Ian and Abby timed their ceremony to start just as the sun began to set on the beautiful McCormick Ranch Golf Course. The warm Arizona day dropped down to the perfect temperature for everyone to enjoy the wedding. Ian and Abby were so excited to be married and united as one that they chose to keep their ceremony short and sweet, “Do you?” “yes” , “Do You?” “yes” then a quick and fun hand shake, a passionate kiss and off they went to enjoy their party with everyone.
We walked in to the Presidential suite loaded down with our gear ready for the hustle and bustle of the long anticipated day. What we found was so much better. Abby and her close knit family laughing, smiling, and sharing stories. There is noting more special to us than to see a family so close and so excited about sharing such a special day.
Ian and Abby had their priorities alined when it came to their wedding day; the most important thing was to have fun with all of their friends and family. The couple set aside lots of time before the ceremony for their first look, family photos, and of course fun photos with their large wedding party. The McCormick Ranch Golf Club was incredibly accommodating and provided the wedding party with seven golf carts to get everyone around for the pictures. Ian and Abby’s golf cart was even adorned with a lovely Just Married sign. Now we are not going to lie, a large wedding party and that many golf carts means a little bit of pandemonium, but they all got returned safely in the end.
The anticipation and preparation for Halloween always started months in advance in our family, when my grandmother would come over and ask us what we wanted to dress up as and then proceed to work her magic to make us whatever costume we had managed to dream up. It was a My Little Pony for about 3 years, a ballerina mouse, Queen Elizabeth I, one of the 12 dancing princesses, and my personal favorite Maleficent, amongst many others. The art of costumes has changed over the years but the planning and excitement is still in the air every October. Suze has been planning Aiden’s first Halloween costume from about the moment he came home. She was set on the cutest little pumpkin costume but that was until the plump little green dinosaur costume popped up on the racks. Aiden was quite happy to wear his costume pre-halloween when we saw him and even rocked the hood up for us. So cute!
Kate and Kyo knew they weren’t going to have a lot of time on their wedding day for their portraits and wanted to maximize the time we had for photos with their family and the wedding party. The rock the dress session was the perfect solution for them and Kate and Kyo really like the idea of a relaxed portrait session just for the two of them the day after the wedding. Most brides only wear their wedding dress once and our rock the dress session gave Kate the opportunity to wear her absolutely beautiful dress two days in a row. Portland gave us one lovely sunny day for the wedding but pulled out its typical cloudy overcast weather for Kate and Kyo’s rock the dress. But we certainly weren’t complaining. Call me silly but I find dramatic clouds add an element of romance.
There are so may beautiful places for photographs in Portland that it was almost hard to choose where to start. Luckily Brett and I had some time to scout around Portland and find some favorite spots. We decided to start the session in the eastern part of downtown Portland near the train station. There was so much variety of what we could shoot in a two block radius, long yellow grass, wooden walk ways, modern sculptures, and even an old industrial mill, we were just jittery with excitement.
It was a fabulous weekend, and we are so pleased to be able to share these with you. Have you ever seen a couple more in love?
