We are back home now from our weekend in Arkansas for my friend Nesha's wedding and while I had a ton of fun living it up under a blanket of stars in the mountains for a couple days, I have to say it is damn good to be home. :)
Arkansas had some of the most beautiful scenic views from the mountain tops...so quiet and peaceful at night. We headed up on Thursday and checked into our 2 story cabin that we shared with Susan (Nesha's sister) and her family as well as the groom's 2 boys. Cristian had so much fun playing with a houseful of kids! He doesn't get to see them that often.
Here is a shot of our view from the balcony of our cabin!
On Friday, we headed to the chapel to take some sample pictures and so I could calm my nerves a bit on the spotty shadows from the trees surrounding the ALL glass chapel. Thorncrown Chapel is absolutely gorgeous! The grounds are pretty and the chapel itself is literally all glass and just so pretty. The practice session was a wash though. Between chasing kids around the grounds and the unbelievable amount of striped shade being cast on people on the walking path to the chapel..I pretty much came to the conclusion that there wouldn't be a way around the lighting problem without serious equipment I lacked so I was going to let go and let god as they say...:)
We did get to meet up with an old friend in historic downtown for dinner which was really nice. I haven't seen her in a long time!! She moved to Missouri from Texas for a job transfer years ago and as it happened, Eureka Springs was only an hour drive!! Was really great seeing her!! After a few more failed picture sessions we decided to call it a night.
Saturday was the big day. Nesha looked absolutely breathtaking in her wedding gown! She was just beautiful! Her sister looked really really really beautiful in the light Sage green dress she wore as the maid of honor. It was a pretty complimenting color I thought. Her 3 yr old daughter was also in the wedding and she was just as cute as she could be. The men all looked handsome, dressed in a tux with the same color green in it as well. I headed to the hotel around lunchtime with Nesha and Susan to take pics of them getting hair, makeup, and getting ready while Lara stayed at the cabins with Cristian and got to take pictures of the guys getting ready. She took such AWESOME shots of them! She just rocks that way :) The woman who did the hair and makeup for the bride and her party was so great. She did such a great job. The makeup looked so flawless and natural and the curls in their hair was just SO cute. Nesha looked amazing, topped off with the veil and tiarra - she was just beautiful.
Cristian was not part of the wedding party and since I was shooting the wedding and Lara was shooting the video we didn't have anyone to stay with him during the ceremony so I gave him an important job which he was SO proud and excited about - he was my assistant photographer. He stayed a couple feet away from me and took pictures himself with his point & shoot camera. He actually took some GREAT pics on his own with his little camera. He is an aspiring little photographer and so stinking cute :)
Here are some of the pictures Cristian took (click to enlarge):
Cristian LOVES dressing up. He calls a suit a "big daddy suit" and he would sleep in a big daddy suit if I let him. LOL...Here he is all dressed up for the wedding.
I know that everyone here knows how NERVOUS I was about being the photographer for my friend's wedding and although some things could definitely have gone much better than they did I will say that surprisingly the pics I took came out a lot better than I thought they would. Glad to know that I can still surprise myself from time to time :) It was a challenge to take the pictures I needed to take with family members getting directly in the path of the shot with their point & shoot cameras, people running around trying to group their own pics, very short time frame to finish shooting, and the sun casting all kinds of shadows on the parties posing....but it all turned out OK and so for that I am thankful because I was terrified of completely ruining the most important day of her life...and that would have sucked..:( Since there are over 800 pictures it will be a while before you get to see any of them but hopefully this week sometime. It takes time to process those suckers... :)
Lara took Cristian to a place called Pivot Rock & Natural Bridge while I was shooting the "getting ready" stuff at the hotel. It was featured in Ripley's Believe it or Not and she said it was pretty cool. They got to go on a little hike together and explore and then got to see the rock itself. Cristian walked away with this way cool staff from the gift shop..lucky boy.
Here are some pictures she took during their visit. The pictures of him sitting on rocks only happened after she had to "scare away" the poor baby ants walking on the rocks so that Cristian would stop screaming like a banshee "there are BUGS mommy...get the BUGS...GET THEM" and take a picture...now what I wouldn't have given to have witnessed that from a distance LOL Oh and that bump/mark on his head is from a rock. This boy is a mess...he was playing with the kids and one of the boys shot a rock with a slingshot and it bounced off the railing and hit Cristian in the head. He is a walking bruise sometimes poor kid :)
After a fun and exhausting weekend we headed home after the reception on Saturday night. We left around 11pm and drove until 2 and spent the night at a Comfort Inn. My eyes kept messing with me because the roads have zero light - no highway street lights, no moon, nothing..nada..zippo. Pitch dark and nothing but headlights on the car honey...My eyes kept trying to focus into the dark and couldn't and with the winding roads I decided to call it a night and finish the drive today. Cristian got home with plenty of time for schoolwork/spelling word practice and got to bed at a nice early hour. I feel like I need a vacation now though :)
Tomorrow is back to reality - school for Cristian, work for Lara and me, my dreaded school work (why oh why did I think I needed my damn MBA? Someone please knock sense into me next time I have a silly idea like that again), and a week of 5 workouts...Yes, you read that right, I said 5! I am going to die - I know...we have 2 makeup personal training sessions this week so we will be working out M - Fri pretty much...I still can't move my wrist without it hurting from straining it photographing the entire day on Saturday. Slap a HUGE heavy lens on an already heavy camera and top it off with an even heavier flash and diffuser and you have a recipe for wrist strain and pain...if I have to do push-ups tomorrow I think I will take my chances one handed and see if I can not fall flat on my face in the process :) It was so worth it though.
