The day after Alicia and Michael's wedding, I photographed the beautiful Aubrey for her Trash the Dress Session.  Aubrey is one of my dearest friends ... not to mention my favorite model :-).  As a matter of fact, that is how we met a decade ago.  She was in the hallway of my college (she went through the photography program as well) and I stopped and asked her if I could photograph her.  She said yes and the rest is history.  I have had the pleasure to photograph Aubrey many, many times over the years and last year I had the ultimate privilege of documenting her wedding.  Well, we have talked about a Trash the Dress Session ever since and decided this was a great opportunity to do it.

Aubrey does not particularly consider herself an outdoorsy type of gal like myself, but as usual she followed me deep into the recesses of the Florida wilderness to create these amazing images.  We traveled to Wekiwa Springs State Park in Orlando.  This is one of hundreds of fresh water springs that dot Florida ... the waters are crystal clear with beautiful shades of blue and emerald.  As idealistic as that may sound, it is still the Florida wilderness.  Aubrey braved alligators, no-see-ums (nasty little bugs that leave nasty little bites), very large wolf spiders that love to hide in the tulle of a wedding dress, and those sounds that emanate around you, unseen, praying on the imagination, and still she continued on for the sake of her photos ... amazing!!  I am so proud of you Aubs :-).

No doubt though, the photos are well worth it!  She even did the "wet hair flip" for me ... over and over and over again - just like she did in one of our very first shoots together.  Aubrey I adore these images ... thank you soooooo much for trusting me to not let you be attacked by spiders :-).  You hold a very special place in my heart and I will never tire of using you as one of my models.  Hope you and Phillip love them!!  Love you!!

Side note:  For anyone interested in these types of shoots, we highly suggest them.  They are great fun and you don't necessarily have to "Trash" your dress.  After everything Aubrey did (including riding in a canoe to get to some of the locations), she only ended up with a small grass stain at the bottom of her dress ... something easily fixed by a good dry clean.  Plus you get to feel like a model for a day ... what fun!!
  

When I got married in Maui in August, I had visions of wanting photos in my dress with barn yard animals ... specifically chickens ... more specifically, holding chickens.  This may seem odd, but I thought it would make for some really cool and unique wedding photographs.  I have asked some of my past brides to do this, but alas no bites ... can you imagine ...

 

The big problem was that despite an exhaustive search of Maui, we could not find any chickens to pose with.  In fact, the only available chickens we could locate were wild ones, and believe me when I tell you, they were not about to be caught.

 

So what was a bride to do?  I mentioned my dilimma to my friend Diane and she said she had friends who owned a ranch with chickens.  Next thing I knew, I was back in my dress in a car with Kevin, Diane and our assistant, Joyce and her partner, Beth, heading down the I-40 towards Winslow.  Destination ... the Spittin-L Ranch for my Trash the Dress Session with chickens - and llamas - and cows ... well, you get the point.

 

Kevin was my photographer and we had an amazing time.  When Daine said they had chickens she meant it!  I think they had roughly 150 and they were all beautiful, as were all their animals.  Spittin-L Ranch (obviously it is named for their sweet resident llamas) is owned by Melissa and Jerry Wallace.  These two wonderful people are also foster parents (Tender Heart) for infants and children with special needs and the two forces work hand in hand to provide an environment in which they can all thrive.

 

We wish to extend a very special thank you to Melissa and Jerry for not only opening their home to us and allowing us to work with their animals (for which they obviously love dearly and are extremely proud of), but for their hours of effort to make it all happen.  Jerry tirelessly ran back and forth catching chickens for me to hold, getting grain for the chickens and feed for the llamas and cows, and he also transported my veil around, giving it to me as I needed.  Melissa ... well I hardly know what to say on this ... she spent hours walking around with us, helping out and even laying on the ground with a bucket of feed to attract the llamas, and all with a badly broken leg!  As a matter of fact, she had just recently come off of being wheelchair bound.  You both have my gratitute and respect for all that you do and for your supreme hospitality!!!!  I also want to thank Beth for being our "Sherpa" - you know we love you Beth :-)!  And Joyce, you did an amazing job ... so did you Kevin :-)!  Lastly, thank you Diane for putting this all together and making my dream of a Trash the Dress session with chickens come true.  I had such a great time and it was more than I ever could have hoped for!

 

Last note - you will also notice that the first photos are of my dog, Yoshi and I.  Since I obviously couldn't take him to Hawaii, I had to have some photos with him.  We took these before we headed out to Winslow.  We found a nice spot in Flagstaff that still had a touch of fall color left and played around for a while ... I love my dog!!!

This series is me at my loveliest ... this rooster was one of the uncooperative ones :-).