Trystan Photography: An Intimate Portrait.

Please click the photo or follow the link to view our favorite photos from MJ and Fred’s adorable wedding at The Secret Garden in Colorado Springs.

There are almost no words to describe how loving and precious Mary Jean and Fred are together. One of my favorite photos I’ve ever taken is the photo (to the left) after they’ve just had their “reveal” moment (where they see each other for the first time). Fred is holding her so dearly and so lovingly, you can almost see his heart bursting with joy and love. And Fred was a hoot: he is one of those old-school men who was clearly hesitant to show any tears in front of the camera, so we had to be really sneaky to get the shot, and how it was worth it!

MJ and Fred were just really interesting people. Not only is this Fred’s 1st marriage (his family joked that he was simply really, really picky), but both he and MJ are phenomenal dancers. And I don’t mean like “we take a few lessons” dancers, I mean like “we’re pros” dancers.

The best part? A ton of their friends are professional dancers so the dancing shots at the reception are gorgeous! Sexy, spinning, flair, motion, great form, and steamy gazes… it was great! (Some dancers have the best gazes. It’s a salsa/Latin thing where they look like they either want to eat you or… you know… it’s an expression of their natural heat.)

The Secret Garden was spectacular that day/night. Not too cool, not too hot, and the gardens themselves were lush and wonderful. It was the perfect setting for such a picturesque wedding. If you haven’t seen The Secret Garden in Old Colorado City, you must check it out. It literally is hidden. It’s right next to HWY 24, and unless you have exact directions, you’ll never find it because, well, it’s hidden!

Thank you MJ and Fred for sharing your spectacular, fun-to-photograph wedding with us. It was an honor and a pleasure. And a special thanks to Fred for letting us capture such emotional shots!

Please click the photo or follow the link to view our favorite photos from Rachel and Ethan’s amazing wedding at The Red Rocks Baptist Church.

I’m going to be honest here: my proposal to Charlotte wasn’t the most… shall we say, thoughtful or… romantic, if you will. We were driving in the car back to our house from the mountains, and I essentially said, “Baby, I love you, and I love spending time with you, and I want to be with you the rest of my life, and we already share a checking account… do you want to just go ahead and get married?” No ring. No plan. Nothing.

Amazingly, she said “yes” without missing a beat, and the rest is history. But it was more like we were planning a camping trip than a proposal. It was very matter of fact. No points for style, but I guess I get (at least) a point or two for the fact that we’re married in the end, right?

Well for any other guys out there with a “less-than-stellar” proposal under their belts, I present to you, for your guilty conscience and viewing pleasure: the Guy Who Makes the Rest of Us Look Like Turds-on-a-Stick Compared to Him… Ethan.

Did he have a well thought out plan? Check. Did he include an element of surprise? Check. Was it romantic? Check. Was there an actual ring and not just a promise of one (*ahem*)? Check. Did he secretly travel across the world to surprise his missionary fiance in Israel? Check… wait, WTF?!? Israel! He flew all the way to Israel to surprise propose to her?! Allright, that’s going too far. No man can possibly live up to that kind of high bar, but at least nobody else is gonna find out, especially any wives, and our loved one will still think our cliched idea of her finding ring in her glass of champagne was a creative and unique idea….

There’s video? Aww, crap.

Fellow men of the world: I apologize, but you’ll never be able to live up to this, ever.

So here it is, in all of it’s adorable glory: Ethan’s surprise proposal in Jerusalem, (overlooking the Temple Mount for !@(*&!@ sake…)

And how do I know about this video? Very simply, it was played for the entire church right after the couple walked down the aisle after their first kiss. It was extremely powerful, and there was not a dry eye to be seen. It really stuck out to me, and I begged them to let me show it here, and they obliged, and even put it in easy to use YouTube format!

Thank you both for being such an amazing couple, and sharing your special day with Charlotte and I. It was truly an honor to capture your wedding for you, and it was a blast!

One of my best friends, Gaby, just delivered her third daughter, McKenna. She picked a great day to be born… my birthday! So McKenna’s daddy came up with the nickname of KimKenna…. since we will forever share the same birthday. I thought it was cleaver and pretty cute! Especially since I was there photographing her grand entrance into the world!

