Even if you aren’t a “flowery person,” there’s no doubt about it, the flowers are an important asset to your wedding pictures! Flowers are a burst of color in your photos and can add a little bit of brightness to what is often a photo with a black suit and white dress. Your flowers can be an expression of your favorite season, color, or plant. A great florist can help you incorporate succulents, wildflowers, or even pieces of beautiful weeds and golden wheat into your wedding bouquet. Wedding bouquets can be wrapped in burlap, hemp, ribbon, and twine to really show your style. A bouquet can be giant (helps to bring out your bicep muscles in your photos, haha), or tiny. They can be long or short stem. I’ve seen glass bouquets, clay bouquets, and dried flower bouquets. The imagination is the limit.
I love it when brides have stunning flowers to hold. I love using the flowers as a frame for a bride’s face, or as a background for a traditional ring photograph. I feel like the flowers are an important piece of the wedding for many reasons and should be included 100% of the time.
This July afternoon was a gorgeous day for a green meadow wedding! The Taos Mountains looked on as Susan and JR said their wedding vows to each other with Dan Jones presiding over their wedding ceremony. Susan wore a blue wedding dress and had a matching mask for her pandemic wedding elopement. JR wore a white button down and sported an American flag buff. Per most couples, Susan and JR had to pivot with their large wedding plans to follow the health order and New Mexico Coronavirus guidelines that were placed when the state shut down in May. This elopement was lighthearted and fun despite the serious state of emergency our country is in. Although JR and Susan live in Albuquerque, they have a second home in Angel Fire that they like to visit when they escape to the mountains.
Many times there is a doggy-friend who, after the bride and groom, is the most important personality at the wedding. In our consultations, we often ask if there is a special animal friend who should be included in the photos, because we KNOW that is a picture that you will miss after your wedding if you don’t get it! Dogs are best friends, and dear family members and should be included in ALL celebrations, as these buddies would like to think! We’ve shot weddings where the dogs are the best men, maid-of-honors, ring bearers, and flower girls, and we’ve learned that some dogs take their wedding position very seriously. We’ve known weddings who have changed venues because their dog wasn’t allowed to walk down the aisle. We’ve photographed excited, anxious, and nervous dogs. Many dogs are camera shy! And we will never forget when the dog ran away, WITH the rings (no worries, she was found before the ceremony)!
So please, bring your dog and count on a few pictures with your baby. A dog is definitely a special and honored guest at a wedding when they are included. So here’s to wedding dogs and Happily Fur-ever After!!!
I love the restaurants that I work with at weddings and during catered wedding receptions. I love the beautiful presentation of food and the little details of deliciousness. I love the elegance of a lovely atmosphere that hosts a wedding and I love the people who bend over backwards for the married couple. After picking up food from an elegant, local favorite tonight, I’m sending so much love to all of the restaurant owners and staff tonight. Covid-19 has been hard on all of us, but especially the restaurants. How quickly everything changes and how I can’t wait to photograph this beautiful part of weddings again.
June is Pride month and so this month I honor the LGBTQIA community! I have shot SO MANY same-sex marriages, I feel lucky!! Here is a small handful of some of the weddings that I could remember off of the top of my head. Someday my son (now seven-years-old) will be shocked that I lived in a time when gay marriage was against the law. Unbelievable. Today I celebrate diversity and I raise a glass to all of the same-sex marriages I have had the honor of documenting over the years.
“Sometimes you will never know the value of a moment until it becomes a memory.” –Dr. Suess
I knew SOMETHING would make me inspired to start blogging again. Whew, the last few months have been rough! Am I right?!
The Class of 2020…bonded forever from a pandemic… This was a very special shoot for me because it’s my nephew. I shot this over several visits to Abq from Oct to February. Before Covid. How did we get this done before Covid? SO MANY seniors still haven’t had their senior shoot done. So many seniors wont have a senior shoot done this year, because everything is different. I’ve cried for this senior class and I’ve laughed with this senior class. I’ve joined Zoom graduation parties online and watched commencement celebrations done online by the best of the best. My heart hurts for this senior class. I can’t imagine not giving my friends hugs on my graduation day. But in the long run, it’s a really good story. And no one will ever forget what they were doing in the spring of 2020. And while everyone else went on with their lives as much as normal, the seniors graduated, and are moving onto a really big adventure no matter what the next step is. So Congrats to Josiah and to all of these other amazing seniors and cheers to many awesome days ahead. Love you!!!
