Amber & Kelly’s Groomals

Last week, I had the wonderful opportunity to photograph this beautiful couple. After a couple months of back and forth emailing with Amber, I finally got to meet with them face to face on the day of their groomals. We originally were only doing this session, and so we started at the temple where they’ll be married. Well my first words to them as they pulled up were, “Hi! Ok, jump out and run over here real quick. The storm is coming in!” Yeah. . . um the storm beat us. After being blown literally around completely crazy for only a minute or two, we called it quits and ran back to the cars for cover. I’ve fought wind before. I’ve fought snow and even light rain, and definitely fought cold before. But the combination of all of those elements was a different story. Just those not even five minutes froze us to the core, and I promise I’m not a wimp, especially when I have my camera and my excitement for taking pictures in hand! But this wasn’t good.

However because of a tux rental, many hours of Amber getting ready, and busy schedules all the way up until her wedding in only 2 weeks, we decided to see what we could get. We traveled south to a plan B location which had a little covered space if the weather got even worse. Surprisingly, the location had trees which blocked the harsh winds, and the snow didn’t seem to be coming this direction in any hurry.

Phew. . . . it wasn’t totally ideal, but these two were awesome and allowed me to boss them around a little since everyone was a little too cold to think :) And a huge thanks to Amber’s mom who was a super-star of a helper during the session. I had an immediate liking to her and she seriously was the best when it came to helping out even though it was freezing cold, and a lot of running around. Thanks Terri!

And oh my goodness!!! I was so happy with what we did get. There’s something mysterious and cool about winter’s dead trees, there’s a texture and beauty all on it’s own which I actually really love.

After the awesome fun time that we had (despite the frigid freezing weather), I was beyond thrilled when Amber said she’d actually like me to photograph their entire wedding, which happens to be tomorrow! I just get so attached to the couples that I work with, that nothing makes me more happy than to see and capture this beautiful event till the end of the wedding, but also till the true beginning of their marriage and love.  Amber and Kelly are genuine sweet people, and we all clicked right away which I also really love! I am so happy for them to be sealing their love tomorrow, and the chance I have to capture that.

Well enough chit-chat! Let’s get to the pictures of this beautiful couple!

That’a woman! You tell your man what cha want! :)  (John caught this cute moment) Just have to share with you my “few” favorites from this lovely bride by herself. She is seriously stunning.  And I was ‘slightly’ hair jealous ;) Hey it happens! Haha!

The details on her dress were amazing and oh so flattering.

A little Off-Camera action here. Yes in the middle of the day :)

I love the brides who take my advice to wear a little more make-up for pictures than they usually do . . . it really helps highlight the bride’s beautiful features.

 

The next set of pictures are a part of the fairytale stories I have floating all over in my head, just waiting to find words to describe what I can capture in pictures instead. Seriously. These are my favorite kinds of pictures to capture . . . the princess with her prince.

These pictures seriously make my heart pitter-patter. I LOVE the love and mystery it shows, but especially the story.

L.O.V.E. this one too:

And we will be returning to this fabulous location tomorrow for the “real deal” :)  Please pray that the weather will treat us kindly, and that the weatherman was only playing an April Fools joke by saying that it’ll rain and snow. Please only be a joke . . . :)

At least they are a beautiful couple and will be incredibly happy tomorrow no matter the outcome of the weather.

  And we’ll end with my favorite temple shot that we did get at the very end of the day before the sun went down.

Thank you so much Amber and Kelly for braving the freezing cold, trying your best to not show how completely cold of a day it was, and for being so fabulous to work with! I am so incredibly excited for tomorrow, but will be bringing umbrellas, leggings, a big fat coat, and my usual excitement to capture your radiant happiness for being married to your best friend.

Thanks for letting me share everyone! Hope you all have a wonderful day tomorrow. Wish me luck! :)

Till he comes home to you . . .

Words can’t quite describe how I feel for this family right now. . . It was my pleasure back in 2008 to meet them both for the first time at the Manti temple to take some pictures of them on a special day when they were to be sealed together forever . . . It was a beautiful and special thing for me to be a part of their day then. The next time I saw them, Calli had the glow . . . the pregnancy glow, but still wasn’t showing :) and we took some extended family pictures.

When she called me close to her due date to tell me that she would like a newborn session with her beautiful baby girl, I was thrilled, but it was only tainted by the fact that he wouldn’t be there. He wouldn’t be there physically to witness his new baby girl’s birth, but he would be there in spirit. My heart was truly touched then.

And now my heart is touched more than ever tonight. As I remember our latest afternoon to photograph this beautiful family, finally all together for pictures. It was a fun, wonderful experience, only tainted by the fact that he was going again (now is gone) . . . to serve our country across the seas. . . for an entire year.

When I was an army wife, I lived through this exact scenario . . . realistically in my head. It was awful even there. Even imagining what it’d be like. But now as I captured this family right before his departure, I looked at Calli and realized that some how she is strong enough to go through this. She is strong enough. She may not know it or see it . . . but she is, at least I saw the strength.

