Taken with Portra 400

Geoff and Kristen were married next to the river  in the grass surrounded by the beautiful Colorado Mountains.  They had chosen the Westin in Beaver Creek and it was so perfect.  It was a big wedding with a big bridal party surrounding the couple with lots of laughter, tears and support.  They even brought their adorable dog who wasn’t quite sure what to make of everything!

Everything about this couple was fun from the groomsmen’s pink socks to the cute green flower pins the bride had given each of her bridesmaids.  Geoff and Kristen are one of those amazing couples who are active in their community and do so much for other people.  Geoff actually runs a homeless shelter here in downtown Denver and before the wedding we caught him talking to a few people on the street, asking them how they were doing and then telling them about how excited he was to be getting married.

The view for the ceremony was so beautiful with the water flowing behind them and the lush greenery all around them.  Their ceremony wasn’t long but for 30 minutes her mom had everyone captivated as she was the officiant and married them that day.  She was so cute telling stories and talking about relationships and love.  You could see and feel all the emotions in their family and it made me smile.

At the front of the room they had a giant table framed with curtains and full of flowers and layers of giant cupcakes.  Each cupcake decorated with little frosting peaks in a variety of colors and flavors.

It was such a beautiful wedding up in Vail and we are so excited to share it!

Marcus and Paige were married at Donavon’s Pavilion up in Vail in the back area on the beautiful stone patio imprinted with giant leaves. The couple had rented these beautiful brown wooden chairs for the ceremony and had the aisles lined with wooden sculptures and lots of flowers. They had even adorned the trees with orange and yellow paper lanterns and twinkle lights. The whole setting was so magical and so beautiful nestled in the trees of the Vail mountains.

Although this wedding was so elegant and pretty the couple showed their personality off when they danced down the aisle with their bridal party to start the ceremony. The bride’s mom even had a special section during the ceremony where she told a story and wished the couple love and happiness in their marriage.

Carl and Bonnie met up in Alaska where Carl had been living most of his life; she quickly adapted to the outdoor way of life, learning to hunt, fish and sleep even with the sun out 20 hours a day. When they got engaged they had the tough decision of where to have the ceremony and finally settled on the zoo! We were excited about this new venue because it was nestled amongst the trees with cute little pathways leading you to the different exhibits. The section where they were married was a large open grass area surrounded by tall trees.

The bridesmaids wore cute little strapless black dresses and carried pretty bouquets full of pink, purple and white flowers. After the ceremony they had a cocktail hour and a fun reception in one of the large wooden Alaska buildings in the middle of the zoo. We had fun taking pictures after the ceremony all over the zoo with the different animals and big blue water tanks! Because we were there in the summer we had around 20 hours of daylight so we even got in a few family photos at the end of the night! Here are some of our favorite images from their wedding!

Their ceremony was so beautiful right next to the water on the beach! Mindy had the hotel complete each of the guest’s chairs with a white cover, an orange ribbon and fan. They did such a great job planning all of the details and colors to match and didn’t stop until they completed their reception with long tables covered in Bird of Paradise Flowers and orange/blue maracas!

We are so lucky to have such amazing clients like Chris and Mindy!

Chris and Mindy live in Wyoming and we were so fortunate to get the call from them saying “Hey we’re getting married in Mexico and you should come along with your camera!”  We got along with them from the beginning and just from our phone conversation alone we knew we were going to love them in person!  In fact the first time we met in person was at the airport waiting to board to the plane!  We didn’t know we were on the same flight but soon figured it out and got to know each other right away!

It was hot of course…..it was Mexico in the summer and we thought the groom, Chris might melt away but despite the heat they were married on the beautiful white beach with the ocean behind them with Chris vowing to make popcorn for Mindy whenever she wanted it (I knew she was my kind of girl the minute I heard she loves popcorn)!

We literally had so much fun with these two we hurt from all of the laughing!   They let us be creative, shoot in the dark with the crazy colors in the pool and just wait until you hear about the next day…..

Chris and Mindy had quite a few people fly to Mexico for their wedding and it was so much fun to see the love they all share!

Because we were still in Mexico the next day we decided to head back out with them again and do more pictures, however we did not know what would lie ahead in our adventure……

To put it simply we were all smashed in one Taxi deep into the jungle…..climbing down into dark caves with wobbly handmade bridges and blind black fish and lights strung along the walls powered by a very loud generator and hung very close to the water.  We bust up laughing every time we talk about the craziness that was this adventure but this destination bride and groom are the only ones to ever have a story quite like this one!

The first image was taken of Mindy walking on the sand. It received 1st place at Professional Photographers of Colorado in the Wedding Category. It also received an Accolade of Excellence from WPPI.

I think there are a lot of ways to get better at the craft of photography I am going to list the one that I think will accelerate  your learning curve.

1.  Practice – I played sports up until college.  Baseball, basketball and cross country.  Baseball was my passion.  I liked playing basketball and cross country but I mostly played them to get into shape for baseball.  It was driven into me at a young age that if you wanted to be good at something you needed to practice.  The best place to start is just shooting that next picture.

I thought this picture from a Vail wedding would help to illustrate practicing and pre visualizing.

Groomsman practicing his speech

Angie