Janice had the awesome idea to have a morning ceremony with a brunch reception.  I think it’s a fabulously creative wedding idea.  It keeps the budget down; if you dislike dancing people won’t expect to dance; and you can spend the rest of your day zipping off to your honeymoon!  It also helps if you get the most incredible quiches in the whole wide world.  I am seriously still thinking about them two and a half months later.  I dream about them.  When I wake up and there’s not the world’s best quiches, I’m disappointed.  When I go to the Egg and I and have any number of my previously favorite dishes, I think ‘ehh.  not The World’s Best Quiche.’

Okay.  Enough quiche talk.  It’s making me hungry and lonely for quiche.  Moving onto the pictures!

Getting ready again–and she looked just as gorgeous on Day 2 as the day before!

Janice had mentioned that she really wanted a picture of the bride and groom together walking away from the camera.  I’m a big fan of that shot, too–I love the way it looks like they’re walking off into their future together! Add the beautiful rural dirt road and I’m a very happy wedding photographer!

Getting romantic.  A kiss in a backlit field!

Cute kids and weddings go together like peas and carrots.

Bride and her dad before walking down the aisle.  Janice’s dad had to be practically busted out of the hospital to make it–it was a very big deal that he was able to be there to walk her down the aisle that day.  This might be one of my most favorite pictures ever–I’m a sucker for emotion!

The kiss!

Bride and groom with wedding guests.

Best wedding centerpieces!  A totally unique idea put together by Janice’s sister–I was completely in awe of these floral centerpieces with plums and a mason jar and a piece of a  log.  So creative and so beautiful!

Cake cutting!

One of my favorite shots of Kellan–I just love candid laughter!

Janice and Kellan, thank you so much for trusting me to capture your wedding.  Your grace and ability to go with the flow as things changed around you is magnificent!  I wish you a long and happy life together!

Check out their wedding cake.  It makes it into the wedding cake hall of fame–the bride and groom on top of a waterfall with their dog at the bottom!

Sarah made such a beautiful bride.

Their wedding color was forest green, so she used a forest green ribbon for the lace in her corset-backed dress.  Brilliant!

A few times a year we get a couple where the groom is just as involved in the wedding day as the bride, and I absolutely love to see that.  It goes against the conventional thought of the wedding as the ‘bride’s day’ and it always endears the groom to me.  Peter is one of those grooms who was 100% present and involved on the wedding day.  Just before Sarah walked down the aisle, Peter bowed his head, closed his eyes, and took a deep breath–really soaking in the moment and centering himself.  If I hadn’t had my camera trained on him, waiting for his expression when they opened those doors, I would have missed it.  It was one of the most special and unique things I’ve seen in my 80+ weddings.

The pines trees outside the back patio at the Lodge at Cathedral Pines make such a great backdrop for the ceremony.

I love catching more relaxed and affectionate moments like this after the official smiley family portrait.

I admit to having a heart attack for second half of the ceremony, since the sun was getting lower and lower and we were running a little behind and we had yet to take any portraits.  But it made for the most incredible portrait time.  We only had about 30 minutes, but all of our shots of have this incredible golden hour light!

Our signature wedding party shot.  Nic and I refer to it between ourselves as the ‘off to see the wizard’ pose.  (We’ve code named most of our poses.  We should invent hand signals for them, though, to be like baseball players.  That would be awesome.  Or we could assign numbers to them like football players.  I could be all like “red, 47.  blue 13, 26, 84. HIKE!”)

Silly groomsmen are fun.

Ahhh–gorgeous sunset light, big pine trees, a sweet moment between bride and groom.

I love the way the sunlight has hit Sarah’s hair in the top left of this shot.

Peter requested a few shots of him carrying Sarah.  (a la ‘An Officer and a Gentleman’)

I love it when a groom looks at a bride like this.  It makes me hum love songs while I proof.  (Which is good, because usually I just mutter about being hungry.)

