Please click the photo or follow the link to view our favorite photos from Heather and Matt’s wedding in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Well, aren’t we all a fine motley crew?

You see, Heather is Yvonne’s best friend from Iowa. You remember Yvonne and TL, right? From the last wedding I posted a couple weeks back?

Well, here’s how it all works out: we met Heather years ago through Yvonne. Many a Colorado night has been spent with this motley crew of Yvonne, TL, me, Charlotte (my wife), Heather, and any number of various combinations of other Iowans when Heather has come to town.

Enter Matt. We first met Matt in July of last year at Yvonne and TL’s wedding.

I think the most fascinating thing about Matt is his dichotomy. “What?”, you say? Let me explain: Matt has carefully crafted a very professional and mature outer appearance, the better to serve his myriad business interests and roles. Little did I realize, when I first met Matt at Yvonne and TL’s wedding in Iowa this year, that lurking beneath Matt’s carefully polished exterior was the soul of a rowdy party-animal.

Let’s just say this: Matt can party. Not a self-destructive, bury-your -sorrows-kind-of-party, but more of a joy-for-life, time-is-short-kind-of-party!

I will leave it at that. ; )

Heather and Matt are very surprising and inspiring as a couple. Let’s face it: it takes a pretty special kind ofperson who would rather battle it out in a hockey rink on the night before their wedding. Amazing. To see Heather out there, literally body-checking dudes twice her size, with out a single care the night before her wedding, was incredible. And then Matt’s out there, taking sizzling-shots on goal left and right, skating his butt off. Neither of them holding back.

In fact, that’s the best way I can describe the essence of Heather and Matt: neither of them ever hold back. In love, in life, in joy, in celebration, in risks, in loss, in pain and in growing together… never holding back.

That’s a pretty good recipe for a successful marriage, I think.

Hell, that’s a pretty good recipe for life.

Please click the photo or follow the link to view our favorite photos from Yvonne and TL’s wedding in Iowa.

TL, Yvonne, and Char are all Iowans, and even I lived there as a youngster (I consider myself Coloradan, of course).

TL is one of my best friends.

Yvonne is one of my wife Char’s best friends. (Careful viewers will notice Char is a bridesmaid and is sooooooooo beautiful).

The best thing about being our best friends is you get a fantastic price on your wedding photography!

The worst thing about being our best friends is I put your wedding on the back-burner… and you have to wait a really long time to get your images back.

I need to serve our loyal full-price clients first, right?

Right??

Well, that stretched on a little too far, as Yvonne got pregnant on her honeymoon night (that-a-boy, TL!), and she looks very pregnant now and we still didn’t have a full wedding processed for them… did I mention we’re now like two months away from a baby being born??

So, like I said, there are clear advantages to being really close friends with Char and I… and clear disadvantages.; )

Was this wedding one for the ages? Legendary. First, there is the fact that I was so much more than just “the photographer” for this one:

• I was the table and chair setter-upper.
• Light hanger and decorations hanger.
• All around beast-of-burden on the morning of the wedding.

Secondly, this one was the most “solo” weddings I’ve ever shot… no Char (she was in the wedding party for the most part) except for the bride & groom photos… and no assistants (as we were in Iowa)…

Needless to say, I had my work cut out for me.

Oh, did I mention it was 106°F with 100% humidity so the heat index was something absurd, like 116°F??? It was hot. Hellishly hot.

So here I am photographing the ceremony, and the church had no AC, and was even hotter inside than it was outside. I am running all over the place from altar to balcony to get full-coverage of the ceremony, and in the middle of it all: I have to give a reading! By the time we were at my moment-to-shine, I was dripping wet with sweat. I am sure the appearance of my sweaty, overweight form as I huffed my way through Yvonne and TL’s chosen reading was nothing but… inspiring?

Feel sorry for me, yet? I hope so: pity is the only thing I’ve got left to ward off the legendary ire of one Anthony (TL) Liddle. He’d been getting a little grumpy with me lately and pity was all I had to go on!

“Where’s our wedding photos, bro.”

“Really busy right now with other weddings, TL. You’re going to need to wait just a bit longer… remember the sweating and the light-hanging?”

