The Michels…just because

Most people only have their photos taken when a certain occasion calls for it…like senior photos, or an engagement or a new arrival to the family. But when we look back on our lives, that leaves a lot of gaps. Why not schedule a photo session just because? That’s what the Michels did. Sometimes it’s nice to just be able to look back and remember that time in your life when you’re young and carefree and it’s still just the two of you. I never see photos like that of my parents and to be honest I’m not sure my kids will be able to find a lot of photos like that of Jason and I. I think we can all learn something from the Michels! Below are some of my favorites from their summer shoot.

Tradition

There’s a lot of funny traditions that go along with weddings. Like not allowing the groom to see the bride before the ceremony. Some of my clients who are interested in a “First Look” get nervous about breaking with tradition but the real story behind that tradition comes from eons ago when marriages were arranged and the families were afraid the groom would run away if their bride-to-be was too ugly. True story!

But even I’ve been known to follow a few traditions myself, mostly because they’re just funny ideas. Like take for instance, saving some of your wedding cake to eat on your first anniversary. There a few fun facts about wedding cake here, but no real answer as to why we do that. I just thought it would be fun to enjoy the cake again!

But I think there’s probably a right and wrong way to do it. And Jason and I did it the wrong way. This past Saturday was our 1 year anniversary. We dutifully pulled out the frozen cake top, the same hunk of wedding cake that we had just thrown in the freezer in the caterer’s saran-wrapping and not given another thought to. Maaaaybe we should have taken a little better care to preserve the cake…

It tasted pretty awful…like I had just licked the shelf of the freezer. Oh well. But so as not to waste a photo op, we thought we’d let the dogs try it out! At least we can have fun with it! *Disclaimer* : the dogs were not allowed to actually eat the cake…just try it out. However, we underestimated Tobi’s zeal as is evident in this shot.

4 Hot Brides

One of my favorite shoots that I’ve had all summer was waaay back in June when Nikita, Jaclyn, Yvonne, and Laura all made a trip to Vermont. The four girls traveled from all corners of the country to reunite for a girls weekend and Nikita, being the talented creative that she is, organized a pretty unique photo shoot. The girls had grown up together and in the past four years had each successively gotten married. So Nikki’s plan was for each to bring their wedding dress and live out every girls dream by conjuring up a great excuse to actually wear their wedding dress again!

We met up in Burlington and I had the most fun during this shoot. Not only was it fun to be shooting something so out of the ordinary, but the girls were so much fun too…even after a full day of traveling.

The pier provided us some fun spots.

It’s so great that they’ve stayed friends all this time. I think that’s a rare thing!

Each one also brought along a portrait of their husband which made for a cute shot.

Yvonne’s red shoes were hot!

Needless to say, we elicited a few stares from passersby. But I don’t think there were many whose stares turned into smiles.

These brides were up for anything too, so I threw them into a few of my favorite funky urban spots.

And I was so psyched when they were even up for a trip into the neighboring skate park. So many great colors and I love the contrast of the brides vs. the grungy backdrop. No they didn’t bring their own skateboards…how could anyone resist loaning their board to a woman in a wedding dress?!

Clockwise from top left is Nikki, Jaclyn, Yvonne and Laura.

They even pulled out their acting skills…

Four happy ladies…

…who totally rocked during this session.

I can’t thank these women enough for getting my creative juices flowing and for being so much fun! You ladies are awesome.

Summer is sweet

Summer is definitely my favorite time of year. Last week I took a little time off to soak it up. Well, a vacation in the summer for me is more of a pseudo-vacation since I still had a wedding to shoot and photos to edit. But it was really nice to just stay home for a few days. Check out the hefty bowl of blackberries I was able to harvest from the backyard! We spent some time with friends, caught a movie, relaxed by a backyard fire and did a lot of nothing.

But now it’s back to reality! Prior to vacation I spent two weeks battling a nasty cold and before that was dealing with a major plumbing issue in the studio so I’m looking forward to returning to a bit of normalcy…hopefully. I’ve got a lot of blog posts to catch up on and can’t wait to get back to sharing the fabulous weddings and shoots I’ve had this summer.

Engaged: Justin & Anne

I met up with Justin and Anne at the pier in Burlington for their e-shoot on a bright summer morning not too long ago. It was my first time meeting the couple which is always great to do before the big day! And to my surprise, the couple had wonderful news to share…they’re expecting a bundle of joy this November! So I got to do a combo e-shoot/maternity session which was a lot of fun.

What a happy time for these two…I don’t think you could pack one more ounce of joy into their lives right now.

I could tell the way Justin doted on Anne that he’ll be a great dad.

And Anne was as cute and relaxed as could be…good qualities for a mother-to-be!

I like this one…tucked away in a little nook.

I can’t wait to shoot their wedding at the Basin Harbor Club this weekend!

T w e e t s