This scrumptious little munchkin belongs to proud parents Chris and Lynsey. We had a wonderful afternoon playing in Lewis Creek Park near their house, chasing after little Ella and coercing giggles from her sweet cheeks. It was one of those sessions you don’t really want to end for fear the best expression is right around the corner. Beautiful Seattle sunshine, gorgeous little family, bright cheerful colors, and the sweet aroma of freshly cut grass. 100% summer.

One year since my fiance saw me for the first time in my wedding dress.

I’ll never ever forget that moment: time absolutely stood still, and we were the only people in the room… I’ve watched the playback on CreativeLive (admittedly maybe one too many times) and I can’t believe how LONG it was. We had so much build up coming to this moment, so many stressful moments in planning a four week wedding, it all clashed together right when we saw each other. It was all worth it for this moment. I think I really realized that no matter if we had planned our wedding in 18 months or one, we would have had the same family drama, the same decisions over linen color, the same stressful tears. Ours was just bottled up and served in a 4 week time frame. We held each other during our first look, and both of us let go, it was here. Nothing could stop the freight train now, and at the end of tomorrow the only thing that would matter is that he would be my husband and I would be his wife. I laugh now, because most of my first looks as a photographer last about a minute tops. Ours was probably almost ten. Sorry about that.

One unreal experience.

For those of you who don’t know, a year ago, my husband and I got married live on the internet. We won a contest that provided us with our dream wedding for free. It was part of a wedding photography workshop offered by CreativeLive with uber famous and talented rockstar photographer Jasmine Star.  Today marks the one year anniversary of the first day of the rest of our lives. I’m so thankful for everyone who made our “I do’s” possible. I’ve been pretty quiet about the entire thing, both here and in real life. Honestly, I was trying to live it like a bride, and I think afterward I suffered from a slight-to-moderate case of PTSD.

One amazing photographer.

It’s never good to open on a bad note, but I want to address that I heard through the grapevine, some people had a negative attitude while watching the class. I guess I should expect that everyone will have opinions, and success generally breeds jealousy and envy. Dale Carnegie said, “The person who gets the farthest is generally the one who is willing to do and dare. The sure-thing boat never gets far from shore.” Jasmine really took a giant leap in putting herself out there for the sake of educating other photographers, and as a photographer myself, I’m grateful for her fearlessness. It’s no easy feat to be placed in front of the entire world of your peers. Criticism is to be expected, but to those who were cruel and personal about it, shame on you and your small ugly minds. It’s easy to forget that words have impact, and as my father always said, “if you don’t have something nice to say, don’t say it at all”.

I want to say a few NICE words from a brides perspective on working with Jasmine as my photographer. First off, I will admit, I knew Jasmine before this all happened. I started reading her blog 3-4 years ago. Her canter and her wit made her blog a nice escape from my desk job at the time. I wasn’t a wedding photographer, nor did I have aspirations to be one. I was climbing my way up the commercial photography industry with dreams of becoming the next cover of Gourmet magazine, or maybe just being published.. anywhere… ever. Food, lifestyle, architecture, that was my life. I felt first love for Jasmine, and then understood her work. When I made the decision to change my path, I attended her very first workshop. So yes, maybe I’m biased, because I love her and don’t feel threatened by her openess. In fact, I hope it’s contagious and I catch it.

Seeing photographers from a Brides perspective was a different way to view the world I lived in. I’m a visual person. I realized the vision of what I wanted my wedding images to look like. How I saw myself through the camera…. Jasmine might not have been my first choice. Let’s be honest, she wasn’t even in the running because I’m not necessarily her bride, I’m poor.  As it worked out, the thought of having Jasmine as our wedding photographer was as much a thrill as the wedding itself. We understood the connection she made with her clients, we could see it in her work. We put our trust wholeheartedly in her.

Jasmine’s selling point isn’t in her technical ability, her Photoshop skills, her posing, her eye. All of those are strong, this is true, but none of those are what we saw in her work.

Jasmine connected with us. She KNEW us. What we see in our wedding images is our connection with each other… and that was made possible because we are relaxed and comfortable with her. She took the time to learn about our family and friends and made them feel important and included. We saw that, we noticed that. She must have asked me 5 or 6 times on my wedding day how I was doing, how I was feeling, did I need anything? She and JD (and maybe another photographer or two?) made a point to take a gorgeous portrait during cocktail hour of every guest that attended our wedding. Our images might not be heavily composed, or lit, or photoshopped. They might not be cutting edge poses, or something you haven’t seen before, but they are of US, and we cherish them because they remind us of how we felt on our wedding day, of how our photographers made us feel while we were taking them, of how we felt toward each other, of how our guests felt about being there. These are all things that make our experience as her clients unmatched. We will forever be evangelists for her and her business.

