Trystan Photography: An Intimate Portrait.

Please click the photo or follow the link to view our favorite photos from Kristine and Robert’s wedding at Shove Chapel in Colorado Springs.

We first met Robert forever-long ago (5 years??) when he was a groomsman at Bryan and Becky’s wedding (long enough ago that I don’t have a gallery of the wedding up anymore!).

Robert made quite an impression on me with his “Ray Charles impersonation” I caught while the boys were getting ready and he sat down at the piano in the parlor room at First United Methodist. It is still one of my favorite fun-photos of all-time. Therefore, it was deja-vu for both of us, 5 years later, when he and Kristine showed up for the initial consultation, and I knew… I had seen him before.

This is the best part: he had never put 2-and-2 together before the meeting, either. You see, we were meeting at our Denver studio, and as far as he remembered, Trystan Photography was a Colorado Springs photography studio (as Bryan and Becky’s wedding was in the Springs).

It only took a few questions for us to figure out why we were sure we’d met before.  I was very excited because I knew their wedding would rock.

And it did not disappoint: great wedding party (Bryan was a groomsman this time), great fun family, and great venue.

Ahh, Shove Chapel… how I love thee! Let me count the ways:

• Awe inspiring Gothic architecture
• deep moody shadows
• dramatic soaring altar and stage lighting
• huge classical pipe-organ

I love photographing weddings there. They always have such drama and grandeur.

The weather could have been a little better, though…

Just a little cold.

Really, bitterly, cutting cold.

But Kristine and Robert toughed it out (I did too in my Spyder ski jacket…). I really appreciate tough brides and grooms. Weather is always… ummm, “interesting” in Colorado, and if you can only handle a perfect blue-bird day on your wedding day, then you might be in for a rough haul in Colorado! Kristine knew better. She just laughed and smiled her way through. Awesome.

And when we needed to warm up, we would duck inside the chapel again, and it was during this time that I captured them “Tebow-ing” (if you’re not a Broncos fan… well, I’m sorry for you).

It was a perfect (cold) day, and Char and I are so honored to have been chosen to capture it for you two.

Thank you (and thank you Bryan and Becky for recommending us to Kristine!).

Please click the photo or follow the link to view our favorite photos from Lee and Jason’s wedding at Glen Eyrie Castle.

This was a fairytale dream wedding, and not only due to the fact it was at Glen Eyrie Castle, one of Colorado’s most inspiring locales. No, in fact, it was due to the fact that Lee and Jason are very chill people with very chill and cool families, and they held their reception before the wedding.

You read it right: they held their “reception” before Charlotte and I even arrived. Then everyone who was at the reception simply arrived at Glen Eyrie for the “getting-ready” and the ceremony. The bonus of this unique timeline is that it left more time for Charlotte and I to “play”.

I might be biased, but more time for your photographers to play and explore the gorgeous grounds with the couple can’t be a bad thing, right? I loved it.

Instead of rushing the couple off to a reception, we patiently played with the evening light and got some really great stuff.

Thank you Lee and Jason for trusting Char and I to capture your amazing wedding. It was a privilege and a pleasure.

Please click the photo or follow the link to view our favorite photos from Logan and David’s wedding at The Cliff House at Pikes Peak.

First of all, let me please point out the obvious: THAT DRESS! Holy cow, what a classy number Logan’s dress was! Amazing.

And to make her vintage dress even more amazing is the fact that it was her grandmother’s dress, and two other women in her family have been married in that dress! So counting Logan, that makes 4 women who were married in that stunningly elegant dress.

Which bring to mind two questions:

1. Could we make a dress that durable and resilient today? I tend to doubt whether we could or not. Just seems like they made things better back then…
2. Could we make a dress that is a conservative style, but still elegant and sexy? Again, I think not: we’ve lost touch with the art of classy beauty like they had back then…

But I digress…

There are two other points I must mention about this amazing wedding.

1. Rowdy, rowdy, ROWDY! I love rowdy weddings, and this wedding was filled with so much joy that when the dancing started, the ballroom exploded. All generations, out there shaking their booties and living it up. I was awesome to behold.
2. Tough as nails. I know it may seem hard to believe, but Logan was really, really sick. It was either food poisoning from the couple days before, or a flu bug from Hell. In either case, she should have been in bed, if not at Urgent Care getting fluids. But like many heroic women before her, somehow, when the day got rolling and she said, “I do”, she found this inner reserve of stregth that floors me to this day. I cannot believe, looking at these photos, that Logan was sick as a dog. She really rose to the occasion, and I think she is simply stunning in these photos!

Thank you, Logan and David, for choosing us to capture your amazing day. You two are blessed to have such joyful and fun family and friends as we met on your wedding day. It was a privilege to be a part of it.

Please click the photo or follow the link to view our favorite photographs from Kristen and Garrett’s wedding at The Clubhouse at Flying Horse.

I loved this wedding. There is nothing better than taking photos of beautiful people.

