Happy Birthday Brian

While most of our photographer friends in Florida have spent the past couple months enjoying the "off-season," we're coming off five weekends in a row of amazingly fun weddings. I guess that comes with working two markets.

Last weekend, since we were in Jackson on Friday, we were able to make it home in time to host our dear friend Brian's surprise party. Brian turned 29 for the second time, and he and Esther were visiting from New York. They stopped by the studio to visit us and we had a bunch of friends there waiting for him.





Then we went to the local favorite Kanpai of Tokyo and enjoyed a fantastic dinner. For the after-party we headed to Nolan and Konika's house for the second annual fantasy football draft.

While our fearless commissioner Brian got ready to start the draft, we got the kids ready for bed.






Meanwhile, Brian and Joy had the computers out and the strategies ready.



Nolan made this nasty tea that he discovered in Argentina, called Mate (ma-tay). It's gross!



Brian on the phone with Paul, barely 24 hours after he and Amanda tied the knot! LOL!!! Perhaps the funniest part of the whole thing is that Paul isn't even really that big of a football fan!



Good times with two of my best high school buddies.


In conclusion, happy birthday Brian and may the best team (mine........or Joy's) win.

Handsome Sulley

It's hard to believe that next month Sulley will be six years old! Joy and I had been married for a year when she finally talked me into getting a dog. Sulley would give us good practice for child rearing, we reasoned. LOL!

He immediately stole our hearts and we were the typical proud parents of an adorable little golden retriever puppy.

He's always been an indoor dog, except for the past 10 months as we've been in transition between studios, houses, locations, etc. So in preparation for bringing him back inside, last week we treated him to his first ever professional grooming, at Bark Avenue on East Brainerd Rd.

Joy picked him up on the way home from the studio and let me tell you, he was looking handsome. We started taking pictures of him and Graycen kept jumping in saying, "I wanna take pic-chure, I wanna take pic-chure."

So here you have it.

Ann Marie and William tie the knot in St. Augustine

I'm not sure if "exquisite" is the right word or perhaps "spectacular" does a better job describing Ann Marie and William's wedding. The two were married at the beautiful Cathedral Basilica in St. Augustine and their reception took place around the corner at Casa Monica.


Ann Marie is such a classic beauty. Her make-up was done by Janet Mednick of On Site Beauty, and like always, Janet's work is stunning.



Ann Marie rode with her parents and her bridesmaids to the reception in the same limo that she and William took to the senior prom!



The light in the church was wonderful and I love how her face glows under her veil as she's coming down the aisle.



Lots of wonderful emotion.



The cathedral is amazing.



The Cathedral Basilica.



The bride and groom in downtown St. Augustine.




The reception was beautiful! Coordinated by Heather Snively and the ladies at Weddings Unique, it was quite the memorable evening.





A beautiful father-daughter dance.



The first of five courses.



The Buzzcatz provided the music for the evening, and as always, they're a real treat!



Getting to the good stuff.



The evening continued long into the night and everyone had a blast!



Congratulations Ann Marie and William! May God bless you as you begin this exciting chapter of your new life together.

Special props to our dear friends Katie and Chris Torres from 6 of Four Creations in Atlanta who were on-hand to help us with the wedding. And of course a shout-out to our pal Jeffrey Stoner who provided video coverage for Ann Marie and William.

Amanda and Paul

We had all been waiting for this date for a long time. Our dear friends Amanda and Paul finally tied the knot in Jackson, Mississippi. In the midst of a swamped, busy, crazy stretch of travel, I packed in with Nolan, my college room-mate, and we made the drive.

Paul lived across from us in college and we became friends then. Following college he headed to Rochester Institute of Technology to get his Masters. Then Joy and I talked him into moving to Orlando, where he lived with us for about 8 months. During that time he built us a website and ate lots of peanut butter.

Shortly after he moved in, he and Amanda met at church and the rest, as they say, is history.

A fun portrait session before the wedding...



The families came together for a beautiful mini-concert in the church atrium just before the ceremony.



Another image from the concert. It was beautiful, emotional, peaceful and all kinds of other adjectives.



We always like to capture shots of moms and dads or grandparents holding hands. But this time when I looked for the hands I noticed that Paul's mother and Amanda's mother were holding hands. I love this capture because being friends with Paul and Amanda and knowing the roads that ther lives have traveled to get to this point, it's especially meaningful.



Another exciting factor of this wedding for me was that David Smith was also photographing. About 6 years ago when I was really starting to get interested in photography, I called David and asked if we could go to lunch. I think we spent about 3 hours together and I nearly got in trouble when I returned to work, but David inspired me and gave me the confidence to pursue my passion. He is one of the nicest and most under-rated photographers I know, and it was so much fun to work with him.



The bride and groom exit the church. This isn't an exceptionally great image, but I'm posting it because it was funny to see Paul's good friend Brent (on right) running around with his MacBook Pro streaming footage of the wedding online. It was hilarious! While many friends were unable to attend, they could at least watch the wedding live online!



The wedding reception centered around the cake. It was chocolate cake with peanut butter with a raspberry creme frosting, and it made quite an impression. Paul's 95-year-young grandfather sits in the background.



Of course a get-together with Paul wouldn't be complete without a little juggling show. What fun! And in the background of this image, under the Scandanavian-looking clock, Paul's sister Elisabeth and her husband Dag. They live in Italy and they just got married three weeks ago in Sweden!



A few portraits at the Mississippi Museum of Art, where the reception took place.




I know this isn't about me, but I found a great mirror at the museum and made a fun self-portrait.



Congratulations Amanda and Paul. We're so excited for you and we wish you all of God's richest blessings as you begin your new life together!

(I think we took a shot of all the guys from college. I'll have to find that and post it soon. Stay tuned....)

Here's the shot of all the guys. L to R, David Smith, Dan Braun and one of his three handsome sons, Peter Braun, Paul the groom, Nolan Wright, yours truly, Timothy Roban Putt, and Brent Hardinge. Not pictured: Rev. Mike Cauley.

One more from Norway

Please humor me. I found one more image from Silje and Crispin's wedding that I wanted to share.



I was standing in the back of the sanctuary and my eye caught a flare off of one of the guests. Dressed in traditional Norwegian attire, this gentleman sported a bunad knife, which is reserved only for special occasions. We speculated that perhaps it might be used in the event that someone comes and tries to steal the bride. Fortunately we didn't have to find out.

Nevertheless, his outfit and the girls clowning around behind him made for a fun image.

Silje and Crispin from Norway

We've made it through most of the images from Silje and Crispin's wedding in Norway and I couldn't wait any longer, so here's a peak. These guys did great! It was so much fun.

These two little guys were so funny...


The bridal party...


The Norwegian custom is for all of the guests to bring cakes as their admission to the reception. There was A LOT of cake! And it was good!


These two kids cracked me up. They were plotting a clear strategy in preparation for the cake feast.


I love juxtaposition, and we use it most often in portraits. But this time we were able to include it in a detail shot. Fun!



The day after...isn't Norway scenery amazing?









Thanks so much, guys, for asking us to come with you to Norway. It was an amazing experience. Blessings to you as you begin your exciting new journey together.

(I may have a couple additional ceremony pics to post soon)