Words can’t even describe how beautiful this wedding was. Not only was every detail carefully planned out, it was also the most entertaining and emotional wedding. Angie and Trevor have been together for quite some time. They’ve seen the ups and downs of life, moved around quite a bit, and their relationship has survived the storm. I could definately feel the love between these two.

Angie is the younger sister of my very good friend, BriAnne. I’ve known Angie since we were all little kids. She has grown to be an amazingly beautiful woman with a solid head on her shoulders. I was overjoyed when she asked me to photograph her big day. I got to meet the groom a few years ago when BriAnne got married. To make things interesting, BriAnne’s husband is the brother to the groom. So when Angie and Trevor married, it was a set of brothers marrying a set of sisters. How cool is that?!!!  When it came to the family portraits, we laughed pretty hard since both sides included a lot of the same people.

The ceremony and reception were held at the Bride’s parents house. Flowers by Geranium Lake Flowers.

Special thanks to my Second (and third) photographers, Leya and Jason. You guys did an amazing job!!

To save all of you from my bad grammar and typos, I will just get to the point!

Enjoy a few highlights from the Coates/Skreen wedding….

oh how I love beautiful details…

funny how guys get ready versus how girls get ready!

okay seriously, these folks are just gorgeous!

my fav.

this just makes me laugh hysterically

favorite group shot to date!

Angie wanted something unique for her family photos. I think this is THE coolest photo of the bride/groom and their parents I’ve ever seen. Normally it’s just the ‘stand in line, take a shot’ sort of deal.

Coolness.

LOVE these

helllooooo beautiful couple

Mr. and Mrs. Coates’ first portrait as a married couple.

how cool are their reception details??!!!

Congrats Mr. and Mrs. Coates. I was so blessed to be a part of your day.

Thank you a million times over for choosing me to be your photographer!

This couple came all the way from Vancouver for a session with me. I’m always so flattered when people call me from Vancouver and Portland! We originally were going to do the session in Vancouver, but ended up doing it in my new studio. It’s not quite finished, but it was put together enough to have a session. They put me at ease and made me feel good about my new space. It’s coming along quite nicely and I will show photos as soon as it’s all done!

Little Miss “S” is seven weeks and an absolute DOLL.  Normally I do newborn sessions earlier since they sleep better, but she was a perfect angel. We went out to the park to get some nice outdoor family photos and then brought her back in studio to get the rest. Within minutes we had these beautiful images.

Thank you so much for such a wonderful session. I am so excited about these images and excited about my first in studio session!!

She did this the first try. Did I mention she was perfect!!! Look at those perfect little lips…. sigh.

look at those beautiful eyelashes!!

now you can see where she gets her looks. Her mama is absolutely stunning!!

Thanks for looking!!!

That was the difference between a minor fender bender and possibly a life.

Last night we were driving home from an overnight trip at the beach. We decided to take the long way around (the Washington coast). The boys were in the back taking their naps and we wanted to do a bit of sight seeing. There are so many beautiful places to stop along the way, so we were taking our sweet time getting home.

There was some major road construction going on about an hour from home. We got stuck in traffic for an hour after we’d already been driving for two hours. Since there was no place to stop off, I had climbed back in the back to calm the boys. They had finally woken up and were slightly upset that we weren’t moving anywhere (not to mention the baby had a wet diaper and there was no place to stop to change him).

Traffic cleared up a few minutes later and we were well on our way home. All of a sudden, traffic came to a complete STOP. We had been cruising along at about 45 miles an hour prior to the stop. Thankfully Derrick hit the brakes in time and we didn’t hit the person in front of us. Unfortunately the guy behind us didn’t see the traffic stop either. As I looked back, he swerved around the right of our car, slamming on his brakes. His tire went up along the side of our vehicle and he eventually stopped along the guard rail. I knew we had been hit, but I didn’t know how badly. My first instinct was to hug Isaac (who was sitting to the right of me). I started shaking and crying after realizing how close we came to being severely rear-ended.

When I finally gained my composure, I climbed out of the car. After looking around I lost it again and had to turn away (I hate crying in front of people). Thankfully everyone was okay. We chatted a bit with the other folks involved in the accident and I couldn’t help but thank the guy that hit us for acting so quickly and moving out of the way. If he would have been two inches closer to us, we would have been pushed completely forward into the car in front (and who knows what else). All I could think of is how hurt we all could have been since we were all going really fast. When he saw me bring our little boys out of the car, he had to wipe away some tears. I can’t even imagine what that guy was going through knowing he could have possibly hit us with small kids inside.

Our car had to be towed away as it’s not drivable and requires major body work. The tire was completely torn off and the axle bent, so we have some other major damage to that as well. But, a car can be fixed.

A person cannot be replaced.

I am so incredibly thankful that it was only damage to the car. A few inches and my story today could have been quite different. Thank you Lord for watching out for us and keeping us safe. I’m incredibly grateful.

The irony of my story is that I had been in quite a miserable mood prior to the accident. I was in a funk and quite unhappy with my hubby (as we wives can get sometimes). It had been a rough week and though we were on vacation, the tension was there. After it all happened I realized how incredibly stupid it was of me to feel so angry towards him for stupid reasons. (You don’t even want to know how stupid).

In a blink life can change dramatically. In a blink, I could have gone through that front windshield. In a blink my kids could have been gone.

Hug those you love.

Forgive others.

LIVE life.

You never know what might happen.

It’s not very often that one of my husbands brothers gets married. In fact, this has only happened twice. First when Derrick’s brother Bryce married Jessica (my SIL who shot this wedding with me), and now his youngest brother, Craig, SOMEHOW convinced and amazing woman to marry him. Nicole is one of the absolute sweetest people I know. She’s a cake decorator extraordinaire at Market Place Bakery (and yes, she actually made her own cake. She’s an amazing woman).

So now in my husbands family there are two photographers and a cake decorator. Too bad there are no more siblings, otherwise we’d be interviewing for a florist and a person who owns a venue. 😛

Congrats you two and don’t worry I won’t bother you too much about getting nieces and nephews. I figure you should be married at least a month before starting on those. 😉

LOVE details

what good looking people!!

Okay I showed this before but I love it so much, I HAD to show it again.

yup, good niece and nephew material here 😉

Okay so we flagged down this car and begged to get photos with it. Craig and his best man Kenny actually know the guy who owns it. Pretty sweet ride!

favorite part of the ceremony. They asked both sets of parents to pray over their marriage. I started crying at this moment. I kept my cool till then. Sigh.

Love this.

whoop whoop!

yeah, TOTALLY in love with the ring shot on lemon drops. Hmmm… dunno why…

And yes that amazing cake was made by the bride herself.

love

I love you two!!!!

I had the great pleasure of photographing these five beautiful ladies. Recently they became a family with five generations. The great great grandma told me that this is the second time in her life that she’s been in a five generation photo!! It’s so rare and such a fun thing to celebrate. I was really excited when the great grandma called me to document this special event.

Ladies, it was a pleasure photographing you. I hope you treasure these images.

aren’t they all just gorgeous??!!!!

this image melted my heart.

Real moment here!! Baby was fussing and they all went over to see her.