Ryan Phillips Blog

So our favorite Make-Up Artist Michele Stewart called us a few weeks ago to do her maternity shoot again for baby #2. She is such a hot mama! Here are a couple of favorites… -CP

This match made in heaven took their vows oceanside in Malibu a few weeks ago at The Adamson House. Sophia & Bob are truly perfect for each other and have an amazing dynamic to their relationship. There is such an intensity to their interaction that is evident in all their photos. Adamson House is an amazing location to begin with, but wedding coordinator Tiffany Cannis truly transformed this place into something spectacular! The details were flawless and seemed to blend effortlessly into their surroundings. Jennifer at Floral Arts solidified the perfection with clean classic arrangements in pink and white. The event was catered by The Kitchen for Exploring Food. It was amazing!!! This definitely wins the award for best wedding food of the year. Trust me, I eat some amazing food at every wedding and this is at the top of my short list! The cuisine would best be described as Moroccan Fusion.

Sophia looked stunning in a two-tone Monique Lhuillier gown! Can’t forget the shoes….. Christian Louboutin’s from Barneys to match the dress. A bride wouldn’t be complete without her bling. Antique estate jewelry from Single Stone Jewelers in Pasadena added the final touches.

The cake which will talk more about later was from Layers in Studio City.

Other notables: The guys wore linen suits compliments of JCrew to match the bridesmaid’s JCrew dresses, aptly named “Sophia.” ;-) The bridesmaids also wore custom pink pearl necklaces by designer May Yeung.

So we started the day off at the Bel-Air Bay Club before heading out to Adamson House for our prep shots. Sophia was getting ready in a beautiful room overlooking the pacific. The room had amazing bright natural even light pouring into it from every direction.

The beautiful Monique Lhuillier Gown…

Some nice bling from Single Stone Jewelers in Pasadena…

The too fabulous two-tone Christian Louboutin shoes…



I love this shot of Sophia going in for a little group prayer with the gals…

This is one of my favorite shots of the day, hopefully no explanation why is necessary :-)

Can’t beat a little perfect window light…

Here’s a great shot of the Junior Bridesmaid. She was actually a very happy little girl, I just love this moody shot of her…



I love this shot of Bob getting his first glimpse of Sophia…



Here’s a great shot of Sophia looking back at the crowd as they cheer…

This should be a JCrew Ad…




The tables were amazing, they were forever long and had glass runners that mirrored all the flowers and glassware.


It was an unusually hot day in Malibu and while the cake stood there without wavering. The heat did however release an intoxicating scent that permeated the air if you got with in 50 feet of it. Our gear was parked right next to it and everytime we went to get something out of our bags we could smell this amazing chocolate scent. About six hours later we got to eat a piece and it was worth the wait!


This smile was on her face all day and night ;-)


I love the light in this shot, it just seems to shine down upon her. Sophia and Bob are very in tune with their faith and many of the speeches captured that. It was very fitting that this golden glow seemed to cascade around them during the speeches.

As I said earlier, they have this intensity in their interaction with each other. Ever since I shot their engagement shoot I noticed it.

Since I don’t have the use of my 9-up templates (ehemm Mike, get crackin!) I won’t show the best man giving his speech because it just won’t do it justice. I have him in all sort of awkward maneuvers while he strutted around but here are some of the reactions to the toast. It was a great speech and had the whole place in hysterics. It will be logged into my Top 10 list.



Bob’s mom also gave a great speech or rather recited a poem that she created. It was very unique and very entertaining.

The brides reaction to the speech…

I’ll skip the usual dance floor mayhem and leave you with this shot that really sums up the whole night…

Janene and Rob are getting married in a few weeks at Cicada in Downtown L.A. This uber-hip couple resides in one of L.A’s hottest new buildings. So hot in fact, that Johnny Depp just bought one of the Penthouses. Janene and Rob are in the process of opening up the ultimate pet store in Downtown L.A. replete with a paws-up raw food bar for doggies to get their grub on. Anyway, the set of this shoot was their ultra cool building that costs thousands of dollars a day to shoot at (so I was just a close friend takin’ some snaps of the newly engaged couple). Their building had so many great places to shoot at, I could have spent all day there. It was Re-Designed by Kelly Wearsler of Viceroy fame. Here are just a few of my personal favorites.