But now the photos are finally done, they are gorgeous, and just in time for a new baby boy to arrive! I’m sure we’ll be taking those photos, too. Maybe they’ll be lucky and get those back by the time the little rug-rat’s in college! ; )

This time of year, every year, we comb through our weddings and collect all of our favorite shots from over the years in to our “Wedding Collections”. We’re exceptionally proud of these photographs, and we’d love it if you would take the time to review our favorite wedding photography to date!

Please click the photo or follow the link to view the sample gallery of A’Leisha and Justin’s destination wedding at the Iberostar Paraiso Lindo in the Riviera Maya, Mexico.

If I had it all to do over again, Charlotte and I would have packed up and started the photography studio in Playa del Carmen, Mexico. Ever since we went to photograph A’Leisha and Justin’s destination wedding, I have been longing to go back.

It was a magical wedding. It was, by far, the most relaxing, fun, and creatively inspiring locale I’ve ever shot at.

There’s something tremendously different about the atmosphere of a destination wedding. The couple is usually very chill even compared to our local couples (who are already notoriously chill, here in Colorado). I think that’s because the destination bride and groom are  already in vacation mode because of traveling and spending a couple days at the beach, or resort, and sightseeing, and such. But a huge part is also the fact that the guest list is generally smaller than the average stateside wedding because the cost of traveling is so much higher for the guests for the destination locales. Also, emphasis on the formal and the traditional is practically non-existent because couples don’t want to compete with the amazing relaxing and festive atmosphere that most of these places intrinsically promote.

Regarding A’leisha and Justin’s Playa del Carmen wedding in particular, they did everything in their power to make the trip a dream vacation during which they happened to get married.

They arranged all of our travel plans, and the morning we left was the coldest day of one of the coldest weeks I can remember in Colorado. Which made traveling to the Riviera Maya of Mexico all the more surreal, and becuase it was December, the weather at Playa del Carmen was phenomenal: 80 degrees, and suprisingly low humidity.

We arrived 2 days before the ceremony, used that 1st evening to walk the huge and intimidating network of hotel complexes that comprises the Iberostar Playa del Carmen. I swear, I’ve never seen so many buildings and pools and buffets and restaurants in one place. We must have walked 5 or 6 miles that night while scouting shooting locations. And that was all in the dark of night, and even then I was taken aback by the beauty of the architecture and the richly appointed marble walkways and abundant fountains. (There were no handrails at these gigantic pool/fountain walkways, by the way. Something that could never exist in the litigious US…)

But that night was but a preview of the splendor to come when we awoke to the Mexican Caribbean dawn and saw this amazing Utopia for the first time in the light of day.

It truly was a paradise. Within 2 hours of enjoying the breakfast and sunning at the beach, literally I felt like Pinocchio at Pleasure Island. I began to wonder: were we all were going to turn into jackasses, too? (You’ve gotta watch Pinocchio if you have no idea what I’m taking about…)

But to my sheer pleasure, the mini-vacation never did descend into such fairytale debauchery, but instead became one of my favorite memories as a professional wedding photographer.

The ceremony was simple and sweet, yet just as meaningful as any hour long Catholic mass wedding. But the really priceless experience of this wedding was being able to capture A’Leisha and Justin in their most relaxed fun loving states, in a truly spectacular setting.

Thank you A’Leisha and Justin for giving us the honor of joining you for your wedding in such an amazing place. It was truly a photographer’s playground.

Please click on the photo or follow the link to view Kadian and Drago’s 4th of July wedding in Minnesota.

I come from a loud, proud line of “very-happy-to-have-a-good-time” Norwegians. Long ago, all of my Mom’s family lived in Minnesota, but over the decades we’ve scattered about the country, bringing our love of loud speaking, fun drinking, and over-the-top-laughing to the rest of the USA.

Kadian is my cousin, and she met this strong strapping young man from Serbia (with the coolest name in the entire world: Dragomir) in college in Minnesota. When Kadian called and asked if not only would we photograph her wedding, but mentioned it was on the 4th of July I was overwhelmed with happy visions of my entire family on my mom’s side getting together at my uncles’ “estate” in Pine City, MN.

It’s a very rare thing that the whole family can get together, especially my brother, “Lord” Tycen (“lord” is my little nickname for him since he’s a financial analyst in Singapore and lives a different kind of life from the rest of us “little” folk… our loving photo is to the left). I only see Ty on holidays now, speak mostly through Facebook, and suffer through the rare international phone call where the connection is dropped every 3 minutes (I think my phone company stinks).

