I met the beautiful Lainey at her hair salon (hey Lainey...did you hear me call it a "saloon" on my way out when thanking the lady there?! Wooops!!) where we took some awesome getting ready shots. Lainey is such a natural in front of the camera! She told me that she always loved the camera, even as a little girl. Lainey, you made my job waaay to easy! :-)
More and more couples are finding that seeing each other before the ceremony is the way to go. While there's absolutely nothing wrong with waiting to see each other according to tradition...creating a special and intimate moment for the bride and groom to see each other beforehand almost always results in a more emotional and memorable reveal. On top of that, it gives them more time to enjoy each other in beautiful attire that they will likely never wear again! For Lainey and Ryan, we setup the big reveal in the church sanctuary. "WOW!" is the only thing I could think of when the two first caught each other's eye. They held each other for what seemed like an hour!!! Powerful.
Once they decided to let go and stop staring each other :-) , we headed off to a beautiful park just a short drive from the church. This was definitely one of the highlights for the day. We then went back to the church for a few more.
Handsome men...
and beautiful ladies.
Down in the basement of the church was a super-cool youth room that had lots of sweet colors, and this awesome looking piano! As soon as I spotted it, I knew exactly what I was going to do with it:
While Lainey was taking a break, she plopped down on the floor and I knew this was a moment waiting for me!
The beautiful Jiaqi. This little bundle of cuteness couldn't stop being so cute for the camera! I took so many shots of her it's not even funny. :-)
The ceremony was absolutely beautiful! Even though I was busy creating images for the bride and groom, I can't help but soak in some of the moment and think back to when I married my beautiful bride. It goes by sooo fast!!!
Lainey's awesome and beautiful Mom. She loves photography and I was honored to have the chance to "talk shop" for a few minutes during the reception and share some cool tips (I hope you could hear me...I hardly had any voice left!). She's a Canon girl (what was that other company again?!) who likes to keep it on the "green rectangle". Most people do, but the beauty of shooting digital is that you can experiment with various techniques and not pay a dime developing film to see all the mistakes. Sweet! And believe me, regardless of what any pro may say...we all make mistakes. At one point during the reception, I turned around and found myself looking down the barrel of her Canon Digital Rebel! Thankfully, she asked to have a normal, non-ninja shot of us so I gave Lainey my camera who got this shot. Hey, if you weren't going to China, I'd consider hiring you as an assistant!!! :-)
Even though my back was screaming at me (still getting over that accident) and my flat feet were about to form a picket line, I was ignoring them both as this awesome day ended with an awesome exit. I tell you, these guys are so full of life and love!
Please feel free to leave comments and love for this amazing couple to enjoy. :-)
If anyone's interested, there's more on the blog. All images captured using both the Canon 30D and 40D, 50mm 1.4, 16-35mm 2.8, 24-70mm 2.8 and 70-200mm 2.8 IS.
