I believe the emotion and sacredness of a wedding ceremony transcends language barriers, and when Hanh started tearing up here during the ceremony, though I could not understand a word that was being said, the moment had me crying, too.


This is a famous calligrapher, who happened to fly in the night before from Vietnam, and who presented Hanh and Phuc with a gift of his work on their wedding day. (I wish I knew what it said!)



This image looks to me like it could have come straight out of a classic film. Phuc looks so handsome in his suit!

Congratulations, Hanh and Phuc, on your wedding! It was an honor to be part of your wedding day, and I wish you many, many years of love and happiness in the future!

Can I just say Jill and Scott are so much fun and I REALLY enjoyed photographing their wedding? And their vows were so sweet…I almost had a hard time listening because it became a choice between between really listening to the vows which was bringing me to tears…or focusing on my photography!

Here are a few of my favorite images from the day:

This image chokes me up every time I look at it because Jill’s mom was totally teary eyed here during the moments between Jill getting ready and the ceremony starting. She looked so proud and happy and you could just feel the emotion she was feeling – it was such a beautiful ‘mom’ moment I had to give her a hug, too!

While we took some photos of Scott, he pulled out this flask and told me that it was a present from his new brother-in-law. It says ‘Brothers 2008′. How great is that?

During Jill and her dad’s carriage ride up the ceremony, they took a ride around the lake and its almost as though the geese floated by on cue.

I wonder if they realized how amazingly beautiful this setting was for a romantic ceremony. I am still amazed every time I look at these images!

These are two of my absolute favorite images from the day, so I thought I would do something a bit more special. Jill was stunning on her wedding day – you almost couldn’t take your eyes off her – and I think this image captures her beauty perfectly.

I absolutely love the intimacy of this image – it is almost as though I wasn’t there…just as it should be.

Jill and Scott – thanks so much for allowing us to be a part of your special day! Your laughter and fun spirits are such a bright light and I wish you both so much happiness in your future!

Suzanne and Jackson are such a great couple and were so much fun to photograph, and the locations had just beautiful photo opportunities at every turn. What a difficult thing to do (and wonderful dilemma to have!) to narrow down images to post!!

Suzanne was stunning in her gown!

The Regis University campus is just beautiful! (Why didn’t I really notice that when I was attending??)

We were waiting for the cue for Suzanne’s dad to walk her down the aisle, and I noticed this plaque on the wall. It is a quote by St. Ignatius which reads “Love consists in sharing what one has and what one is with those one loves. Love ought to show itself in deeds more than in words”.

I love this set of images. This time it was the Mother-Son dance which brought me to tears. I especially love this first image of Jackson’s mom. She looks beautiful! You can just feel the emotion between them!

And some fun stuff…

Suzanne and Jackson chose to see each other before the ceremony, so we had some time to take some images. The wind kicked up out of nowhere and blew Suzanne’s veil off! Jackson went after it and I caught this cute image.

It must just be the time of year for ladybugs because we had a few get caught in Suzanne’s veil. I think it was a good sign because according to folklore, Ladybugs bring good luck!

Jackson struck a fitting “Grease” pose for this shot. (I will go to bed tonight with “Go grease lighting….” playing in my head!!)

Love this outtake as the guys were going to put the sign on the car.

Check out this link for some more images – Pagorek-Engels Wedding.

Congratulations, Suzanne and Jackson!! What a beautiful wedding day! We wish you many,many happy years together! Thanks for allowing us to be a part of your day!

Dad walking his daughter down the aisle.

The first dance – I love the way she is holding him so tightly!

This was hilarious! Just after the bouquet toss and before the garter toss, the groomsmen took us all by surprise and serenaded Shannon with “You’ve lost that loving feeling”. (How many of you remember that from the movie ‘Top Gun‘?)

Talk about stopping traffic! We ran out into the middle of the busy street, stopping traffic to take this fun shot! (Amidst the honking horns and cheering spectators!)

I love how they have their hands raised in celebration in this image!

LOVE the cowboy hat and boots!

This image is my favorite because all day I was thinking Shannon looked like a princess, and at the very end of the night, the reception hall had pretty much cleared out, and Brendon and Shannon snuck back in for a final dance to Michael Buble’s “Everything” (which happens to be my little sister’s First Dance song!), and while dancing, Shannon lost her shoe. So Brendon bent down to help her put her shoe back on, and the whole scene was very “Cinderella”. TOO SWEET!!