You’ll be seeing her on the blog as she grows through the first year, and I am so excited… she is just the cutest and most precious little girl. And look at all that hair! You’ve also seen her two older sisters on the blog before… so keep your eye out for their first session together!

Gaby made a great decision to have me photograph McKenna before she was even a week old. Newborns are the easiest to photograph in the first week of life… they hardly, if ever!, wake up… and let me mold them and move them whatever way I want. Its a dream really! They still have the scrunchy look and are just so easy to handle. I typically say before they are 2 weeks old is best, but the first week is ideal!!

It’s not often I sit a baby down to photograph them and they are smiley and happy from the start! But I sure do love when that happens! I can always depend on Elena smiling for me, she’s got to be one of the happiest (and cutest!) babies I’ve photographed. Sure makes my life a lot easier!

You may remember Kendahl from her newborn session. She sure has grown since then!

She’s gained so much chub its beyond adorable… love baby rolls! And when else are rolls cute on a girl in life?!

Amanda, Lenee and Britney were so much fun, and you can totally tell from their session! Amanda wanted funky, graffiti wall type pictures and I think we did a good job making that happen! Britney didn’t want to let go of her Dora book, but that’s okay …  it captures the moment! Lenee is a beautiful young lady and was a great help with her little sister!

Thanks Amanda, for allowing me to photograph you and your beautiful girls!

Please click the photo or follow the link to view our favorite photos from Sarah and Chris’ wedding at an amazing private home near Genesee (Golden), CO.

Okay people! Let’s all be honest here:

Are you a cynical person like me? When you meet really, really good looking people, do you automatically assume they have to be lacking in some other aspect of their lives and/or personalities in order to make up karma for being so ridiculously good-looking? You know like they’re mean, or shallow, or have a crappy job, or are really robots in disguise… or they own iPhones? And it gets worse when your see a couple where both of them are of that caliber.

You are that cynical, too? Yes?! Good to hear. But now there’s a problem my fellow cynics:

Before this wedding I could go through life making the usual the elitist, degrading assumptions that cheeky geeks like me are prone to think about  really, really, ridiculously good-looking people, without feeling an ounce of guilt. But now I know Sarah and Chris exist. And now I know it’s not only possible for two people to be really hot together, and to have amazing jobs (they manage, maintain and pilot private jets… jeez!), but also… and here’s the hard part… they may be… the nicest, smartest, chillest, most genuinely friendly and caring people we’ve ever met. And that’s saying a lot, because we think all of our couples are the kind of cool people we’d love to be friends with.

But these two were sooo nice and friendly it made me want to be better to people, and that’s like a sign of the apocalypse. Seriously, there were times during their own wedding that they were almost… fussing over us, “Do you need a drink? Did you get something to eat? Make sure you get some cake! You two absolutely have to stay for drinks when the photos are done!” It confused us, to be frank. Were we their photographers, or wedding guests… or friends *sniffle*?

I know! Right?!? What the hell? They just had to go and blow my whole “hot people are intuitively flawed” theory right out of the water.

Now I have to go review every assumption I’ve ever made about every “hot” person I’ve ever met. Maybe they were really cool, too? And I just didn’t even give them a chance as I glared judgmentally at them over the tops of my chic plastic computer nerd glasses.

I’m just kidding about being a cynic about really, really, ridiculously good looking people. I’m pretty hot myself, you know… I get compared to Seth Rogen all the time! I can’t tell you how many people tell me that. He’s hot, right?… You know, he’s the UFC commentator guy. Rough, swarthy, hairy, manly…

What? Joe? That guy’s name is Joe Rogan?!?

Then who the hell is Seth Rogen?

Joe? Hmmm, not so much, no.

Oh. That's Seth? Well, I don't think there's really a resemblance...

Oh, crap.

Please click the photo or follow the link to view our favorite photos from Mallory and Emek’s wedding at The Gardens at Spring Creek and The Fort Collins Hilton.

Poor Mallory and Emek. This amazing, sexy, fun wedding really was the Wedding from Hell for these two lovely people. I mean it. Poor Mallory and Emek.

