Trystan Photography: An Intimate Portrait.

Please click the photo or the link to view Michelle and Craig’s wedding at the Lazy J Ranch.

If you need modern, trendy interiors: don’t get married at the Lazy J.

If you need air conditioning: don’t get married at the Lazy J.

If you don’t like guns: don’t get married at the Lazy J.

However, if you like the awe inspiring grandeur of Colorado’s high country, the rustic and playful charm of a working sheep ranch (with state-of-the-art catering facilities and and event buildings full of character), with a highly professional staff, and a world-class clay and skeet shotgun range (first photographs I’ve ever taken of a beautiful bride holding a 12 guage…), then the Lazy J is the wedding venue for you!

Michelle and Craig planned a very joyous, relaxed and fun occasion with lots of elements of personal taste and sense of style that transformed the handsome and dusty ranch into their very own “metro/western/chic adult playground, 5 star restaurant, party place” (my term).

They really took advantage of the available views, and various amenities to make it fun for everyone. With it all said and done, looking back at that day and our photographs, I think the Lazy J is the definitive “mountain venue”. The only scary aspect about planning a wedding there is the “rain plan”, as it’s indoor facilities are large but limited in terms of photographic interest, the Lazy J relies heavily on it’s abundant natural splendor. We flirted with rain off and on during Michelle and Craig’s wedding, but the big heavy thunderheads ended up providing a dramatic skyline for a very striking and beautiful day.

Thank you Michelle and Craig for choosing us to capture your wonderfully planned and visually stunning wedding.

Follow the link to find out more about the Lazy J Ranch.

Follow the link to see Beth and Bryan’s Pueblo wedding.

Beth and Bryan were married at an amazing private ceremony at her parents’ home high above the Arkansas River. Actually, I’m probably understating things a bit here: when I say “home”, I really mean “estate”. It was amazing. Huge private grounds, lush gardens and forests, amazing views… they should really consider letting other people rent the place for their weddings!

It was an elegant affair, with well appointed table settings in a very accommodating outdoor tent on the east lawn. The details were thoughtful, the settings perfectly picked, and yet there was such an atmosphere of joy and celebration, that the inherent formality of it all blended quite easily with the jubilant “party-time” energy that was bursting at the formal seams!

And talk about a couple in love! No shyness here, at all. They were very outgoing, affectionate, and their parents and family would follow us around at sunset whooping and cheering them on…

Thank you Beth and Bryan for the opportunity to capture your wedding day. It was beautiful, and a true pleasure to photograph!

Tanesha was one of our “really-on-top-of-it-brides”. She booked with us a good year out (or more) from her wedding date. She had her engagement session done a few months later, and her choice for her matted 8×10 signing board back to us well before the deadline. The amazing thing to us was how she somehow pulled off planning her Colorado Springs wedding all the way from the Western Slope of Colorado (Glenwood Springs, I think…)

Sometimes you can just sense how badly a bride wants to get married. Tanesha’s excitement and desire for nuptials was almost palpable.

Tanesha and Carlos area truly happy couple, with very large and loving families that came togther that day for a simple, beautiful and moving ceremony and a “party-of-the-century” kind of reception.

Thank you both for an beautiful wedding that made photography almost easy!

Side note: I’ve seen a lot more white tuxes in ‘08 than any other year. Could that be that logic is finally creeping into the minds of the average wedding couple: summer weddings are hot; the bride and her girls get to wear cool light colored dresses and the guys wear stifling hot black tuxes.  I say, let the men wear cool clothes, too!

Groomsmen unite! Demand light cotton, breathable clothes! Let the hot black tux (albeit still very flattering, I’ll admit) be reserved for cold East Coast weddings in the fall and winter.

Now I’m just rambling off of the top of my head here, but someone should develop a portable liquid cooling system for tuxes that utilizes tubes of cooled water supplied from a discrete pump-pack under the coat on the belt… hey, wait a minute… that’s a good idea!

Hmmmm… please excuse me, while I secure the necessary patents…

So you’re engaged!

