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Now that Melissa and Chris’ wedding has been featured on a national blog, I can finally blog it myself.

Originally I met with Melissa and her dad, Joel, for the initial consultation. We talked for a little while and I just got a great sense from them. I was also excited that they chose to have their wedding at Taliesin West, architect Frank Lloyd Wright’s winter home and school in the desert from 1937 until his death in 1959. As you will see, it was a great choice!

It was nice to have Melissa and Chris fly out back in August to shoot their engagement session. To escape the heat and get a little more green in the photos, we headed up to Prescott. Rain threatened for most of the afternoon, but we still got some great shots.

The wedding day started at the Scottsdale Plaza Resort where both Melissa and Chris were getting ready with the wedding party. From there, both groups took a limo to Taliesin where we did the first look and had a little time to get some great pics of just the two of them. The ceremony was right at sunset and the reception was out under the stars. A special thanks goes out to Carlyn Millea of Risa Whitney Events for putting on such a gorgeous event.

Invitations: Ashley Harms, a+JOY
DJ: Miles Gilbert, SKM Entertainment
Cake: Eleonora Levinson, Classic Cakes and Confections
Catering: Atlasta Catering

Wow! What a year it has been as far as weddings outside of the Phoenix area. From the Grand Canyon to Colorado, California and now up to Portland. We have covered the Western U.S. pretty good this year. Personally, I like it that way. It gives me the opportunity to photograph in places I wouldn’t normally. This wedding was definitely the icing on the cake. Portland is such a lovely place and I knew that Julia and Asa had a week full of events that were going to provide us with some amazing images. We started everything off with a trip out to the Willamette Valley and did some wine tasting with a small group, including most of the wedding party. Asa works for Ken Wright Cellars in Carlton and was able to get us all in for a tour and tasting there. I love Pinot Noir, so this was the perfect place to be.

The ceremony was held at Julia’s mother’s house in Vancouver, Washington, just over the state line from Portland. What a beautiful place and completely perfect setting for the wedding of this down-to-earth couple. All of the flowers for the wedding came directly from her garden. The day after the wedding, I met up with the newlyweds to get some great images of them in Downtown Portland. That blog post will be up soon. Until then, enjoy the images from the wedding.

When I get the opportunity to shoot a wedding for friends, I consider it a great honor. The second I heard that our friends Pam and Kevin were getting married, I couldn’t wait until their wedding day. We came out to Southern California earlier this year to shoot their engagement session and had an absolute blast. These two know how to have fun and that was evident on their wedding day. This was the first time I had the opportunity to shoot a wedding on a boat. It proved to be a great venue and it was definitely a great party. My really good friend Omari Dickens came out from AZ with me to capture all the great moments.

Who doesn't love a ceremony high-five?

Omari captured this sweet moment during the maid of honor's speech.

This was the view from the upper deck. Beautiful!

A special thanks goes out to Erin Hunt for doing some fabulous make-up.

When temps in the Valley of the Sun start to rise, the likelihood of shooting a wedding goes down. So, what do we as photographers do? Get the heck out of dodge to someplace that has cooler temps. In our case, we headed up to Colorado to shoot the wedding of Michelle and Aaron. We had a great time during their engagement session last Spring and we knew that the wedding would be fun as well. We had to worry about the weather a little bit, but there was a good back-up plan in place. So, when the rain started coming down as the bride reached the altar, everyone went running for cover. We were able to continue in the tent and the rest of the day went smoothly. Local photographer Scott Asano came along to help us get some great shots.