craig & bernadette (leadville wedding photographer)

This was one of those shoots that was just meant to happen.  Craig is an old friend of a friend and we haven't seen each other in years, but when he and his fiancee Bernadette booked me to shoot their 2011 wedding, I was thrilled!  We scheduled an engagement session for the day before I was supposed to leave to shoot a Seattle wedding.  No problem, I thought.  I'll just get home late, I thought.  Craig and Bernadette and I talked a little bit about the engagement session and came up with some great ideas and still had everything under control for the first part of the session, which we shot at the Silver Dollar Saloon in Leadville.Then, for the second part of the shoot, we headed up to Turquoise Lake near Leadville.  It turns into a dirt road, nothing extreme, but I drive a little VW Golf.  With not the best clearance.  Also with not the best history of keeping oil pans intact.  I heard a big thunk and my stomach dropped and I thought "Oh CRAP.  I hope that wasn't what I think it was."  So we get down to the parking area for the site and I drop to my hands and knees and look under my car... sure enough, lots of fat black drips of oil.  Yes, friends, I hit a rock and cracked my oil pan.  Again.  A few hours before I'm supposed to drive to the airport.  Honestly, my first reaction was just to start laughing hysterically.  So I'm sitting in the middle of the dirt road, just cracking up, and Craig reminded me that we should, um, you know, probably get going.  We sped back to town, and in the ten or twelve minutes it takes to drive from Turquoise Lake to downtown Leadville, I lost almost HALF of the oil in my engine.

"Well," I laughed.  "It's not like I'm going anywhere... we might as well head back and finish the shoot!"  So they were kind enough to lend me a mixing bowl to stuff under my car, and I hopped in with them, and we produced one hell of an epic shoot while my car was slowly bleeding to death.  When we got back to the house, Bernadette slapped some chewed up gum on the crack and I bought like six quarts of oil and just kept pulling over every ten minutes to pour some more back in.  All in all, it was a great night :)

Seriously - these two are so kind, so laid-back, so flexible, and so so great in front of the camera.  This has to be one of my favorite engagement sessions ever.  Turquoise Lake is gorgeous, but so is the intimate, playful  love that Craig & Bernadette share.  I know I'm blogging WAY out of order but I sort of felt like I owed them :)  I am so thrilled to be a part of their wedding!  Congratulations!

Yay!  What a great great shoot.

. melissa's trash the dress session: part two .

As promised - the beautiful Melissa with her beloved horse, Tempe.  The first shots are in her riding field (hey St. Croix people- she teaches lessons!),  and the cool gourd-looking fruits are mahogany... We had absolutely perfect light and perfect weather!

. leslie and brian .

I've been so lucky to have clients as awesome as Leslie and Brian.  First, I got to shoot their amazingly fun engagement session, then their wedding, then Leslie's epic Dia de los Muertos - themed trash the dress session.  Part of the reason it's taken me so long to blog about this wedding is because there were so many fun details and sweet moments that it was hard for me to choose.  Welcome to one of the most elegant, personalized, spunky weddings I've shot.  Why, yes, we did have fun.  Why, yes, we did get a Beatles-inspired crosswalk shot coming out of the bar in the middle of the day.  Why, yes, there was a random pair of handcuffs in use by the end of the night.  From zombie cake topper to absolutely gorgeous flower arrangements to Simpsons - themed name cards to homemade jam favors to shots at the bar (pun intended, sorry)... this wedding had so many personal touches, and I loved each one. We had some beautiful golden late afternoon light, which is a GREAT time of day if you happen to be planning your wedding now and are looking for ideas.  Yes!  Evenings! I vote for them.Brian was Leslie's boss when they met, and he's kind, easy to be around, and a cancer survivor.  There were so many tears throughout the day - the officiant got choked up while performing the ceremony at the beautiful Meadows at Marshdale in Evergreen, Brian's brother Shawn gave a sweet, sweet speech that had everyone wiping their eyes, and Leslie's neice gave a hip-hop speech that had everyone laughing until they cried.  I can't say enough about these two.  You guys are completely wonderful, and it's been a pleasure getting to know you.  Congratulations and thank you so much for all the fun experiences!  Um.. yeah... these might take a little while to load :)

. leslie's trash the dress session: part two .

Leslie and I had this whole grandiose scheme for part two of her EPIC trash the dress session.  We'd been talking about it forever (since before the Dia de los Muertos epiphany), and we were going to do it.  We were going to somehow get goats to eat her wedding dress.  Only two problems:  first, we had to find some goats.  Second, we had to try to get them to munch on the dress.  So, I networked away and found a friend willing to lend us not only some goats, but a burro, too!  This is one of the parts of my job that I absolutely adore: the randomness.  Who else gets such random text messages?Just to make sure, I talked to Shanell, friend and goat-owner.  "They'll eat anything, right?"

"Well, yeah.  They're goats.  They'll eat tin cans if you let them."

Leslie and I had discussed various methods of enticing the goats to eat the dress.  Butter-flavored cooking spray?  Peanut butter smeared on the hem of the dress?  Maybe we wouldn't need to do any of this!  Maybe they'd just be destructively ravenous to begin with!  I was also secretly beginning to worry that, if they'd eat anything,  they'd bite Leslie.  When the time came, Shanell wasn't able to be there, but her gracious mom helped us get things rolling.  The goats came bounding out of the house like puppies.  I tried to explain to Shanell's mom what we wanted to do, and she laughed.

"Oh, they won't eat the dress."

"Uh-oh... really?  I though they'd eat anything."

"Well, anything but fabric.  They don't like fabric.  Here, look."  She grabbed the bottom edge of her shirt and stuffed it into the goat's mouth.  Sure enough, it was like trying to feed a kid cough syrup, or broccoli.  Mr. Goat was not having it.

"What... what about some peanut butter?" I asked tentatively.  "Or butter spray?"

"They don't like butter either.  But, Leslie can try to feed them.  Maybe if we sprinkle some goat food on the edge of her dress, it'll LOOK like they're eating it."

So, the goat part didn't go quite as I had envisioned it.  There was far less fabric-ripping and goat-chewing than I had expected.  But, as it turns out, goats love cheese-flavored crackers.  From there, we headed on to an amazing little grove of trees where Brian painted "I LOVE YOU" all over Leslie's dress.  The light was beautiful, beautiful, beautiful.  Thanks, you two, and THANK YOU THANK YOU to Shanell for letting me borrow her goats.

. leslie's trash the dress session - part one .

Yayayayayay!  I love Leslie and Brian so much, it's hard to believe they were clients before they were friends.  Earlier this summer, a friend sent me a link to this Sick Jacken video, and immediately my mind started spinning.  Hmmm... I love Dia de Los Muertos.  It reminds me of my childhood in Santa Fe.  Which of my clients would ever be down with a Dia de los Muertos - themed shoot?  Of course - Leslie and Brian! The bride and groom with the zombie cake topper and stars of this awesome engagement session!  So then, my mind was overwhelmed with a hundred ideas, and I've been looking forward to this shoot for what felt like forever.  We had an amazing fall day with luscious light and during the shoot, I kept repeating, "OMG, I'm so excited right now, " like a mantra.  This has definitely been one of my favorites.  If you're a little creeped out... good, that was the goal.  Thanks, Dad, for the ristras - you're right, they did come in handy.  Thanks, Matt, for the inspirational vid, and thanks to the lovely Rachelle for her makeup talents.  But mostly- Leslie & Brian - overwhelming, overflowing, mass quantities of gratitude.  Oh yeah... did I mention this is just part one? :)