I’ve been counting down the days until this wedding since Jon and Christie first booked me back in July! Christie found me through a family friend, my best friend Thomas’ aunt, who shared photos from Thomas and Jocelyne’s wedding with her. I had such an amazing time at their beautiful Sutro Baths engagement session that I knew their wedding would be incredible. Jon and Christie had their wedding at The Pearl SF in the Dogpatch, surrounded by 200 of their friends and family. All of the speeches were excellent and highlighted how truly inspirational their relationship is. They have had the best of times together, filled with love and laughter as they travelled, ran races, discovered a love of the outdoors and played pranks together. Even more importantly, they have supported and comforted each other through the hardest of times. As Jon’s mom said in her speech, love is a commitment, not a feeling. These two embody that perfectly and I cannot congratulate them enough!

Jon and Christie have known of each other pretty much their entire lives, as their parents went to the same church and were great friends. When he was little, Jon was called Jojo until his family moved to Singapore and he told his mom he wanted to be called Jon now, not Jojo. Jon’s parents respected his wishes and only ever called him Jon, while calling him Jojo when they talked about him to each other. It wasn’t until Jon ran into Christie (funnily enough, in SF, not at UCLA where they both went to college) that Jon’s mom heard the name Jojo come out of Jon’s lips again!

After meeting Christie, Jon called him mom and told her he had run into Christie and recognized her immediately. She, however, didn’t recognize him! His mom told him Christie was 3 and Jon was 6 when they’d last seen each other, and Jon was like, “I know, but I recognized her immediately!” Jon went over to Christie and said, “Christie? It’s Jon.” Christie replied, “Who are you?” And Jon followed up with, “I’m Jojo!” That’s when Jon’s mom knew that things were serious, because Jon was willing to become Jojo again for Christie.

Jon and Christie got ready with their wedding party at the Courtyard Marriott in the Financial District.

Early on in the planning process, Christie reached out to me and asked whether it would be feasible to head to Golden Gate Park for the first look to get some greenery to contrast with the city-feel of the rest of the wedding. We ended up finding this beautiful location on Strawberry Hill which was totally worth the detour. My awesome second shooter Kim Heath headed over with the groom and groomsmen first to get Jon set up. Christie’s brother-in-law Lawrence drove Christie, her sister Melani and I, while the bridesmaids followed. In the car, Christie mentioned that some of her bridesmaids had asked if Jon would cry during the first look. Christie had responded by saying she would be incredibly surprised if he did! To the delight of Jon’s groomsmen when they heard about it later, there were definitely tears when Jon turned around and saw Christie in her wedding dress for the first time. It was one of the sweetest first looks I have ever seen.

The ceremony was held on the gorgeous rooftop garden of The Pearl SF, with beautiful views of Dogpatch, the bay and Oakland hills. With stunning florals by (*) in addition to all the greenery already on the rooftop and fun bistro string lights, their ceremony space was absolutely incredible. They exchanged traditional vows, but also wrote their own vows. I also loved that they ended the ceremony by honoring their moms with beautiful bouquets.

Congratulations to Jon and Christie! Your wedding was absolutely incredible and I know it is just the start of your journey through life together. Your love inspires me and I am so honored to have documented your special day.

• Venue: The Pearl SF
• Florals: Seeds of Clay
• Catering: Carrie Dove Catering
• DJ: J Kixx
• Dress: Trudy’s/Allure
• Cake: Susie’s Cakes
• Lighting: Got Light

Contact me or email me at alice@aliceche.com to book photography for your wedding at The Pearl SF now!