Sneak Peek - Seniors

TONS more coming soon...

Hilary + Justin

Ok so WHERE HAVE I BEEN!? Well... let's just say I've been keeping busy! I've been working on some awesome things that we will be unveiling very soon and they have had me running around like a crazy person! I have also been working on editing Hilary + Justin's AMAZING wedding! Usually when I do a blog post I just go through the photos really quickly and pull out my favorites and make my post.... well this time it was just SO HARD to decide! It has taken me forever to narrow the photos down for a post but I think I have finally picked out all my favorites!

This wedding was seriously so amazing, Joey and I are so blessed to have been a part of their day. These are two of the most amazing people you will ever meet. I'm so glad they found each other!

But enough talk, I know Hilary has been waiting so long for this post lets get to the photos!!!!

I went a little detail crazy at this wedding becuase everything was just so beautiful!


The shoes...


Isn't Hilary seriously gorgeous!?


Love this shot of her putting on her make-up...


The dress, not my typical view of it but I really love this image!




Hilary wore her mother's pearls, and I was having a lot of fun photographing them, I just had to include this one too!


Justin wasn't looking bad himself! I love these two images Shaun got for me, I was stoked to have him with us taking photos that day. He did an awesome job!


First look... I know you've seen it before but I am in love with this photo...




Hilary and Justin had their wedding at the beautiful La Paloma, where there are tons of fun photo spot!




I mean come on, you can't ask for a more perfect day, perfect location and perfect bride!


Love this!




I knew since Hilary was having Red as her main wedding color, we just had to go over to the red door spa and take a few pictures. The lighting was awesome and these guys are the perfect models!




They also had one of the best wedding parties EVER! These guys were so fun!




Justin and his guys...


The day really was perfect...


The backdrop was so beautiful!




I love this picture from when Justin was saying his vows to Hilary...


First Kiss!! I love these two, the lighting was just perfect!






First dance...


There were also some pretty emotional speeches, (and really funny ones too!)


And the dancing!!! The dancing was amazing!


Thank you both SOOOO much for letting me be a part of your day!

Kadie & Joe: A Love Story - Act 3 - Part 1

Ok here we go with part 1 of the third act of out love story. Apparently it takes longer to tell this story than I thought! It took me a little long to get to this one because the day before our anniversary Joey and I decided to take a spur of the moment trip to California to celebrate so I ran around like a crazy woman packing bags of clothes, shopping for supplies and getting things ready to go. We had so much fun! I will make sure and share some photos later this week. But with out further ado, here is the third act of our love story as promised ☺

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It was a cold, windy, spring night, and Kadie sat packed into the small metal bleachers surrounded by parents of the little league baseball kids that were running around the field. Joe was out there too, giving the kids his last minute pep talk before the game. They all stood huddled up in a tight circle, their purple jersey backs clearly visible with their “diamond backs” team logo. Joe clapped his hand loudly and the small huddle exploded into a furry of small running legs as the boys took their positions on the field. This wasn’t the first game Kadie had attended, but she always loved coming and watching Joe coach the boys. It was one of the things she admired about him. He was always so gentle with each of them, yet firm and always made his team behave like gentleman. Umpires would always remark to him how well behaved his team was. She also loved watching him do something he was so passionate about. He loved baseball, and it showed. As she sat and watched the game she began to think about “the list”. She smiled.

It had started out in junior high as a way to safeguard her heart. She had seen her girlfriend’s hearts broken by their boyfriends breaking up with them and she just had no desire to go down that road. So she had made the list, and she had made a promise. The promise was a simple one, but always seemed to puzzle other girls her age. But it made perfect sense to Kadie. Having seen her girlfriends hearts broken she decided that she wanted to have nothing to do with dating until she was at least 18. So she had made a promise to herself not to date until then. But of course making a simple promise to herself did not stop her from having crushes on boys. So she decided the best way to make sure she didn’t fall in love with the wrong person would be to make a list. A list of all the qualities she would want to have in a husband someday.

