Short and Sweet - Shelly + Bob a Friday night wedding

I graduated from Western Technical College in May 2008 from the Marketing Program. One of my teacher's was Shelly, and Friday night, Shelly changed her last name.

Shelly has had me come and speak to her classes from my business stand point about what I do with marketing and advertising, and when it came time that her and Bob set a date, I got called to work :)

Their wedding was short and sweet and only needed me for a couple hours Friday night to cover their quick ceremony/dinner and a bit of the dance at Piggy's downtown La Crosse. We started with their private bride and groom session at 4pm and we took off for an hour.

Shelly had an amazingly beautiful dress. It looked so casual and comfortable yet very eligant.

You were so beautiful.

As we arrived back at Piggy's to do a few formal posed pictures of the families. Shelly and Bob are both very close to their families so they had their children stand up during their ceremony. It was nice to see their parents there with smiles on their faces as they watched them tie the knot.

Piggy's was decorated by Monet's floral which is located downtown La Crosse. They do absolutely AMAZING work. The lighting they had for their reception was very creative and unique.

Lastly a big congrats Shelly and Bob on joining their new families and a thank you to Shelly for everything in college. Shelly also introduced me to the administrative assistant at WTC and got an interview to teach photography which I start in September.

It was so much fun watching you guys on your special day, you were both glowing with love and joy, have fun in the dells with your families!

A "Trash the Dress" kind of day - Minneapolis mid-week shoot

Before I get into "Trash the Dress" I wanted to talk about an old friend that I haven't got to see in about 3-4 years. His name is Jarred Davis. (JD, D-d-d-da Davis, or Davis as he was known in High School) Joined the Navy right out of High School and took off to boot camp, then was stationed in San Diego for a couple years, and is now in Virginia Beach, Virginia. A lot has happened since I've seen him last. His family moved up to the cities, he got married to the beautiful Antionette, and the latest news......He's going to be a DADDY!

Lisa, his mom wrote me a message on facebook last week which was sort of a last minute decision Jarred made to come home for the week of his birthday, which is tomorrow. Lisa wrote me and said he would be in town for a week so I should try and come up to visit. It just so happened that I had planned a trip up to Minneapolis to meet with a few brides for weddings coming up in 2011 and a "Trash the Dress" with my cousin Aaron and his wife Delaine.

I called Lisa right away to let her know I was planning on being up here anyways and that we shouldn't tell JD that I was coming so he would be suprised. Also, the obvious thing I would say to her was, "Well lets do a family picture!!"

Jarred had no idea I was going to be there, let a lone when he walked out of a different room and saw me sitting on the couch. It was so great to be able to meet his wife Antionette, catch up with him, and see his family. Congrats to Jarred and Antionette on "baby Davis" that's due December 19th. Great seeing you bud, keep in touch!

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Alright, now onto Aaron + Delaine - Trash the Dress. If some of you haven't seen the post on their wedding, check that out. If you did check it out, you obviously know they know they got married May. So after the wedding we were talking back and forth about doing a "Trash the Dress" session with them in downtown Minneapolis and we made it happen today. What a perfect morning to shoot, overcast, just a little bit of rain, and the temperature was perfect until the end of our shoot around noon when the sun started peaking through the clouds.

When I had set up visits with a few brides in Minneapolis, I called Aaron to set up their session and then when I set that up I called a couple of my fellow friend photographers from Minneapolis. Good friend Jennifer Whalen of Jennifer Whalen Photography (www.JenniferWhalen.com) and a high school aquintance, Logan High School graduate Joe Burgmaier of Joe Burgmaier Photography (www.JoeBurgmaier.com).

I thought it would be fun for all of us to get together and photograph Aaron and Delaine's session and I know Joe and Jennifer could use some shots for their portfolio for that type of session. So we all met at the Nicolette Island Inn downtown Minneapolis and we just simply walked around a shot, we all had a great time and got some great images. Thanks to Joe for shooting a couple of me shooting, just like Dan has done in the past.

This next image is my favorite of the day and I don't know why. I think it's because it says "Trash the Dress" all over it. You shouldn't be in a place like that on the day of your wedding.

Here is a shot of Joe and Jennifer for one of their own ideas with Aaron and Delaine.

This next image I've wanted to try for awhile. I haven't found a bench or anything to position the bride the way I've seen it before. I got the idea from the one and only JENSEN SUTTA of Jensen Sutta Photography (www.JensenSutta.com) Jensen shot an image similar to this I believe in Italy?? Anyways, I wanted to try it for a long time so I finally got to today.

I met Jensen through my camera salesmen Craig Dahmen when I lived in Santa Barbara. Craig gave me Jensen's name and info, so I emailed him just telling him a little bit about myself, where I came from, and what I do. Jensen is probably one of the nicest people you could ever meet. He could have blown me off like a lot of other high end wedding photographer's do when they see a young aspiring photographer wanting to learn, but he didn't. Infact, he did the exact opposite. He took me under his wing in some sense. He told me to join WPPI and meet him in Vegas on a Sunday. I signed up, bought an airline ticket and Jensen did the rest. Hooked me up with a roomate, Ned, from Ned Jackson Photography (www.NedJackson.com) Ned shoots high end weddings in Boston.

Jensen showed me the ropes at WPPI, we laughed, we joked, had some adult beverage, I watched him lose some money ;), and we teased each other (and no Jensen, I haven't sent you my disc of my famous textures ;) ) but a big thanks to Jensen just for being a great guy!

Aaron is big into motorcycling, so he rode the bike downtown to try and get some shots of the two of them on it. They made a big trip down to Chicago last summer with his older brother Bryan and his wife Angie.