I love doing bride and groom shoots (or "groomals") before the wedding. You get to pick the time and place, ensuring interesting locations and good lighting, and you can always reschedule if you have to because of bad weather. In this case, I was glad we did a formal shoot of Jenny and Josh as we ended up getting some rain on the wedding day, and because of the previous shoot didn't have to stress too much about it. We took a couple of photos, and headed on out.
Anastasia grew up watching Princess Diana and Sarah Ferguson each get married and looking at all those old pics from famous weddings in the 1950s and 1960s- it definitely had an impact on her wedding style. In fact, her wedding dress was made as an exact replica of Grace Kelly's wedding dress when she married the Prince of Monaco. Her dress was beautiful, and definitely one of the most unique I have shot. The tulips were in full bloom for the shoot- definitely one of my favorite flowers.
A horse and carriage ride was definitely a requirement. :)
Just take a look at that veil and the back of the dress....
I think the vintage feel of this one really fits the dress.
You can see more photos here.
Here's just a few quick picks from a recent engagement shoot. Jamie and Peter are a fun, casual couple, and as it turns out Peter was actually my brother-in-law Mike's roommate a couple of years ago. Living in Utah can be such a small world, as everyone seems to know everyone else one way or another. It was kind of funny though- near the beginning of the shoot Peter says to me in a low voice "Wow, I almost didn't recognize Mike with that beard on." I look at him confused for a second, and then make the connection. I laughed and pointed out that it was his brother.
I love all the gold colors in this next one.
If you've been following the blog long enough, you may remember the not-quite-engagement-shoot I did for Mike and Lindsey last year. Weeeell, as it turns out they went to their favorite park a while ago after a nice dinner, and while Lindsey was on the swing Mike got down on one knee and said "Well why don't we just get this ring on your finger and go home." Romantic, no?
They're getting married August 14th in Portland, Oregon. Watch for bridals, and later photos from the wedding.
You can't quite tell from the photos, but there was a crazy windstorm going on for the whole engagement shoot.
This captures my brother-in-law and his fiancee pretty accurately.
Here's a link to the full gallery.
Thomas and I went on a drive location scouting one day, hoping to find something really special. We decided to head on out to Saratoga Springs, and we found some really gorgeous rustic waterside nature spots. It was a few weeks before the weather cooperated and I found a couple that when scheduling engagements said they'd like to try it out. We ended up hitting a few other places we spotted on the way out there as well. We're spontaneous like that. Oh yeah.
I am a huge sucker for the huge reeds you get around water like this....
Happiness is smooches on the cheek, didn't you know?
So much light in this photo, both physical and emotional.
You should check out the rest of the photos here as they become available.
Things have been so busy! I've been averaging about 4 or 5 shoots a week, and finally got around to putting up some of these engagement photos up taken at Lehi Main St.
You can see more here.
Well I'm back! After a week and a half in California shooting two weddings and spending our first real vacation with Thomas, I am back and headfirst into the backlog of editing and blog posts. Sorry if you've checked the blog recently hoping for updates- I promise more will be coming....
Here are a few photos from Megan's bridal session- we set up camp in Gardner Village and wandered around to see what we could find. It still surprises me every spring that sometimes you can get trees so colorful that you would swear it was fall.
The Harley Davidson store in Lindon is one of those locations that I always drove by and said to myself "Oooh I really should shoot there sometime." I even suggested it once or twice to a couple of different clients, but it never really seemed to pan out. So when we got a really beautiful clear day for Brooklyn and Kagan's engagement session I suggested we start there before we headed on over to the park we had planned to finish out at. I am so glad we did! Lots of really fun architecture to play around with, and some awesomely rich colors and textures for the background. We did get a couple of funny looks from the huge Harley guys as they walked in and out of the store, but we had a blast.
Kagan is a film student who works as a computer engineer/software guy, and he had a wonderfully dry sense of humor, so he kept us (and especially Brooklyn!) laughing most of the time. I like it when my clients make sure their smiles are genuine on their own- it makes for a lot more natural picture when you're laughing your head off.
These girders were so awesome to play with...
Looking back at these, I think maybe the only times Brooklyn wasn't laughing were when she was kissing Kagan. :)
Like I said, we had some fun with the girders....
I seem to say it very frequently these days, but I just had so much fun with this couple. I easily had the most fun shooting this couple that I have ever had. They are happy, super stylish people, and are great in front of a camera. Abbey's mom is a photographer, and so Abbey and her siblings pretty much came out of the womb knowing how to smile and pose for photos. I was also super impressed with how poised Abbey and Taylor were under all the stress surrounding the wedding preparations. We had to postpone the first bride and groom session because the alterations place LOST ABBEY'S DRESS (like, gone-no-more-to-be-found lost), so they had to get an identical dress (which happened to be 2 or 3 sizes too big) and alter it to fit her. Then the day we were supposed to shoot it snowed (late May in Utah? par for the course I guess), necessitating another delay. By now it was the week before the wedding, and my week was almost completely booked. We shifted some things around, got it scheduled and showed up for the shoot. Of course, right as we start, Taylor's tuxedo jacket button pops off. It was just one thing after another, and you would not know it to look at these photos.
We shot at the Tahitian Noni Gardens, aka'd as the Morinda Gardens, and I tell you- if I could go back in time and redo my wedding, I would want a dress and veil like Abbey's. They were both stunning, and so was she.
I love how the colors in this one turned out.
I could have shot in these gardens all day...
After the gardens though, we headed over to a private property owned by a friend of Abbey's family. It was a beautiful location.
We got some really lovely colors in the sky when the sun set.
And then the moon rose... life was good.
To see more of Abbey and Taylor's photos, click here.
