Lara and Ben were the end of our 3 week trip/extravaganza of weddings, and what an awesome way to end this trip! Lara contacted me about a year ago and Grayson and I were EXCITED to say the least when she booked us to shoot her wedding in Yosemite! Holy crap! Yosemite!!!!!! We’d been trying to plan a trip there for months to go climbing/camping. We didn’t get to do either this time, but it was just as amazing in a cabin. We got there at 1am the morning of the wedding due to some flight mishaps and went on an awesome hike, napped and shot the wedding. This couple was awesome, Lara is an artist and made these amazing wedding favors out of their Christmas tree last year. She hand carved animal stamps and stamped them on these cylinders of wood to make coasters! AMAZING! She had a vintage dress as well just to make it all even better. They got married at the Ahwahnee Hotel which was built in 1927. This place was beautiful and historic. It had huge fireplaces and incredible tall ceilings with open beams, there were photos of it’s past all over the walls.. it was beautiful.

This couple was just truly awesome and fun. You could tell how much their friends and family loved them just by how far they all traveled to get there. AND- we got our first thank you in a speech!! We were so excited, haha.

Anyway, enjoy!!!

I love argyle socks and a sassy shoe shot.

amazing tree with Yosemite Falls in the background… come on!!!

we both LOVE this shot.

Grayson was distracted during the ceremony by this squirrel… so was the flower girl.

one of the coasters she made!

ok… prepare yourself for the best moves you’ve ever seen. And that would be Lara’s dress around Ben’s neck. At this wedding a ripped dress doesn’t give you an upset bride, it give the bride a lasso to rope in for unsuspecting dance floor attendees. And nearly everyone was lassoed, including myself.

She… had.. moves. That’s right, she’s charging at her veil…. then slapping someone with her dress…

that’s love… and look closer at someone in her veil, they all took turns.

Yosemite!!!! We’ve been looking foward to this wedding for almost a year and it came! It was the last leg of our 3 week trip from the east coast all the way to the west coast, and it was perfect! Other than us getting there a day late.. We were supposed to get there a day before and have this whole day of Yosemite fun BUT.. we didn’t. So we got there at 1am the morning of the wedding, woke up at 7 and went on the most amazing 4 hour hike to Vernal Falls.. It was so good. We are super outdoorsy people, but with our job, we don’t have TOO much time to go on hikes and what not {despite the fact that we leave in Washington which is outdoor central!} So this hike was very welcomed.

We hiked along a path, got to a bridge that looked up to the falls and decided we had enough time to get to them. It was SO worth it! We walked up these stone steps along the huge waterfall and got SOAKED! People  on the way back kept asking us where we went swimming. Holy moly, there was an amazing rainbow following us the whole way up too, it was fantastic.

So after that we got cleaned up, took a little nap and shot a wedding! The wedding photos are coming up next, but here’s our hike!

We got an amazing thank you from Lisa and Keith and wanted to share it! boom baby!!!!

Guys,
We really, really love the pictures. I don’t think I told you, but back in the fevered throes of wedding planning Keith attempted to convince me that we could totally get by with having friends take pictures. After all, everyone’s got digital cameras these days. Well, as friends put their pictures up on the internet, I became more and more thankful that I ignored Keith completely, and that we hired you. I have already shown these photos to more people than you would think possible within the span of just a few hours, and everyone has had the same reaction. You blew our minds! How did you make everything look so lovely even in the rain?? What magic juju do you sprinkle on your cameras to make them so stellar? Well, all I know is that I am delighted to tell the many complimenters that our photographers were so badass and dedicated that they took photos sitting on each others shoulders. We are so happy to have had you there, and completely delighted with the results. We’ve got photos to show the future grand kids! So again, thank you, thank you a million times for your skill, your kindness, your amazing turn around time, your professionalism, and total badassery. We wish you all the best, from the bottom of our hearts, and any time we hear that someone we know has gotten engaged, you’ll be the first recommendation. Peace, love, and happy shooting!

p.s: Along with a few other blogs, Lisa and Keith’s awesome wedding made it onto GreenWeddingShoes.com. If you’re interested and loved this wedding as much as we did, you can read all about how she planned her wedding and what all went into it!