He’s the man of your dreams and you can’t believe the BIG day is finally going to happen. All of those daydreams of the perfect fairytale wedding are going to pay off in the most fabulous wedding ever…

But where to start? Let’s see… there’s setting the date, the save the date cards, invitations, dresses, tuxes, flowers, rings, wedding party, ceremony spot, reception spot, wedding planner, officiant, favors, table settings, event rentals, music, food, drink… photography?

Wow. I know what you’re thinking: “Where do I start?”

I’d recommend starting with the locales (the “where”), because sometimes you might get some great recommendations from the staff for your other vendors, or you may realize that you want vendors with experience working at your reception or ceremony sites. Personally, I think experience at a venue is a good attribute in a photographer, but not required. You should never base your decisions solely off of whether or not a vendor has worked at a location before. Because, yes, they may have experience there, but they may also be a huge a**!

Which brings me to the absolutely, positively, no-question-about-it, most important aspect of choosing the perfect photographer for your wedding:

Personality!

That’s right. It’s not style or price! Both are valid, but in my humble opinion they’re not as important, and here’s why:

You may absolutely love a photographer’s work, style, and price point, but if your photographer does not make you feel comfortable on your wedding day, then the photographs will reflect that. Make sure your photographer’s personality reflects your own preferred vibe for your wedding day (i.e. fun and sexy, or serious and reverent, etc…)

For example: Charlotte and I are goofy, fun photographers. We love to goof around and play with the couple and the wedding party. I often will speak with a vague artsy European accent as I ask my photo subjects to “give me sexy”, or “work it”… It’s always fun and I’m a clown because we’ve found that laughing fun couples take the best fun/sexy shots. I mean, what’s more sexy and romantic than a shot of a bride completely in love with her new husband and laughing gorgeously as he holds her in his loving arms? Nothing.

And how do you get a bride/couple to do that; to look great on cue? Do you shout out, “Laugh and look good doing it!”? Nope. That only works for professional models, and usually not that well.

To get real people to do what we want, we have to get them to really do it! So if we need a confident and sexy bride, we need to help her feel confident and sexy. If we want a playful shot of the couple, then we need to help them feel comfortable letting their guard down and flirting on camera. And the easiest way that we’ve found to get past most of our clients guards is to simply be honest, friendly, and playful. And it’s almost never a hard thing to do because it’s a wedding! It’s a big party anyway, and we treat it as such and simply make friends.

Why am I telling you all of this? Because it helps to illustrate my point that personality matters most. You may love our work, and you might love the idea of having photographs from your wedding that look like ours, but if my description of how we work sends a chill up your spine or curls your toes, then no matter how much you like our work, in reality we would be a horrible choice for your wedding photographers.

Brides who want a reverent, very serious day with an almost fashion photography atmosphere (where the photographers basically say all that I say, but the difference is they are completely serious about it!), would be making a huge mistake by booking us. I don’t have a serious bone in my body. I’ve been verified by the FDA as 100% pure fun-guy. So, if you’re a couple who wants to basically have a day long party and wants the photography to be fun and artistic, then we’d be perfect for your wedding.

So what’s the key to choosing the perfect wedding photographer?

Start with style and price, but always base your final decision on personality. It’s the formula for perfect wedding photography.

Brooke and Randy had a vision of a wedding at the Woodmen Valley’s Stone Chapel in Colorado Springs followed by a riotous reception at the Marriott.

We previewed Brooke and Randy’s engagement pics a while back on our blog, and we were hoping that the wedding photos would be as much fun to capture as their engagement photos were… and how!

Brooke and Randy have such a fun, carefree love. They laughed and played all day long, shrugging off the usual wedding snags and stresses with a joke and a grin. They loved being close to each other that day, and it shows in our photography of them.

We love our job, but weddings like this remind us how lucky we are not only to be wedding photographers, but also to be in love as husband and wife!

I’d photographed a number of weddings at Woodmen Valley’s Stone Chapel before, but I’d never captued a photo that really showed they hidden Jesus inlay in the stonework behind the altar. Charlotte got a great shot of Him this time, so keep an eye out!