Jessica & Bernie are married! Beautiful Cancun, Mexico

The whole week has been a complete whirlwind since we returned from Cancun! I'm still trying to catch up on emails, phone calls, orders, laundry... :)

The wedding was fantastic. We arrived on Wednesday to the Dreams Resort in Cancun, Mexico after a long day of traveling. D and I dropped of our stuff at our room and almost instantly ran into Cathy & George (mom and dad of the bride) and the wedding party! It was great to see them! Some of you might remember Jessica & Bernie from the past post of their engagement session at Gunther Toodys. We spent a little time checking out the resort and went to eat dinner. After a margarita, some amazing food in our stomachs, and all that traveling since 3 am, we were pretty tired. Since it was only 7:30 or so, we decided we'd go up to our room and rest for a little while. Well, when we woke up at 11 o'clock that night, we figured we were a little more tired than we thought!! We just crashed and went to bed! What party people! :)

Thursday we spent some time out on the beach, scoped out the rest of the resort and where the wedding would be taking place the next day, and then it was off the the rehearsal! At dinner we got to know more of the family and friends and had a wonderful time. And then of course, Friday... Wedding Day!

I'm finally starting to get a chance to go through some of the images from the wedding day! This will probably end up involving a few posts so I can talk more about our trip, but these are just a few of the many, many images from the wedding. I've only grabbed a few random ones so far, but this will hopefully give you a taste!

Here's the bride getting ready before the ceremony.




The beautiful ceremony location at Dreams Cancun. Do you see all the birds riding the wind above them?! It was crazy how many there were!













I managed to not cry all day until George started dancing with his daughter. I've actually known this family since Elementary School, and we grew up not even a block from each other, but seeing this firefighter with his youngest daughter?... It just completely did me in.



This is Angelina and Stefanie, Jessica's two older sisters. Don't they all look so much alike?



Angelina and I are the same age. We met her first day at a new school in 3rd Grade! :) I knew Jessica for a long time as the little sister that we used to not let play with us (since that's what older sisters do, right?) and their mom, Cathy, as the one that always let me sit in her warm car to wait for the bus (since I walked to the bus stop.) I lost touch with the girls once Ang and I graduated High School. Then about 3.5 years ago we ran into each other at a wedding of other old friends from High School that I was photographing (one of my very first weddings... just days before I bought the studio) Through the power of myspace and facebook we have reconnected and tried to stay in touch. I was really excited when I started to talk to Jessica about her wedding and I'm so glad they asked D and I to be a part of it with them.

To Jessica & Bernie: I wish you many many years of happiness and love. Take care of each other... ;)

An unexpected first wedding...

Well I thought that my first wedding of the year was going to be coming up next Friday in Cancun, but a few weeks ago I got that call... the call of panic and need from a fellow photographer. It's bound to happen to everyone, Murphy's law pretty much guarantees it. And honestly, as a photographer, it's the king of thing you actually have nightmares about during wedding season. You are a wedding photographer, the only person in charge of capturing the day's once in a lifetime memories for all of prosperity... and you wake up sick. And I'm not just talking about a little cough or feeling slightly under the weather. We're talking about flat out, can't stand up, throwing up, shaking, fever, I want my mommy kind of sickness. Not something that you could "suck up & deal" with or anything like that. The stuff we fear is anything that will absolutely prevent you from being any sort of functioning human being, let alone to perform any kind of quality service. SO this is where that phone call comes in. My good friend Dusty, of Volkel Image, finally had it happen to him. Now while I had experienced a similar situation a couple years back, he and his wife Michelle had never had anything come about that would prevent them from doing their job like this. And when I answered the phone, poor Michelle sounded like she was just about ready to cry. (either that or she was going to have a panic attack) ;)

Luckily, I completely understand the scenario and the kind of worry that goes along with it. I mean, really, you feel devastated! But, there is nothing you can do! Life happens, and luckily we met each other in a group meant to help with just this sort of problem! We both belong to Mile High Photographers, a group of photographers from all over Colorado. We meet monthly and talk business and share stories and ideas and I've formed some absolutely amazing friendships through this group. It's also such an essential part to my business! It's not as though we have co-workers to turn to for assistance, so when something like this comes up, it's so important that I have trusted, extremely skilled photographer friends that I can trust. And really, there are so many people in that group that I would trust with even my own wedding! Luckily on this day, I got to help out someone else! Dusty was extremely sick, so since I had the day free, I was more than happy to help!!

