This is Teddy. He's a gorgeous puffball of a white fluff who belongs to my friend and talented wedding planner, Jordan McBride. Jordan is a girl after my own heart -- she just threw a birthday party for her little guy this weekend. And Dixie and I were invited!!
Those of you who have been following my blog for awhile now, know that I have thrown a birthday party for my dog for the past three years. But Jordan completely outdid me with her gorgeous details and event planning skills. Dixie is like the kid who got stuck with the mom who throws the party at McDonalds while her friend Teddy lucked out with the slumber party at Disneyland. Complete with all the characters.
So of course, I had to take some photos to show off all the fun and prettiness.
The party was held in Jordan and her husband's gorgeous backyard on a beautiful day:
As you can probably guess, Teddy does not want for love:
One table featured some of the cutest dog-themed human treats I've ever seen. Teddy thought they smelled pretty good too:
Thankfully, there was also an entire table dedicated to treats for the canine guests:
How adorable are these!?
Each of Teddy's doggy guests went home with a gift bag full of everything a pup could wish for:
Teddy donned his green polo for a few photos:
And took a short catnap while he waited for his guests to arrive:
Here's a cute one of the birthday boy with his parents and a few of his puppy friends who showed up to celebrate his big day!
This cute little guy just turned one. He belongs to my friends Joel & Andrea. I met up with them on Sunday to shoot some quick family portraits for them in downtown Chandler before Hamilton's first birthday party. Then I stayed on and photographed the festivities! It was super-fun! You're going to want to stick with this post because it ends with Hamilton's first experience with birthday cake. SO. WORTH. IT.
Here's the cute family:
I love this! During the shoot Hamilton did a little window shopping:
I love his two bottom teeth! Such a cutie!!
After the shoot we headed back to Joel & Andrea's house for the party. Andrea did an AMAZING job with all the details!
The guest of honor was impressed.
SO many fun things to photograph including a PB&J bar, cupcakes, and sugar cookie favors spelling out "HAM":
Milk and juice were served in cute frosting and sprinkle-rimmed glasses:
Guests were asked to draw Hamilton a picture corresponding to a letter of the alphabet to create a book for him:
Hamilton's grandparents in Idaho attended the party via Skype. Hamilton talks to them weekly on the computer so he's a pro:
Hot air balloon rides were available in the backyard for the youngsters who could fit in the basket:
Hamilton's first birthday cake included a sparkler candle in the shape of a "1."
He wasn't so much a fan of the sparkler...
...but the cake (which he refused to eat without a spoon) made up for it:
I recently had the opportunity to photograph a really special baptism ceremony for a two year old. This is Lukas and he has eyes that just melt your heart. It was so much fun to be a part of this moment in the lives of his family and I wanted to share some of my favorite images with you.
As part of the event I was also able to capture some family portraits as well as cover the reception after the baptism. This is Feryal and Raj - parents of adorable Lukas:
Nicholas is Lukas's older brother. They looked so dapper in their ties! Love these!
I love Feryal's polkadot heels!
So sweet:
Feryal put together a gorgeous candy bar for the reception complete with sweet little favors for the guests:
And one last family portrait:
Thanks Feryal and Raj! It was such an honor to be entrusted with capturing this event!
Back in July, Maile Wilson -- Texas portrait photographer extraordinaire and designer of Epiphane camera bags -- was in town to photograph Promise Tangeman for the look book of Maile's brand new Epiphane website set to launch this Fall. Since I'm friends with both of these cute girls, Maile invited me to come along and "shoot the shoot." I was thrilled!
I haven't shared these photos until now because I was waiting for Maile to launch the site but now that it's up and running I thought I'd share some of the fun photos I got AND encourage you to pop over to the new site - designed by Promise - to check out the brilliance. I LOVE how it turned out!!
The location of the shoot was some random place off the 60 in East Mesa. We didn't even plan for it - we just saw this cool field and loved the light so we pulled over! While shooting in the field a coyote trotted over to see what we were up to:
This was the cute crew involved in the shoot - L to R - Maile, Kim (hairstylist), Promise, Alex (stylist):
I don't know where the sunglasses came from but we had some fun with them.
Kim is a hoot. Here she is fixing up Promise and showing off her handy hairbrush storage:
Promise did some quick changes alongside the road just hiding behind the truck:
It had recently rained and I loved the puddles and light we had to work with:
Sorry for the lapse in blog posts. I was hit with a head cold late last week and have also been working hard to prepare for The MJ 2 Day that starts this Sunday! I'm so excited to meet all 12 attendees from across the country and even two who are flying in from Canada. Usually a head cold isn't enough to slow me down much, but I know how much energy I'm going to need for the workshop, so my top priority has been getting well in time for that.
But I have been shooting quite a bit lately. Last weekend I had the opportunity to shoot a surprise 50th anniversary party for a super-sweet couple. In the past, I've featured one of my favorite florists, Jeanne Birmingham of White Poppy Floral on my blog. I've also shot portraits of Jeanne, her husband Matt and her son Max. Well, Jeanne's in-laws recently celebrated 50 years of marriage and I was thrilled to be able to capture the joy of their celebration.
Any couple who stays together for 50 years has huge respect from me and Carol and Bernie obviously have a lot of love and blessings to show for those 50 years. Their 5 children and 10 grandchildren came together to put this shin-dig together and I could tell instantly that they were a close-knit group. It's such a blessing to be able to get a glimpse into a family with so much love for one another. My heart was just overflowing.
There were some special mementos displayed at the event including Carol's wedding dress that her family found, cleaned and displayed:
Some of their wedding photos were on display and I was impressed with the quality of photography for 50 years ago. They had a good photographer!
The family created a sign and waited expectantly for the guests of honor to arrive:
Carol's reaction was priceless:
Bernie was all smiles as his son Matt pinned on his boutonniere:
And I just got to capture all the love:
We also took the opportunity to get some family portraits. Carol said that the only thing she wanted for her anniversary was a family photo. Well, here it is!
Can you believe how cute they are!?
Finally, this is Carol's reaction when she saw her wedding dress:
What an amazingly heart-warming event. I am so honored to have been able to witness and document it.
Yay Carol & Bernie! Thanks for being such an awesome example of true commitment and the good that can come from a long-lasting marriage!!!
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