Ashley + Falon

Let me start off with Ashley. I've known Ashley since kindergarden or first grade. Have been pretty good friends since then. Her Mom Laurie is one of my favorite people that work at the High School in Holmen. Still to this day I go in every once in awhile just to say hey and catch up. Spent many lunch periods in the main office talking with her about life :)

I got a message on facebook several months back from one of Ashley's friends Kristina, and she told me that a couple of people wanted to chip in and get a giftcard from me to take pictures of Ashley and her horse Falon for Ashley's birthday present from all of them. So Kristina, Liz, Kendra, and Megan all threw in some money and bought Ashley a giftcard from me to photograph her and Falon.

Ashley told me that she cried when she opened her birthday card from her friends because she has always wanted her picture taken with Falon. Falon is her first horse she has trained all by herself. She has been around horses her whole life, and does a lot of trail riding throughout Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota.

She trained Falon at their house just outside of Holmen, and does a lot of riding and training at Willow Spring Farm, just outside of Onalaska towards Barre Mills and West Salem.

After she got her card, she messaged me to set up a time to take pictures in late July when Falon would look the best, and she sure did, she looked great!

This was my first "Horse" photo session, Falon and Ashley both looked amazing and we got some amazing images :)

A big thanks for Kristina for shooting me a message on facebook, and all of the girls for chipping in to buy Ashley a birthday present she'll never forget. Always great to see you Ashley and Laurie. Thanks for stopping by.

Meghan + Loren - The Couple

No, they aren't engaged :) Meghan had been in a wedding I photographed last year, and had seen me at a few others in the past years and kept up with my pictures on facebook. So a couple weeks ago she messaged me on facebook and was wondering if we could set up a time to shoot some pictures of her and her boyfriend Loren. So we met last night for an hour and a half, drove around and took some images. She just wanted some nice pictures of the two of them for their house. I told them I was going to treat it like an engagement session because that's what she liked about my style, is the emotion, and playfulness of my images, so again no, they aren't engaged :)

Thanks for the fun photo session last night guys, glad it was as humid as it was a couple days before.

Moriah - Senior Portrait

My first senior of the year was Moriah. Great session with Moriah, one of her good friends which happens to be my little cousin Kennedy came with to hold reflectors and make sure Moriah looked good. Didn't have a problem with either and here is what we got:

Any senior that sees this post and mentions they saw it on my blog will recieve $50 off their session. Call to set up a time. 608.780.5834 - Jared

Reid + Linda + Eaeston - The Family

Short and sweet family session for good friends, Reid and Linda. They just had their baby boy Eaeston a month or so ago.

I met Reid through one of my best friends Ryan Hollis, they work at kwik trip together. Us three have put a lot of miles on the motorcycles together while Linda and Heather have girl talk at home, or on several occassions went with.

Congrats to Reid and Linda on their new baby boy :)

Tom + Kate - The Wedding

I started the day off VERY frustrated, here is why....I was texting Kate Friday night after my other wedding here in La Crosse, to get the address to the church for an early leave Saturday morning considering I had a 3 hour plus drive ahead of me bright and early so I could get there on time.

When I typed in the address to my GPS early saturday morning the GPS didn't have the exact address in it, so I clicked on the one that would be the closest........I pulled into St. Croix Falls and had to stop at a gas station to see if someone knew where the church was since the GPS took me to a rest area which wasn't even close to the address I had typed in. I asked the lady at the gas station and she pointed me in one direction, and then drove to the other side of town to where she said it was, wasn't there....Stopped at another gas station to ask someone, they pointed me in the direction I came from, so I said in my head," Ohhhh boy!!" Starting the day off stressed out thinking I was going to be late wasn't good. But I found the church after driving across town and back literally about 4 times.

I got to the church, set up my lights for posed portraits and went downstairs to get a few of Kate and her bridesmaids getting ready.

Tom and Kate had seen each other before I got there and were planning on doing all the posed pictures with everyone before the ceremony because their reception hall was a 45 minute drive from the church and they didn't want to be late for that. So since they had seen each other his first reaction seeing her come down the isle wouldn't be the same so we had a first moment in the church with just the two of them for Tom's first time seeing her in her dress. We got a great smile from Tom.

After we got done with posed portraits in the church we went on our "private session" with Tom and Kate before the ceremony. It was toasty hot outside, Tom was sweating bullets, and Kate wasn't too far from that either. We did the best we could with mid day sunlight and the heat, but we got some great images.

Before the ceremony I had a few minutes so I grabbed their rings for a couple shots. I also asked Tom if I was going to get any tears from family members I could maybe watch for a great photo op, and he said his mom would be for sure, we'll get one of her crying later. I kept my eyes open as they opened the door for Kate and her dad to walk down and got a quick shot of Tom as he was taking a deep breath and I think holding back a tear or two, I don't think he'd admit it though, would you Tom?

They had a really cool idea for their ceremony which I've only seen one other time and that was to face the congregation and the Father would stand in the middle facing them.

After the ceremony I packed up my gear for the 45 minute drive to the reception hall in New Richmond, which we were also going to stop at a park on the way to do some wedding party shots, however there was a slight problem.....

Since we had that problem we made the best of it and tried to do some wedding party shots next to the church. It was 85' or hotter, all the guys in their tuxes sweating pretty bad and the girls were starting to get a little uncomfortable. Everyone kind of felt bad for the limo driver considering it wasn't his fault the car wouldn't start, it was the companies fault for sending him with a bad car. I guess the A/C didn't work so when we did show up at the reception hall everyone was sweating and was so uncomfortable.

When we got to the reception hall we had a bit before anything really got started, they had everyone sit down for the grand entrance, and shortly after salads were served and dinner shortly there after. I wanted to do a couple more shots of just Tom and Kate so we talked with the DJ and had about 15 minutes or so before the first dance.

Saturday night was probably one of the coolest DJ's I've worked with. He's a young business man like I am, owns and runs his business himself called Midwest Entertainment. "Personal.Professional.Perfect" is his slogan. J.D. Fisher out of Eau Claire. (www.mymidwestdj.com - 715.563.4748) J.D. was on top of things and I've never seen a DJ so alert to his crowd, he was paying attention to everything. Keep up the good work J.D.

Again, one of my favorite things to photograph is emotion, that's why I do weddings. Seeing Tom and Kate in love, the smiles and laughs are so much fun to photograph capturing that moment in time they can look at forever.

As I mentioned earlier in the post, I was saving a shot of Mom crying for later....It's later :) So much emotion from Mom as she dances with Tom.

After the Father-Daughter/Mother-Son dances, Tom and Kate requested to do a Mother-Father dance a long side of them. It's always nice to see parents dancing and to be able to capture the love in their eyes after being married for so many years reflecting back on their memories from their wedding day.

Congrats to Tom and Kate and Thank you for allowing me to be a part of your day. All of Tom and Kate's images will be posted on my website within a few weeks to view and for purchase. www.JaredLeeLLC.com - Order Images.