And I couldn’t have hand-picked a better couple to shoot with if I wanted to. Ngoc and Tyler are one of the most fun and friendly couples I’ve had the luck to meet in this line of work. And to make it even tastier, Tyer is a kickass wedding photographer in the Bay Area, so it was great shooting another photographer and talking shop the whole time. We banged out some ideas on the fly together during the portrait shoot, and although you might think it would be stressful having another photographer as a client, it was actually really interesting and a whole lotta fun.

We managed to get in a morning shoot in Hoi An, nice and early before all the shops opened and tourists descended on the old town. Hoi An is great at that time of day, and you can just wander around and use the simple colors and lines of the old doors and walls to frame your images, before they get cluttered with Coca Cola stands and mannequins wearing garish clothes. It’s hard making a clean frame between 8am and 6pm in Hoi An, and getting up early always pays off.

In the afternoon we reconvened for ceremonies at Ngoc’s family’s home in Danang, and then headed out to a massive wedding hall for a much larger reception for friends and extended families, where we roamed from table to table toasting all the guests, as is Vietnamese custom (see last image below). It’s a great custom, showing respect to every guest that attends the reception, but the one problem is that the bride and groom never get a chance to eat, and after toasting 40-50 tables it can get a little exhausting. At the end of the day, we drove to a little fried chicken place and wolfed down some delicious food after a long day. A beautiful day. A long, beautiful day with wonderful people and amazing food (ask Ngoc and Tyler about the banh my stand in Hoi An. That woman is a sandwich artist!) And a whole lotta humidity. And beer. And on that note…. Một, hai, ba… Yo!

Tour guide, Bar owner and Minsk Club footballer Guilhem and his fiancee Huyen braved the heat on Sunday as Summer hit Hanoi. Some say it reached 39′C in the early afternoon but the couple kept smiling as they wiped the sweat from their brows.

Staying away from the clicheed Opera House and Botanical Gardens which can get very crowded with future brides, the iconic Long Bien Railway Bridge made a perfect backdrop for the warm afternoon light.

Unfortunately we won’t be able to cover their an hoi and wedding in Huyen’s hometown next month, but hope to catch up with them soon in Ket Noi, an ethnic bar in Hanoi’s Old Quarter.