Tina both went to medical school at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (UTHSCSA for short).  Although Chase was one year ahead of Tina, they met through a mutual friend who invited Tina to their study group.  Tina remembers that first encounter as Chase glancing up from his textbook to say a brief, dismissive “hello,” and then resuming his reading.  Thankfully, they got to know each other a little better at Starbucks where they and several other friends studied every day.  It took Chase over a year to gather the nerve to ask Tina out (at Starbucks, of course), to which Tina was shocked because Chase had never appeared to take a interest in her — little did she know he had kept his eye on her, waiting until the timing was right.  On their first date, they went to the movies and afterward, talked for hours at a pub where they discovered they shared interests in more things than just a well-brewed cup of coffee…and the rest, as they say, is history.

Starbucks…. actually, that’s where I met Chase last May in South Austin before we got a semi-permanent space at the Austin Executive Centre Suites, too!  Must be something brewing in the coffee….

I wish people would include dogs more in weddings!

Tina and Chase decided to meet each other before the wedding.  Obviously Chase hasn’t seen her dress and here is the entire sequence:

They were practicing their first dance….

It must be San Antonio because it is always windy when I photograph in the city or around the area…

I love it when a wedding has so much emotion from both the bride and yes, the groom.

I love these four images that Hazel captured, from pure celebration to joyous crying.

Everyone was tearing up…

We love it when the groom shows emotion (i.e. cries) in any wedding!

For the entertainment, the bridesmaids decided to do a dance as if they were Tina and Chase…

Meanwhile, the guys decided to ask Chase questions about Tina that he should have known (but obviously, the questions was set up so that it’s impossible to get the right answer), and the groomsmen were supposed to punish Chase by using one of the objects on the floor….

Oh oh…

Congratulations Tina and Chase!

Houston wedding photography by Tony Ku, Ku Photography LLC, Austin wedding photographer.

Wedding and Reception:  Courtyard on St. James Place, Houston, TX

Our first wedding of 2010 takes place on a beautiful day in Houston, Texas!

Tara and Erik met each other through Tara’s sister Tammy and her childhood friend Timmy.  (They are also the best man and bridesmaid of the wedding, Timmy and Tammy).  Apparently Tara and Erik went to the same  high school in Texas but didn’t know each other at the time – they actually ended up meeting each other at Timmy and Tammy’s 21st birthday celebration in Houston (but Tara was living in NYC at the time).

We did their engagement session in November just before Thanksgiving.  They are early birds – I prefer the light either at daybreak or dusk, so we were out around 8-8:30 am chasing the light in downtown Austin with their bikes.  The wedding coverage also starts at 8 am

Tara is a high school arts teacher –  I can tell how dedicated she is as a teacher – she is actually texting to about next week’s lesson plans on her wedding day!

One of the best parts of the wedding is the moment right after the ceremony:

One of the many reasons why kids are great at weddings

The major theme of the wedding is anything with birds – they decorated each table with branches, white birds and pink/hot pink flowers and floral theme.  I think even Tara’s hairpiece is representation of feathers/birds in a floral shape.

The groom’s cake is a scuba diving cake, very cool!

One of my favorite pre-bouquet photos….

These are some of the most fun moments I have ever witnessed between a bride and her sister.  Tammy ended up spinning Tara around…

Piggyback rides…

And vice versa…

I love it, coffee cup dancing!

Congratulations Tara and Erik!  Birds of a feather, as they say.

Houston wedding photography by Austin wedding photographer, Tony Ku, Ku Photography LLC

Happy New Year everyone!