There is nothing fancy about these images, like the wedding itself.  And that’s what I love about them.  Sara and Justin had a small autumn wedding amongst 20 people at a church in Castle Rock.  There was no bouquet, no fancy alter, no bridesmaids fussing over Sara’s hair or train (there was no train)… I loved it!  It was perfect.  Honest.  What a wedding should be about.

Sometimes there aren’t enough words to describe an experience… and sometimes these words just seem cliche and overused.  Love.  Sweet.  Beautiful. Amazing.  These are all overused words—especially by me.  When I sit down and blog about a particular wedding or family or “experience”, I often draw upon these simple words, which rarely do justice to my imagery.  But there are no words for Megan and Dylan’s love that won’t dilute or spoil the magic that is there.  I love to write, but when there aren’t words, there is an image and I can capture much more with a click of the shutter than I can with a word—that is why I love photography–it is a simple expression of a moment or person’s spirit.  All I can say about Megan and Dylan and their fairy tale love is that it blows my mind.  I cry and smile more around them.  I am filled with hope–that true love and friendship are in fact alive.  And I am simply blessed to have been able to  document this relationship.  Megan and Dylan have moved to Nashville, and I made them promise that they would be in touch.  These two inspire me.  They are “special”.  They have that “something“. And I hope that they will be a part of my life for a long, long time. Enjoy these tear jerking images from Megan and Dylan’s perfect wedding at Modis in Breckenridge, CO….

I just have to say that Megan and Dylan had a dream team of vendors:  Coordinator Emily Campbell of Bella Design, Cynthia Goodberry, the Denver Makeup guru, and Leon Littlebird as the officiant.  It was perfection.

Christina and Kenny’s wedding was right up my alley and simply wonderful.  They were married at Christina’s parent’s home in Winter Park amongst family and one sweet dog named Nina.  Christina and Kenny choose to get married on her parent’s anniversary as well which was such a lovely tribute.  The entire celebration was exactly what a wedding should be about–a beautiful, heartfelt ceremony, and an amazing dinner with dear ones. There was love and lots of fun and laughter.  It was perfect.

Christina’s grandfather sang two songs to Christina and Kenny during the ceremony and totally grabbed my heart.  I cried through both songs…  so incredible.

Christina and Kenny had mini cakes made for each person at the wedding including some gluten free ones for those who needed them.  It was the best wedding cake I’ve ever had… seriously.

Janine and Noel had a spectacular wedding at Devil’s Thumb ranch that was simply put–fun, fun!!  These two cared about the party and mingling with their friends–and of course their very short, but sentimental ceremony.   Janine and Noel were super laid back and I loved watching and capturing them enjoying the day.  These are my kind of weddings!  I couldn’t complain about the Colorado mountain backdrop either.  Wow…

“In every bit of honest writing in the world … there is a base theme. Try to understand men, if you understand each other you will be kind to each other. Knowing a man well never leads to hate and nearly always leads to love. There are shorter means, many of them. there is writing promoting social change, writing punishing injustice, writing in celebration of heroism, but always that base theme. Try to understand each other.”  John Steinbeck

I am a little obsessed with the writing and philosophy of John Steinbeck.  I’ve always said, Man, if I could photograph like Steinbeck wrote, then I’d really have something”.  The quote above pretty much sums up my goal as a artist and human being, and sometimes I’m lead astray from this.  I get caught up in comparing my work to fancier more “artist” work–work that “promotes social change or punishing injustice”,  and yet I’m always reminded why I love photographing weddings after photographing a wedding  like Cambria and Anson’s.  Cambria and Anson had such a beautiful, honest, down to earth wedding at Planet Bluegrass.  What I loved about this wedding, besides adoring Cambria and Anson, and the fact that Planet Bluegrass is one of my favorite venues, was that there were tons of moments full of kindness and empathy.  Honest moments, like the image of Cambria’s father kissing her mother in the background.  I don’t need anything fancy to capture something like this–I just have to be present and intuitive, knowing my clients and knowing when a “moment” is in fact “an honest moment”.  This wedding had no fancy frills, no nervous pretentiousness–just pure love, joy and celebration.  I thoroughly enjoyed it.  It was one of my very favorites of the year, in fact.

Thanks, Cambria and Anson for letting me be a part of this day…

This wedding could not have been better suited for me, both as a photographer and as a person. Jasmine and Andy had the most lovely, intimate, hippie wedding in Glenwood Springs that was seriously exactly what I would want if I were redoing my wedding. The wedding was held at the gorgeous 4 mile creek Bed and Breakfast in Glenwood Springs. They had their ceremony nestled up to an aspen field, and their reception was free flowing party with people dancing all over the place—in the grass, the trees, and a few on the dance floor. There were shoes kicked off, hoola hoops, face painting, river wadding, tail gating…. It was honestly what a wedding should be–a stress free, fun celebration amongst the best of friends and family.
The wedding was especially significant for me personally, because of my current pregnant state. I was in a bit of a funk the week before this wedding—just wondering if I could ever be a good mama and just overall fretful about the upcoming changes that will be happening in my life (let alone the crazy changes that are happening in my body everyday, which I’m not always comfortable with). Jasmine is a midwife and was serendipitously 6 months pregnant at her wedding. She glowed and radiated “life”. I got to spend the entire morning with her while she took a bath and prepped for her wedding , just basking in her wisdom and beautiful energy. She is such an amazing woman who draws amazing people into her life–like Andy, of course. And they both have such amazing friends who were also so abundant with life. It was incredible actually. I left the wedding that evening glowing myself, feeling blessed, excited, refreshed and ready to tackle the rest of the wedding season. Thank you, Jasmine and Andy for all of this…. for the conspicuous love and passion that is so natural between you, for your vivacious spirits and for sharing this amazing weekend with me. It will go down in the books as one of the best…. xoxo

Welcome to my spanking new blog! It’s way overdue. I think it will be easier to navigate, better to look at and overall a more efficient place for me to post images and speak my mind…. I’m very excited about it and will be blogging more often now, I promise.

I was especially excited to kick off the new blog with this post. I haven’t posted a wedding yet this season, because I wanted this one to set the tone for my 2011 season. It’s a special post for me because it’s my baby cousin, Evan and his stunning bride, Jessica’s wedding –and they of course hold a place in my heart. Along with being one of the most fun wedding parties that I’ve photographed, Evan and Jessica and their friends are also extremely sentimental and spiritual. They can go from a bud light to a pensive prayer in 60 seconds flat and it’s perfectly fitting. Evan cried when he saw Jessica walk down the aisle and shed a few tears during the toasts which made me proud and Jessica was a complete lady with a hankering for an occasional swill of bourbon. I love these two. And I loved their wedding. It was so refreshing to be back out at the farm in Eastern Colorado, and the fairgrounds couldn’t have been a more perfect place for Evan and Jess, as that is where they first met. I also have to mention that the food was hands down the best food I’ve ever had at a wedding. True, home grown beef brisket, mashed potatoes and a fountain of grape kool-aid to tote. Delicious.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart, Jessica and Evan. Your wedding knocked my socks off, but your hearts and spirits are what moved me to tears. I love you.