Wedding number 2 of our East Coast Extravaganza! This one was actually Grayson’s cousin Jayson getting married, so it was amazingly fun! We got to stay with his Aunt Julie and Uncle Jay {Jayson’s parents} for 9 days {thank you so much!} and we had a blast. Grayson spent the last year talking Pennsylvania up, talking about how amazing it is and all the things we’d do and what he used to do when he was little.. so I had high expectations, and they were met! They own a few hundred acres and have a million awesome toys, so we were never bored. Gray’s entire family {on his mom’s side} lives in PA so all week it was BBQ’s, wii sessions, scrabble games, frisbee {endless frisbee, Gray is obsessed.. he’s like a puppy!},  bocce ball, riding ATV’s through the woods, gawking at Amish people {I am overly fascinated by Amish people.. it’s amazing! They live like they’re in the 1800′s, I could never have that much discipline!}, going out on the boat, riding their crazy 70mph wave runner, tubing at the lake.. with everyone. It was awesome. We really had no desire to leave Pennsylvania but we had to! On to the next weedding after this!

We also discovered some new lawn games that apparently are totally normal and we’ve never heard of {ladder ball!?!?! best game ever!}

Anyway, we were warned that Jayson and Kaylee were “hard to photograph” because they goof around so much, but they were awesome! We love goofers anyway, so we were good to go. Maybe Kaylee threatened to give him a beat down if he didn’t behave, haha.

my favorite shot of the wedding!

Their ceremony was in the pretty church that was honestly like 1000 degrees. Everyone was sweating to death, including us. But the photos turned out great! haha

Their only child- Elenore.

brothers.

laughing at Jayson’s baby photos

mayhem.

2days later we decided to do a 20 minute “Day After Shoot” Jayson’s parents land. Yes, it was literally 20 minutes. The second we stepped outside it started to rain so we had to wait it out inside. Everyone was coming over for a baby shower/Uncle Randy’s birthday so we made it quick!

Lisa + Keith’s wedding was one of two that we traveled to on the East Coast in consecutive weekends, so we thought, “Why not make a roadtrip out of it!”  We started out in Boston a couple days before the wedding and stayed with Heather’s aunt and uncle.  It was so nice just to relax and check out a ton of the old historic places.  After a couple of awesome days, we drove down to Little Compton, RI and met Lisa + Keith.  Their family had rented an old farmhouse for the week, which was extremely packed full of people, and made that their base of operations.  There was wedding decorations everywhere and everyone was pitching in when we got there.  It was like a craft store pinata was bashed open in the living room!

The farmhouse was right on the coast and you could see the ocean about a half a mile away.  The scenery was covered with climbing ivy that covered old cars and farm equipment, mounds of blooming flowers, and winding crushed clam shell roads.  We had a bit of a scare with the weather (it ended up raining, but cleared up for the ceremony and reception), but ultimately it turned out great.  Lisa + Keith were such an easy couple to work with and everything went awesome.  We’re fans of Rhode Island!

Lisa chose to pick her own flowers.

We asked them to grab a rock on the beach that they liked… it was interesting to see the difference in their selection.

A little rain crept up and surprised us, but we got through it!

Bridal party sword fight to the death!

I love the intensity Lisa.  Keith… step it up a notch next time!

Our friend Nicole made the best blog post on her {awesome} blog that I just wanted to share! If you have some time or are bored, go ahead and read what she had to say about Gray and I!

You can follow Jagger Photography on their website, http://www.jaggerphotographyblog.com/ or on their Facebook here!

I can’t remember when or how I met Heather but I am SURE that she made an impression! Heather tends to do that. She’s a spunky little red head who is full of life and energy. She loves to laugh and have fun but don’t let her fool you she can be quite sassy if she needs to! Heather and I always saw each other at various get togethers with out mutual friends and somewhere along the way we just became friends. She’s awesome and I love when I hear from her about her adventures in wedding photography or when she has questions about crocheting…I mean there is no one else I would rather sit around and crochet mustaches with!

Well somewhere along the way she met the man of her dreams. Grayson is just fantastic! He is a simple man who I find always to be extremely pleasant and fun and I just can’t think of one bad thing about him. Sometimes I think Grayson and Heather are perfect for one another because they are sort of opposites. Grayson is quiet to Heather’s rambunctious and rational to Heather’s silly…whatever it is…it just WORKS! They are absolutely adorable together as evidenced by the picture below!

{Float Away Studios}

As wedding photographers they are the best I have ever seen! Heather and Grayson have an eye for detail and all of their photos have amazing composition. Every time there is a post added to their site I am always amazed. Their pictures speak for themselves and this is definitely proven by the fact that they are booked to shoot weddings almost every weekend this year and even part of next! They are dedicated to what they do and when you read their posts or talk to them about it you can tell that they obviously love every minute of it. Here are just a couple of my favorite shots of theirs.