So, needless to say, we were psyched for our reunion/wedding trip back.

What we didn’t expect were the Serbians.

Now, don’t get me wrong, my family can hold it’s own just fine, but Drago’s family and friends were absolutely, positively, the happiest, most effusively joyful, ready to party, rowdy group of people I have ever met. It was amazing to celebrate with them, and the traditions they brought to the wedding were wonderful.

Please click the photo or follow the link to view Charissa and Diego’s wedding at the Westlake Village Inn in Westlake Village, CA.

As a photographer in Colorado, would you consider shooting a wedding in Los Angeles?

The answer might seem obvious to some, but for me there was actually a moment’s hesitation. I spent nearly five years of my young adult life in Los Angeles, and let’s just say, I’m delighted I don’t live there anymore!

I was truly lost during my years in LA, wandering from whim to whim, sometimes making terrible life choices in a city full of slick idolatry and plastic people. As anyone who has been to Hollywood can attest, like its residents, Los Angeles has a shimmering veneer many initially can find very intoxicating, but dig even the slightest bit under the surface, she reveals herself to be the perfect metaphor for all the burnt-out, over the hill actors with too much plastic surgery that mar it’s population like liver spots.

As you can clearly tell, Los Angeles’ faux glitz and glamor soured tremendously for me, and I honestly thought I’d never have a positive view of it, or it’s people, again.

However, there is a certain universal fantasy about one’s career in photography that at some fantastic point your art begins to take you to new places other than your usual creative stomping grounds. New places breathe fresh life into your art, especially a place as alive and full of energy (both good and bad) as the greater LA metro area!

Char and I briefly pondered this decision, but we quickly came to realize that as beautiful and majestic as Colorado can be, a little change of scenery / mini vacation might do us some good. So we agreed to travel out over a weekend in July and spend a total of 3 days in California, with the actual wedding falling on the Sunday, and we’d fly out on Monday.

I have to admit, I was fairly nervous about trying to pull off an amazing wedding over a thousand miles away, but as we looked at the logistics of it all, we realized we really didn’t require that much equipment and much of it could be done as a carry-on (we thought that sacrificing our clothing instead of the camera equipment to the lost-luggage-gods might be a good choice). And luckily, Charissa had the foresight to book our flight before the fuel prices “how-dare-you-want-to-check-a-bag!?!” fiasco became airline policy, so while the fellow travelers ahead of and behind us were furiously bartering with the poor ticket counter people to let them check their bags without paying a surcharge, Charlotte and I were greeted with knowing smiles as we loaded our 4 checked bags without paying a dime. I have to say, that was a small thing, but it was a fortuitous start to our little adventure.

Charissa was amazing in her efforts to coordinate our travel plans: our early morning flight out of Denver arrived at the gate right on time, and we were out of LAX in a rental car within minutes (that’s never happened to me coming into LAX, ever…) and we found ourselves with some time to kill on our first day in LA. Charlotte has never really been around LA (even though we were married there, we didn’t have much time after the nuptials to for me to show her around the old stomping grounds), so we made our first day a date on the ol’ megalopolis.

We took a breathtaking stroll through the Huntington Library and Gardens, which happened to have a photographic history of Los Angeles on show (quite appropraite, I thought), and that night we had the best meal of our entire lives at Carousel, my favorite restaurant of all time from when I lived in Glendale. It’s as authentic Mediterranean/ Lebanese fare as you’ll ever find (and I’ve tried), and we dined and talked and drank and laughed like we hadn’t done since before we had kids.

Later that night, with quadruple-boiled Armenian coffee coursing through my veins, we flew back to our hotel at the usual breakneck speeds of the 101. While dodging BMW and Bentley drivers who seemingly couldn’t care less if I was next to them on the road, I would gaze over at my beautiful wife as she sat in the passenger seat, silhouetted against the shimmering, dizzying backdrop of the city lights. And for the first time in the five long years since I’d left LA, I felt a long-forgotten sensation as a memory of this perfect night suddenly formed and settled-in amongst the negative mental rubbish of my former life in LA.

I fell asleep that night remembering that I’d felt the same way on our honeymoon night in the Renaissance Hotel in Hollywood. Charlotte represents everything that is right and good in my life, and by beginning my life anew through our marriage in LA, we had unknowingly begun some kind of cathartic recovery process of my memories from those darker LA days.