Bittersweet, with the emphasis on sweet.

My dear friend Molly told me recently that there are 4 stages of happiness. She told this to me over the phone just before I boarded a plane to London, and I quickly pulled out my journal and jotted them down. Stage 1- Anticipation. Stage 2- Savoring. Stage 3- Remembering. Stage 4- Telling others. When it comes to this wedding, and this entire trip to Europe as a whole, I'm hoping that Stage 4 will truly bring some happiness (cause right now I'm just in withdrawal!).

Lani is dear to me. She and I have known each other since 2004, when she flew across the Atlantic Ocean to come to Eagle Lake Camp and ended up in my tent: I the counselor and she, the camper. That summer was very life-changing for her, and we've stayed in touch ever since. We have even gotten face-to-face time 3 times since then– once I was in London and twice she came to Colorado to visit. Lani is amazing, so it should've been no surprise to me that she is surrounded by a group of amazing people as well. But onto the happiness:

Stage 1: It's my first international wedding. It's the first time I've been back to Western Europe since my parents lived there in 2005. I. LOVE. EUROPE. I'm all about anticipation.

Stage 2: I savored this experience so much I thought I might burst. Not only was the wedding itself just beautiful–full of loud worship to God and live instruments and vows that had some real history behind them– but the whole week leading up to that blessed event was also incredible! I met some of the most amazing people, had some of the most meaningful conversations, and performed more impressively at Mario Kart than I ever had before (the key, of course, is to be Baby Peach and ride a bike). But then wedding day... what a true celebration. I teared up several times during the ceremony (don't hire me if you're against misty-eyed photographers), I sang at the top of my lungs with everyone else in a grand worship celebration, and I danced as hard as I could at the reception later... as hard as was necessary to celebrate the union of such a lovely couple. I like British people. They aren't afraid to dance. (somewhat surprising)

Stage 3: I've had some plane, bus, train, taxi, ferry, and bicycle rides since then to ponder and process through all that this time in England meant, and I have to say, experiences like that are hard to let go of. Hard to leave behind. I'm generally not so sad when leaving places, as Colorado is pretty much the greatest place on earth and I'm always excited to come home to it. But London gets to me... in the best way possible, I suppose.  

Stage 4: So far, the telling people part just brings up the pit-in-the-stomach-I-miss-UK feelings, but perhaps I'll just keep plugging away at it, which is what I'm doing right now. I do like telling travel stories, so if you're one who doesn't mind hearing them, please call me and pull up a chair  :) 

And if you're across the pond and it's Pimm's O'Clock, then raise your glasses to our dear friends Lani and Charlie and to the bright future ahead of them. Cheers! 

Read that sign if you can. Pretty awesome.

 Sisterly love.

 Tea time before the wedding. Brilliant. I love these people.

 Sees his baby girl for the first time!

 Rolls Royce! I got to sit in it...

 Phew. Carla, you can wail.

 Charlie, this one's for you :)

A Toast To Love.

Well, I already exhausted some of my most meaningful thoughts and feelings about Andy & Lauren a couple of posts below in their engagement photo blog, so I suppose I can just dedicate this one to actually talking about their BIG day!  In a word: incredible. A great couple, a great collection of people, lovely weather, loads of cupcakes and cookies (Lauren's totally addicted) and one rockin' dance party at the reception. Highlights: photographing in the CUTEST candy shop, Lola's (if you're in downtown Littleton you must stop in for some handmade treats), using lots of fun props like pink balloons, hand knives, and Izze sodas, sitting on the balcony with the wedding party after the ceremony just hangin' out (I'd never had a beer in church before... Ssshh), watching Lauren & Andy be hoisted up in chairs as if they were Jewish, and getting to dance like it was the last night of our lives with an awesome group of people at an awesome reception!  Cheers to these 2 and cheers to everyone who made that day and night so wonderful!

Post-Ceremony hangout. I love everything about this photo...

Andy sees his bride for the first time (and had to take a seat)

the morning texts :)

Lauren's dream come true: Synchronized Dance!

Fishin' & Horsin' Around

Max and Katie are a treat to be around. This photo shoot was one of my longest and most fun (!) ones to date. We had a rocky start and, sadly, some broken fishing gear, but once we got in the groove it was no holds barred! Max is probably one of the most fun guys I've ever photographed, always full of pose ideas and always "on." ("Katie, let's do a pounce face!") They can laugh and snuggle with the best of them, but one thing you may not be able to tell just by the photos is that this couple will probably help change the world. They have some of the most beautiful hearts and one of the most beautiful relationships I know.