That’s a lie. There is something better: taking photos of two beautiful people who are madly in love with each other.

No wait… that’s still not it at all…

Let’s try again. There’s nothing better that taking photos of two beautiful people who are madly in love with each other and who have a fantastic love of life and humor?

That’s it!

Kristen and Garrett embodied this notion perfectly. He’s handsome, cool and laid back, and she’s elegantly beautiful… no, effortlessly stunning… you get the point. But together… whoa, baby. Watch out world!

But the best part? The laughter and the joy that these two exuded all day long. They were clearly so happy to be in love, to have finally found each other, and for this day to have come at last. What a blessing it was to photography this wedding.

However, I think the finest example of their humor is the video below, which they played at their reception. Yup. Right in the middle of the reception. In the middle of dinner, right after a lovely montage of childhood photos and the awkward teenaged-years, this surprising gem came on.

Then laughter, and more laughter.

I love this video. It is so unassuming, so zany, and so funny that the entire room was roaring. And the reason all the family and friends loved it so much? Because this video is Kristen and Garrett in a nutshell: confident, fun and not a bit self-conscious.

Sure, they can dress up real nice-like, but when it all comes down to it, they’re just as likely to chill on the couch together playing with their Apple iPad as gettin’ all “dolled up” and lookin’ fabulous!

So here’s to the warping video effect used so charmingly in the following video, and kudos to Kristen and Garret for being brave and funny enough to use it this well:

Please click the photo or follow the link to view our favorite photos from Michalle and Ben’s elegant wedding at The Cliff House at Pikes Peak.

Heartbreaking elegance. Honest love. Authentic beauty.

These are the thoughts I have as I look through the photos of this amazing day.

It was a banquet for a photographer visually: they are beautiful together. It was a feast for the heart: the day was wrought with joy and emotion.

There were laughs of joy, and bittersweet tears. There were moments of quiet love and exuberant celebration.

It was a perfect wedding.

And we were honored to photograph it.

Thank you Machelle and Ben!

Please click the photo or follow the link to view our favorite photos from Jaime and Ryan’s wedding at The Air Force Academy (USAFA) Cadet Chapel and Cheyenne Mountain Resort.

Wow!

A gorgeous couple, a rowdy and fun loving-family, a perfect Colorado day, and all the time in the world to play and capture incredible photographs.

“All the time in the world?” you ask?

Yup. Jaime and Ryan booked us for our “Unlimted Day-of-Wedding Coverage” Package, which allowed them to have coverage as early and and late as they wanted. Char and I love “Unlimited Weddings”, because it gives us time to play and really get to know people.

“Play?” you ask?

Yes, “play”.

For example: I offer for your consideration a photo taken while the boys were hanging out and playing golf in the morning. Eating lunch and drinking a little… (just a little).

Oh, and did I mention that two of ‘em suddenly stripped down to their shorts and jumped into the rather cold lake at Cheyenne Mountain Resort?

And we were just 2 hours in… : )

That little bit of rowdiness set the tone for the whole day, which was a perfect example of abundant joy, exuberance, laughter and fun.

This wedding was so epic that Jaime was at the point of collapsing, nearly exhausted at the end of the party, which means it was a “job well done” by all!

Thank you Jaime and Ryan for choosing Charlotte and I to shoulder the incredible honor of capturing your epic wedding. We had a wonderful time!

Plus, you two look so great together it makes our jobs… almost easy.

Please click the photo or follow the link to view our favorite photos from Jaclyn and Sam’s wedding at the USAFA Chapel and The Cheyenne Mountain Zoo.

June 2011 will be forever remembered as the month that the wind never stopped blowing, and blowing hard… or at least it did when we had a wedding.

Wind is such a pain. Hard wind is uncomfortable to stand in, and it can wreak havoc on hair and wedding dresses. We would really prefer to not have any wind, but as we have been photographers in Colorado for 8 years now,  we’ve grown quite used to wind.

There are two things that make it easy to cope with high winds in wedding photos, 1) the patience to wait for a break in the wind to capture the least wind-buffeted shot, and 2) a bride with the world’s best attitude.

And we got that in Jaclyn and more! Her smile never stopped beaming and her energy never waned, which was simply contagious amongst the wedding party.

And as you can see, a well-timed shot with the wind playfully adds a little drama!

Thank you Jaclyn and Sam for trusting us to capture your perfect day. It was so much fun!

Please click the image or follow the link to view our favorite photographs from Sarah and Steve’s wedding at The Garden of the Gods.

Simplicity.

Simplicity is a rare gem in a world of seemingly more complex social networks, gaudy fashions, and too-busy-for-life-lifestyles.

Sarah and Steve are two of those rare souls who are not seduced by the “bigger is better” mentality of our age, and managed to put together the perfect wedding day, based on one unshakable truth: they are in love.

Not even the most opulent ballroom can match the natural majesty of The Garden of the Gods.

