Action packed July 4th weekend in LA

So this time next week I had arrived in LA. And upon arrival I headed to SoHo House with my wedding industry friends Brooke and Rebecca to celebrate Brooke's bday.

At 10pm Brooke told us she was kidnapping us to take us to a secret place for an epic time.

I heard a rumor that she was taking us to The Abbey and asked her, "Are you taking us to the Abbey?"

And she was like, "uh...yes...have you been?"

Which I thought was the stupidest question ever, because pretty much anyone and everyone in LA has been to the Abbey at least once or twice or a hundred times in their life. It's the biggest, most-popular bar in all of West Hollywood and has been for at least twenty years...

So I was like, "uh...duh...YEAH...hasn't everyone?"

And she was like, "oh...well my uncle owns it."

...............so we went to the Abbey with David Cooley's niece. Amazing.

We got to sit at Mr. Cooley's owner's table and had three dedicated gogoboys/servers.

It was epic. Never have I gotten bottles at the Abbey.

And so right when I thought I'd experienced everything West Hollywood had to offer, Brooke's birthday brought it to the next level.

Yay!!!!

Then, for July 4th (Friday). We headed down to Long Beach, where Lady Di (in town from Arizona) had rented a beach house for her birthday weekend.

I never knew there was a fancy part of Long Beach!

Happy Birthday Diana/America!!!!

Don't you just loooove the baby superhero/American flag shirt I found on shirtwoot?

Sunset prettiness!

We DEVOURED that epic cake.

Then on Saturday morning I woke up and drove to Malibu where we started preparations for the beautiful beach wedding I was shooting.

Hair and makeup took place at this epic mansion in the gated hills of Malibu.

And my bride and groom were so sweet!

And at there wedding was a surprise celebrity attendee...Miss Brandi Glanville from the Housewives of Beverly Hills!

Oh I also forgot to mention I did two crazy amazing engagement shoots for two crazy beautiful couples whose weddings I'm shooting later this year.

Wally and Kate, who are getting married in Palm Springs in October...

And Michael and Jamie, who are getting married in South Carolina in December.

After the wedding, I woke up first thing Sunday morning and jumped on an 8am flight to Maui.

More on that later...I'm about to go diving. I'm in Belize!!!

LA Trip / Pump WeHo!

I have to warn you, I have so much stuff going on the next few months, the blogging might fall apart moreso than it already has.

So I was in LA last weekend to shoot a beautiful wedding (my first gay wedding!) in Palm Springs. (Evan & Addison's City Hall Wedding wasn't a full-on wedding).

Before heading out to Palm Springs, I played with some of my favorite LA peoples.

Aly (Arry), having finally moved back from Japan, finally was introduced to Jesse.

Being both pretty little giants (Arry wore 4 inch heels, making her 6'4" for the evening), they instantly fell in loves. 

We LOVES having giant friends!!!

Mr Jesse got a LITTLE bit overserved and started acting a little CaRAYZY and we ended up running away from him...but we're going to try to forget that all happened...

We hit the Abbey...

Then met up with Mr Payton (I was crashing with him for a couple days)...

And he brought us next door for a little glimpse into his new gig at Lisa Vanderpump's PUMP WeHo!

PRETTY.

The next night (Friday) was the grand opening of PUMP.

We met up with Oprah Will for some tacosss.

Then headed over to PUMP for the opening party.

LOVES having fabulous bartender friends at the best new hotspots in town!

PUMP has been impeccably designed by Ms Vanderpump herself. The only issue is...low hanging chandeliers and tree branches. UGH!

Ken and Pandora were there too! Here is the back of Ken's head.

We loves having a fancy new place to play!

The garden outdoor is filled with low-hanging trees and is verrrry romantic (and unfriendly to talls).

We were seated at a table right next to Lisa's table so we took lots of sneaky pictures. She was there having dinner with her fellow housewife of Beverly Hills, Joyce!!!

Here's Joyce...

And there's Lisa!

Lady Di and Poppy came to play also!

At one point as I was making my way through the garden, I ended up walking behind Lisa. She turned, saw me, and grabbed my arm as I ducked under a tree branch apologizing for not designing the place with me in mind...it was so sweet.

From now on whenever I go there she will always remember me. And then we will be best friends. It is done.

LOVES LA!!!!!

Pump is also featuring Lisa's brand new line of Vanderpump Sangria...it is DELICIOUS. She's going to be the next Bethenny...just you wait and see.

OMG David Allan made an appearance too!

And Steven! Hoooray!

Well...life can't be all giants and rose, but it should be!

Saturday I drove out to Palm Springs for Charlie & Yohannes's Wedding. It was beauuuutiful. (It was also VERY VERY HOT. 106 degrees. We stayed indoors most of the day. )

Still got great pics though!

Then on Sunday I drove back to LA and on my way stopped at the LA Arboretum for an engagement shoot with Rehman and Kayla, whose wedding will bring my back to LA in about a month...

And for the grand finale to my trip, I ended up at Palm Restaurant in West Hollywood where I met up with Eric and Ming-Na for an epic dinner.

Ming's show - Agents of SHIELD - is coming back for a second season!!!

Fantastic end to a fantastic trip.

LA / Matt's Tranny Past

I left NYC ass-early on Wednesday morning. Never have I ever been so thrilled to be leaving the city for warmer climates. We took off just as the sun was rising and I haven't looked back.

Upon landing I went over to Matt & Kelli's to meet their new little baby. She was sleeping so I didn't get to take any pictures. And Matt & Kelli were busy in some health insurance customer service battle which left me some time to snoop through some old photo albums and OMG am I glad I did!!!

Looking through I found some vintage pictures of Matt... in women's clothing!!!!

W.T.F??!??!?!?!?!??!

Seriously. I was like "MATT WTF IS THIS?!?!?!?"

Turns out in 2004 when they did the poster art for the movie White Chicks, the Wayans brothers were too lazy to dress up in drag themselves for the photoshoot, so their heads were just photoshopped onto some supermodel bodies.

Amaaaazing.

In the evening I met up with David Alan and Rebecca and we hit up SoHo House for a special (terrible) movie screening.

The SoHo House WeHo screening room is EPIC. (I did not take this picture. It's directly from their website.)

The movie starred Vanessa from Gossip Girl. She is the most annoying character on that show. And she was annoying in this.

Girlfriend is cute but CANNOT act.

It feels really awful walking out of a movie screening when the film's director was sitting directly behind us. But it had to be done.

Since SoHo House doesn't allow pictures, EXCEPT in the Photobooth, we did lots of Photobooth.

Oooh and we had a celeb sighting. Getting out of the photobooth as we were getting into it was Anna Faris!

Love her!!!!