Michaelann and Jason

As we waited for Michaelann to dress nearby, Jason was describing the venue they were soon to be married in.

"It has huge windows overlooking the river and downtown Cleveland", he tells me, and conjures images of redbrick, loft ceilings, and re purposed industrial design.

It sounded awesome. Really awesome.

I'd love to be able to fly up and shoot their wedding, but alas, Michaelann and Jason had already booked a local photographer (who I'm sure will do a great job for them, given the obvious taste they have in picking out photographers, haha).


I try to keep my weddings in the southeast, but if you're a couple as effusive, warm, and in love as Jason and Michaelann, I'll make the exception and hop over to your corner of the country :).

Matt and Genie

Once upon a time Matt was just a hot dog vendor at Disney World. But in true Disney fashion, he happened to be a very good looking hot dot vendor with a masculine chin, a strong build, and honest blue eyes. One day he happens to see “the most beautiful girl he’s ever seen” walk by. It was Genie, playing Pocahontas in a parade.

Music swells. Smitten, he breaks out into song and stepping from behind the hot dog cart, animated squirrels and finches join their voices to his.

Okay, no, that didn’t actually happen. But theirs being a fairy tale story, set at Disney World, it seems like it easily could have.

Every day Matt would go to watch for Genie in the parade and try to work up the courage to ask her out. Weeks go by. Finally, with only a few weeks left there at Disney World, he realizes it’s now or never.

Disaster. He gets sick and develops “kermit the frog” voice. More self conscious than ever, but fearing that he might miss his only chance, he approaches her. “Excuse me, but would you mind going on a dinner date with me”, he croaks.

She says yes! They start dating, and she falls for him so hard, that she doesn’t even mind that he calls her Jenny instead of Genie for the first few dates (till she kindly corrects him). They fall madly in love.

Fast forward a few years (ok, so they took their time, not everything can be Disney in their story) and they are married at the beautiful Hilton on Clearwater Beach before their guests and a fiery sunset.

From a distance, I could have sworn I saw a them laughing and dancing with a few animated sea gulls and dolphin on the beach.

The Petersons

I have this vision for myself in old age. I’ll be sitting in my standard-issue-for-grandpas wingback chair in my living room and the grand kids will be playing around the house, and as they happen run by, each one will stop and give their grandpa one kiss on the cheek

And I’ll be listening to my daughters laughing in the kitchen as they drink wine. And I’ll be giving advice to my sons about home improvement and they’ll listen even when they know I’m flat out wrong. And the cooking will fill the house. And the motes of dust will lazily sprinkle a ray of sun warming the room I’m in. And my heart will be full and sated.

The Petersons had me come out to their house on the lake in Odessa to take their family portraits and the scene there was pretty darn close to my imagined old age. The Petersons were all together, some from out of state, others may as well be. The rarity of the occasion suffused their eyes with glow from the big, simple happiness of being together. That glow spilled out everywhere and I felt like an honorary family member that day.
And I got to catch that glow with my lens.

Leila and Aaron

“Ok, so let’s be, like angry with each other in this one”, says Leila Laguna (how awesome of a rock star name is that?) to her fiance, Aaron.

I laugh and keep shooting, having fun, but honestly a bit doubtful that this is going to look cool when I go to edit the pictures. Then I get home and put the photos on my mac ....and they actually look kinda like yeah, yeah that’ll work!

I feel like I’ve done my job, and done it well, when a my couples have enough fun with me that they start coming up with their own original ideas then and there on the shoot.

I love my work. My job is having fun, being kind, and listening. And then the most amazing energy starts to happen, right in front of the lens.

Then all I gotta do is be quick and catch it ;)

Evie and Kyle

I have worked with a lot of wedding venues and they have all been stellar. The Grand Plaza on St Pete Beach a few weeks back was no exception.

These guys really have their wedding game down. I felt like I was apart of a wedding SWAT team (forgive the very guy reference), their ship was run so well. But they don’t leave out the fun either (wedding are supposed to be fun right?).

Just as Lex (my lovely 2nd shooter) was talking to me about something at the reception, Bono’s huge, arcing solo on where the streets have no name came on. I, of course did what anybody has to do during that part of the song threw back my head and closed my eyes and lip synched the whole solo with enough feeling to qualify for a spot on a carnival parade in Sao Paulo. Lex, used to my 17 year old behavior, waits (and probably rolls her eyes) for the solo to finish. I stop and open my eyes and standing there, also waiting for me to finish, is Claudia, one of the Event VP’s there. “I’m sorry” I say, half embarrassed, half thinking this is hilarious, “I really like that song”. Claudia, laughing, agrees.

It must have been the atmosphere there at Evie and Kyle’s wedding, everybody was excited, there was energy in the air, especially at the reception where I got to see like 3 generations of Evie’s family on the dance floor at once walking like an egyptian and Kyle and his brother doing the funniest version of the worm I’ve ever seen.

It was awesome to be apart of that energy, to get to capture it, and make some great images from it.

 Cake by the awesome Laurie Cinelli, of Piece of Cake

Rachel and Justyn

Weddings on reeeealy windy days on the beach are a bad thing, right? Well, I will say that finding sand in, like, every crevice of my camera and my, well uh, me, after the wedding day was not super duper awesome fun. But I can say that having Clearwater Beach totally clear and bereft of any and all souls except Rachel, Justyn and myself and Lex was pretty awesome!

Plus, the wind blew these amaaaazing clouds in making for a dramatic sky like none I’ve seen in awhile. Clouds that would languidly adorn the background of Michelangelo’s touch of creation on the Sistine Chapel’s ceiling. Clouds that would haunt the skies over Tolstoy’s burning Moscow or Batman’s brooding Gotham. Clouds that..... ok, I’ll stop.

I really liked the clouds.

A great backdrop at a great location like the Hilton is wasted without a great couple though. Rachel and Justyn are that great couple. Totally natural, totally at ease with themselves and their quests, they totally understood my there-are-no-rules-just-have-fun-and-be-in-love way of working with my couples.

They didn’t worry about the wind. They didn’t worry about what ‘you’re s’posed to do’. All they cared about was each other, and living that beautiful day of their wedding.
Perfect.

Flowers provided by Jana, at Events in Bloom

 Cigars provided by, uh... Cuba?