Renee & Matt's Wedding

Matt has been a friend of my husband and myself for several years, and he had been with Renee that entire time. However, I hadn't realized that they had actually been together since they were in the 8th grade until it was mentioned during their ceremony. What a strong relationship! Their wedding and reception was at the Boulder Country club on a beautiful Saturday with perfect weather at the end of September. They had so many great moments to the wedding, and I have far too many images I want to share, so this may be a bit of a long post. To start, here are a few of the details from the day:












I then snuck in to get a few photos of Renee getting ready, she looked beautiful even before she had her makeup and dress on!










We were able to capture a few portraits of the bride and groom separately before the ceremony - I love the sun flare in the full length picture of Renee!






The ceremony was outside on the grounds of the country club, and although some clouds seem to initally threaten rain, the afternoon was perfect. Renee's Dad looked so happy walking her down the aisle and Matt was so excited to see his bride.





It is so neat when couples decide to include something a bit different in their ceremonies. Renee is part Japanese, so they included a sake ceremony. Three is a special number in the Japanese culture, as it can't be easily split apart. So Matt and Renee each took three sips of sake from three different sake cups.






I am noticing I must have an addiction to photographing hands. I captured both of these images during the ceremony, and couldn't decide between the two. Which do you like better?



All the excitement building up to the kiss at the end also creates great moments before the kiss as well.



And having a second shooter allows us to capture the family's reactions. For Matt and Renee's wedding my husband, who is also a fantastic photographer, assisted me. He captured this image of Renee's grandparents during the kiss. I love the look on Renee's grandmother's face!



After the ceremony, we grabbed a few more portraits as the sun set, and then headed inside for the reception.






Matt and Renee took dancing lessons before the wedding, and I thought they looked very Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire during their first dance. And you could see the love Renee's father and Matt's mother had for their now all grown up kids as they took their turns on the dance floor.






After that, everyone danced the rest of the evening away!! Thank you Renee and Matt for letting me and Joe be a part of such a special evening.

Matt & Renee's Engagement Photos

I photographed Renee and Matt's wedding on September 27th and I was about to post some photos from their wedding day. However, since I didn't have my blog up when I shot their engagement photos in July, I thought share a couple of these first.

My husband met Matt almost four years ago now when he started taking Brazilian Jujitsu at Zingano Brazilian Jujitsu. Matt is a fantastic athlete, and a recent purple belt, but also a wonderful person. I have never had the opportunity to spend much time with Renee but she has been wonderful in the interactions we have had, and anyone that makes Matt happy must be great!

We headed down to downtown Denver, near the art museum, to get some fun shots. Matt and Renee make taking portraits of them easy - they are both just so good looking!

this blog goes to the dogs

After doing a post for Bear, I just could leave the dogs out. I don't know why we come up with odd nicknames for our pets, but we seem to accumulate them. Edison, our collie, has become Edi-san or Big Man. We also call him Turkey Butt because when you look at him from the rear in the winter with all his fur, it kind of looks like big fluffy turkey legs.




Brandy, our lab-mix has become the Bran-dito or Hog Dog. She lets out the funniest snorts sometimes when she gets excited and is rolling around!




Even though both dogs were originally Joe's, Edison has really become my dog. He will follow me around the house and come to me even when Joe is the one is calling him. He really is a mamma's boy!





Brandy is certainly a daddy's girl, though. She loves attention from anyone, but Joe's attention is special! My husband says that she is Honda of dogs, runs great for a really long time, low maintenance cost, and easy to take care of.





He also says that Edison is more like a Jaguar. A specialty dog where the people that have them love them, but everyone else wonders why you would ever own one. There is a lot of upkeep and maintenance, but they sure look pretty!

These last six portraits were taken with a Holga camera, which is a plastic toy camera from China that uses medium format film. There is two apertures (cloudy and sunny), one shutter speed, and no real focusing. I bought one from HolgaMods, a company that modifies them slightly to make them a bit more versatile. I like to get it out and play every once in a while because you can get some really fun pictures with it!