SAVANNAH + MATT | happy fun warm vests

These two out-of-towners who were married last year in Minnesota just happened to have a weekend back for a family event and made it a priority to squeeze in these anniversary pictures! Everything about them is warm, happy, and fun. Those are such cliche words but I can’t stop myself from using them!! I can’t and I won’t!!!

SEE MORE
CASSANDRA + NATE | like Tuck Everlasting, minus the one-sided immortality
LAURA+MITCH | the golden couple

KAMI+MICHAEL | the perfect excuse to wear a floor length gown

Kami and Michael get not one, but TWO wedding anniversary days. Why? Mike is Christian and Kami is Hindu, so they had two separate wedding ceremonies across two separate days. If you’re like me, your first question is, “So did you get to have TWO wedding dresses?!”

And yes, she did.

To celebrate their FIFTEEN YEAR anniversary (er, anniversaries) Kami went all out with another gorgeous dress. "Go casual, go fancy, or anywhere in between!" is my standard advice for clients. But like.... IT IS SO FUN when they choose fancy. Because the truth is that the typical adult doesn’t have a whole lot of occasions for a floor length dress once the wedding is over and that is just the saddest thing.

“It hasn't been easy, health and family weren't too kind to us but here we are 3 kids, a mortgage, and 15 years later stronger than ever. I'd like to think that the worst is behind us.” - Kami

SEE ALSO
LANEY+BRIGHAM | the day I stopped shooting at golden hour
INSPIRED BY GRANDMA | Grandma Kaiser and the nudists

LISA+TAYLOR | when life hands you big fat purple wildflowers

"OLDIE GOODIE" is my father-in-law's expression that means "vintage" or "retro". I don't know when that started or why, but I sure do like it. These pictures here are a bit of an OLDIE GOODIE of mine - they are from 2014!!! I rediscovered them the other day and they made me go, "Ugh! THOSE FLOWERS!!!!"

Big, fat, radiant, purple wildflowers! I didn't say "Ugh!" because of any negative feelings towards those majestic blossoms. I said it because for literally years (YEARS!) following this shoot, I returned to this spot and tried to find this meadow again. And I never. ever. did. 

I would look back at my files to see the exact date of Lisa and Taylor's shoot, estimate in my head "Is this a warmer or cooler summer?" to consider if they'd blossom earlier or later, plan accordingly, show up, and...... nada. I never found them again! But luckily my efforts did have their reward. If I hadn't have gone looking for these purple flowers, I never would have found these OTHER wildflowers up on the mountaintop  or these yellow ones just a little bit further down the road.

So there you go. When life hands you wildflowers and then takes them away, life might just hand you.. some.. other, different wildflowers. And that's just beautiful.

SEE ALSO
DEIRDRE+JASON | when the wildflower mountaintop gives you decision paralysis
ALLISON+TIM | good light great horses but one snake