That’s how it had all begun, with that silly list. Every time she would start to have a crush on a boy she would pull out the list, run down the items and see if they met each one she was looking for. And each time the boy wouldn’t match her list. She knew it would be hard to find this person, her list was almost two pages long after all, but she also knew that God had the perfect man out there for her. The one who would complete her in every way, and she knew he was worth waiting for.

The years passed and Kadie kept true to her promise and never had a single boyfriend, all the while she hung on to her list. Still no boy ever matched it. That is, until she met Joe.

The game was halfway over and the Diamondbacks were winning 4-0. She looked around and saw the glowing smiles on all the faces of the proud parents around her. Her mind began to wander again and she thought about the phone call she had with Joe last night. They had been talking a lot lately, for hours. Last night had been no different. During their conversation Kadie had expertly weaved in questions to ask him about the items on her list. Each time he answered her heart beat faster as he met all the items on her list, except one that she had yet to ask him.

It was a silly question really, she had put it on there at the end as a final silly girly test of fate. You see Kadie liked to eat her hamburgers with French fries on them, and she had never met another person who did this. Of course she knew there must be other people in the world who liked French fries on their hamburgers but she figured the odds of a person doing that AND matching all the other qualities on her list were pretty slim.

They talked a little more on the phone, and Kadie aimlessly wandered around the house working up the courage to ask him the final question on her list. Nervously she sat down on the couch and took in a deep breathe. “Ummm… this is kinda random” she began. “But do you ever put French fries on your hamburgers when you eat them?”. There was a momentary pause on the other end of the line. “That is so weird that you ask that,” Joe said. “I do that almost 75% of the time I eat hamburgers.” Kadie fell off the couch, and dropped the phone. Fumbling she picked it up and began to excitedly talk to Joe again, trying to hide the fact that she had a smile stretching from ear to ear on her face.

As the baseball game was winding down to it’s final inning she thought about her list one last time. It was silly really, a young girls fantasy, waiting for prince charming to appear and be that man of her dreams. She supposed all girls had some sort of a list, maybe not quite as long or as detailed as hers, but at least a mental list of who they wanted to spend the rest of their life with. It seemed like it had to be fate. Meeting the man of her dreams who met every quality on her list, even her goofy elimination question just weeks before her 18th birthday.

Kadie snapped out of her day dream as heard the sound of boys cheering. Joe’s team had won. They all ran around cheering and Joe’s face smiled proudly. He looked over at Kadie through the metal chain link fence that separated the bleachers from the dugout and his eyes twinkled, Kadie’s eyes shone back and it was at that moment she knew she loved him.


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Sneak Peek - Shira + Chang

We just shot their engagement session yesterday and I just had to share this super cute image of the two of them.... I've also suddenly realized my blog has been seemingly taken over by black and white images lately lol! I guess I'm in a monochromatic mood this month! I promise my next photo post will be full of color!



Also, after much debate I have decided that logo frames are icky and distracting to my pretty photos. So all photos will be au naturel from now on! lol...

Kadie & Joe: A Love Story - Act 2

Ok, here is the next act in our love story, since I know I left you all on the edge of your seats with that last post lol.. If you happened to miss Act 1, you can find it HERE.

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The spring semester was almost over, and Kadie was on cloud nine. After some gentle urging from her photography professors, she had been talked into entering some photographs into her first juried show at the college. She hadn’t really had high hopes for the outcome, since she had only just recently completed her first photography class and all the other entries were from students that far surpassed her in education and experience. But her teachers had insisted so she had given in and entered two images.

When she received the news that she had won not only first place in the photography section, but also third place as well, she was ecstatic to say the least.

