Holly and Dans Trash the Dress session

She held her gown on either side

To let her slippers show,
And up the walk she went with pride,
The way great ladies go.

And where the wall is built in new
And is of ivy bare
She paused—then opened and passed through
A gate that once was there.
The Little Ghost  - Edna St Vincent Millay

One need not be a chamber to be haunted;

 One need not be a house;
 The brain has corridors surpassing
 Material place.
 ~Emily Dickinson

I once read somewhere that Angelina Jolie has a tattoo of the word “death” somewhere. She got it, to be a reminder constantly to live.

I love that Holly and Dan hold tightly to one another, that they have this unique way of seeing the world and they found someone that they can live with, for the rest of their life, and really live stronger, because of the other.
we only get so many years in our one life and we should fill them with the things and people we love. So that when we are ghosts we are not haunted by regret but we leave a legacy full of life and beauty.

The fruition of beauty is no chance of hit or miss . . . it is inevitable as life. . . . it is exact and plumb as gravitation.

Love the earth and sun and animals,

Despise riches; give alms to everyone that asks,

Stand up for the stupid and crazy,

Devote your income and labor to others...

And your very flesh shall be a great poem.

Walt Whitman

(to read the whole poem go here: http://www.bartleby.com/39/45.html)

I read this, this week, and thought of Kara and Chris. How Erin and I couldn’t get over how beautiful and completely open Kara was.  When their best man and maid of honor gave their speeches they told stories of lives that were lived fully. They are two people with these strong, unique personalities and strong drive to live life, alive. They were fun! Every moment of their wedding was an adventure for us and we were so honored to get to share a part in this monumental day in their lives, but mostly we were just so excited to be able to watch how much in love they were, not only with each other but with just living. Kara and Chris danced like no one was watching, they laughed as loud as they wanted with laughs that were contagious and they were the kind of people who you would want with you at a bonfire staring at the stars, because they have so much of that “thing” that makes even an ordinary day an adventure with them.  

I also wanted to include this little note about Kara, she is undeniably beautiful, but she is so on her own terms.  Her beauty is unconventional and has just as much to do with who she is as how she looks. She is a photographers dream. She asked us to do a silly pose for her friends at work because they had laughed so much about these ridiculous poses that they make girls do for bridal magazines. We were so thrilled that she chose us after telling us that, because we pride ourselves in not “over-posing” people and it makes everyone’s experience that much better to be in the same mind set of what is “good” when you are commissioned to make art for someone. I am so glad Kara was not a “sunken- corpse-pose bride” and was completely herself.  

It made our job so much more fun and it reminded me of a quote I heard once that said "don't be someones slogan, when you are poetry" Kara is poetry.
Kara and Chris- you both are such fun and interesting people, thanks so much for choosing us to document your day. We could not have been more thrilled.

"Process"

Tonight I'll dream while i'm in bed
when silly thoughts go through my head
about the bugs and alphabet
and when I wake tomorrow I'll bet
that you and I will walk together again
cause I can tell that we
are going to be friends
- The White Stripes.

The first time I saw “it might get loud”, I was a white stripes fan, the second time I watched “it might get loud” I was a student of Jack whites. I have made my boyfriend watch this movie with me more times than any other movie (even more than the big lebowski) because Jack white’s thoughts on creativity push me. I think there was a chunck of time I would watch it every night before bed.

There is a scene in the movie when he is talking about how him and Meg White, don’t have set lists, they just show up and play whatever they feel like every night because he thinks a crowd can smell when you play the same set for every city. And at one point he says (he plays guitar and piano) “It takes me 6 steps to get from the guitar mic, to the piano mic, put it seven steps away.”  in other words, leave room for magic and surprise.

As creative people we all have a process to get from getting an idea to the finished work. The more I hang out with my artist friends the more I realize how different all of our processes are.
That’s what I love about working with Erin. Her process is so different than mine but its strong where mine is weak and vice versa.

I have said before Erin is the kind of artist that has all of her ducks in a row and labeled by size and color.

I am the kind of artist who assumes my ducks will return sometime around dinner time.

I relate with that scene of Jack white where he says “put it seven steps away” I like the surprise ending.

