Congratulations Brent and Melissa! Watch for them in January's issue of Alive Magazine....

I'm very excited to announce that the wedding of the gorgeous couple below - Melissa and Brent Berry, will be featured in the January issue of Alive Magazine! I had so much fun photographing their 9.22.07 wedding, for many reasons, one of them being that Melissa is one of the most beautiful brides I have ever worked with (check her out!), and also, not the least of which being that I got to hang out with my oldest brother Michael all day (aka Mikey, Broham etc. - see handsome bald dude un-cuffing bride and groom below) since Brent hired him on as a groomsman after having spent a few years as his friend and partner, both officers for the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department. Congrats to both Mike and Brent for having been promoted to Detective postions in recent months. --- The weather on 9.22 was absolutely perfect, and once again I was lucky enough to be assigned to two of my favorite wedding venues to shoot in St. Louis, St. Ambrose Catholic Church on the Hill, and The Mad Art Gallery. I love both places for specific reasons - I love the Italian history of St. Ambrose, there are so many interesting details to photograph - and I have to be honest, I just flat out love the yellow interior and the length of the aisle... that church just has a certain comfort to it, a really nice energy. The Mad Art Gallery is close to my heart as Kristian and I also celebrated our wedding there in a reception held for the St. Louis folk after our 9.05 Maui wedding. The atmosphere is just amazing there, I really love how the building, a rehabilitated police station, (how fitting), lends itself to parties with a variety of areas to explore - the jail cells, the main gallery space to peruse the latest art showing, the back patio where, if necessary, you can warm up by the fireplace.... It's just a really cool space, Ron and crew have done a superb job - all in the name of art! Other honorable mentions: Rachel Roman Speh, really gorgeous job on the flowers, especially the centerpieces at the reception and Melissa's bouquet. Whenever you're nervous about the vibe of the party and you're wanting to ensure your guests have a good time, either train for months with your fiance on a choreographed first dance set to Michael Jackson's "Thriller," or hire the Photobooth STL people. Photostrips are the perfect keepsake for your guests to leave with at the end of the evening, and no doubt, they'll have fun in that booth. It's impossible not to. -- Thanks, so much, to Melissa and Brent for letting me into such an amazing day in your lives, I felt welcomed into the "circle" and had such a great time getting to know your friends and family and documenting your beautiful wedding day.

An elegant affair....

Hi everybody! WHEW! Where did the fall go? So I'm doing things a little backwards (imagine that) since I am going to be (finally) posting images from weddings from this season that happened before this one very soon, but I am excited about Mike and Rebecca Hengehold's wedding for a number of reasons. First and foremost they were a pleasure to work with, and they really did a superb job (as all my clients do) at putting on an amazing wedding celebration. The weather on their September 15th wedding was beautiful to say the least, Becky looked downright gorgeous in her gown, and Mike wasn't too shabby himself :) Their ceremony took place at one of my favorite places to shoot, Ladue Chapel; and their reception followed at another premier establishment in St. Louis, The Chase Park Plaza - renowned for excellent service, delicious desserts (check out the cake! Amazing!) and, most importantly, kick- butt lighting. The Ralph Butler Band set a nice tone to the evening as well. There was the added comfort of knowing a couple of the groomsmen - Troy, who's wedding to his beautiful wife Carmen I photographed a few years ago, and who's boys Jackson and William I have had the joy of photographing a few times. (I'll be posting the newest of the Burrus family in a few days, stay tuned!) I had also met the best man Fred a while back, who's triplets I photographed when they were brand new with their big brother Quinten... I'm sure they're all so big now, I'd love to see them again! Randy with Ladue Florists did a first rate job on the floral design... flowers are one of my favorite things to photograph, and Randy's certainly were no exception that day. Nice work! One of the most exciting elements of the day for me was that I was using my brand spankin' new Canon 5D's - I shot the whole day on large jpegs with my 85mm 1.2 and my 16-35mm 2.8 - to laymen, rockstar lenses. I'm so excited about the quality of the images, the fluidity of Adobe Lightroom and the way my eyes are viewing the world in general right now. Although, I've discovered that it takes a while to upload 8GB worth of images to the web.... And, last but not least, I finally got to work with Becca Young Williams, a fellow Mizzou journalism mate, (GO TIGERS!), who did a fantastic job 2nd shooting for me at both Mike and Becky's wedding and Mike and Emily's wedding, (coming soon...), and who laughs at my jokes. A solid 2nd shooter who thinks I'm funny is really hard to find, Becca you'll be hard pressed to escape, you're on my team for good! (when you're available at least). Please enjoy the photos, and feel free to leave me a comment! I'll look forward to posting more images of my other incredible clients in the very near future, again stay tuned!