Can you believe I have nothing negative to say? I’m trying to come up with something to keep it objective…. If I think of something I’ll edit it in.

I’ve only ever shared detail photos on this blog, but today I wanted to share with you some of the images I cherish from our wedding day. I hope you’ll be surprised.

I love this photo, it’s of me and I can’t believe how sexy, feminine and glamorous this makes me look. It’s just of my feet! Which I’ve never liked by the way. This photo makes me love my feet, and especially those shoes on my feet.

This photo is SO BILLY…. it cracks me up. This is how he puts on his shirts every morning. Why would his wedding day be any different? Notice: the tie is already tied on the shirt, and it’s completely buttoned. Weirdo. I adore this image of him.

Each one of these women means the world to me.

This image perfectly illustrates what I was trying to describe. I am so soaked in him, and when I see this picture it takes me right back. It was so natural. I love that I’m holding his hand behind my back, and intertwined with him like I never want to let go. It still makes me cry to see this.

To me, this image exudes confidence. Neither of us were scared, timid or unsure of the commitment we were about to make. This images shows the strength of our love.

One image that says it all.

This is it. If I only had this one image from our wedding day, I would be happy. This is the moment right after we exited the building from our ceremony. It’s a split second, and I can’t believe Jasmine was even there, I don’t remember her being there. This image sits framed on my desk, and every time I steal a glance, it makes me cry. I love this image above every other.

This is somewhat of an inside joke. But I can share with you that it involves a very embarrassing moment between one of my bridesmaids, and my father-in-law. I’m not sure which photographer snagged this gem, but I love you forever.

This picture is so perfect on so many levels. These two can gab on the phone for hours. It’s ridiculous. You would think I live with a 13 year-old girl with the amount of giggling, feet kicking and hysterical banter that goes back and forth. These two are soul mates, well second to me.

The atmosphere of the evening… so memorable, so awesome.

One Million Thank you’s:

Thank you Jasmine, JD, Sachin, Nate, Victoria, Stephanie, and Audrey for your breathtaking imagery and commitment to making this entire experience for us about us.

Thank you Celeste for being a shoulder to cry on and an advocate for me, and for holding everything together. To you I give: producer of the year.

Thank you Craig for believing that everything I could dream was possible.

Thank you Chase for letting me have my chairs.

Thank you world wide web for all of your cheers and congratulatory tweets on our wedding day, it wouldn’t have happened without you.

Thank you Billy for asking me to marry you, and agreeing to take this leap of faith in life starting with this very bizarre way to plan a wedding.

One incredible year full of life’s unyielding changes and triumphs.

One UNREAL honeymoon to Europe (which I can’t remember if I blogged about, so probably not… maybe I should do that).

One amazing meal on the day of our wedding.

Or actually two if you count last night. Last night we went out to Russell’s to celebrate our first year of marriage. Chef Ben Riggs re-created our wedding menu just for us. It was like living it all over again… so divine. We were so busy hiding during cocktail hour, coupled with the fact that they were so delectable, the appetizers went really fast. I didn’t get a single one. AND my bustier was so tight, I couldn’t enjoy much of my dinner. In fact, I got up halfway through the main course, went in the bathroom, took it off and threw it in the trash. The next person who threw their paper towel away was probably pretty alarmed. :-) Russell was right… with everything going on at the event, the only thing the guests still comment on, is the food.

Last night I wore a really comfortable outfit and stuffed my face.

One tiny life that is growing inside of me. Loved already so much by these two parents.  Maybe it’s the hormones, but I’ve never felt happiness and excitement quite like this. We are overjoyed with the realization that our dreams of having a family together are very near.

Looking at the above picture now, I probably shouldn’t have been holding Billy’s wine. But that’s just my sense of humor :-) I promise, I was only smelling it.

Thank you for reading this far.

All our love,

Laura and Billy

Ben and Nancy said “I do” in the stunning location of Beecher Hill House near Leavenworth, Washington on a gorgeous Saturday in August. Amongst rolling hillsides of apple and pear orchards, Beecher Hill House sits like a proud old giant, overseeing it’s years of hard work.

Ben and Nancy celebrated in true “Ben and Nancy” style. Friends and family traveled from afar to see the two pledge their love for each other, but the celebration didn’t end there. The bride makes her appearance in white and transitions to red, scrumptious food, dancing, the hills painted with sunset, scotch tasting bar, and cigars make the evening one I’m not soon to forget.