The wedding wasn’t the Wedding from Hell at first, in fact it was ideal until less than two months before the wedding. Then, Mallory called me one morning and said with more than a hint of stress in her voice,”We’ve lost our wedding venue.”

I’d never heard anything like that. I couldn’t process it at first, “I’m sorry what?”

“We have nowhere to get married. We’ve lost our wedding venue. He’s canceled all of his wedding contracts out of the blue.”

“Ummmm… who?” I said, “It’s like a month until your wedding. Who would do that?!?”

“It’s the Cottonwood Club. He’s just stopped doing weddings, apparently.” She was at a complete loss, you could hear it.

“I’m so sorry. What are you going to do?” I asked.

“I don’t know yet…”

I was speechless,”Can you get your deposit back?”

“I don’t know yet…”

Unfortunately, that wasn’t all: apparently the dress shop was really dragging it’s feet getting her wedding dress in. It wasn’t arriving, no one had any updates, no one knew when it would be there for fitting. And we’re talking months and months and months. So finally, a few weeks before the wedding, Mallory and Emek get a little tough, and demand someone tell them what is going on with the dress. The dress shop’s answer?

There is no dress, there was no dress, they don’t have the dress, there will never be a dress… and thanks for your money!

Again, “Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?!?” Why couldn’t someone tell the couple this maybe, oh I don’t know, WHEN THEY ORDERED IT!

So Mallory had to scramble and find a new dress! We know now that Mallory and Emek’s experience was just the beginning of what has become allegations of major fraud and the investigation of the shop owner, Patty Burling.

So basically less that a month before their wedding day they had nowhere to get married and hold the reception and there was no wedding dress. I’m sure it was an absolute nightmare for them.

But soon after I got a much different call from Mallory, ” So the Cottonwood Club has dumped all of their contracts on other sites around town and we got The Hilton. Katie, The Hilton’s wedding planner is amazing. She’s really busting her butt to get us taken care of this quickly. It’s really turning into the wedding I never knew I always wanted!”

And that’s when I knew this was all going to work out, when she said that:”It’s really turning into the wedding I never knew I always wanted.” What an amazing spirit. What an amazing attitude!

Finally the wedding day came and it was perfect. I don’t know what her lost dress would have looked like, but I think the one she ended up with was sublime, and so, so, so flattering. It was incredible!

Mallory and Emek: We are so thankful and humbled to be part of your amazing day. Thank you for your enthusiasm and great attitude, even in the face of such stress and heartbreak over you initial wedding plans. Your wedding reinforced the idea that horrible things can happen during the course of planning a wedding, but if you keep in mind that all you need to have an amazing day is the two of you and your love (and an amazing photographer… *ahem*), then no amount of ruined plans can derail your day!

So shady wedding vendors nearly ruined this wedding, and awesome wedding vendors (like Katie at the Hilton) saved it. And an unsinkable mindset like Mallory and Emek’s made it amazing!

Please click the photo above or follow the link to view Megan and Matt’s loving and adorable wedding at Chautauqua Park and The Boulder Tea House.

And on the 7th day he rested…

7th Day Adventists believe (amongst other things) that the true sabbath (day of rest) falls on Saturday (like Jewish people do). This is technically correct, and lucky for us, because of that belief, it meant that we ended up getting one of our few Sunday weddings for 2009 from Megan and Matt!

I’m not entirely sure how much “rest” actually took place for these two and their families on that Saturday, but I do know that their wedding that Sunday couldn’t have been more fun, energetic, and adorable. And I’m not using “adorable” lightly here: Megan literally is adorable. I love the looks she gave Matt during their ceremony. Breathtakingly adorable.

And one of the neat things about this wedding is the style that they decided to go with in terms of their dress and tuxes. Megan and Matt are very funky, artsy-types. When I shot their engagement photos, Megan wore these kind-of-cowboy boots and a puffy princess-fairy dress and Matt wore a western pearl button-shirt and jeans. They looked very cool , very comfortable and totally made for each other.

