Friday, July 2, 2010

A Missouri Wedding - Shannon & Jake - June 26th, 2010
























Went from Vegas to the Lake to photograph Shannon & Jake's wedding at Casa De Loco. We've shot a few weddings at Casa De Loco, it's such a unique venue. They always seem to be doing new things out there to improve everyone's experience. I love it, it's one of my favorite spots for a wedding. Doesn't get much better than photographing a wedding in an old insane asylum.

I met with the couple on Thursday to do some engagement style photos at the Strip. How to describe the Strip?.... When I was in HS, and probably when my parents were in HS, and before that even, the Strip was a place to go and hang out, buy nick nacks you don't need, play putt-putt, bumper cars. But most importantly it was a place for everyone to park their cars, stand around and watch as other cars went bumper to bumper down the strip, turned around, back up the strip and repeat. Lots of whistling, squealing tires and what not. It's pretty silly. I think it still goes on every weekend. Anyways, there's some pretty old, falling apart, run-down activities. Old batting cages that look like they were going to fall apart any day, run down arcades with 1/2 the machines out of order and the other half with games like Double Dragon, Lethal Enforcers & random Atari titles. I was so excited to get started shooting. I was thinking if this couple shows up and they're fun, this is going to be PERFECT. They showed up in baseball jerseys and said they just wanted some fun shots! I mean how much better could it get! I can't believe some of those places are still in business on the strip. And they were packed with people. Unreal.

I showed up to Casa around noon with Emily Todd. A future pro photographer I met at Jenna & Edward's wedding in Destin, FL a month earlier. She was a huge help and stuck it out all day. It was so nice having her there. Thank you!

It started off pretty hot. 90, 90% humidity. Sweat through your clothes hot. But it actually started to cool off a bit before the ceremony which was really nice. We took getting ready shots, the girls, the guys, Jake seeing Shannon for the first time, family photos all before the ceremony. And we ended with about an hour to spare for a break. And everyone needed it. That's a lot of photography in the heat. But everyone was sticking it out. The photography was so important to Shannon and Jake, you've got to love that.

The ceremony was beautiful, Shannon & Jake were excited and happy, bridesmaids were crying, it was a good one. After that we went through the night, first dance, dinner, toasts dancing.... everyone just partied and had a great time. Shannon and her dad broke it down during the daddy/daughter dance, that was pretty funny. I think it was MC Hammer or something. Also there's one photo of a girl in there who caught the bouquet. There was a scramble to grab it when it was up in the air, no one could get a handle on it and it just landed in this girls arms while she was standing there. She had such a look of surprise and confusion on her face. Everyone, including me, was cracking up.

Shannon & Jake were so awesome to work with. They were a lot of fun. I think the pictures show that. Especially the engagements. They treated me as an artist, made sure I was taken care of and I felt just like one of the guests. It's always so fun to work with people who really believe in what you do and trust you to take great pics for them.

We're heading out to Missouri again on Wednesday for a month. Planning on doing a lot of family photos, maternity, boudoir & senior pics along with the 3 weddings we'll be shooting. I'm excited to get to be there for a whole month. That's where my whole family lives (minus my sis who just moved!).

Gotta run. New pics from Katie's wedding in Springdale in a couple days.



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