Walk Through a Wedding - Charlotte, NC

Weddings have an incredible ability to speed up time. The day always seems to fly by faster than any other. Timelines and schedules are rarely strictly followed and there is no time to spare when capturing the details of the day. That's why I was so grateful to spend a day last week with Justin & Mary at their Walk Through a Wedding workshop in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Justin & Mary are incredible wedding photographers with a style that evokes sentiments of the 1940s. They have this old Hollywood feel to their images that I just adore. They are also big into helping other photographers in the industry. Walk Through a Wedding gave me (and the other 20 photographers) a chance to slow down the wedding day and analyze each part of the day. We honed our skills and were forced to be creative with our shooting angles since we were shooting alongside so many other people once.

We photographed the long dress, but ultimately our stylists decided that a short dress would be best for our theme. I am glad that they did because I love short wedding dresses. My grandmother had one and I have been obsessed with her wedding photos my whole life.

[Side note: My grandmother had her wedding shot by her cousin, Eddie Adams. Eddie Adams was an incredible Pulitzer prize winning photographer that received over 500 awards. He'd never shot a wedding before my grandmother's, and it may have been the only one he ever did. And I am pretty sure he did it for FREE.]

The ruffles at the bottom of the dress were whimsical and lovely.

Leslie was our gorgeous bride for the day. Don't you just LOVE that veil?!

This quiet moment may have been my favorite shot of the day.

Killer blue eyes and dark hair?! Jealous? I am.

The theme for the day was American Honey, which led to the most adorable details. This could be easily replicated and many of the details could be DIY.

How could you have an American Honey wedding and not have a honey comb!?

Almond wings for the bees and ribbons on the wrapper = Cutest. Cupcakes. Ever.

Matt and Leslie have the cutest story and I have to share it. They met online, by accident. When social media was first getting started, Matt was reaching out to childhood friends and he contacted Leslie. Only this was not the Leslie he knew from high school that he thought he was contacting. The way Matt wrote to her made Leslie think that she must know him and not remember, so she politely corresponded back. This went back and forth for awhile before they both realized they hadn't met, but the connection was made and they continued to write, then meet, then fall in love. It reminds me a little of You've Got Mail with Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks!

These two were the best models! I can't believe they'd never done this before!

And here we all are taking shots of the bridal party after Mary showed us her tips for getting natural reactions in formal portraits. There I am, in the center, with a big smile!

It was a LONG day, but I was so pumped up when we left around midnight that I couldn't sleep for awhile. I can't wait to take all the tips and skills I learned and apply them to my 2011 weddings. It's going to be a rockin' year!

Our Family

After two weeks with Fred and Betsy, I've already forgotten what life was like before them.

Thanks to my mom for taking our first ever Jordan family photo!

Sneak Peek - Leslie and Matt

Yesterday, I had the best day with Justin and Mary at their stylized wedding shoot in Charlotte, NC. Here is a quick peek at what I'm working on.

Fred and Betsy: Welcome to the Family

This weekend, our family doubled in size. 

We adopted two miniature dachshunds from the Dachshund Rescue of North America. Betsy and Fred were a bonded pair, meaning you had to adopt them together. They had been together since they were puppies. After having them for only a couple days, I have seen how their mannerisms fit with each other. 

Betsy is the shy one. She is our sweetheart. Once she bonds with you, she will follow you everywhere. Betsy is a true lap dog, thrilled to be with you on the couch or wherever she can get you to sit with her. At 15 pounds, she is almost twice as big as Fred. Though she is a year younger, she is the mature one. Fred jumps all over her and can be spastic at times, but Betsy takes it in stride and never gets upset with his antics. 

She has a beautiful black coat with chocolate highlights that only show up in the right sunlight. 