As she walked across the parking lot to her car after class she couldn’t help but be proud of herself and excited for the future. Lost in her thoughts she heard a voice calling her name. She stopped, turned around, and there was Joe. Had he been that cute last semester she thought to herself… she hadn’t remembered him being quite so good looking. She caught herself staring and said hello. They chit chatted for a while and she told him all about the photography competition and how surprised and excited she was to have won. He smiled, congratulated her and told her what he had been up to since they had last seen each other. He in turn grew very excited as he told her that he had fallen in love with journalism and gotten hired on at the school newspaper as the assistant editor. “You should apply for the photographer’s position” he said. Kadie cocked her head to the left, the warm spring sunshine hitting her face. She was confused since she had been told just the day before that the position had already been filled. Joe now looked equally puzzled and told her no, that they were still interviewing people but that technically today was the last day to apply. Kadie sighed, sad to have missed a great opportunity on faulty information.

Joe got a twinkle in his deep brown eyes and told her that if she could get a resume and portfolio together by tomorrow he would go talk to the hiring board and convince them to let her apply. She smiled excitedly and told Joe she would bring in her resume and portfolio bright and early the next morning.

Sure enough she did and was quickly set up with an interview and suddenly found herself the official staff photographer for “The Roughwriter”. No sooner had she been hired than it dawned on her that Joe was going to be her new boss.

Being the one and only photographer for the paper meant she ended up doing photography for just about anything and everything the paper might be writing a story on. Her least favorite of these assignments was sports, having to sit through 3 hour games to take photos wasn’t really her cup of tea. However, because of this she found herself spending quite a bit of time with Joe again. You see in addition to being the assistant editor, he was also the staff sports writer. They kept each other company during the games, Joe telling her the rules to some of the ones she had never played and Kadie randomly jumping up to snap a photo when the action got good.

During these long games a funny thing happened. Kadie began to like Joe more and more. Although his sneakers, once white, but now yellow, cracked and warped always bothered her. He might not have the best choice in clothing she thought. But he really was one the sweetest guys she had ever met. So finally, one day after a long meeting for the newspaper, Kadie called out for Joe to hang on a sec. She walked across the cafeteria her feet clacking on the linoleum and caught up with him.

“I was wondering,” she started hesitantly… “if I could maybe get your phone number.” Joe looked at her and smiled, having given up giving her his number after his seventh attempt. He pulled a large sheet of 8.5 x 11in paper out of his beat up blue backpack and in large numbers that filled up the entire page he wrote his number for her. He handed it to her and said “try losing that.”

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Sneak Peek - Hilary + Justin

Maybe I'm just in a sappy mood because my anniversary is coming up,  but when I found this image while going through the photos we took for Hilary and Justin's wedding last month, I just about started crying.  I don't know what it is, but I love this image.  It just exudes love and tenderness.  I love my clients....



I seriously cannot wait to share the rest of the photos with you...

Kadie & Joe: A Love Story - Act 1

(Joey and I's anniversary is coming up on the 9th, so I thought instead of just sharing the story of how he proposed,  I'd share our whole love story in three acts, keep in mind this is from my perspective which Joey thinks is very flawed, so if you want his side of the story you might have to ask him lol...)

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Running late seemed to be Kadie's major talent in life. It probably had to do with the fact that she just loved to sleep, which might have stemmed from the fact she liked to stay up late. Whatever the reason, she could never seem to be on time to anything. Today was no exception. It was the first day of school for the fall semester of 2003 and Kadie was running across campus after her first class of the day had gotten out late. As she ran she thought about her dream of being a forensic anthropologist and then weighed that against the chemistry class she had just endured for the past hour and half. "Could she really sit through eight years of science classes?" she thought to herself. Finally she reached the door to her next class which promised to be a much needed break from all her gen ed's. Creative writing sounded like just what the doctor ordered. She swung the big oak door open and scanned the small room for a seat. The room was tiny, and crammed with 5 circular tables and a teachers desk. Around each table were 4 to 5 uncomfortable looking plastic chairs in various shades the 70's had provided. She took a seat at the first table she came to at the back of the room. The room filled up quickly and soon every seat was taken. The other chairs around her occupied by a very overweight middle age man, and young girl about her age with dark curly hair, and a rather geeky looking boy who always seemed to wear a very mischievous grin on his face.