Ben and Nancy,

Thank you for your incredible hearts and hospitality. It was a pleasure being there with you for your day. I can’t wait to hear about your incredible honeymoon adventures!

xo,

Laura

Loving when my clients choose to do a first look… it always takes my breath away!

Nancy…. WOWZA… that’s all.

And this….

Pretty much sums it up.

I think I was “Bobbed” by this guy all night. But it’s cool because he let me take this uber invasive portrait of him, and he had cool glasses.

How is is mid-August already? The summer has completely taken me by surprise and cruised right by. Maybe it’s the fact that in Seattle we’ve only just begun our summer. For those of you baking in the rest of the country, I’ll share with you that it’s a big joke here in Seattle. As of August 1st, we had only 72 minutes of summer. Climates have been so reminiscent of spring, it’s a little hard for me to grasp that fall is right around the corner. I’m actually not butt hurt about it. I live in Seattle for a reason. This girl… does NOT like the heat. I become the Incredible Hulk and try to rip unsuspecting criminals to shreds. Heat + Laura = no bueno.

I’ve actually been relishing in my non-summer, and wedding season this year. It’s been a glorious 3 months of travel, beautiful weddings, personal projects, and family happenings (more on that later). All this fun was made possible by one thing. This summer I’m not stuck behind my computer with my wedding post processing. Friends, if you are still processing in house, let me share with you that there is a big big life out there to be lived. It’s possible for this to be taken off your plate, and in a way that won’t cost your first born child.

My wedding workflow has been simplified so much by just outsourcing, I now have more time to spend on my clients, my family, and myself. HECK, I even walked my dog!

Here’s the workflow I’ve worked out for this season:

Friday/Saturday.. or?: shoot

Monday: Cull, process and edit slideshow and blog selects

Tuesday: Ship drive, check off list until edits are returned 1-2 weeks later.

Not as hands off as film maybe… but working my way there. It was a tough decision to relinquish the control of editing my own images. I anguished over how to choose the right company to entrust my life’s work to. It wasn’t easy. After a few tests and trials, and running the numbers budget wise, I found my match in Pro Image Editors. They have terrific customer service (love you Tanya!), fast turnaround, incredible affordable price, and the best of all… the image quality. I can confidently say, they do I better job than I can do myself. It was a logical choice to outsource, take this portion of the “business” off my plate, and focus on what makes me a better person and better photographer.

disclaimer… The ONLY way this outsourcing thing works for the control freak inside me is that I cull my own, and I have final say over how the finished product looks because instead of sending back processed jpgs, my editor sends me the Lightroom catalog file. Admittedly, I’ve only ever had to tweak a couple of things over the course of the summer, but it’s a control I like to have.

Pricing for PIE is on a sliding scale, which means… the number of images you send either between 0-250, 251-500, 501-1000… has a set price. I almost always fall into the 501-1000 image price range. This costs me $155.00 plus my shipping costs to have someone else do my editing. I signed up for a slick FedEx account, so I get sweet discounts on very secure shipping, and they’ll pick it up from my front porch. I don’t even need to get out of my jammies! My cost per wedding to outsource averages $200.00 after shipping. My time costs WAY more than that.

Here are a couple before and after comparisons (forgive the resolution… I used screen grabs, but hopefully you get the point):

I strongly encourage everyone who has the desire to have a life in conjunction with your successful business, to consider outsourcing. Try it out, and see how amazing it feels to take this burden off your shoulders. You’ll be happier, your clients will be happier, and you can all hold hands and skip along together in your stress free environment.

For those of you who have read this far, I have a little reward for you. Clearly it’s something you’ve given some thought. Set up a new account with PIE, and use this code to save 75% off your first order: PIE_wants _U2_save

DO IT. Trust me. With all the time you save, you can write me a really nice thank you card.

xo,
Laura

Part two of Ryan and Madeline’s celebration brings us into the charming Belltown area of Seattle to the Palace Ballroom. This fabulous venue is not just another gorgeous space for a wedding. It’s made doubly awesome by the simple fact that it’s owned and operated by the ever-so-fabulous team at Tom Douglas. The night went off without a hitch. Family-style-out-of-this-world-food, family, friends, dancing, and plenty of Cavatappi wine flowing into the evening. What. a. night.

Ryan and Madeline,

It truly was an unforgettable evening… entire day! Your family, your friends, the food… this is how life is meant to be celebrated. La Dolce Vita!! Thank you for trusting my vision for your day, and welcoming me into the festivities. Whether you intended it or not, I really felt like an honored guest… and I was just the photographer! I wish you both the ABSOLUTE best, and can’t wait to see what comes next for you.

xo,

Laura

Madeline… stunning.