Fred is the show dog. He can stand on his hind legs and dance around or beg for much longer than you'd think possible. He is our Fred Astaire with his graceful prance. Fred weighs only 8 pounds, but is strong enough to pull you over if you're holding his leash. He is determined to be in the forefront. We carry the dogs up and down stairs due to the propensity for dachshunds to have back problems. If I carry Betsy down the stairs first, Fred will not let you take him down right away. It's his protest to let you know that he should have been first. Similarly, he expects to be harnessed first, fed first, and greeted first. So high maintenance!

My favorite thing about Fred is that he is so small and has such a short coat that he HAS to wear a sweater or coat when it's cold outside. I mean... adorable. He could not be cuter! 

Luckily, these two have been very well trained. There haven't been any accidents while we're away and they are excellent eaters. We are thrilled to have them as part of our family and can't wait to grow with them over the years!

The Sights of Las Vegas

Our first trip to Las Vegas, for the Wedding and Portrait Photographers International conference, was a whirlwind. We got so many great suggestions as to where to go, what to see, what restaurants to try that we simply couldn't fit it all in!

We stayed at the MGM Grand because they were the host for our conference. Thank goodness we decided to stay there. It took me ten minutes to walk from my room to the convention center, and I am a fast walker! I can't imagine having to get there from the other hotels.

[Side Note: I am working my way through BBC's list of 100 books everyone should read, and right now I am working my way through the Chronicles of Narnia series. This lion out front of the MGM Grand makes me think of Aslan.]

Not the coolest hotel on the outside, but still pretty sweet.

Excalibur was pretty close to us. We never walked through the hotel, but I had to grab a shot of it while we were on our way back to the MGM.

This was the entrance to the Monte Carlo hotel. This is my kind of entrance. When Bill Gates builds me a house, I am going to have something similar to this when you drive up.

Looks even cooler when I change the lighting settings on my camera...

Everybody told us the Venetian was a must-see. I will admit, it did not disappoint.

I look this lobby. I kept having to stop Brad in each hallway because I wanted to take a picture of the ceiling. Mind you, he knew they looked cool, but he just couldn't understand my obsession with ceilings. I think it's that so many people ignore the ceiling when decorating their homes, but in Vegas, they are a focal point. I like it.

Except for the palm trees, I probably could have convinced a few folks that I went to Paris and New York recently.

I am sure you are all tired of reading about this Vegas trip by now. Yes, I realize I have made lots of posts about it! I just can't believe how many pictures we took.

Our Neon Boneyard Adventure

In Las Vegas, there is the Strip and then there is Downtown. The hotels along the Strip are enormous and are constantly reinventing themselves to be bigger and better and more attractive to tourists and gamblers. When you fly toward the airport, all you can see for a long time is utter darkness. Then, as you get a big closer, a massive city of lights appears out of no where... all shining from the Strip. It's what you think of when you think of Las Vegas. Then there is Downtown. It has vintage 1950s styled motels combined with a canopied walkway on Fremont Street all lit with glittering lights. It is beautiful, and becoming an increasingly popular destination for tourists. However, the attraction that brought us there was the Neon Museum and Boneyard.

When neon signs are replaced in Las Vegas, the old sign is sent to the boneyard. The former neon sign junk yard has been turned into a museum for the public to tour. It also is a fabulous place for a photo shoot. I contacted Lacy of More Than an Image Photography out of Houston, TX to be our photographer. She was also attending the Wedding and Portrait Photographers International conference.

We met Lacy and Stephanie (love second shooters!) and headed for Downtown. Here's the thing: Downtown Las Vegas has TWO Fremont Streets. What is that about? Needless to say, we got LOST. We drove all over the place, stopping at gas stations to ask for directions, driving up and down the same roads multiple times, and somehow drained three cell phones trying to use GPS. We did finally arrive (late) and scrambled to use the remaining time at the boneyard as efficiently as possible. You have to schedule a time slot with the museum in order to shoot there. They are closed on Sundays, which is why that's when we scheduled the shoot. You get the whole place to yourselves!

In the end, it all turned out fabulously! Lacy and Stephanie were a dream to work with, and we are so excited to have amazing pictures of us from our trip.