Stolpman Wedding

I just arrived in Vegas for a little break between California wedding weekends.

This past weekend was Peter and Jessica's Wedding on the Stolpman Vineyard up near Santa Barbara.

It was, of course, amazing.

You may or may not recall my last visit up here in the fall when we did Peter and Jess's engagement photos...well, since then, the villa has been completed.

And let me just say, if you happen to be engaged to be married. And you happen to own a vineyard. And you have the option of building a massive villa-mansion to host your epic wedding. DO THAT.

It was a beautiful and awesome wedding party. I dragged everyone up a hill on the vineyard to get this picture. The girls were NOT HAPPY to be walking up a dirt hill in their spike heels, but it was worth it.

The boys were wayyyyy too comfortable busting out feminine poses.

I <3 br="" them.="">

Funboys 2.0!

At the start of the ceremony, Peter walked down the aisle with his best friend, Baron.

The ceremony was in the backyard overlooking the vineyard. Stunning.

There was a super cute moment where Pete could not get Jessica's ring on.

These two are just adorable.

Since they both work in the wine business, and this wedding was all about wine. They ended the ceremony by drinking glasses of some super special $1500 bottle of wine after which they tossed the glasses out into the vineyard. It was so cute.

Congratulations guys!!!!

Crazy to think that this new villa is just the start of the rest of their lives. The future is SO bright.

Katie and Semmesey were present, of course. Love working a wedding when my besties are present!

The bridesmaids were a joy as well.

As the sun set, I noticed an incredible opportunity, so I ran and got the bride and groom. Dragged them out of the party and across the property under this tree on this barrel and staged this shot which I'm pretty proud of.

We LOVE sunset on a vineyard!

Oh...you want to see pictures of Funboys doing ladyposes?

OK.

Off to LA!

Hey guys!

Been a while.

My nose is pretty much healed.

I still blow out bloody snot once in a while, but swelling is gone, stuffiness is gone, I can BREATHE!

So exciting.

My recovery went very well. I had a lovely visit from Lady Di.



Got back into the swing of things this week with a ton of photo shoots.

And now I'm off to LA for two weeks (wedding in Santa Barbara this weekend and wedding in Santa Monica next weekend).

Delta's new transcontinental planes have put in new business class seats featuring personal cubbies with tons of legroom! My legs are SOOOOOO happy!



AND

The seats have a MASSAGE FEATURE!!!!!!



LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE DELTA.

Recovery Day 2

Day 2 of recovery was not so bad. I basically lay in bed all day patiently waiting for my nose to heal.

I've been very good about taking my pain meds (Tylenol, nothing crazy) and antibiotics on schedule every 8 hours to prevent infection or further headaches. And it's not really painful at all. Just uncomfortable.

My nose has been full of blood and snot, but I'm not allowed to blow my nose (because it can hurt the stitches) so I just cover it up with gauze and leave it there or wait for it to drip out naturally which feels gooey and gross. So basically you just feel super congested and have to breathe through your mouth. But again, it's not so bad...it's nowhere near as bad as breaking your ankle.

Today, Day 3, will be much of the same. I've been actually quite productive, reorganizing my hard drive and getting a little work done while watching plenty of TV.

Thank you everyone for your texts and calls and messages and for the few people who have come to visit, you are extra super special.

Lady Di gets in from Arizona this afternoon to hang out, that is going to be fun! Too bad I don't think we're going to be able to gay-dance, but imma see if I can convince her to get her nose all dressed up like we got twin nose-jobs and go out on the town.

Post-operation

I went in for my surgery at 10:30am. I spent the next two hours waiting in different rooms for the doctor who was running late on her other morning operations.

Then finally she I went into the pre-op holding area. Where she said hi and asked if I was nervous.

Of course I was nervous duh.

Then the anesthesiologist stabbed my hand like 5 times trying to hit a vein while putting in my IV. That was actually the worst part of the operation.

The operation was done under local anesthesia and sedation. I think it started around 1pm. I was awake for the whole thing. This sounds scary, but you're actually pretty comfortable.

She told me I wouldn't remember a thing but as of now I remember it quite well.

Once sedated and lying on the operating table, they stuck me with the numbing needle. And then it was time to go. I didn't really feel them cutting the insides of my nostrils open. But I felt the dull pressure and heard the awful bone crunching sound when they started scraping away the bone of my septum. The operation was supposed to take about 45 minutes...but it felt like it only took like 10. The final part of the operation was the turbinoplasty where they shrink my turbinates.

Here's a cool animation I found that shows what they do.

They poke the turbanite with a needle that emits a radio frequency and this creates a lesion which, as it heals, causes the turbanite to shrink. The size of the large turbanites it was causes a lot of breathing issues so when they get smaller, you have a larger pathway for air to go through.

I could smell some kind of burning as they were doing it and it sent a shock through the roof of my mouth and teeth. None of this really hurt because I was all numbed, but they were still odd sensations. And then in what felt like 15 minutes it was all over and I was standing up and walking back to the waiting room with gauze pads taped under my nose.

By 3pm, I was in a cab on my way home with my lovely friend Dave who picked me up.

Immediately following surgery I actually felt great. I was pretty lucid and I felt like I could breathe totally clearly and the pain meds were still keeping me from feeling any pain.

By the time I got home though I started to feel a headache. And then at 4pm it was an unbearable headache that felt like a brainfreeze that would not go away. I had to lie down (on stacked pillows because I'm not supposed to lie flat) and turn off the TV and close my eyes because sound and light seemed to make everything worse.

I'm pretty sure I didn't fall asleep. I just focused on breathing out of my mouth and it felt like an eternity. But I finally opened my eyes just now and it feels like the worst of that headache has gone away.

Now I'm all stuffed up and probably filled with dried blood but I'm not supposed to blow my nose for the next week or so. Starting Friday I can spray some saline in my nose to clean it out a little but for now I just feel like the most congested I've ever been in my life. I'm amazed I was able to sit down here and type this out, but it has actually felt great and distracting to do something other than focus on the headache.

Overall it's not that bad and I think (and hope) the worst of it is over and it will just be a bit of soreness and dripping blood from here on out.

Will update again soon.

I love you all.

Nose Surgery tomorrow eeeeeeeek!

I'm going in for a septoplasty and turbinectomy tomorrow.

It's a non-cosmetic procedure. It's what people claim to be getting when they are actually getting a nose job (rhinoplasty).

Not that there's anything wrong with getting a nose job, if it makes you feel better, you should totally go for it. It's an easy surgery. I've seen some amazing nose jobs. And as a headshot photographer, I've definitely seen some BEAKS that, if chiseled and refined, could improve someone's appearance tenfold. I personally just don't happen to think I need one because I've always been satisfied with the way my nose looks.

Still...I like saying I'm getting a nosejob. It feels so LA.

I just hope recovery won't be too bad.

I'll keep y'all updated. I probably won't be leaving my house for a few days.

Buffalo 4th of July

Spent the long 4th of July weekend up in Buffalo with Felly and his family.

It was fun and relaxing. Lots of poker. Lots of food and buffalo wings. Lots of family time watching hilarious old childhood videos and talking about old times.

Also it was Sid's 2nd birthday. Sid (Siddarth) is Felix's cousin's son. And he is sooooo cute.

Loves a Bhandari fam.

And loves those Bhandari cousins!

Also love a Conlix! Look how quickly that Conster got back to pre-pregnancy weight!

And of course Lill and her little red mohawk was the star of the weekend.

Fine. Lill and Sid. Equally cute.

...and Jazzhands!