So then I asked them if their wedding was going to exude the same bohemian mentality, and she intrigued me by saying: “You won’t believe the style of dress I went with. It’s classic. Not funky at all, I want to opposite for that day… but the reception and everything else is really funky..”

And she wasn’t kidding. She was stunning in her wedding dress, and the reception still had a touching live guitar/bongo performance (very well done), while nothing is more eclectic and exotic than The Boulder Tea House.

This wedding was perfect. I love the mixing of apparent opposites, in my food and my weddings:

My favorite food is Thai: Savory/spicy mixed with light/sweet.

My favorite weddings are like Matt and Megan’s: formal/classic mixed with artsy/exotic/funky.

Thank you both for choosing Charlotte and I to share in the amazing alchemy of your wedding. It was amazing!

Please click the photo or follow the link to view our favorite sample photographs from Julia and Matt’s wedding at Hillside Gardens.

Loyal blog readers will recognize this wedding as the culmination of the long and twisted tale of Julia Weiland, our illustrious studio manager and apprentice photographer. Originally a bride, she unabashedly asked if she could start apprenticing under us with weddings, which led to a great friendship, which became pure nepotism and we hired her as our studio manager (many of you who are wedding clients have probably received a phone call from her at some point about you next payment being due… ).

Well, this ended up being a big, important, do-or-die day for us. Not only is Julia now an expert on our style (she helps me with the initial wedding deleting and she assists on about 1/2 our weddings) but she’s memorized every single photo we’ve ever taken in our portfolio. And on top of that, she and Matt also asked ME to be their officiant for the wedding! Whaaaaaaaaaat?

Let’s break this day down: we not only had to capture amazing photos, but I also had to marry them?!?

Well, let’s just say, the day itself did not make it easy on us!

When Julia, Matt and I first met in 2008 and they told me that their wedding would be at Hillside Gardens, the first thing I told them was, “It’s an amazing place… I love shooting there, but… what’s the backup plan if it rains?”

Julia’s whole demeanor changed when I asked that question, and she stared at with an intensity that could have wilted flowers, “We don’t need a backup plan. It… will… not… rain.”

And she meant it. More than anything. In fact, she made that statement with such conviction, I truly believed she had somehow affected the outcome of that days weather: Mother Nature would have to answer to Julia if it dared to rain that day.

Julia meant it. And I believed it.

Well, it rained. All day. Poured in fact. Ah, well. Such is life. Such is a wedding.

Julia tried really hard to be positive and strong and upbeat, but as the day wore on a photos were getting delayed because of the downpour, her resolve began to slip. Soon, there were little bouts of tears, and then hand holding with her best friends, which finally collapsed into nearly broken-down praying/rocking… and this is where it gets really creepy. As soon as Julia went into her kind of trance-like prayer/crying/rocking state and was begging the rain to stop in time for the ceremony… it stopped. We all gave her a little wider berth that day because, if she could stop the rains themselves, then if she got mad, she could probably make my head explode like that movie “Scanners” with the power of her thoughts.

Well, the skies cleared, I changed clothes, and emerged in my never-worn black suit, walked down the aisle, and conducted the first wedding ceremony of my entire life. It was thrilling. I was nervous. I was irreverent. I was sincere. I was awesome…

I’m not kidding. My ceremony was a hit. Women were coming up to me all through the reception telling me how unusual it was, and how they wished I could have married them at their weddings!

And I must say to all of those wedding officiants who make a stink about photographers: I never even noticed Kim and Char. I never noticed, saw, or heard them. I was too busy performing a marriage ceremony! So, to all of those officiants who put all those limits on photographers: focus on your job! Stop worrying about the photographers!

It’s awesome seeing the saga of Julia and Matt, engaged couple, come to a close. It even cooler seeing them start a new life as a married couple.

And you know what the best part of this whole convoluted relationship has been? Watching Julia work on the deleting of her own wedding photos. It was pure, delightful, agony for her.

No, I’m kidding. The best part has been making incredible, loyal friends from two people who initially were complete strangers who wanted to hire us.

Thank you, Julia and Matt, for being great friends, and Julia: thanks for being a hard working employee and for putting up with my insufferable crap everyday. You’re the best.