Florist:  Anytime Flowers – Blackwell, OK  http://www.anytimeflowers.net or https://www.facebook.com/anytime.flowers1

Hair Artist:  The Final Cut – Mike’a Payne and Tina LaBlue – Tonkawa, OK

Wedding Planner/Decorations:  Affairs to Remember, Ponca City, OK  http://www.affairs2remember.org/

Full wedding blog post will be up by the end of the week!

”Hello… how bout that ride in?  I guess thats why they call it Sin City. haha. You guys might not know this but I consider myself a bit of a loner. I tend to think of myself as a one man wolf pack. But when Beth Anne brought David home, I knew he was one of my own.  And my wolf pack, it grew by one.  So there… there were two of us in the wolf pack.  I was alone first in the pack and David joined in later…” — Gary Maier (aka the funniest and coolest father-of-the-bride and best speech-giver EVER!)

So, yeah, that was the start of Gary’s speech, and he absolutely nailed it.  Needless to say, it was a hit with everyone!  Hearing the father-of-the bride start his speech with lines from “The Hangover” movie was definitely a first for me.  I was laughing so hard I could hardly hold the camera still.  The photo below of Dave & Beth Anne’s initial reaction to Gary’s speech is one of my favorite images from their wedding.

Neither Dave nor Beth Anne like cake, so they opted to have homemade pies for their guests instead.  Pumpkin pie for the win!

It occurred to me the night before our session that Bridget wouldn’t have a bouquet since her real wedding bouquet had to be left behind in Las Vegas.  So I made a last-minute trip to Michael’s and fashioned up one myself.  I’m definitely no florist, but it added some color and served its purpose for the photos.  I have to admit, it was actually kind of fun to make it!

Ten years ago, Bridget’s beautiful mom, Kathleen, passed away after a long battle with cancer.  In the weeks leading up to Bridget and Matty’s wedding, I could see Bridget was really feeling the weight of sadness that her mom was not going to be here on her wedding day with her.  After almost a year of getting to know each other, Bridget and I had become great friends.  After all the craziness and disappointments that Bridget had gone thru after their venue suddenly closed down three months before their wedding date, I really wanted to do something special for Bridget.  As a bride, she handled all the curve balls thrown her way with planning their wedding with more grace and poise than anyone I know.  Aside from that, she is an amazing, kind, and generous person, and I’m so blessed that we’ve become friends.  So, I had this idea…

The day before they left for Vegas, while Bridget was out getting her hair done, Matty helped sneak a photo of Kathleen out of their apartment, so that I could have this bracelet made for Bridget.  Thanks so much for helping me pull this off, Matty!!!

I gave Bridget her bracelet in Vegas before all the girls started getting ready for the wedding.  I wanted her to have something that would remind her that her Mom is always with her, and that she WOULD be there with her on her wedding day.  I still can’t look at it without tearing up at the resemblance between Bridget and Kathleen.  I wish I could have had the privilege of meeting Kathleen because I know she had a huge part in making Bridget the wonderful person that she is today.

Since Bridget’s having her dress preserved, I wanted to capture all the tiny little details on it for her to remember  it by.

This is how she looks at her Matty.

Since Bridget and Matt were married in Vegas but had already paid for their wedding cakes, they decided to host a cake party with all their friends to help devour the yummy wedding cakes!  Such a great idea, and the cake was SO yummy!  If you’re looking for a great vendor to order your wedding cakes from, definitely check out W.O.W. Cakes at  http://www.worldofweddingcakes.com  (Just fyi, the smudge on the cake’s bottom tier was something that happened AFTER it had already been delivered.)

The cakes were too pretty not to include a couple photos in this post. 

Chad and Tawna are an awesome couple.  They’ve been together since Tawna was 14 and recently celebrated 8 YEARS of being together!  How’s that for inspiring?

I loved that they brought a duffle bag full of items that were special to them that we could include in their photos to personalize them.  I didn’t even tell them or ask them to…they just did.  My kind of couple!  The colorful hand-sewn quilt was made by Chad’s aunt.  The gorgeous heart made of blown-glass was a gift for Tawna that Chad made (using some of her favorite colors — colors found in peacock feathers).   They also brought a vintage Michael Jackson record player that’s symbolic of their common interest of music and Chad being a Michael Jackson fan.  My favorite thing about this session was that Chad and Tawna both felt comfortable being themselves around me and in front of my camera.  Pretty sure the photos of them dancing around and being silly definitely show that.

Hope you enjoy seeing a few of my favorite shots from our session.