Creative Clients! The Goodlaff Wedding Invitation's

As a wedding photographer there are many elements of a wedding that I take photos of. One of them is the details of the wedding, and one of the most important details is the wedding invitation. A few weeks ago, I received a wedding invitation in the mail from a couple whose wedding I am photographing. I was so excited I had to take a picture of it, for several reasons. First, so the couple would have nice photographs of their wonderful invitations, and second, Beth is a blogging bride and I knew she would want to post the images to her BLOG. I have asked clients in the past to save me a wedding invitation so that I can photograph it wedding day and it always seems to get forgotten one way or another. Just so happens that The Goodlaff Couple wanted to send me an invitation.

When I pulled the invitation out of the envelope and saw their names written in an elegant cursive, I smiled. You could really see all the time and effort this couple put into their DIY wedding invitations. The colors are perfect and the ribbon around the front really added a simple beauty to the invitation. Most importantly they had all the information about the couple's big wedding day. And not only am photographing the wedding but I truly am guest as well. I have the privilege of capturing a day in this couples lives that will forever be remembered.

I included the images I took on the engagement CD and I had been waiting for Beth (Elizabeth) to post the invitations on her
BLOG before I posted them here. I would not want to spoil the surprise for any guests. Here they are, the wedding invitations to The Goodlaff Wedding.

Jennifer and Kyle's Engagement Session- Table Mountain, Oroville Ca.

Two things that any wedding photographer would be excited about: stormy weather and a Harley Davidson motorcycle. Before every photo shoot, especially during the rainy months, I get anxious about the weather. I keep my fingers crossed that it wont rain but there will be clouds in the sky. The days leading up to Jennifer and Kyle's engagement session were rainy. We had to cancel our 1st scheduled session due to rain, but only had to postpone one day. The storm was still lingering in the sky, crossing my fingers worked this time.

When I had met with the couple they had told me about their love for riding motorcycles, so we knew right away that we would use the motorcycle in our engagement session. For this shoot, I knew I wanted a vast open space so I decided Table Mountain, in Oroville Ca., would be a perfect location. I have yet to see the mountain in full bloom but it is gorgeous up there. We were lucky to get bright greens, yellow and some splashes of purple. Here are my favorites from the session.





























I had so much fun photographing this motorcycle riding couple and can't wait to photograph their big day. I see myself photographing a bride on a Harley in my near future. Thank you so much Jen and Kyle for the amazing engagement session.

Rachael & Ryan's Snowy Engagement Session at Boreal Resort

Now is the time to introduce Rachael and Ryan. Rachael is an old friend from my home town, Truckee Ca. When I saw that ring on her finger I was so happy knowing my old friend had found the person she was choosing to be with the rest of her life. I had not met Ryan yet, but I knew I was going to like him.

After talking for a long time about engagement pictures we finally decided on a date: March 4th. Destination: Truckee Ca. Because both Rachael and Ryan work at Boreal and spend so much of their time there, we thought it would be a perfect place to start our snowy engagement photo session.

We loaded up my Subaru with the camera and snow gear. I was so excited to finally get the chance to photograph a couple in the snow. I had so many different ideas running around in my mind. Luckily, Rachael and Ryan were so much fun! It wasn't snowing, but there was plenty of fresh powder from the heavy amount of snow that fell the day before. For a few shots, we threw snow up in the air to create the look of falling snow. A few times, the couple even hiked halfway up the bunny hill, strapped on their skis and snowboard and rode through the powder snow to get a few action shots. After that, we had to have a snowball fight!



















After exhausting all of the easy to get to spots at Boreal Resort, we decided to make our way into town. Being that Rachael and I are both from Truckee we both have a special attachment to a certain bridge - Rainbow Bridge on Old Hwy 40 that overlooks Donner Lake. Personally, every time I see that bridge and the amazing view of the lake below, a vast collection of memories flood my mind. Taking photos on the bridge, which is not equipped with a human-sized walkway, is a bit like playing live-action Frogger - dangerous, but so much fun!









After the bridge, we headed down the highway to Loch Leven Lodge where Rachael's Mom had dock access for us on Donner Lake. We photographed here for only a little bit because the day was getting long and our tummy's were starting to grumble.





Rachael and Ryan treated us to Burgers at a new (to me) joint called Burger Me. They have an eclectic menu with somewhat decent prices. They made their own veggie burger patties in-house and their sweet potato fries are addictive. Thank you two so much for such an amazing engagement session. I am looking forward to photographing your wedding in October. Also, thanks to my wonderful second shooter Don Campbell and my assistant, Sean, for carrying everything and throwing beautiful light.

Chico, Ca. Portrait Photographer- Regan and Drew have a Tea Party!

My friend Kathy and I had been talking about having a tea party photo session with her two kids since before Christmas of last year. Kathy is an amazing cake decorator so we thought it would be a lot of fun to have some cupcakes and a cake on the table, as well as the tea pot and tea cups, so she would be able to use these photos for her own business website and portfolio. We discussed outfits and props before hand and we decided that the kids would be adorable in classic or formal style clothing. Kathy hit up the thrift stores around Chico and Orland and found a few things to add to her already large collection of costume outfits.

We decided before photographing that we would eat lunch and hang out. This way the kids would be slightly more comfortable with me rather then jumping right into the session. Once we were done eating the kids were excited for their cupcakes, Mom had been working on them all morning. She made a simple two tier white cake with a yellow flower on it, around a dozen assorted sizes of white and red roses and I must not forget to mention the white cake with fluffy white frosting and delicious freeze dried pineapple (Yummy!) Yes, Kathy sent us home with an assortment and they were delicious!

After lunch we were ready to start our tea party, we brewed the tea and loaded the cupcakes up to carry out to the field where we decided to have our tea party. We placed a table and two benches under a bare tree that we placed a Bakery Sign in, something she had in her kitchen. The kids were "at The Bakery, having a tea party" and they couldn't have been more cute and fun to photograph. I felt like a kid again as we were "guzzling the tea", as Drew would say.

Thanks Kathy for getting everything together! I love all the images, but here are a few of my favorites. It was so hard to pick, it went like this, "awwww I like that one, That one is cute, and that one too, and that one....over and over!"