I spent a afternoon at the beach with the Simmons and their two amazing daughters Taylor and Dylan. Those two girls are going to be the reason I get roped into another baby. I mean it. After my wife saw the photos and heard all of my stories about how sweet they were, she was sold. She wants a daughter. I am sure I will get roped into it soon enough…

Dylan, Taylor… Mr. Paul will probably be calling you to baby sit in a couple years.

Sometimes you sit down with potential clients and start to feel like you just are not the photog for them. They don’t laugh at your stupid jokes, their facial expressions don’t change when you show you them your slideshow, maybe they even cut the meetings short… thank you for your time and head out never to be heard from again! It doesn’t happen all that often. Maybe they didn’t like the way I dressed, maybe they didn’t like they way I talked, who knows, maybe they thought my work was crap! Its okay though because my kids and wife tell me I am a really cool guy all the time to make sure my ego doesn’t get wounded. lol (love you bunnie! and little dudes!)
Joe and Christie couldn’t be more the opposite of the people above. As I sat at Urth Caffe on Melrose watching the two of them sip their blended coffee drinks, ooh and ahhing at my slideshow, I knew I had to be their wedding photographer. Aside from being beautiful people on the outside, I was ridiculously impressed with how much they seemed to care about everything but themselves. Joe has managed to change the face of advertising and give back huge sums of money to multiple charities all from the same company. He is the President of www.Socialvibe.com. If you do one thing today, it should be going to that site and signing up. Christie is no slouch herself, she works for a American film and television production company which finances, produces, and distributes socially relevant films and documentaries. If you have ever seen Syriana, The Soloist, An Inconvenient Truth or more recently The Informant, that would be her handy work!
Luckily Joe and Christie decided I was there guy. I couldn’t have been more excited (I still am a bit and their wedding has already happened!!!). So when it came time for their engagement photos we all agreed it needed to be something a bit different. Something special and something that embraced their love for the city that they call home; Hollywood CA. We spent the better part of a day wandering the streets of West Hollywood, Beverly Hills and Runyon Canyon (just to name a few). It has to be the most fun I have ever had on a E-session. They were fabulous, entertaining my every creative whim and doing it with a big smile.

They were married at The London Hotel in West Hollywood on August 29th and I am in the middle of editing their fabulous photos (I will post those soon, they are breath-taking!). But in the mean time,check out some of my favorites from our fantastic day roaming around Hollywood…

 This one is one of my all time favorites!

August was a pretty amazing month. Not only did we get to visit Montana for the first time but I got to photograph some pretty breath taking weddings. One of those weddings was that of Ashley Hartman and Franco Tenerelli. It was one for the books. If you go to the site (www.vonrieter.com) you can see I dedicated an entire slide show to this incredible couple. And don’t worry, if Ashley looks a little familiar (you aren’t going crazy), she is quite the celebrity. Ashley’s resume includes starring roles on the OC, being an American Idol finalist and is a co host on a MTV show (amongst other things). She is currently working on a new show for MTV and just released an awesome new single! You can check out her new single and see what she has been up to on her site www.ashleyhartman.com.
So I go out to my mail box this afternoon and find a envelope, a big envelope. I open it up and look what I found!

I swear, I am so lucky and privileged to have such wonderful and talented brides. Ashley and Franco, both of you are amazing and I feel so honored that you chose me to help you remember your big day! Thank you for the special note, and you are very welcome!

Ashley and Franco are some of the sweetest people I know. Here are a couple favs from their amazing wedding. You can see more on the site as I simply couldn’t help myself and added a new gallery for them. More to come soon!

Last weekends wedding brought a new meaning to, “here comes the bride!” Kendra, the bride, being part of a “aviation family” (as her father put it), was flown in from her parents private estate on the Hideaway golf course in La Quinta. Her mechanical chariot landed on the fairway of what I think was the 17th, and the best part was that James (her fiance) had NO IDEA that she was going to be arriving that way! You should have seen the guys face, talk about shock! It was an an amazing wedding, they really pulled out the stops for this one, even though it was admitted that it was a tough year for all. I think Kendra’s dad said it best “this has been one of the hardest years on all of us, which gives us all the more reason to really celebrate and enjoy this evening!”

Great people, great wedding. Stay tuned for more sneak peaks.