We used up every last inch of light before it slipped behind the mountains.  Lots and lots of fun artsy flare-ish shots.

Their wedding had so many creative details.  Here were the centerpieces–treasure chests with compasses and ‘jewels’–perfect, since Peter is in the Navy.

Toast time.  The Lodge at Cathedral Pines always has such a cozy atmosphere for the reception.

End of the first dance–such a cute moment!

Yep.  That’s a ‘cake up the nose’ kind of smash.

It’s been a while since we’ve had a behind-the-scenes shot!  Here I am with my buddy and tiny assistant.  She LOVED my buttons.  (And bird hair clip.  She got to wear it for a while, too.)

And a line dancing shot to finish off the night!

Peter and Sarah, thanks for sharing your chalk-full-of-love wedding day with us!  Your gallery will be up tonight, so you don’t have to wait long for the rest of the images!

Just five days after Jennifer and Chad’s wedding I was back at The Lodge at Cathedral Pines in Black Forest for Adrienne and Cary’s wedding!  (And I’m so excited to be heading back to Cathedral Pines in September for Sarah and Peter’s wedding!)

Adrienne and Cary had a beautiful wedding with….a Super Mario wedding cake!  It was amazing and a huge crowd pleaser!  (Will has requested this cake for his next birthday.  I told him I’ll work on it.    )  One of the things I love about The Lodge at Cathedral Pines is its size–it really encourages small intimate weddings, and Adrienne had it so beautifully decorated with the help of Dawn at Hillside Consultants–check out those gorgeous centerpieces!  We began the day at Adrienne’s parent’s house, and you could see where Adrienne got her amazing taste.  Jamie and I had SOOO much fun photographing her dress on its dressform in her parent’s perfect living room!

Click on a thumbnail to view the images. 

Adrienne and Cary’s wedding details: venue: Lodge at Cathedral Pines florist:  Hillside Consultants cake:  Little London makeup:  Niki Pitts

Jen requested a vintage feel for her photos, so here goes!  Click on the thumbnails to view the images.

Jen and Chad’s wedding details

venue: Lodge at Cathedral Pines

florist:  Hillside Consultants

cupcakes:  Nomelie Cupcakes

All three Bernadettes crying.

I love how excited Bernadette was as they were pronounced husband and wife (and Haydn’s expression is pretty adorable, too)!

Haydn’s twin brother sang during the ceremony:

And I love this shot of Bernadette’s bridesmaids–they were all so happy for her!

Their first dance:

The hall looked beautiful. I love little clusters of candles!

And there was lots of good dancing!

Thanks again, Bernadette and Haydn, for letting us so completely into your day! We love you guys and can’t wait for you to see the rest of the pictures! (I could have made this post much longer, but decided to preserve SOME of the surprise!)

The first hug (I love it when a candid moment looks too perfect not to be posed!):

This bridal party shot was Bernadette’s fantastic idea…although I think as we struggled to get people arranged around the waterfall she might have regretted it (or would have liked to at least be able to blame it on me).

Hottest bridal party ever? I think so!

I love panoramic bridal party shots…

The boys did some sweet jumps for me. (And no one ended up in the hospital. Or fell down a hill. Well, except for me, but that was a totally different hill, and I can’t sue myself.)

A candid shot from the formals that I adore. (Kendra, you are so cute!)

Bernadette was such a radiant bride. I love how happy she looks here!

Nic always nails the architecture shots!

Bernadette totally rocking her America’s Top Model moment!

Okay…here’s the deal. The lighting during the portrait session kinda sucked unless we ran for shade. BUT, there is always a silver lining, and the silver lining this time was gorgeous Golden Hour light during the reception. Knowing how important the photos were to Bernadette and Haydn, we pulled them away for my favorite shots of the night.

Bernadette’s reception hair accessory was so pretty!

My shot:

Nic’s version:

The last shot before we run out of light is always the most dramatic!

Thanks again, Bernadette and Haydn, for running into the sunset with us!