Doesn’t this look like the show poster for an HBO special?


I love the way these two look at each other. It is amazing to watch their chemistry…






Here’s Rob Fortune Magazine Cover….well, maybe one day ;-)

The Power Couple….

As we arrived at our initial location for Gina & Matt’s Engagement shoot we were faced with hundreds of cars and movie trailers as our location was now a movie set. Such is life in L.A. so we moved onto to a new location down the road. Behind the main house we found an abandoned pool with a giant nuclear reactor looking hump in the middle. We peeled back the dilapidated and heavily rusted chain link fence and snuck in. It was a touch creepy and as the sun set it got even more creepy…but not before we got a chance to take some really cool pics :-)

Sylvia and Michael had a fabulous wedding at the historic Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood. After some great prep shots at the hotel we drove over to the church. Sylvia arrived in style in a sweet old Bentley. It was a beautiful ceremony and must have put everyone in the party mood because the Roosevelt was kickin! After about an hour of taking fashion shots in the Marilynn Monroe Suite, Mike and his Detroit Playaz’ and “The Syndicate” as the girls are known, were ready to party.

I’m not sure who these guys are but someone in the entourage said they were famous rappers. Anyone know??? ;-) If the Roosevelt poolside wasn’t as famous for it’s celeb sightings I would doubt it… ya never know…

Here are a few shots from a recent Maternity session. Jennie got a gift certificate from her friend (and one of our favorite brides) Christine Chiu. She was cute as could be and we got some great shots of her and her husband, Dave.

You may remember Heidi from her maternity shoot…well here is her new little girl Anjali with proud papa Krishna.

People always ask what the best wedding toast I have ever heard at a wedding is. I decided I would post it. I want to set the scene first though. Mia and Gavin’s Wedding took place at Rancho Las Lomas back in May. They had been dating for 8 years and Gavin’s mother had been anxiously awaiting this day for many years. Sadly, she passed 4 months before the wedding. Gavin’s father gave a speech that floored the entire room. I have never seen that many people in tears. Even now, months later, I cried when I read it. Gavin’s dad is an 83 year old Irishman who has taught English at Harvard and Oxford. He has great big bushy eyebrows that are pure white to match his hair. He is the very essence of what you would expect an English Professor to be. With a thick Irish accent and the constant removal of his glasses to wipe away the tears he stood in front of the crowd and delivered the following…

Well, I’ve got a little reading here. Gavin asked me to do a little reading. I’ve entitled this little essay, big surprise, “Gavin and Mia”. Gavin asked me to offer you a reading, something literary, I guess having to do with marriage and I tried to find something… St. Paul said, “It’s better to marry than to burn”. Just the sort of thing a crabby old saint would say. Seventeen hundred years later Dr. Johnson claimed “A second marriage is a victory of hope over experience”. Said by a man who married but once and then to a widow more than 20 years older than himself. Hawthorne’s two weddings seem more promising. Describing an elegant, upper class couple he wrote, “The bride floated along in her white drapery. A creature so nice and delicate that it was a luxury to see her and a pity that her silk slippers should touch anything so grimy as the old stones of the church yard avenue”. That reminds me of Mia today. But Hawthorne undermines the beautiful image he has created by then describing a mass wedding that same day. “The mere rags and tatters of the human race, whom some east-wind of evil omen, howling along the streets, had chanced to sweep together into an unfragrant heap.”

