Mark and Molly were married on the most popular day of the year last fall (9-10-11).  I promise you, I could have booked that date close to 30 times!!  Molly though, doesn’t mess around and she was first to call me lonnnnnng before anyone else.  Her great planning (ok, Mark too) helped in planning a really beautiful thought out wedding.  She had sweet little details like mason jars (I think she’s my first mason jar bride.. yes!), pretty flowers, and visits from monarchs.

But even Molly isn’t that well planned out.  Sometimes, just pretty things happen.

Enjoy!  Below you will see some of my favorite shots for the entire year with some wonderful emotional moments.  I found myself tearing up a few times as I edited these photos.

{A nod to one of my favorite photographers, Caroline Ghetes}

So I figure if Joni is pretty cool, then Todd has to be fairly nice too right?

WRONG…  Man that guy is a jerk!!
haha.. Just kidding!

Todd is one of those guys that totally comes off as a wee bit quiet, but I’m totally on to him.  I feel fairly confident that he cuts loose when you give him copious quantities of beer.

I’m not saying that like it’s a *bad* thing.

Kayleigh and John were married this summer at St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church in St. Joseph, MO.

I met Kayleigh and her mom TWO YEARS ago at a bridal fair and I instantly fell in love with them. Both are so sweet and bubbly. I can’t imagine either of them ever saying a cross word, or even frowning for that matter. I need a little of their happiness and optimism infused into me. I wonder how much something like that might cost me.

So Kayleigh booked me that very day, and we began a 19 month relationship leading up to the wedding. I realized later how much I loved this because I feel like I really got to know the two of them.

I have a soft spot for John (he doesn’t know it – sorry John). John got sick not long before the wedding (don’t worry, he’s ok now) and had to have surgery. I was scared for him and said a lot of prayers… but that’s not exactly the reason that I have a soft spot for him.

You see, when I was in first grade, I was classmates with a boy named Greg. Greg was the first person I ever met that was shy. Greg was unbearably shy to the point he could hardly speak – and to me, Miss Chatty Cathy, I could hardly understand this concept of shyness. I had school with Greg up until junior high, and the only time I ever heard him speak was when he was forced to speak by a teacher. He moved away, but to this day, whenever I meet a shy guy, I think back to sweet, kind Greg.

John is shy.
Not Greg level shy. In fact, when we did their engagement session I didn’t pick up on it at all. But get to a wedding with 300 people staring at the back of his head, yeah – he was a little shy, a quality I find endearing in a day and age of big egos and reality television.

These two met a long time ago. Seems funny that at such a young age they’ve already been together longer than most celebrity marriages last. They met when they were in Junior High. John was friends with Kayleigh’s brother. Look for him, he’s the one that looks like a young Brad Pitt (really). Sorry girls, he’s in Italy …. becoming a priest. (I just felt dozens of hearts deflate John told Kayleigh that he loved her the first time ever….. when they were kids… chatting on the internet.

Awww.

(I just felt John blush).

Enough talking – Enjoy these two as much as I do.

Venue: St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church, St. Joseph, MO
Hair and Makeup: Bliss Salon, St. Joseph, MO
Event decorations and styling: Spectacular Settings, Maryville, MO
Dress: David’s Bridal
Caterer: Hy-Vee Food Stores
Videographer: New Emotion Films

Getting married?  Know someone that is?  You should contact me.  I love meeting new people and working with new friends.

Ever meet someone that was so unbearably cute you could hardly stand it?  Yeahhhh, well if you haven’t you have now.  Meet Lauren and Lyle.  I bet I said “cute” about 50 times on their engagement session.

I bet they hate that.

Anyway, not only are they cute, but they are fun.  Lyle is outgoing and Lauren is a little shy – at least around me anyway.  Probably because I’m old enough to be their mom.  Hard to loosen up around the old woman. sigh.  They have the most adorable vintage repro bikes and brought them along.  It was a good day to do it too as it was so nice out for January!  For you out of towners, we’ve had an incredible warm streak.  Almost to the point of there being no winter at all.  So it was a chance for them to be on their bikes maybe a tiny bit before the winter wind started back in.

These pups are sooo smart.  They decided against a big wedding and are going to run off to Mexico to get married.  Don’t think I didn’t prod them a little bit to take me along.

I’m telling ya guys, I could take some really awesome travel photos for ya!!
Sigh.

Nevermind, I pefer it here in the bitter midwest in my slippers and a snuggie.
Yeah.
maybe.

Can’t be all that bad right, it produced meeee!
(shuddup)
(no. really.)

I met her the first time when we shot Paige’s senior portraits.  Joanna was our “big bad wolf” (she was very convincing in her role).  Not too long later, I get a call wanting me to take Joanna’s portraits too.  Yay!   Joanna is fun and outgoing and totally willing to let me dress her up funny.

She was only slightly reserved, but then I showed her inspiration shots and she was into it.  We put the “vaVOOM” in lil’ old Joanna in a nice reserved “she’s still a minor” kind of way. Ha!

Thank you Joanna for being my dress up doll for the afternoon

So we went back. I’m proud to say that I took Talyah* Colette’s first photo ever.
(I think)

*Not sure if this is how they are going to spell Talyah (pronounced Tal (rhymes with Pal)-Yuh), they hadn’t decided yet when we left.

Pretty sure Amber is now at bat.  She’s gonna need to break the 17 year no boy streak.

Recently I heard of a great contest that was held by Junebug which is a beautiful wedding blog, the top 50 wedding photos of the year.  Some other photographers on a photography group I belong to was going to enter the contest and was sharing some of their entries.  Let me tell you, there are some really talented photographers out there!

While I honestly didn’t think I would win, I decided that I would enter regardless as a personal assignment for myself.   What did I consider my best 10 wedding photos of the year? (the max for one entry).  I set aside an afternoon and started to pull dozens of photos that I’d taken that really impressed me though the year.  It was difficult, but I finally narrowed it down.

Sadly, I did not win (oh the travesty!  I was robbed!! lol) but it really was a good learning experience for me.    I decided to go ahead and share those images with you.  Some have not even been released yet!

The next 2 images were only 11 frames apart. I could not choose between the 2, as both equally moved me, so I kept them both.

While looking for my images, I kept finding many that Gene had taken. I realized that I had found enough of his images that I really loved that I thought it was worth entering his also. Below are the 10 I chose for him.

I do admit that maybe I was just a tiny bit hopeful.  After all, our skills have increased greatly in the last couple years.  I told Gene that if he won and I didn’t, he’d pay for it!   It ended up not being an issue, because neither of us won dangit!  That’s OK, though as I saw some of the competition and it was rough.

If nothing else, this has given us inspiration for the coming year, and has raised the bar of standards we want to meet.

She was game!

We ended up having so much fun with it and I really love the dark moodiness that came out of the shot. What does this have to do with being a senior?

Nothing.

It was fun, it was a piece of conceptual art that needed a model and Paige fit the bill perfectly. Girl should do some theater because she really played the part so perfectly!

Up this weekend, the “wolf”, Joanna will have her senior portraits taken. We have something interesting planned – stay tuned.

Not that Tanner (my youngest) is difficult per se. Just that sometimes he’s hard to pin down. He IS 17 after all. This is the first time we have foregone the school pictures (let go of tradtions!) and I did them myself. I kind of think that I like them much better agreed?

Man I can make good looking kids.