Terrace Gardens at Ken Caryl Wedding - Nick and Lisa

Nick and Lisa had a rocker theme wedding intertwined with traditional colors at the Terrace Gardens at Ken Caryl. Nick's adorable daughter was the flower girl and lucky recipient of the bouquet toss. Nick's darling son was the ring bearer. Nick is the owner of Arsnick Tattoo in Littleton and his sister Tyrinna created the masterpiece wedding cake. So much talent under the same roof!!!

Children's Photography - Denver

For a long time I have been in awe by the art captured by Jerry Ghionis. If you don't know who he is, I encourage you to google him. This year, I had the privilege of attending a free seminar that he did in Denver. It was amazing! He spoke about the fact that as photographer's we are not always able to photograph in the most beautiful places for some of our shots and what we can do to overcome this. My version of his seminar has been tight places-great photos. I should mention that by not being able to photograph in the most beautiful places, what we are talking about here, is that we can't take photos of the bride putting her makeup on outside with the beautiful Rocky Mountain range in the background. So, in other words, just ordinary spaces that we can make extraordinary.
In chatting with my friend Lori with Lori K Photography, she mentioned Sue Bryce. If you have known me for a while, you know how much I love boudoir photography. I love being able to give a woman a photo and for her response to be "Wow". I don't think that as women we give ourselves enough time or even permission to look in the mirror and stare deep into the eyes of a truly beautiful woman. If you haven't seen Sue Bryce's photos, look her up as well. She really does a phenomenal job of bringing out a woman's inner beauty and true self with timeless portraiture. I have been so inspired by her that I even worked on doing a light set up similar to hers, which is why the above photos look as good as they do. They were also taken in an ordinary space, but the outcome is great. For my curious followers, the photos were taken in my dining room.

Hope you enjoy!

Feature Fridays

Please stay tuned as I am currently getting some interviews underway.

What's For Dinner Wednesdays?

This Wednesday, my family and I enjoyed a delicious bowl of Fettucini Alfredo with steamed broccoli. The broccoli makes me feel better when I am consuming the amazing cream, butter and parmesan mixture packed with so much calories and fat. This has always been my favorite meal, minus the broccoli. I don't think I will ever get tired of tasting this palette punch of flavor. My recipe was taken from cooks.com. So, I recommend checking out their recipes. Enjoy!!!

Feature Fridays - Rebecca's Cards

Here is the new section of my blog where I will be featuring local vendors. Some of them are in the wedding business and some of them are in the post wedding business.

About a month ago, I had the pleasure of eating at Olive Garden with Rebecca Gray. Rebecca and I met a long time ago, while I was working in banking. I knew she liked to craft, but I had no idea how talented she was at it. You can read more of our conversation below.

1. How long have you been in business?

3 years

2. What made you want to start creating cards?

I went to a Stampin Up party and started making cards just for fun. Then, my friend told me about Etsy and I opened up a shop.

3. What kind of cards do you make?

Kid's cards, wedding thank you cards (which is one of the beautiful creations Rebecca has made me), Valentine's cards, holiday cards.

4. What do you enjoy most about making cards?

I like knowing that I have made something that someone else can enjoy.

5. Where do you see yourself in five years?

Continuing to enjoy the creative process and create more designs.

6. If there is an area of business you could branch into, what would it be?

Wedding programs, wedding place cards, wedding invitations and wedding menu cards

7. Do you make custom made-to-order cards?

Yes, I do. If I can make it, I'll make it.

8. Tell me about your favorite hobbies.

Kissing my newborn son, gardening and reading books.

Last, you can find Rebecca's beautiful cards at rebeccascards.etsy.com

What's For Dinner Wednesday?

Ok folks, here it is...I made home made baked potato soup for dinner last week. It is very yummy. So, I encourage you to try it out yourself. Most of the time when I cook from scratch, I don't use exact measurements. You may have to adjust your soup accordingly.

