I just wanted to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving weekend. I hope you all get to relax and have fun and spend some time with the ones you love. I only have one more wedding left to do this year and that is on December 20th so I am really looking forward to the next few weeks just hanging out doing nothing (I say nothing but really I mean catching up on all the stuff I have needed to do for the last 12 weeks) ha ha
Anyways we had a quick photoshoot with my sister at my mom’s house yesterday and I put together a little collage so I wouldn’t have to post them all individually. Man it’s great having a photographer in the family! I really don’t have any pics of me. I swear my kids are going to grow up and look at our photo album and be like…”Where the heck was mom?!” so it was nice to get a few shots of us all together. Thanks Jo and yes, I do owe ya a shoot.

Poor Katie…man did she ever have the week from you know where last week. I won’t get into all her personal drama but let me tell you I don’t know one person on earth who needs a vacation more than she does right now. I love Katie and feel honored to have shot her wedding. We teach third grade together and it was fun to see her get all made up because at school she is a “just got outta the shower and came to work” kinda girl (and she still looks great so I kinda hate her for that)
ANYWAYS I am rambling…onto the post.
We started off with hair and make up and things went pretty smoothly until we got to the “location” shots but I will write more about that as we go down..
Shannon was a PRFECT maid of honor!

How cute is this flower girl???







this is the guys being…well….guys…ha ha “let’s pretend to have Gwyn jump outta the window”


Everyone got teary-eyed during the ceremony….even me


okay so far so good right…??? We leave to go downtown. The WP gets hungry and stops by McDonalds…I heard an AWFUL CRAAAAACK sound as the limo pulled in. The driver got out and said eveything seemed ok.
So we head down to the Arch for a few minutes…it was FREEZING!!! I LOVED how the color of the BM dresses just POPPED

tried playing with some textures here

and here’s where the story gets interesting. Many people were sick so the wind up at the arch was terrible. We decided to walk back down to the limo and head over to Busch. We had everything timed perfect. We get in the limo and drive about 20 feet and it FREAKING BROKE DOWN….I couldn’t believe it. It was 4:20 and I knew it would be dark soon. Katie’s brother decided “hey, let’s walk to Busch”…hmmm well…ok what else could we do really.

what can I say it was a loooong walk

So by the time we made it to the highway I think everyone realized how much farther we still had to go. So Katie’s brother started to hitchhike and ….YAY…someone actually picked us up!
Three cheers for the nice family from Memphis in the “dutchman” who took all 16 of us the rest of the way to the stadium!


We managed to get a few more pics in at the stadium but were stranded there in the dark while they tried to arrange for another limo…WTF??!! seriously…FunTyme limo service was not a fun time and I hope they give Katie her money back.
But looking back on the day it was awesome. It’s the things that go wrong that make for the best memories and the best stories…I just felt so bad because she had such a rotten week I just wanted her day to be perfect for her. Anyway you can click on THESE WORDS for a little highlight slideshow. I had so many favorites I just don’t have time to post them all. CONGRATS Katie and Gwyn! I hope you have a wonderful honeymoone! You DESERVE it!

So I have had a bad back for quite some time and have seen a few chiropractors over the last 6 or 7 years but I finally found one that I am going to stick with. He has such a great approach and you can tell he genuinely cares about his patients. I tried to stick in the video clip but as you all know I am a computer moron so hopefully this link works. If you live down south you should definitely check him out. His contact info is attached to the video.
CLICK HERE for the video

Lauren and AJ had a very cold, but very beautiful wedding at the Shrine of St. Josephs and a reception at the MAC. To start we met up at the Missouri Athletic club for some getting ready pics.
I love love love the getting ready shots. It’s so cool to see what I like to call “the transformation”..
first the hair

getting ready for makeup


next the foundation

then the eyes


last are the lips

and….voila…a stunning bride

Here are a few other favs and you can also CLICK HERE FOR THE HIGHLIGHT SLIDESHOW

We were really concerned with the below freezing weather and snow that we wouldn’t have any good place for pics, so Shelli, from Allred Wedding consultants hooked us up with one of her contacts at the four seasons. YAY Thanks Shelli and thanks for the referral! It was a great day!
And a funny but true story…the priest forgot to have them exchange rings, so for the first time in history of me shooting weddings I didn’t have the “ring” shots. We “re-created” it later because after the ceremony right before formals he realized he forgot and had them do it real quick….You can kinda tell in the slideshow it’s not real (because if how close I was) but still…it was kind of an odd thing to happen…

So I leave STL and it’s warm and beautiful…get to Jamaica and it’s chilly and rainy…ha ha
I had a wonderful vacation anyway though. It was so nice to get away from it all for a few days. I will say that I wasn’t hugely impressed with Jamaica. Maybe it was the resort we were at, but you couldn’t even go out on the beach without being swarmed with 10 different Jamaican dudes that worked in the shacks next to the resort asking you if you wanted to buy some “ganja” or some other crap they were trying to sell… and FORGET trying to go out to the beach at night…it was downright scary. So hurrican Paloma made the weather kinda hazy and overcast most of the time we were there. It rained at least some part of every day that we were there, but we mangaed to get some good beach time in too! Thank Goodness it didn’t rain on Wendy and Scott’s wedding. I thought originally it was going to be a sunset wedding but it was actually set for 11:00. It’s a good thing it was a little cloudy because full sun near noon is any photographer’s worst nightmare! ha ha
Here’s a few scenery pics
this is leaving STL…love all the red trees

near the ceremony site


FINALLY the night before we left we actually got to see a sunset. It sets over the mountains here where we were at instead of the ocean, but literrly it was hazy or raining almost every night!

Do NOT EVER EVER EVER go here or stay here on your honeymoon. If you want more details email me!

And finally the last morning we were here I caught a decent sunrise…once again not over the beach but over the mountains…still pretty though


and some cool shots from the plane on the way home

Wendy and Scott had one of the cutest ceremonies I have ever seen. If I was to get married again I would totally do it just like they did…on the beach with just a few close friends and family- no stress-no drama-just sun, sand, and a lotta love
Here is a link to their highlight SLIDESHOW

First Monique and Lonnie had the perfect fall day that everyone who plans a fall wedding dreams about. It was so beautiful. Here’s a few favs from the day!


The reception was at Crowne Plaza at the airport and it was beautiful. Erin from exclusive events did a fantastic job with the lighting!




next is another awesome couple getting married this January! Marcie was another mystery bride. She and Brad are so cute together. I was a little worried when we had to schedule the shoot for November but man did she luck out with some GORGEOUS fall color!





speaking of fall color, I am a little sad to leave right now because it is so pretty here. Look at the view from my front yard right now

and the back yard

I swear I could sit in my living room all day just staring out the window. I love love love this time of year. Look at this cool little trail we built in the back yard…well…not really me, but I did supervise ha ha

here is a view from the trail

ok well sorry for the short post but I have to get some sleep. I leave at 3:30 to catch a plane to my long awaited vacation. This is the first time traveling with my gear since I am shooting a wedding down there and I am so nervous. I will try to post when I am down there…but I don’t want to miss a SECOND of beach time so we’ll have to see how it goes!!!