I have been more than honored to have seen this beautiful family grow, and to in some way capture the story that they’ve gone through over the past couple years. Thank-you Casey for being so brave to serve our country, and thank you to all of the men (including my husband who went before I met him) and women who serve this country. And as a wife, I want to thank all of the other wives and family members who sacrifice their husbands, fathers, sons, daughters, brothers, and sisters, and they go through the trial of waiting through a deployment for their loved one to come back home. You are my heroes. Because I really couldn’t imagine doing that myself, and I know you are stronger because of it. God bless you.

These brought tears to my own eyes going through a few of these pictures that I will share with you. I hope you will be touched a little by them too.

You are beautiful, Calli. Please send your husband this gorgeous picture of you, so he can do lots of bragging, and remember EXACTLY how beautiful his wife, who is waiting at home for him, is.

I hope these pictures bring a smile to your face, joy in your heart, and peace to your soul. Even though the time apart will be hard, it will go by faster than you think, you’ll be back together as a family, with more happiness and love for each other than you ever expected.

And the Winner is . . .

Mercedes and Trefton (TJ)!

A Huge Thank-You to everyone who participated in voting for the engaged contestants! It was a lot of fun and I was glad that each of the couples got to share their story with more of their friends and family. Hopefully you all enjoyed that too :)

Just thought I’d share a sneak peek of what I did over the weekend. . . it was a VERY chilly and snowy day on Friday, but this couple seriously rocked! Even though we were freezing from head to foot, I loved what we got and was glad they were willing to roll with the punches that the weather gave us.

Take a peek . . . :)

  My awesome, second shooter (and husband), John caught this next one:

Thanks for stopping by everyone! I’ve been kind of out of the blogging world for the past couple weeks due to helping my parents move to my (oh my parents) dream home! :) I’ll have to share pictures of their beautiful new horse that they just got. But till then, just know I’m busy at work! :)

Thanks again to those who voted and the wonderful fun couples who entered! Have a great day everyone!

Time to Vote!

It's time to vote for a special couple to win a free engagement session with me!
Each of these couples wrote down their own cute, sappy, funny stories of how they met and how they came to have fallen in love. I completely enjoyed reading them, and felt like I got to know a small piece of who they are and where they've come to be at this very exciting time in their lives. Thank you so much to those couples who shared that with me!

****Their stories are on the post below this one****

Let's get started off on the actual voting now! This Poll ends at midnight on FRIDAY, and allows one vote per IP address.
Tell me who YOU think should be the lucky couple! Make sure to double check the name that you're voting for. Several of our couples have similar names to each other.




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Once Upon a Time :)

6 awesome couples have decided to share with me (and you) their love story. Each of the stories are unique and personal to them. I love their telling of it, because it contains the excitement and fondness for those memories that no one else can accurately describe. And that's why I am taking what they wrote to me and sharing it with all of you. This way if by chance you have no idea who those names on the voting poll are, this way you can (like me) get to know them a little bit better and enjoy a piece of where they've come.

Click on the names of the couple to be redirected to their post to tell their story, and I hope you enjoy the stories as much as I did :)

Katrina Q. and Jared B.

Katie M. and Braedon G.

Sara Ha. and JT W.

Mercedes B. and Trefton D.

Sarah Hu. and Adam A.

Jessica R. and Corey H.

Baby Caleb and one of my favorite couples!

Do you remember these two? Here, Here, or Here?

This Gorgeous bride?

They now have a new addition to the family:

I seriously love these two (now three)! They were one of my very first couples as I started off in 2008. I loved their energy, willingness to try all of my new fun ideas, and just how extremely fun they are! I had quite the time today going through all of their pictures and just remembering everything I was going through as I attempted to get started in the wedding photography industry. It’s amazing how far I’ve come since then, but even though my editing stinks on a lot of my older picture, I still actually really like my composition, creativity, etc. It actually has inspired me to maybe take one of my 2010 couples back to that spot to give it a second go!

Well I have many wonderful happy memories of their wedding. And you know what the hardest part of a wedding for me is? When it’s over. Yep, after they pick up their pictures, it’s sort of rare that I see my brides again. It makes me sad. So of course I was glad that Lindsey and I (ok and Jason and Caleb ;) had an excuse to get back together again! I was so thrilled to meet sweet Caleb! Not sure he was thrilled to see me, but I managed to get some cute pictures of him :) And of his cute parents:

Since we had a fun creative picture with their rings for their wedding:

We just had to use them again on some cute little baby toes!

Daddy is a HUGE Dallas Cowboys fan! So Baby Caleb better be too :)

I can’t thank you two enough for coming in and seeing me again! I loved being introduced to sweet Caleb! He is adorable! May you cherish every possible moment with him, because believe me . . . they grow up WAY too fast!

Have a great day everyone!