The problem with artists like me, is we rarely meet deadlines, we forget appointments, and are overall annoying to work out the details with. Erin is not like that. If it weren’t for Erin our clients would be so in the dark. Erin makes sure all the details are worked out beforehand because that is her process.  So when I say “oh you know what would be awesome! To shoot down town and then go to this waterfall” she’s the voice of reason saying “you can’t get from down town to that waterfall by sunset” (and we wouldn’t have had I not drove on the shoulder of the road going 90 mph.)  I love that we have started to work out a process together. Where I will say ridiculous things that could never work, and Erin makes them work.  If I am looking up at my ideas, she is looking down with plans and together we make them work.

But the thing Erin and I meet in the middle on is the work itself and where we want to take it. We both want our photos to be clean, correct, and driven by the subject itself not the technology over the image. We both agree we don’t want to get into “fads” and heavily photoshoped images because we want our work to be timeless. Have you ever seen those movies from the 80’s that have those really cheesy intros and graphics? Yeah, we don’t want our work to be like that in 10 years, we want it to be like a classic black and white movie that never goes out of style.  We want the photos to look real because we both heard mary ellen mark say "Reality is always extraordinary" and our hearts melted. You dont have to make people seem really interesting by posing them like runway models, all you have to do is see what makes them interesting on their own and photograph that.

So we have no problems allowing the other person to work the way she works best, as long as the final photos have the same vision. And for that I absolutely love our differences because in the end they make our work stronger as whole together.

Happy Veterans Day.

She who waits, also serves.
-Priscilla Got

We have the utmost respect for our service  women and men and their spouses. (we even offer a military discount on a lot of our packages.) My Dad was in the Army.  And For 6 months when he was in Saudi Arabia fighting in desert storm, my mom was at home having to be a single mom with her heart aching from missing him. We know the sacrifice that is made to not only be in the military and serve but to be a military spouse and serve by waiting. Many of our brides have been in the military themselves and that’s just a whole other level of bad-ass-ness that we applaud.

This Veterans Day Erin and I wanted to take the time to thank all of our Brides and Grooms for their service in protecting freedom, and giving selflessly.

Thank you:

Thank You Autumn and Jeremy (and Gil and Podnar :-) ) for serving us in the Unites States Army

Thank you Brett for serving in the United States Navy and Amber for being a wife that sacrifices for us

Thank You Jason and Christina for serving us in the United States Navy

Thank you Marty for serving in the USMC and Meghan for being a wife that sacrifices for us.

Thank you Luke for serving in the United States Army and Shaundria for waiting while he served

And also thank you Priscilla for paying the ultimate price. Your Strength, Beauty and hope inspire us daily. You will have forever taught Erin and I what it means to truly be a hero.

Karla and Andrew

"So if you want to be with me
With these things there’s no telling
We just have to wait and see
But I’d rather be working for a paycheck
Than waiting to win the lottery"
- First day of my life, Bright eyes.

They say when you know, you know. I always questioned this theory until I started photographing weddings.

Karla and Andrew knew each other for three months before they got married.  They both said when they met, they just knew.( Coincidentally ‘knowing’ had a lot to do with food with a lot of the grooms we talk to, but that’s ok with me, food is a good reason as any to know you love someone) Karla packed Andrew a huge lunch for his drive back to school on one of the weekends they were together, and that’s when he knew she was the one. I mean after all who doesn’t like to know someone is concerned with your most basic needs, like hunger. 

Love doesn’t have a schedule or a time frame, it just happens when you least expect it. One day you are hanging out with your friends complaining about work, or school, and the next the most beautiful woman you’ve ever met is making you a sack lunch for the ride home. And you know what they say, “Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth”, just run with it. Because the day you fall in love and are willing to jump in with both feet, well that’s the first day of your life….

 Congrats Karla and Andrew! may you spend your whole lives investing in the love that swept you off your feet, and we hope for the rest of your lives, that you will continue to feel like you won the lottery.

Liz and Giovanni's engagement session

Simple little beauty- heaven in your breath.

The simplest of pleasures- the world at it's best. 
- My Morning Jacket – Librarian

Being on location photographers sometimes Mother Nature doesn’t cooperate with our plans. Who are we to tell her to cooperate though? The day of Liz and Giovanni’s shoot was one of those times. It was unseasonably, cold, foggy and raining so we were forced to shoot inside, so we could be out of the elements. Liz and Giovanni were such troopers though, and held each other close out in the cold when we would try to get a few photos outside.  I heard a saying before that I think holds true for relationships, goals, or even photo shoots.

"Life's not about waiting for the storms to pass...

It's about learning to dance in the rain."
~Vivian Greene

Liz and Giovanni are the kind of couple that dances in the rain, and we think that is beautiful.