Monday, July 10, 2006

Three Weddings in a Row!!

As some of you know I just finished my crazy weekend of three amazing weddings in a row! I could talk so much about how amazing each wedding was, but it would take me all day to write about it! So I'll do my best to give good summary's! :)

Megan and Josh were AMAZING. I used to work for Megan way back in the college days when I was pretty much the only photographer for the school yearbook and she was the editor. Megan pretty scheduled her wedding around days that I would be available....SUCH an honor! (It's really making me strive to have all of my clients e-mail me first before they book a reception site to see if I'm available!) :) I couldn't believe during the reception when I got the slideshow up and going, it was right after she and Josh had cut the cake and they were sitting down at their table to enjoy it and I mentioned (cause I knew Megan would want to see it) that I had the slideshow ready and she literally RAN (as fast as a bride in a wedding dress can run) over to see it! Josh was like, "can't we eat the cake first?" but even by then she was out of earshot! I want more clients like THAT! :)

Thanks Megan and Josh for such an INCREDIBLE wedding!

Josh and his boys....



Megan had this incredible smile on her face the ENTIRE day! It was seriously impossible to take a bad picture of her! It was hard for me to figure out which ones to post because we had so many! :)





One of Josh's guys were checking out his ring after the ceremony....



We had such great lighting at the end of the night. I loved it! :)



Meg and Josh had such a great exit with everyone lined up with sparklers! I hope you guys have such a great honeymoon! Can't wait to see you after you get back! :)




Next was ANOTHER Meghan (but spelled differently!) :) and her super sweet husband Ray. Meg and I also go back all the way to our Freshman year at Westmont college. Meg has been one of my biggest supporters since I started my business 2 years ago. She's passed numerous engaged friends my way who have ended up being clients so it was such a pleasure to be a part of her day. It's kinda a long story, but when Meghan was in college she developed an extremely rare disease and was in the hospital for months. All the doctors agree that it is a miracle that she is alive today and I had that in my mind the whole day I was shooting. It just made the day that much more precious that she is here getting married when just a few years ago death was quite literally at her door. Praise God! :)

Super cute flower girl getting her hair done.....







Meghan and Ray had such a cool ceremony which Ray's youth pastor officiated at. It was his first wedding and it went so well!





I can't say much more without talking about my new friend Rudy Arpia



who came up and shot both of these weddings with me! I was so lucky to have such an incredible 2nd shooter with me. He is so talented and such a great guy! I really enjoyed his company and can't wait to go through all of his amazing images. Here are just a few from the weekend.....





He grabbed this shot of me shooting on his Nikon gear. Now he thinks it's because I'm secretly in love with Nikon, but really I was just making sure that Canon had way better gear.....and yep! I was right! :) Actually, the Nikon D2X is a SWEET camera, and the images out of it look amazing. If I were starting all over I might invest in Nikon, but at the same time, I'm very happy with my Canon 20D and Mark II N. :) I think too many people make too big a deal out of the different camera companies. The truth is, you can get great images out of either, and it's really the person BEHIND the camera not the actual camera that makes a great image. :) Thanks so much Rudy! I can't wait too shoot with you again! :)



The LAST wedding was yesterday and that was with Thomas and Rachel....again friends from Westmont! :) (No, I swear I don't just shoot friend's weddings!) :) Their wedding was so much FUN to shoot! Thomas is just about the sweetest guy a girl could ever find and Rachel is so lucky to have him! He has such a heart for God and for people, it's amazing to be around him.

I love this shot of Rachel peaking out the doors leading into the church before she came down the isle! So cute! That's Thomas in the foreground....



During the ceremony Thomas and Rachel played this hilarious video of how they met and how their relationship grew. It was so funny listening to it and seeing everyone's reactions. This was Thomas's old pastor from Chicago cracking up with his groomsmen in the background.






Again, I'm so blessed to have awesome 2nd shooters. Kristin Shaparenko joined me and did such an amazing job at yesterday's wedding.

Here's a quick shot I grabbed of her.....



Thanks for your amazing shots Kristin! :)




I wish I could take the next few days off before my next wedding on Saturday, but I have over 8,000 images from the last week to edit!! :) Even though, I'm pretty exhausted, this whole experience has taught me really how much I love wedding photography and how lucky I am to be able to do it! Getting to be a part of the most important day in these people's lives is such a blessing that I never want to take for granted. I really do believe I have one of the best jobs in the world and this last week only reinforces that sentiment! :)

2 comments:

Rodolfo Arpia said...

Chris, great images! I'm glad you made it alright after 3 weddings in a row ;-)

Holritz Photography said...

Wow. We only did the three wedding thing once last year, and I thought we were going to drop! Two weddings, a weekend ago, just about killed me!

This is some great stuff Chris!

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