What a beautiful wedding :)
Cheers,
M E
Arkansas had some of the most beautiful scenic views from the mountain tops...so quiet and peaceful at night. We headed up on Thursday and checked into our 2 story cabin that we shared with Susan (Nesha's sister) and her family as well as the groom's 2 boys. Cristian had so much fun playing with a houseful of kids! He doesn't get to see them that often.
Here is a shot of our view from the balcony of our cabin!
(Click to enlarge)
On Friday, we headed to the chapel to take some sample pictures and so I could calm my nerves a bit on the spotty shadows from the trees surrounding the ALL glass chapel. Thorncrown Chapel is absolutely gorgeous! The grounds are pretty and the chapel itself is literally all glass and just so pretty. The practice session was a wash though. Between chasing kids around the grounds and the unbelievable amount of striped shade being cast on people on the walking path to the chapel..I pretty much came to the conclusion that there wouldn't be a way around the lighting problem without serious equipment I lacked so I was going to let go and let god as they say...:)
We did get to meet up with an old friend in historic downtown for dinner which was really nice. I haven't seen her in a long time!! She moved to Missouri from Texas for a job transfer years ago and as it happened, Eureka Springs was only an hour drive!! Was really great seeing her!! After a few more failed picture sessions we decided to call it a night.
Saturday was the big day. Nesha looked absolutely breathtaking in her wedding gown! She was just beautiful! Her sister looked really really really beautiful in the light Sage green dress she wore as the maid of honor. It was a pretty complimenting color I thought. Her 3 yr old daughter was also in the wedding and she was just as cute as she could be. The men all looked handsome, dressed in a tux with the same color green in it as well. I headed to the hotel around lunchtime with Nesha and Susan to take pics of them getting hair, makeup, and getting ready while Lara stayed at the cabins with Cristian and got to take pictures of the guys getting ready. She took such AWESOME shots of them! She just rocks that way :) The woman who did the hair and makeup for the bride and her party was so great. She did such a great job. The makeup looked so flawless and natural and the curls in their hair was just SO cute. Nesha looked amazing, topped off with the veil and tiarra - she was just beautiful.
Cristian was not part of the wedding party and since I was shooting the wedding and Lara was shooting the video we didn't have anyone to stay with him during the ceremony so I gave him an important job which he was SO proud and excited about - he was my assistant photographer. He stayed a couple feet away from me and took pictures himself with his point & shoot camera. He actually took some GREAT pics on his own with his little camera. He is an aspiring little photographer and so stinking cute :)
Here are some of the pictures Cristian took (click to enlarge):
Cristian LOVES dressing up. He calls a suit a "big daddy suit" and he would sleep in a big daddy suit if I let him. LOL...Here he is all dressed up for the wedding.
I know that everyone here knows how NERVOUS I was about being the photographer for my friend's wedding and although some things could definitely have gone much better than they did I will say that surprisingly the pics I took came out a lot better than I thought they would. Glad to know that I can still surprise myself from time to time :) It was a challenge to take the pictures I needed to take with family members getting directly in the path of the shot with their point & shoot cameras, people running around trying to group their own pics, very short time frame to finish shooting, and the sun casting all kinds of shadows on the parties posing....but it all turned out OK and so for that I am thankful because I was terrified of completely ruining the most important day of her life...and that would have sucked..:( Since there are over 800 pictures it will be a while before you get to see any of them but hopefully this week sometime. It takes time to process those suckers... :)
Lara took Cristian to a place called Pivot Rock & Natural Bridge while I was shooting the "getting ready" stuff at the hotel. It was featured in Ripley's Believe it or Not and she said it was pretty cool. They got to go on a little hike together and explore and then got to see the rock itself. Cristian walked away with this way cool staff from the gift shop..lucky boy.
Here are some pictures she took during their visit. The pictures of him sitting on rocks only happened after she had to "scare away" the poor baby ants walking on the rocks so that Cristian would stop screaming like a banshee "there are BUGS mommy...get the BUGS...GET THEM" and take a picture...now what I wouldn't have given to have witnessed that from a distance LOL Oh and that bump/mark on his head is from a rock. This boy is a mess...he was playing with the kids and one of the boys shot a rock with a slingshot and it bounced off the railing and hit Cristian in the head. He is a walking bruise sometimes poor kid :)
(Click pictures to open larger image)
After a fun and exhausting weekend we headed home after the reception on Saturday night. We left around 11pm and drove until 2 and spent the night at a Comfort Inn. My eyes kept messing with me because the roads have zero light - no highway street lights, no moon, nothing..nada..zippo. Pitch dark and nothing but headlights on the car honey...My eyes kept trying to focus into the dark and couldn't and with the winding roads I decided to call it a night and finish the drive today. Cristian got home with plenty of time for schoolwork/spelling word practice and got to bed at a nice early hour. I feel like I need a vacation now though :)
Tomorrow is back to reality - school for Cristian, work for Lara and me, my dreaded school work (why oh why did I think I needed my damn MBA? Someone please knock sense into me next time I have a silly idea like that again), and a week of 5 workouts...Yes, you read that right, I said 5! I am going to die - I know...we have 2 makeup personal training sessions this week so we will be working out M - Fri pretty much...I still can't move my wrist without it hurting from straining it photographing the entire day on Saturday. Slap a HUGE heavy lens on an already heavy camera and top it off with an even heavier flash and diffuser and you have a recipe for wrist strain and pain...if I have to do push-ups tomorrow I think I will take my chances one handed and see if I can not fall flat on my face in the process :) It was so worth it though.
What a beautiful wedding :)
Cheers,
M E
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