The first few weeks passed as the class was given different assignments to write and then read aloud to the class. Kadie soon became slightly uncomfortable by the people surrounding her as each week they seemed to grow more and more odd. The big middle-age man to her left was constantly wielding his large red marker, putting massive red '"x"s across anyone's work he disliked in the least bit. That combined with his 6 page erotic poem made Kadie uneasy to say the least. The other two people at her table also seemed to enjoy the erotic a bit to much with the geeky looking smiling boy writing long stories about necrophiliacs and crazy phsyco women. All of this made her have second thoughts about her choice of seat for the class.

The next day she managed to get to class early and take a new seat across the room from her new found erotic friends. She hadn't chosen the seat by random. Although she told herself that she had. Secretly there was a boy in this class she thought was cute. A bit rock and roll, but so was she, in her cut off jeans, long blonde hair, smoky eyes, black and red skater shoes and cool puffy wristbands. Heck, she was even in a band. The room filled up again and her new table mates seemed to give her an understanding smile as they took their seats next to her.

Again, assignments came, and class periods went by, and she soon found that she had nothing in common with rocker boy at all. So she began talking to the other people at her table, one of which was a boy named Joe.

They hit if off right away and talked constantly during class, discussing their families, and newest poetry they were working on. After class, Joe would walk Kadie to her red jeep wrangler, set her inside safely, then stand waving as she drove off into the distance. Kadie however, had a very different perspective on the sweet events that were occurring between her and her new table mate. After arriving home from class she ran into her mothers room and proceeded to tell her about this crazy boy at school that she thought was stalking her. "He even follows me to my car mom! And he doesn't leave until I drive away, and even then he stands in my parking spot waving for who knows how long. I think he's stalking me." Kadie's mom smiled, and assured her daughter that she was sure she was mistaken, and that the boy most likely was not stalking her.

Kadie, however, remained unconvinced.

As the rest of the semester went by, Joe attempted to give Kadie his phone number several times under the guise of wanting to go over some poetry they had written, and to get the other's opinion on the work. Kadie, although flattered by these offerings, was not about to take his phone number. But of course she wasn't going to be rude about it, so she took them and then simply lost them.... 7 times....

The semester ended, and Kadie was sure that was to be the last of her stalker. However, fate had something very different planned for her.

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End of Act 1

Room To Stay

For those of you who don't know, my little sis is an uber talented videographer, I get to work with her on a lot of weddings when she is shooting for her company Reel Mccoy Productions. However she is also going to film school right now to pursue her life long dream of becoming a movie director. Now you may balk at this; you may even laugh; I mean come do you know how many people ACTUALLY MAKE IT in that industry!? And if we were talking about anybody other than my sister I'd agree with you.

But we are talking about my little sis, who got her associates degree at the age of 17! She is the most determined, stubborn person I have ever met and if she wants something there is no stopping her until she reaches her goals. So I KNOW she is going to make it.

Anyway; yes, I am a proud big sis. Moving on with my story.

On Thursday last week Kasie (my little sis; and yes we have almost the exact same name...) filmed her 1st ever REAL movie! I mean she's filmed tons of other movies with her nice digital cameras, but this was her first movie shot on film, on a soundstage, with a cast that she held auditions for the part, for a story she wrote, and on an elaborate set she made. It was an all out production! So when she needed a photographer to come take behind the scenes photos for her, I really wanted to be there!

It was so fun to see my lil sis in her element! They had like 30 min conversations where I could have sworn they must have been speaking a different language. It was awesome. I for the most part tried to stay out of the way and keep out from underfoot while trying to take photos.

Here's a few photos that I got during the day, and a link to a SLIDESHOW of a bunch more of the photos.