I'm so glad that it worked out so well! Mark & Marci were absolutely fabulous. Not only are they a wonderful couple, but they were entirely understanding of the situation. Michelle came along to keep things straight and to 2nd shoot. The day turned out great! I've told Dusty that anytime he wants to get sick and pass on fabulous clients like Marci & Mark, he's more than welcome to!! :)

Since I passed the images along to Dusty & Michelle right away and these guys are their clients, I swiped these images off their blog. So these are of course all images I took, and they have been beautifully processed by Michelle. :) Hey, at least someone was blogging what I was shooting!





The wedding was held on the gorgeous campus of the University of Denver, with the ceremony at the Evans Chapel and the reception in the Tuscany Ballroom. It was the perfect setting for a perfect celebration. To Marci & Mark- Thank you so much for allowing me to be a part of your day (even though it's not exactly what you had anticipated!) I wish you many, many years of laughter and happiness in your lives together. Congrats!

Introducing Daniel Edward Wray V, my nephew :)

So I never really introduced my new nephew! :) He was born in late August, and no matter how hard I tried to be there when he was born, this kid was determined to come at his own time. (aren't they all?! Geeze, don't they know we have jobs and schedules and stuff? Sheesh... ;) )
This is from the day we first met- his first of MANY portrait sessions to come...
In November, my brother's little family came up to my studio in Evergreen to check it out. With all the crazy baby business, they hadn't had a chance to make the drive to come and see the new set-up. I didn't have my shooting area complete, but we set up a couple lights and shot a few images in the area that I now use for natural light shooting space. This is my brother Dan (Dan IV- of course), his wife Laura, her son Craig (who's now 15), and their new addition, little Danny (3 months in these shots).
I have to admit, that seeing my big brother as a new daddy is super cute.
Then of course we have some Christmas photos! This little guy has been the source of some serious family entertainment. I mean, how could you not giggle at this face in a santa hat?!

Obviously I didn't take this one, my dad did, but I figured that I should include at least one of me in there.
Over the holidays, Danny got to also meet his great grandma from Ohio! It was soo nice to have her out for the holidays. Both my parents are from Ohio, and most of my family is there. I just hope that my kids will get to meet her someday, too. Now if I can just get some of my cousins and aunts and uncles to come out and visit, too, we'll be all set! (hint, hint... Katherine! ;) Sarah, Alexa, Megan!)
Then, about a month ago D and I went over to my brother's house for dinner. Of course, Aunt Erin just couldn't resist bringing the camera! :) Danny was just so smiley and happy, and we just had a grand ol' time! Oh, and this kiddo also had just discovered his tongue for this visit! We were all just sitting around watching him, and laughing hysterically pretty much the entire night. Check out these faces?! He's just full of 'em. There's about a million more, but I'll spare you. ;)
And then last, but not least we have this past weekend when we got together for Easter!
My cousin, John and his wife, Lorelei, and their 18mo old daughter, Elaine were also there. Elaine had brought with her a pair of adorable bunny ears. I tell you what... there's not much in this world more adorable than little kids in bunny ears!
Well that's all I've got for now. Since we're all updated on the nephew, from now on I can just add a couple images at a time. ;) Happy Easter!

I've got a little catching up to do...

As you can see, I haven't updated my blog since December! I've wanted desperately to change the look of the blog, include larger images, and have a much more modern feel. Well after several hours on the phone with a friend last night, I've got it figured out! So over the course of the next couple of days I will be adding posts and photos and trying to catch up just slightly to the info I have not been reporting. Hopefully this is the start of regular blogging, and although I do realize this has been a problem in the past, I promise to give it my best effort. ;)