After 38 weddings, I can now say I'm done for the year. And Saturday's ceremony in Los Angeles was an epic finale. Amber and Adam got married in a plush French restaurant in West Hollywood called Ortolan, and gave their guests an incredible nine-course meal, a few drunken toasts and a visit from their dog. At 2 in the morning, we ended up getting kicked out of the pool area of the Hotel Bel Air in Beverly Hills for trying to take pictures on the way to their hotel room. It was a very cool way to end the year ("fighting the man," as Adam called it), and I'm really glad I got to be there. In a few hours, Amber and Adam will be driving across the country to start a new life in Ohio and I wish them the best. I also wish Ohio the best, because I have a feeling the newlyweds are going to teach the Buckeyes a thing or two about being from southern California.

To see their slideshow, just click here: www.benchrisman.com/amberadam

Laura and I are in Los Angeles now for a wedding here this weekend, and we had dinner tonight with one of my oldest friends Eric and his beautiful daughter Velouria. I used to work with Eric a few years ago when we both lived in San Diego. Eric is now a celebrity/commercial photographer here in LA, and before dinner had just finished up working on a shoot with Robert Downey Jr. for Esquire magazine. It's really interesting to hear about those Hollywood photo sessions because they are so different than what I do. For one shoot, you have several assistants, a producer, a make-up artist, tons of lights, computers, etc. It's really an intense day of work, and Eric knows how to do it all. So if you're reading this and you're famous, call Eric for your next portrait.

At the beginning of this year, I told myself I wanted to spend as much time as I could in Mexico so I could learn the language. I even dubbed it "The Year of Mexico" in my head. Throughout the last few months, I've gotten to see a lot of the country, including Isla Mujeres earlier this week for the stunning wedding of Stacey and Eric.

In college, I never went on the big Spring Break parties so I had never heard of Isla Mujeres (which is next to Cancun) before Stacey wrote me a few months ago. It's an incredible place to have a wedding. The beaches are beautiful, the water is really warm (I have a hard time with cold water) and the locals are very nice. Stacey and Eric got married on the beach of the Zama Beach Club, with the wonderful Tiffany making sure everything went perfectly.

And it did.

Laura and I now have so many new friends after spending several days with Stacey, Eric and all their amigos. We're counting on our new poet laureate Sam and his wife Pari to come down for our New Year's Eve party, and we're planning lots of trips to Denver to see indie rock shows with our new gang. Stacey and Eric are still getting tan on the beach, while we're battling 13 degree weather here in Santa Fe. But I'm flying into San Francisco later today, and I'm glad to be getting out of the snow. But I can't wait to one day get back to Isla Mujeres.

You can see their slideshow here:
www.benchrisman.com/staceyeric