Here's the synopsis for the movie so you can get an idea of what it's about:

A man finds himself trapped in an unknown room, and his attempts to escape only result in deeper levels confusion and disorientation. As various items he finds remind him of a past life, he becomes increasingly more determined to discover a way to escape

The creepy little set...


Kasie turned my photo into the poster for her movie...



Kasie and her hubby adjusting some lighting modifiers...


Will, her actor for the part, was REALLY GREAT! Here's one of the times they filmed him running into the room...


No clue what they are doing, but it looked important...


Ohh this was fun! Kasie's hubby Ryan does amazing special effects make-up, and in the movie there is a creepy bride with her mouth sewn shut. (played by my future-sis-in-law Mickey) SOOOO CREEPY!!!


So this is my favorite photo from the day, it's so hollywood to me! She looks so into what she is doing, I just remember smiling the whole day inside as I watched her directing and totally passionate about what she was doing.


If you want to see more photos there are a TON in the slideshow I made for her. To view it just click here!

The Most Amazing; Most Awesome; Most Magical Proposal EVER!!!!

In my job I love hearing how all my couples propose. And there have been some good stories along the way. But this one pretty much takes the cake! Of course we all know I'm a little biased towards disneyland so I'm sure that has something to do with why I think it's so great! Take a look and I'll share how Joey proposed to me on Monday!

Celina + Bryan

Celina contacted me a while back curious if i was available to photograph her wedding in November, sadly I was already booked :( But I was super stoked when she asked if I could still do their engagement session for them! Since Celina had already told me they were going to have a vintage themed wedding I just KNEW we had to do their engagement session in Bisbee. When they agreed I was so excited to be back to my favorite town to take some more pictures. We hit up some of my fav spots and found a couple new ones too!

I am really really in love with this doorway, and Celina and Bryan totally rocked it out!!!



How cute is this!!! I love how old all these buildings are!

So.... I was already sad I couldn't shoot their wedding, but shots like these make me REALLY sad I can't photograph it... I mean she is going to make one beautiful bride!

They are seriously a fun couple to hang out with too, Joey and I had so much fun with them!


I <3 This Photo!!!

Quick, who can name the other engagement session I did where the bride wore a blue dress and yellow shoes?

Isn't this fun!?

Are you kidding me!?!? Totally gorgeous!!!


Lol, so this whole session I felt like a complete couch potato. See, Bryan is a personal trainer and we're walking all around taking photos and I am really starting to get tried... because Kadie+Exercise do not a friendship make; in fact we're more like good friends who had a REALLY bad falling out. Maybe one day we'll patch things up, but for now we aren't on speaking terms. So... I am quite out of shape. So here we are walking around and I'm huffing and panting and sucking in air like I've never heard of oxygen before. Meanwhile everybody else looks fresh as daisies and ready for a 10 mile hike. It's at this moment that I saw these stairs and KNEW what a good photo it would be if I hiked to the top and shot down. I then began to weigh my artistic vision against my bodily will to climb the steps... and like always the artist in me won out and I huffed and puffed my way to the top. But I totally think it was worth it! (sidenote to make me feel less like an out of shape dork, those stairs were MUCH taller and there to many more of them than you can see in this photo... ok... I'll stop now lol)


I've had this idea rolling around for a while and I love how it came out, totally reminds me of a fashion ad...

Have I mentioned I love Bisbee?

Got creative with some off camera light for a little bit... I love how this one turned out!

Ok so I bought this camera for $10 at a thrift shop, thought was totally cute just to set on my shelf in my living room. But then I started to get an idea for using it in a photo. Celina and Bryan were gracious enough to let me play around and get my idea out.... I kinda like the results!



Thank you guys SOOO much for letting me still get to be a part of your wedding even in this small way. I had so much fun getting to know you both! I can't wait to see some of your wedding pics I know it's going to be amazing!