Adam and Margo are two of the nicest, mellowest, awesomest people you will ever meet.  Stellar taste in music?  Check.  (Unbeknownst to each other, they were both playing Radiohead, at the same time, as they got ready in different rooms.)  Ultimate foodies?  Check.  (Both the wedding and reception took place at The Kitchen, a lovely, trendy, amazing restaurant in Boulder.)  Over the top kindness?  Check (A little old lady was walking by as we were taking photos, and Margo & Adam invited her to join in!)

I love these peeps.  I love this wedding.

Getting ready: St Julien Hotel, Boulder

Hair: The Spa at St. Julien

Makeup: the amazing Natosha Cooke

Flowers: The Perfect Petal

Venue: The Kitchen, Boulder

Could these flowers be any more gorgeous?!?

So, this happened during the family formals.  She blessed them and wished them good luck :)

LOVE the awesome tile floors in The Kitchen:

The ceremony was held as the guests sat down for dinner.  It was so amazingly laid-back and cozy!  I also have to mention that, throughout the entire night, everyone with The Kitchen was outstanding.  Wonderful service, great people, and delicious food!

I loved the crushed glass in the centerpieces, and of course, I’m such a sucker for succulents:

I’ve seen mustaches at weddings, but STICK-ON FURRY mustaches were an awesome first:

Margo & Adam – I just adore you guys.  Here’s hoping Hawaii is treating you well!

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Kay Beaton May 17th, 2012

Stunning Molly! Absolutely amazing photos, couple, venue…. so fun!

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In the middle of one of my insomniac nights a while back, I had a thought.  I’d been giving my clients some fun little booklets with tips about their session / wedding, but I had a lot more information I wanted to include, and I honestly felt like I could do better than a small booklet, creatively.  So… in the middle of the night, I started designing magazines!  I had SO much fun putting these together.  They just recently came in, and I think they’re pretty sweet.  So now, when you book your senior session or wedding, we’ll send you one of these babies right away to help you get started with your planning & brainstorming.

All of my upcoming brides and any senior who books a session will get one!  If you want one but aren’t an upcoming bride or a senior with a booked session, feel free to contact me to place an order.  I’m excited to share these with you guys!

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Mackenzie April 10th, 2012

Amazing once again!

Kate April 10th, 2012

Love them! I need to find a reason to do a photo shoot with you!

Chris April 10th, 2012

OMG LOVE!

jan o April 14th, 2012

gorgeous, quite creative and handy, too boot. i think you’ve got a 2nd career… you should publish magazines

Jenna (flutter glass) April 19th, 2012

AMAZING!!

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I was recently asked by a client about my editing / retouching policy.  I hated that the first thing I had to say was, “You’ll still look like you”.  She nodded in relief.  It’s so weird to me that there are photographers out there who specialize in making you look like a computerized Barbie version of yourself!  I want you to look like yourself, your REAL self, on your best, happiest day.  I want your friends to look at an image and say, “Oh my gosh, that’s such a good picture of you!” rather than saying, “Wow… what great Photoshop work!  You look great… after all that editing!”

I do edit and retouch images, but I try to be light-handed about it.   I want you to look GOOD!   We’ll get rid of your breakouts, edit that stain on your shirt, and fix weird lumps in your clothing that are distracting, but I want your skin to look like skin, not plastic.  I want your face to look like YOUR face, not some weird anime version of your face.  This is why I still call myself a photographer, and not a “digital artist” or something.

For some of you, your truest, most authentic beauty is found in a huge smiley grin.  For others of you, it’s that wave in your hair, or a moment of intense eye contact.  Sometimes it’s the expression on your face when you think I’m just screwing around,  and you laugh at me.  Seriously!  I love it when people laugh, (at me, or with me!)  Every person has their own, individual beauty, and it’s my job to find that and broadcast it.  Sometimes it’s a quiet presence and graceful movements.  Sometimes it’s sequins and glitter, and spotlights, and neon… awesome!! It doesn’t matter.   What makes you the most beautiful is when you look like yourself, loving life.

To edit the absolute  crap out of you would be saying that I thought you were maybe okay-looking, but not quite beautiful enough.  It would be saying that, “the way you look in reality is fine, I guess, but your face would look so much better made out of plastic”… which is not something I believe AT ALL.  The people I’m the most drawn to and find the most beautiful, my best friends, who I love and do life with, are REAL.  LIVE.  PEOPLE… and I love them for it!

I will make you look like a real person.  You look better that way… I promise.

