The evening was filled with great conversations between Joy and Emerson Eggerichs about how to create great marriages, and even better, how to begin working towards great marriage while you’re single. Art was a huge aspect to the night. There was a beautiful set, artist profiles and live music from local musicians. So much fun!

I would absolutely recommend the book, Love and Respect for anybody getting married or planning on getting married. And I would also recommend checking out Joy’s site, Love and Respect NOW. I’m a huge fan!

Enjoy a taste of The Illumination Project!

On the topic of marriage, it would mean the world to me if you took a peek at a few of my favorite weddings I’ve shot in the last few months:

Nicole & Ryan // Pullman & Portland Wedding Photographer

Portraits Inside WSU’s Martin Stadium + Rained Out Ceremony = An Incredible Wedding And A Great Story.View full post »

Amanda & Josh // Portland Wedding Photographer

Beautiful military wedding at Fanno Farmhouse in Portland, OR. Sunshine and sunflowers made it great.View full post »

Kerri & Sam // Pullman & Portland Wedding Photographer

These two are overflowing with grace and love. They were married on the hills of the Palouse surrounded by great friendsView full post »

T.Y. + Peter // Sandpoint, Pullman And Portland Wedding Photographer

This joyous couple held their wedding on top of a mountain. There was a castle. Need I say more?View full post »

This is my sister, Brittani.

I remember when we were little, Brittani would have ladybug birthday parties and I would have fireman birthday parties. Ladybug parties were always lame because ladybugs pee on people. Firemen, on the other hand, never pee on people. I remember watching countless Disney Channel Original Movies like Zenon, Motocrossed and Cadet Kelly with her. Some of the most beautiful and incredible films of our generation… and probably any generation… ever. I remember the two of us being scared to get pulled behind our boat on an inner tube, but doing it anyway. I remember countless roadtrips to the ocean and our cabin where we would listen to Adventures in Odyssey. I remember her buying spy toys to spy on my friends and I. She had to buy the girl versions of spy toys though, which were definitely not as good as the boy versions.

A lot has changes since we were kids. A lot has stayed the same. Firemen are still cooler than ladybugs. I still buy her a vintage  Disney Channel Original Movie for her birthday and Christmas. (Don’t tell her, but this year she’s getting Johnny Tsunami!) We’re incredible at inner tubing now. We even have tricks! She and I still listen to Adventures in Odyssey on fun little roadtrips of our own. Instead of spying on each other, we just stay up late talking to each other. Either way, we get to know what’s going on in each others’ lives.

Today is Brittani’s 18th birthday, which coincidentally marks eighteen years of one of my best friends being in my life day in and day out. Happy birthday, BT! I love you!

We took photos over two days. The photos above were taken up at Priest Lake, Idaho, where our family has a cabin. The photos below were taken on the beautiful Palouse where the two of us grew up.

And we finished off the session with a double rainbow over Portland and grilled cheese sandwiches in a double decker bus.

The shirts mean “I struggle and emerge” in Latin. How rad is that?

Huge thanks to Matt and Kevin for modeling!

Sam is a graphic designer and he designed an awesome site for their wedding: samuelandkerri.com

I absolutely love it when couples do a ‘first look.’ It’s seriously such a special moment.

I think that mismatching dresses are the coolest.

This is why I like these two:

I’m pretty sure he was singing ‘Call Me Maybe’…

Let’s zoom in to see just how crazy this garter toss got…

All photos were edited with a combination of Snapseed and VSCOcam.

I can’t wait to share more about this trip soon. These are a few of the photos I’ve shot and edited on my phone in my free time. Feel free to follow me on Instagram for more photos.

It was a beautiful day. Perfect skies for photos. Warm, but not too warm. You know, perfect. That is, until an hour before the ceremony. We started to feel a raindrop here… a raindrop there. We figured that it would continue like that for a little bit and that it wouldn’t be a big deal at all. Just in case though, a Plan B was thought up. Unfortunately, we had to resort to Plan B halfway through the ceremony when it started dumping. Both Ryan and Nicole were huge troopers and laughed and smiled all the way inside, soaking wet.

Here’s my tweet from right after the wedding:

The sky started DUMPING halfway into the ceremony! We ran into the reception hall and finished everything. Bride and groom were troopers!

— Branden Harvey (@BrandenHarvey) July 1, 2012

We shot portraits in Washington State University’s Martin Stadium. Really fun time!

This is where the pastor announced that we were going to finish up the ceremony inside.

While we were out shooting portraits of the bride and groom alone between the ceremony and reception, two women in a pickup truck drove up. They rolled down their window and yelled, “Wanna take photos at our castle?” When somebody asks you a question like that, there’s only one answer. Yes. So we shot portraits at their castle.

Fun fact: The word ‘swag’ was used more at this wedding than any other wedding… ever.