Christine & Sun: A San Francisco Love Story in Berlin

When friends and family fly in from Asia and the United States to gather in one city, a particular kind of magic happens. Christine and Sun live in San Francisco; their roots reach across the Pacific. For their wedding, they chose Berlin — and brought both worlds with them.

The weekend opened with a relaxed get-together at Soho House Berlin, setting the tone for what followed. The next day, a room at the Hotel de Rome had been transformed for a traditional Asian tea ceremony — one of the most moving rituals I have ever photographed: two families, served with both hands, bound together cup by cup. American wedding traditions and Asian heritage did not compete that weekend. They danced.

Between the ceremonies, we took the couple into the Tiergarten for portraits with colour smoke — a burst of modern energy between all the elegance. And elegance there was: Christine in breathtaking Vera Wang, Sun in tailored Tom Ford, details down to the watch. The evening belonged to the chandeliers of the Hotel de Rome, to speeches in two languages, and to a dance floor that understood its assignment.

The entire weekend was planned flawlessly by Sarah Linow and her team — the Berlin planner I have now worked with for more than a decade. When planning is this good, my job becomes pure storytelling.