Well, in short, I couldn’t find a literary text that would do. Not that there aren’t any, I just couldn’t find it. However, I think I know what a really good essay, poem or story ought to say about marriage and the rabbi said a lot of it during the ceremony. If I were writing it, such a piece would remind us over and over how precious the people we love and live with should be to us. We need to remember that the best of marriages may seem to wear thin now and then. That there is such a thing as a veil of familiarity, which may make us neglectful of the excellence of the caring and goodness that we are surrounded and sustained by. Gavin and Mia, where are you? (Addressing Gavin and Mia) You are so cheerful and happy and kind in your love that I don’t think you need to worry about that.

Now comes the hard part. I’m not able yet to talk about my own incomparable wife, the beautiful mother of our children, John, Sarah and Gavin without tears but bear with me. She’s worth crying over.
Cheryl, ever a happy and loving person, would have been the happiest lady alive today. She’ll be with us spiritually as long as we, her husband, her children, her kin and her friends are still breathing.
But what a pity that she had to die when she did, as she did. I wrote two poems about Cheryl while I was trying to encompass the horror of her death four months ago. Here’s the refrain of the first one.

“Remember that grey word mortal and don’t mess around with life. Nobody lives forever so kiss your wife and tell her you love her every chance you get”

The second poem talks, at first, somewhat humorously about the small vexations in any marriage. The best of people can irritate you at times even for their virtues and you in turn may exasperate them. Then, silence, the solitude and then vacancy. We get grief, guilt. Well, I’ve called this little poem “A Month Later”. Let me dry my eyes so I can read for God’s sake. I’m a big baby. That’s what us Irishmen are like. (Addressing Mia) You be careful. They say you should count your blessings so I’m going to try…

I’m going to save two hundred a month on your Benson & Hedges cigarettes
I’m going to save four hundred and twenty five dollars a month on health insurance
I may get as much as twenty two thousand for your retirement count in ASR
And Social Security promises to contribute two hundred and fifty five dollars to your burial expenses
I can turn the thermostat down as far as I want
The Kleenex box stays wherever I put it
The toilet rolls will now go at least twice as far
And I don’t have to flush the toilet every time I pee
Or put the seat down
I won’t have to eat any more broccoli
And I’ll never have to watch Antiques Roadshow again
I can sneeze without covering my face
And I can fart loud
And swear like a mad thing
I can go hitchhiking whenever I feel like it (Addressing guests) I used to hitchhike all over the country up until I was 70. Hell, I can travel to Oregon any time I want and stay as long as I like But with all these blessings why do I often so wish that I could die too. Sometimes you would say to me, ‘don’t ever die, I couldn’t live without you’ and that sounded generous enough until I learned who was the one condemned to live.

Both the wonderful sons Cheryl and I engendered and reared are getting married this spring. We couldn’t be happier with their choices. In fact, we were getting a little impatient with both Gavin and John. The awesome and amazing excellences of Mia and Adel were obvious to us. ‘What are you idiots waiting for?’, we thought quietly to ourselves. The marriage today of Mia and Gavin is for all of us a beautiful and joyous celebration of the potential richness and fullness of life. And that’s the final note I want to sound with this extract from the Elizabethan poet Edmund Spenser’s great marriage hymn ‘The Epithalamium’.

Now all is done; bring home the bride again,
bring home the triumph of our victory,
Bring home with you the glory of her gain,
With joyance bring her and with jollity.
Never had man more joyfull day then this,
Whom heaven would heap with bliss.
Make feast therefore now all this live long day,
This day for ever to me holy is

The speech shown here was transcribed for me by Isabel Gonzalez (www.isabelgonzalez.com) who is one of our favorite videographers. Izzy is working to get the video clip for me and I will post it as soon as I get it.

Beena and Chase tied the knot at 7 Degrees in Laguna Beach. What a cool venue! It is located in Laguna Canyon and is home to some great modern architecture, an art gallery, and a great ceremony site! 7 Degrees is a blank canvas and you can create whatever you want there.

There were beautiful colored fabrics everywhere. We took the groom’s scarf for this shot of the rings…










I love this shot of her dad giving her away. He was such a proud man…

This is one of my favorite shots of the day…




Here is Beena and Chase practicing for their first dance, it was such a cute moment…