So if you, or someone you know, is looking for a wedding photographer look no further than Jagger Photography! Don’t forget to follow their website, http://www.jaggerphotographyblog.com/ or like them on Facebook here!

Until next time!

Nicole

go visit her site, she makes some amazing stuff!!!

Ben and Christine!!!! This wedding was great! It wasn’t too hot {being summer in San Diego and all} and everyone was great, the bridal party was fun {always a plus} and the location was beautiful!! Ben is in the military so they got married at a base in Point Loma overlooking the ocean! Anyway they were a blast to shoot and enjoy the photos!!

On another note, we are home!!!! We’ve been traveling the east coast on a kind of wedding tour for 3 weeks. We shot 3 amazing weddings from the east coast all the way to the west coast! The trip was fan-freakin-tastic and we got to spend a few days with my family in Boston and over a week with Gray’s entire family in Pennsylvania {I want to go back so bad!!! With drawls! With drawls!!} We discovered some awesome new backyard games that we are overly excited about too.

But we are so happy to be home, we pretty much live our lives out of a suit case, on planes and in hotels. So we’re home for almost 3 weeks {which is the longest we’ve been home since February} and we don’t have to leave our babies {aka, Sammy and Fynn, our ferrets}. Thanks for being patient with the lack of posts lately and there are some amazing photos coming in the next few weeks!

dancing down the isle.

He had moves…. lots of them.

So this is part 2 of this glorious 4 day wedding fiasco! They handed everyone a kazoo to play when they walked back down this isle. Everyone played “All you need is love” by the Beatles.

They gave everyone a plant to take home, ours are planted in a pot our front!

Her rings were both antique and his was custom made, Ruarri is a wood sculptor, how convenient!

Day 3- brunch and heading back to Vegas to fly home!

Everyone waiting for the bus.

Ashley and Ruarri!! Oh man, how awesome are they. This was one of the weddings that we were EX-CI-TED for!! It was a 4 day weekend extravaganza starting in Vegas, going to Zion and ending in Vegas. They invited their 31 closest friends and family and just had a big party! It was so great because it was so intimate, almost just like a small, traveling get together where they happened to get married in the middle.

First we had dinner in Vegas with everyone  after wondering through the casinos all day. We won $2.50!!! High rollers!!!  These two are amazingly laid back and awesome, our dream clients.  The next day we all hoped on a huge bus loaded with candy, a good mix CD  and started our 3 hour drive. Once we got into Zion we went on this amazing 4 hour hike up a gorgeous mountain, had dinner outside and had an awesome bon fire next to the river… And anyone who knows me knows that smores are the way to my heart.

We got to know everyone pretty well and felt like part of the group- my favorite wedding to date!!!  Enjoy, there are 2 posts because there is so much!

They chartered a bus from Vegas to Zion, it was good fun…

When we got there we all went on a nice 4 hour hike. Ashley took a group and so did Ruarri

LAKIN {her last name} !!! I’m the “I”….

Rehearsal dinner next to the river!

and now for the part I was dying for… bon fire and smores :]

Her dad planned this big sing along and handed our lyrics… amazing

Day 2- WEDDING DAY!!!

This is the first couple I’ve ever seen get ready in the same room, haha

scone lover.  So “man-some”…

They picked their ceremony location by just driving around and finding one. They marked an “X” with a cow rib and a stick. This place was beautiful and secluded… it was awesome.

Obviosuly there was no “isle”… they just made one through the bushes on the way!

….amazing!….

To be continued….. tomorrow!!

First of all, let me say that we are jealous of Jeff + Rafedah.  They received the most awesome wedding present that we have every seen (which you will see).  That better be displayed proudly in your house!  That’s all I have to say.

We had an amazing time in Sonora for this wedding.  The town was so small and old fashioned; just our style!  We were fortunate enough to get to spend an extra day here and got to do some interesting things.  We went to a very weird town called Columbia for most of the day.  Some of the activities included making candles, drinking sarsaparilla, and panning for gold (I wanted to yell “Eureka,” but we unfortunately didn’t hit the motherlode).  Altogether a very cool experience.

The wedding was in an old Catholic Church on top of a hill in downtown Sonora and the reception was at Union Hill Inn.  The reception site was so beautiful and hidden in the hills.  Jeff + Rafedah made their grand entrance on our favorite mode of transportation: the tandem!