Green Chile Bake Potato Soup

Cut about ten Russet potatoes into cubes.
Place them in a large pot with about three inches of water covering the tops of the potatoes.
Take one pound of bacon, and cook five to six pieces at a time in a frying pan. (Cook the whole pound of bacon)
Bring potatoes to a boil and continue boiling until potatoes are soft.
Add about three cups of whole milk to the cooked potatoes.
Add about 1/2 pint heavy whipping cream (not whipped cream, if you don't know the difference, call me)
Add a 4oz can of chopped green chiles. You can add more if you like.
Salt, pepper and garlic salt to taste.
Take cooked bacon and tear it to bits (doesn't that sound like good old fashioned therapy for some of us?)
Add bacon to pot
Then, add one 8oz bag of shredded cheddar to pot
Allow to simmer for about ten minutes.

Voila!!! Now, you're done. By the way, this is super delicious if you use sour dough or ciabatta bread bowls.

Enjoy.

Stonebrook Manor Wedding - Dean and Sarah

I wrote about Sarah and Dean after I photographed their engagement session. She was a former high school student of mine, before I went full time with photography. After graduating, Dean became a Marine. I have to say that I have a whole lot of love for this couple. I know that even though they are young, their marriage will stand the test of time.

Aside from the beauty of their love story, this was truly one of the most hilarious weddings I have ever attended. I had no idea that the bottom series of photos was going to happen. I was a little caught off guard but not nearly as much as Dean. I was laughing so hard that I barely got the series of images. The DJ announced, that there were a couple of girls, that wanted to say good bye to Dean as he was exiting his single life (enter his two groomsmen) and well, I am pretty sure you get the picture from there. Enjoy!

Difficult Questions

I have reached a point in my career where I feel like I am not doing enough to help others. If you know me well, you are probably laughing. My husband and I have a joke that my family has a really bad habit of doing whirlwind tours in cities. By this he means, that every time we visit a large city (New York), within a three day visit, we will literally do everything humanly possible to not miss out on one thing the city has to offer. So, I guess you could say that I am wired this way, to be completely overwhelmed with busy activities. I honestly do not know how to just sit still. And, I know this is something that needs to change, even if it is just a little bit. So, in addition to working on a photographer's retreat (the sitting still part comes by enjoying the retreat), I will also be blogging about Feature Fridays and What's For Dinner Wednesdays. Feature Fridays will showcase local artists, or as we commonly call them, vendors in the wedding industry. What's For Dinner Wednesdays, may not help anyone except with their cooking skills. I am one fortunate and very unfortunate girl. My family knows how to cook and bake well. So, it's fortunate that I can feed my family and they will actually eat the food, but unfortunate on my waist line. What's For Dinner Wednesdays, will be a quick blog about a meal I made for the week. If the recipe is something that I have created, I will definitely share it. However, if it is not something that I have created, you may have to find a similar dish on some cooking websites.

Stay tuned for What's For Dinner Wednesdays and Feature Fridays.

Tim Tebow and Cure International

A couple of months ago, I posted a blog about giving back. I have to say that although my heart will always belong to the St. Louis Rams, I am a huge fan of Tim Tebow. A pro athlete that dedicates their college summers to visiting leper colonies, prays on the field in front of thousands of spectators and has now joined Cure International - Cure Clubfoot, to help children in desperate circumstances, has my vote. That's right folks, Tim Tebow, cares. And, not just on a surface level, but definitely wants to leave a legacy behind. I am grateful that athletes that can run and enjoy the game of football, are helping children all over the world, by contributing to their health care, so they to can enjoy the ability to walk, run and be accepted by society.

What the Heck?

As creative professionals, we (meaning every single professional photographer out there) reach a point where we become burned out. We have heavy loads, which means huge blessings, because we are super busy. We lose our direction and feel restless. So many of us have found ways to cope with this. But, have we really solved the problem, have we found something that we can go back to again and again that offers satisfaction? Or, better yet, have we kept what gives us satisfaction in the forefront of our lives, on a daily basis? Our work most definitely brings us great satisfaction, that's why we do what we do. I love photography. Aside from God and my family, my love for helping others and photography keeps my heart beating. If we are really honest with ourselves and our clients, we would admit that even though we 100% love what we do for a living, we can get burned out. I love helping others and photography, so how do these tie together. I am going to be putting together a workshop that will address the real issues of being burned out and help us find true satisfaction, actually consider it a retreat. At this point, I have no idea when I will be ready to lead this retreat for professional photographers, but I can guarantee that I will work on it. And, no, I am not just preaching to the choir.

Stay tuned for more details...