Aaron & Tanya

Posted on May 29, 2007

Ok, so I wasn’t the official photographer for their wedding on Sunday, May 27th.  I was actually in this wedding!  Their hired photographer left right before dinner, so I was the unofficial photographer for the rest of the night.  Aaron and Tanya are waiting to go on a honeymoon until they have the time and money to take a nice long one in Europe (or some place warm).  Aaron actually works with my husband, and Tanya has about 1 year left of chiropractor school!  They had a beautiful day, surrounded by their family and friends, and the weather wasn’t too bad either!  Here are some of my shots that I found time to take. :)

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Her sister laughing during a part of her toast to the bride & groom.

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Ok, so I couldn’t resist posting a picture of my son.  Since both myself & my husband were in the wedding, my parents watched my son and then brought him to the reception!  He was having alot of fun with the spoon :)

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The couple’s first dance as husband & wife.

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The groom is Jewish, so they incorporated Jewish traditions into their ceremony and reception.  As you can tell from the pictures, they hoisted the bride and groom up on chairs and danced around them to Hava Nagila!

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Some mutual friends bought a big boot (Das Boot!) for the bride & groom.  They wanted them to open it while they were there to see their reaction.  Well, they did them one better… they filled it with beer and everyone took their turn drinking from the boot!  I have alot of pictures of the different people drinking from the boot, but I figured the most important ones to show were the bride & groom.

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Some fun dancing shots…

(Sorry, Shelly!)

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The bouquet toss

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The garter toss ;)

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Taking a break to “decorate” their car (that’s my husband on the left)

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Dancing to “Sweet Caroline”

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It was such a wonderful night for everyone, especially Aaron & Tanya.  Congratulations to the newlyweds!!!

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Janell + Kevin

Posted on May 22, 2007

I can’t even begin to tell you the number of unique and non-traditional things Kevin & Janell did on their wedding day.  I had the pleasure of being their photographer for their May 19th wedding celebration.  The pictures will run you through most of it, but just to give you an overview: the bride is Irish and the groom is Scottish.  She wore a green dress.  He wore a kilt.  They found a way to tie in there heritage into every part of the day.  Follow along with the pictures for more details:

The boutonnieres were thistle!

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She has dreadlocks in her hair, so she decided to do something really creative for her wedding day.  She told me that she has seen in magazines people with dreadlocks with their hair twisted and twirled in all of these different ways that hair wouldn’t normally do without the help of wires.  So, she did her own variation with pipe cleaners!  After a few bucks on some gold and brown pipe cleaners, a green ribbon, a flower, and 15 minutes, her hair turned into this.  It was absolutely gorgeous.

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Some fun shots of the couple in front of the beautiful and bright doors of their church.

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Here is one of my favorite shots of the bride.  Neither one of them liked to pose for the camera, so she was frequently looking away.  Still, this shot turned out beautifully.

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Her flowers had a story too, although I can’t remember all of the flowers that she had in there and why she had them there.  Any florists out there would know!

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Instead of having the traditional receiving line or greeting their guests after the ceremony, the couple greeted their guests as they came into the church!  Alot of the guests were extremely concerned that they were late and missed the wedding!
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Before the processional, their bagpipe player came out and played.

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For their processional, everyone walked down together as one large group.  Leading the pack was a woman, selected by Janell & Kevin, who “waved” around this big kite in the shape of a dove.  I’m not sure if the tradition was Episcopalian or another Irish or Scottish wedding tradition.

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One other crazy, but fun, thing about their wedding.  They had a potluck reception!  Each guest was told to bring something to share instead of gifts for the bride & groom.

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Again, following along with the Irish traditions of the day ;)

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The groom reacting to a slideshow picture that their parents put together.

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Congrats Janell & Kevin!!  Your wedding was truly one-of-a kind!

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Nicole + Chris

Posted on May 20, 2007

On Saturday, May 12th, Nicole and Chris tied the knot at the University Club in St. Paul. They had a smaller, more intimate ceremony with 60 of their family and friends.  They were both so easy-going and relaxed throughout the whole day.  At least, that’s how it appeared.  Since I’m not one to want to take alot of formal pictures, Nicole and Chris fit in perfectly with my style.  They didn’t like to do too many posed pictures, so alot of my time was on my own using my creative mind to get great shots.  Nicole works at Target Corporation and Chris just received his MBA!  They were planning on leaving the next day for a 2 week trip traveling all throughout Europe!  Needless to say, I was jealous :)

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I don’t like doing cliché shots like this one, but it really turned out very good!
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One of my favorites from the day.  It’s one of those pictures you don’t realize how good it’s going to look until you set it up and take the picture.  Fantastic lighting, fantastic dress, fantastic bride.
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This shot was not intentional when I took it.  The bride and groom were walking past me from the nicely, sunlight room into a hallway with a couple of light bulbs.  But, hey… this is definitely a neat picture.  I like to call these type of shots “slop shots” – the you get the pool ball in the pocket by accident.  I wonder how many award-winning pictures were “slop shots”?  I would be an interesting statistic to know :)
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I love the use of the wide-angle in this shot.  It really defines her hourglass shape!
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I discovered during the ceremony Nicole & Chris’s obsession with pie.  Very fitting they served that as a dessert vs. a traditional wedding cake (even though they had a small carrot cake).
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I really thought it was neat that they had in place of the the traditional slideshow of baby pictures their baby pictures on display instead.  It was fitting this picture sat on the grand piano in the room.

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I loved this shot from their cocktail hour.
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Congrats, Nicole & Chris!  Hope you are having fun in Europe!!!

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