All the wedding guests in the world can’t amount to the priceless value of your mother being in attendance after being diagnosed with brain cancer. Sarah thought for a while her mother might not even still be alive by her wedding date.

Anytime you ever put the simple things of life up against the gaudy or complex, simple wins out… every… time.

Stunning love and stunning photos. We are so grateful to have been able to capture this amazing day for you two. Thank you Sarah and Steve!

Please click the photo or follow the link to view our favorite moments from Kris and Jay’s wedding at The Holy Rosary Chapel and The Flying Horse Club.

Those of you who have known about Trystan Photography for a while know that I am a pretty dedicated blogger about our weddings and sessions, and about being active on Facebook.

You might have noticed some cobwebs growing around here this year.

That’s because my wife, business partner, creative genius, and general spirit behind Trystan Photography almost died in January, and life has been pretty interesting since!

Charlotte, my lovely wife of 6 years, had a stroke.

Yup, a stroke. While she was driving. With my 4 year-old son, Trystan, in the back seat.

Luckily, she did not crash the car and managed to get it (kind of) out of traffic by stopping across the entrance of our local Barnes & Noble. At least Trystan was safe.

By the time I got the phone call, the EMT were already on scene. They were pretty sure whe had suffered some kind of stroke and advised me to take her to the ER. That’s right, I drove her to the ER. No big deal, right? Can’t be too serious if I can drive her myself, right?

Wrong. Within an hour of arriving at the ER she was on a Flight for Life helicopter on its way to Swedish Memorial in Denver. I guess it was serious after all.

Turns out, my extremely active wife, had suffered a vertebral artery dissection (VAD) while doing yoga the weekend before.

She’d known she was hurt. We didn’t know it was a torn artery, but we definitely knew she had hurt her neck. It was excruciating. She described it as “someone stabbing” her neck. We immediately went to the Urgent Care, but it was misdiagnosed as a neck strain or torn muscle. The only way to detect a VAD is by CT-scan. The only reason they would order a CT is if she had stroke symptoms.

Consequently, Char lived for about 5 days with this ripped artery clotting inside one of four main arteries feeding her brain, and then finally the clot got so big and unstable she threw a clot and stroked. Then the ER docs knew to order a CT.

So basically having a stroke saved her life. Huh, ironic, isn’t it?

I was shocked. As I watched them load my wife, doped out of her mind because of the pain and fear, into the helicopter, I couldn’t process that I had just kissed her goodbye as she ran to the store 3 hours earlier. How could she possibly be dying? How could she possibly be paralyzed? How could she possibly have trouble communicating? She was just fine a few hours ago…

From that moment on, life has been… interesting.

We spent 4 days in the Neurological Unit of Swedish as they treated the clot and she stabilized. It was really scary. At any moment she could have thrown more clots and caused even more damage to her brain. We didn’t know how much damage had been done, if she would have any lasting effects… (please continue to page 2…)

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Please click the photo or follow the link to view our favorite photographs from Lisa and Chris’ wedding at The Pinery in Black Forest, CO.

Ahhh, Chris and Lisa’s wedding. It was picture-perfect. Char and I had such a fun time photographing this wedding. However, for all it’s implicit beauty and ease, I still have one beef:

When the guys were getting ready, I suddenly remembered to ask about flowers (a very rare occurrence, but Char had written down for me to ask on my shot checklist), “Chris are there boutonnieres to pin on?”

Chris’ eyes got wide for a second and he glanced uncertainly at his best friends,”Uh… no? No. No, flowers.”

So we get a-shootin’, and it’s not until Lisa appears (radiant, fit and stunning) that we find out that in fact there were, in fact,  flowers for the boys. I remember Chris and I looking defeated as both Char and Lisa exclaimed in frustration, “REALLY?!?”

I mumbled some kind of pathetic defense,”Well, I asked Chris if there were…”

And he stammered an interjection, “Hey, I don’t pay attention to that kind of stuff…”

And he stopped. All the men stood frozen in shock, disbelief coursing through our very being over what we’d just heard: Chris had revealed one of the Great Dark Secrets of Being a Dude. A secret so damning that Guy-dom has a couple years of recovery ahead of it now. Chris had inadvertently revealed the truth about something no guy wants to admit and all the women suspect:

Guys don’t ever, EVER care about the details. We are big picture types: wedding date, tux, whipped cream for the honeymoon suite. You know, the essentials.

What makes this secret so damning is the fact that not only do we know this, and we also know that it means we need detailed oriented women in our lives to handle all of this for us. That’s why single men have moms and married men have wives. For the day-to-day management of details. And this whole system only works if women think we’re at least trying to pay attention. Once they get wind that we’re not even listening to the details and that we’re totally dependent on them, we’re screwed, boys, screwed. And thanks to Chris, women are now a whole lot closer to that revelation. Dark days, dark days…

Just kidding, Chris. You and your wife are incredible, photogenic and fun. Thank you both for choosing us be part of your day. It was perfect.