These two are just so sweet together, I had a really tough time choosing just a few favorite photos, so I decided to put a bunch in a slideshow you can view at this link: Loomis-Loucks Wedding.

The quote that came to mind for these two, because they are just too cute, comes from Winnie the Pooh, and has been one of my favorites quotes for years because of the steady, sweet, supportive love it represents:

Piglet sidled up to Pooh from behind.
“Pooh!” he whispered.
“Yes, Piglet?”
“Nothing” said Piglet, taking Pooh’s paw. “I just wanted to be sure of you.”
~ A. A. Milne

We wish you both as much happiness and love and laughter in your future as was so evident on your wedding day! Thank you for choosing us to be a part of it! Congratulations!!

The beautiful bride before the ceremony starts.

Love is in the details!

During the ceremony.

I love this shot taken just after they had put the rings on each other, but before the kiss!

Husband and Wife share a quiet moment.

Its tough to hide that excitement!!

It’s official!

This was just **too** sweet when Joe serenaded Kelsey. For those of you that don’t know the lyrics, check this out. But if you haven’t, I think you really just need to check out the movie!

The First dance.

The father daughter dance really had me crying. It was BEAUTIFUL! (For those of you that don’t know, my father passed away a few years ago, so this particular part of the wedding day is not only my personal favorite moment, but also always has me teary eyed!)

A moment of quiet before the ceremony.

The wind really kicked up and started playing with Meg’s hair – I love these images.

Meg’s dad looking at his daughter before walking down the aisle.

I love the look in Chris’s eyes as he looks at his beautiful bride during the ceremony!

Since the beginning of the year I have been very focused on re-examining that things that are important in my life, and the choices that I am making. I want to be more conscious about the things that I do, and make sure that the choices I make are based on things that are important in my life.

In the past few weeks I have had a number of conversations with friends and strangers who have all asked me why I am in the field of photography. Here is what I tell them.

I spent 14 years in the Information Technology field. I loved the people that I worked with, I learned a TON. And I really am a tech geek. LOVE technology and the latest gadgets. I worked on a lot of different projects including international projects with people from all over the world. AMAZING projects. It satisfied the part of my brain and personality that loves order and following/creating process, and just being around other tech geeks. These experiences have given me confidence, friends, and helped shape the business person that I am today.

Then I have photography. Mmmmm…photography. I have had a camera glued to my hand since I was 13 years old. I was always the one tell people to pose here and pose there. (If I listen closely, I can hear the collective moan from friends and family!)

My dad passed away a year after I moved to CO, and we are coming up on the 10 year anniversary of his death. Luckily, 2 months before he unexpectedly passed away, he came up to visit me in Denver. While he was here, for some reason…I could not stop taking photos of him. I took him to see a bunch of the sights around the state, and I just kept snapping photos. I wasn’t a professional at the time..but just knew I wanted photos.

These are the last photos we have of him. He was happy…laughing his big laugh with that beloved gap between his teeth…lol. That is how I remember him.

Do I even need to express how much those photos mean to me today?

Everytime I am given the opportunity – I really do feel that *I* am given the opportunity to provide my service to my clients – to photograph a family or a wedding or a pregnancy or an infant….it is with the knowledge in the back of my mind that these images will hold the same value for my clients in days and years to come as those images of my father do for me.

I also know that I may possibly be taking the last photographs of someone’s loved one. This happened to me 4 years ago when I photographed an extended family. When I contacted them and did not hear back for 4 weeks, I wondered what was up. I tried again, and found out that the grandfather had fallen ill shortly after the portrait session, and passed away just a day or so earlier. I was able to provide them with images for the funeral, and was humbled at the experience of having taken those last images of him. I have a few images of he and his wife of who knows how many years…those images are burned in my memory, and some of my favorite that I have ever taken as a professional photographer.

I think as we go through life, there are FEW things that we experience that TRULY give our lives meaning. Being able to do what I do everyday…giving people these visual representations of the important times and people in their lives….how can I beat that for giving my own life meaning?

And this is why I do what I do.

This first one had us cracking up because you know how funny dogs can be. Well, when I instructed everyone to look at little Brady, Micayla decided to turn and look, too! It cracked everyone up and I got this great shot!

And a few from the shower..