* sidenote – despite the title of this post, I don’t want to make your skin look like paper, either.  It was just a catchier title than “Real live skin or plastic?”  ;)

Ashley & Marc are old friends from college – Ashley & I met singing in an acappella group!  Their wedding was on a gorgeous fall day overlooking Lake Dillon in Silverthorne, and I was so, so excited to be there.  Not only did I get to watch my beautiful friend walk down the aisle to marry a kind, handsome man, I also got to reconnect with some long-lost college friends :)  The weather was perfect, the whole day was so relaxed, and I was thrilled to be a part of it.

Gahh you are so gorgeous!

I LOVE this.

Marc & Ash – love you guys so much!  Congratulations and thanks for the amazing day!

. comments .

Holly November 15th, 2011

Loving the shots by the lake – great lighting!

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I was out to dinner with my parents for my birthday in March, when my mom got a call from my grandfather, saying he was engaged.

“And, of course,” he told my mom, “Molly will shoot the wedding.”

I was definitely a little mind-blown.  This wasn’t exactly something I thought I would do in my lifetime.

“Of course I will,” I told her, still kind of shocked.

Over the next few weeks, his wedding was on my mind a lot.  My grandfather has meant so much to me – he’s an amazing, successful businessperson, and he’s taken me seriously and stood behind me 100% since starting my own business.  When he was in his 20′s and 30′s, he was very interested in photography, and collected several cameras, which he gave to me when I was starting to get into photography in high school.  He showed me the photos he had taken while on his honeymoon with my grandmother in Acapulco back in the day, which he later sold as postcards in some of the shops nearby for spending money.

I always thought of those cameras as fun relics, novelties that look nice on the shelf…. and they sat on my shelves forever.  They were all caked in dust, the lenses clouded over with age.  As soon I realized I’d be shooting his wedding (!), I started thinking about those cameras.  I dusted them off,  swabbed out the crevices with Q-tips, and ran some test film through two of them: the Argus and the Ciro-flex.  Surprisingly, both of them worked (mostly).  So, obviously I was going to use my grandpa’s old cameras to shoot his wedding.

This was so different from the weddings I normally shoot, and it really made me look at weddings, and my job, in a completely different light.  It wasn’t about the trends, or the details – it was a day spent with family, celebrating the people closest to us.  We didn’t have really any time at all set aside for photos, and Jackie was surprised to hear that she might get several hundred pictures from the day.  I learned that church regulations prohibited me from using flash indoors, or stepping on the carpet, or moving around during the ceremony, even if I stayed behind the guests.  Or wearing anything other than all solid black, otherwise I WOULD BE KICKED OUT.  So pretty much, I went into this wedding rethinking my entire style and approaching the day completely differently.  This, in and of itself, was honestly such an amazing experience for me.   A few days earlier, my grandfather went in for some tests, because his doctors were concerned he might have liver cancer.  Needless to say, all of us were pretty emotionally overwhelmed, in so many ways.  This day was so sweet and very raw, and I got to share it with my amazing family.  I’m lucky to be so close to all of them.

Shooting this wedding changed me.

The rehearsal (and location of the reception), the LA Country Club:

One from the Ciro-Flex:

Fair warning: if you’re not in the mood to see me & my siblings making a lot of stupid faces, you can probably stop now.  That’s just what we do.

My little bro & his girlfriend:

Checking out the gorgeous sunset:

My youngest bro:

And now, the wedding day:

My sweetheart grandfather:

My wonderful, sweet parents:

My grandpa is the COOLEST.  These next few are AWESOME!

Then me & my seester & my cousin get tired of being fancy, and head to the bathroom of this church on Rodeo Drive, where the reeeallly classy shots happen:

Beret & Jaime were the “greeters”.  This was an official title, which was kind of funny to us, because the vast majority of the 30 or so guests were family, and about half of those were in the wedding party. However, they took their job quite seriously, and greeted every.single.person. with… enthusiasm.

Two shots from the Argus:

Another Argus shot.

One from the Ciro-Flex.

The LACC:

The decorations were so classic and elegant:

My sweet grandpa with the Ciro-Flex:

Phew.  I don’t know what else to say.  I love you all.

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Larkin November 6th, 2011

You made me cry, how pure and sweet this was……XO

Heather Barron November 6th, 2011

Just precious, Molly! What a gift to your grandfather and to YOU! :)

zach November 6th, 2011

Amazing. Loved every one of them. They capture your family perfectly.

boo boo November 7th, 2011

yaaaaaaaay!!!! phew. hearts.

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