To any bride who thinks a cloudy or stormy day on her wedding day is a bad thing - think again!  As long as it isn't pouring, those storm clouds can add drama and saturate colors beyond your wildest dreams.  It also lends a soft light to faces, making for lovely, evenly lit portraits.  In fact, some of the most stunning and powerful wedding photos we have taken were captured on those dreaded stormy days.

Case in point, the wedding of Sara and Drew.  They were married September 12th, 2009 in an outdoor ceremony at Red Rock Crossing surrounded by family, friends, their dogs ... and storm clouds heralding thunder and spewing lightning bolts in every direction.  Fortunately it never rained more than a few drops during the ceremony and formal photos afterwards, and boy did it deliver a boatload of great images!  The only scare came while getting ready.  The bottom did fall out, complete with torrential rain and hail all worthy of starting another great flood.  It soon waned and all was good for the rest of the day.

As you can easily tell from the photos, two key players in this wedding were Sara and Drew's ridiculously cute dogs, Cookie, the chihuahua, and Chili, the daschund.  Also of great importance was the attendance of Sara's grandparents, which was very touching.  Thank you both so much!  Sara, you were a stunning bride and Drew, you kept us laughing all day.  We had such a great time and absolutely fell in love with those adorable dogs of yours :-).

Oh, I almost forgot the big story of the day!  As Sara was taking her walk down the aisle with her parents, it became clear that some big revelation had hit Drew like a ton of bricks.  No, it wasn't that he was about to leave the single life behind or anything like that ... Drew forgot the ring.  Oooops!  He muttered under his breath, "She's going to kill me."  Sara was great though and just laughed it off when the time came.  It was so sweet too as everyone started offering their rings to Drew to use in lieu of the real thing.  Just after arriving to Agave of Sedona for the reception, Drew prompty held out the real ring, humbly presenting it to Sara and placing it on her finger. Disaster averted.  Good recovery Drew :-)!!

After leaving Michigan (where we had a wedding over the Labor Day weekend) on our Great American Road Trip, we headed south and west to beautiful Tucson where Patty and Turner were married on September 10th, 2009.  They enjoyed an intimate elopement at Lowes Ventana Canyon Resort in Tucson.

This exquisite resort is more like a wilderness retreat than a hotel.  It's labyrinth of pathways wind their way through dense desert scrub and saguaro-covered mountainsides with one in particular leading to a rare find as deserts go - a soothing natural waterfall plunging over a shear cliff wall.  This was the setting for the ceremony and it couldn't have been more magical, especially for this couple who hail from Dallas, Texas, opting for a destination wedding in the Sonoran Desert.  And though the teperatures flirted with the century mark, we all had a great time and we were privileged to act as Patty and Turner's witnesses.  We even encountered a curious javelina along one of the pathways during our intitial scouting when we first arrived :-).

The only thing we couldn't understand was how Patty and Turner didn't consider themselves to be photogenic ... I know, it's shocking when you view the photos!  These two are about as photogenic as two people can get!  I think they were just being modest ... a good trait by the way :-).  Thank you both so much for having us at your elopement.  We were so happy to be a part of it and you were a wonderful couple to work with and get to know.  It made for a great ending to our Great American Road Trip!  Best wishes!!

I was very excited to hear that I placed in the prestigious WPJA (Wedding Photojournalist Association) Quarter 2 Contest!  As always, the competition is very stiff and I am always pleased with any placing among such a talented group of photographers.  The award was for sixteenth place in the Trash the Dress Portrait category.  I love doing TTD sessions because they are so much fun and I really get a chance to tap into my creative side.  Special thanks to the always beautiful Aubrey for putting up with swamps and alligators and mosquitos for this wonderful shoot ... your AWESOME!!  Funny thing is, she hates her feet :-).  Love ya!!

The day after the wedding, Michele and Josh opted for a trash-the-dress shoot.  They were worried that it wouldn't be exciting to us beacuse we are able to do so many of these shoots in beautiful places like Sedona.  On the contrary though.  We love places that are fresh and new for us.  China, Michigan was full of rustic old barns, lovely fields of wildflowers and miles and miles of corn fields ... we have always wanted to do a photo shoot in the corn fields.  This was like being a kid in a candy store to us ... we ate it up!!

There was only one drawback.  People, I have lived in Florida for heaven sakes.  I have trudged through some seriously mosquito infested swamps.  I have even been to Africa and slept along river banks swarming with the blood-sucking creatures, but Michigan ... Michigan in the summer is as bad as any swarm I have ever had the misfortune to be in.  I hate mosquitos ... they love me ...

We want to thank everyone for their infinite patience while waiting for their blog postings.  Fall season has proven to be one of the busiest we have ever had with 10 weddings since the beginning of September, two of which were destination, not to mention the triple header we have beginning tomorrow and the countless shoots in between, all of which will eventually make their way to the blog.  We haven't forgotten anyone :-).

With that, we wanted to go ahead and get things started with our first wedding of the fall season.  We received a wonderful Thank You card in the mail from this couple yesterday and wanted to go ahead and get their posting up.  They have been so patient and I am sure they are dying to see some photos.  Michele and Josh were married Labor Day weekend in St. Clair, Michigan, which was the main reason behind our big road trip.  We first spoke with Josh while we were driving along the slopes of Haleakala in Maui last year scouting for our own wedding.  The two live in Phoenix and were inquiring about an engagement shoot.  Once we were back home we met up for the shoot and the rest is history.

Michele is from China, Michigan (a very small town adjacent to St. Clair) and it was her hometown that she and Josh chose for their special day.  It is a very charming town positioned on a pretty little river that overlooks Canada on it's opposite bank.  We absolutely love this couple because they are such genuine people and their families and friends were no exception.  We were treated more like guests than "the photographers" and we had such a great time over the course of the three days we spent there.  They had a trash-the-dress session the day after the wedding and afterwards we went back to Michele's parent's home where we were well fed by her mom while her dad washed our car before we hit the road again ... now come on, you can't beat that for hospitality :-)!!

The one thing that really impressed us about this couple was how much fun they had on their wedding day ... doing it just the way they wanted.  They even rented a motor home which Josh's dad used to chauffeur the couple, their wedding party and close friends around town for photos.  They simply played by their own rules instead of the "traditional" rules of a wedding day and had an absolute blast doing it.  We think the photos really portray that :-)!  Thank you both so much for everything and for including us in so many wonderful ways in your special weekend.  We had so much fun!!