My secret to booking my first destination wedding? Instagram hashtags. Jacelyn and her fiancée Jimmy were vacationing in San Francisco from Singapore and found me using some of my local hashtags like #sanfranciscophotographer (which I’ve also made many buds this way too!). She reached out and we photographed her dreamy engagement photos at Land’s End & China Beach (With Jimmy on crutches too!)

And while we were driving we talked about their lives in Singapore and the wedding they were planning and we joked about me photographing it.

And the joke was humor no more: it came true.

When the subsequent talks were happening, I tried to keep my cool but once it was officially booked, I actually squealed. I remember running to where Joseph was and just hugging and laughing and screaming and up and down jumping. It was Christmas morning. It was nailing the landing at the Olympics. It was finding out the Fab 5 are giving you a makeover. All the #isthisreallife vibes.

BTS realness: I planned my own travel. Even though they were paying my rate, I was covering my own travel expenses (goals in the destination weddings to come, they’ll cover it! But for this I chose experience over a huge financial profit) And that was x2 because I was bringing Joseph along for the ride, my security guard, and as my second shooter.

Kayak alerts are the best and I found tickets for $490 each from San Francisco to Singapore and from Manilla back to San Francisco. We found this incredible Airbnb too!

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What we’ve learned when shooting destination weddings is to 1) set aside enough time before your work date to adjust to the time change. It takes almost as many days as there are time zone differences 2) don’t overplan/overpack your schedule. Let it be! Adventure will find you 3) be flexible 4) Insure your gear (you should do this anyways as a business owner but even more so when traveling) 5) come with open eyes to experience new cultures & traditions 6) watch Asian videographers do same-day edits like nobody’s business!