*Sidenote: they're not kissing til they say "I do," so we had a lot of fun dancing towards the line this day :) There were a few times where I thought, "This is gonna happen right now! Right here on my camera!" But alas, they held strong.

This was my first photo shoot up at Eagle Lake Camp, which is very near and dear to my heart. The lake was frozen over... as were our faces, by the end of this shoot, but it was SO FUN! Max and Katie were such great sports, willing to take risks (the lake started to make cracking sounds while we were standing on it at one point, but they stayed and let me shoot!), and so ready to laugh and love on each other. I'm so excited to shoot their wedding in May!

Is This Burning An Eternal Flame?

Once again, I'm faced with having to boil down in a bite size paragraph or 2 something funny and meaningful about 2 of my favorite people on the planet. *sigh* Lauren & Andy, here's to you: You Rule. This is hands down one of my favorite couples in my life right now, and I'm so blessed to get to run around and take pictures of them. This was my very first Library Shoot! And, this is one of the few couples I have been around for their getting together, their figuring out how to be a couple, their fights, their hilarity, and best of all... watching them work as a team. Andy and Lauren probably love people better together than almost everyone I know. They are so inclusive, so ready to play a game (Ticket To Ride, anyone?) or share a pizza with anyone who's willing, so excited to get to know people ... together.

I would love to tell a story or 2 or 346, but there's just no way to boil down to an anecdote what these people mean to me and the excitement I feel about their upcoming marriage. Ok, ok, I think I may have one. Ha.

Lauren and Andy had just gone on their first date before Lauren's apartment (which is right next to mine) went up in flames. We sat all afternoon and watched it burn, except for my solo field trip to go buy Lauren some underwear and a phone charger, watched everything burned to ashes right before our very eyes. Her clothes, her bed, her movies, Ling Ling (her famous panda bear), everything! Somewhere in the middle of all that, she called Andy and let him in on everything. He said he'd come down and visit the next day and told her "I'm excited to come there and be your friend." WHAT??! "I know he didn't say the F word to you, Lauren," I said when she told me. "I can't believe he'd say 'friend' after everything." (they had had a small fiasco with figuring out whether they were more than friends or not, and we thought they were past that part!) And that night, talking to Lauren in my room was when I realized just how crazy we women are. I always had my suspicions, but this conversation confirmed it all. Here lies Lauren, after the burning of her house and her losing all her worldly goods. Who will have to deal with insurance companies and going through incinerated belongings in the next few days. Who is homeless. Who has 1 pack of underwear to her name. But what came out of her mouth to me that night? "Why did he call me friend!???!!" And all of us women know exactly what that's like!

Ha. And while that fire was big enough to demolish Lauren's entire apartment and all her possessions, it was a mere spark in the relationship between her and Andy. He did come down to visit. He was a good friend. And then he asked her to be his girlfriend, which is ... another funny story :) And the rest, as they say, is history.

p.s. - the 2 photos at the end are part of an homage to AwkwardFamilyPhotos.com. Check it out and be amazed :)

Skattewhat?

I can't say enough wonderful & hilarious things about this family. I think the pictures tell you exactly what kind of family they are, and I leaped for joy in my heart when they agreed to let me dress them in charlie chaplin moustaches and drag a couch up to Garden of the Gods for a fun-filled photo shoot. One thing I hope doesn't come through the photographs is the temperature... cause I couldn't feel my fingers and my props were being blown about by ice cold gusts of hurricane. And I couldn't blog this without giving a shout-out to one of my best pals, David Rau, who single-handedly hauled that couch up the huge rock next to Balanced Rock. I did indeed bust out in choruses of "Whatta Man" while he made the trek up with a sofa on his back.

Long story short: this family rules. Each one so unique. Each one so beautiful. Each one SO FUNNY. We should all wanna be Skattebos.

What's Wrong? (inspired by Highlights Magazine)

Photographing bed & breakfasts has its upsides, for sure - staying in beautiful inns for free, getting to sample their delicious menus, shooting in my sweatpants... the list could go on! But, since one of my favorite magazines as a child was Highlights (y'all remember that one?), which featured an illustration on the back called "What's Wrong?" where you were supposed to spot the weird things going on... fish with sunglasses, mohawks on chimpmunks, birds swimming... you know, the usual. The not-so-upside of b&b photography are the mishaps, but I just realized they would be great material for the "What's Wrong?" game, so I've included a few here to show the not-so-polished side of the work. Who knows? Maybe you'll get a toy if you can find them all...