Love Is....

Love is not noticing the world around you:

I'm so excited about this next engagement session. I have never seen two people more wrapped up in each other. 

Jessica And Jeff Got Married!!!

Hi! I hope everybody had a wonderful memorial weekend. This slideshow took a little bit longer, than most, but I had a really hard time editing down the photos, because we got some really amazing shots.

We got to photograph the amazingly, beautiful wedding of Jessica and Jeff. Seriously, hands down gorgeous home wedding and reception. Home wedding and receptions are near and dear to my heart, since Josh and I had one when we got married. At home weddings remind me of my favorite wedding movie "Father of The Bride", both the Spencer Tracy & Steve Martin version.  

Jessica did a tremendous job on the details. You could tell there was a lot of love put into each and every detail of the wedding. Perhaps it was inspired by the love that Jessica and Jeff feel for each other. Every look and every touch they shared on their wedding day was inspired by the way they feel about each other, and it was wonderful to see all of their friends and family rejoice and relish in this love.

I think this time, I will let the photographs speak for themselves:

I always inspire to get a great dress shot during the getting ready time:

As well as a ring shot:

Our beautiful bride, Jessica: 

My favorite part was when Jessica and Jeff were being photographed by Josh, I got a little bit of alone time with their daughter, Isabella. She is such a gorgeous and sweet baby:

We also got some really fun bridal party photos:

We told the girls to make Jeff smile:

Afterwards, we had a quick session with just Jessica and Jeff:

You'll have to watch the slideshow for the rest. I had so many favorites it was really hard to narrow this post down...

Enjoy!

A Sneak Peak

A sneak peak of what's coming very soon....

MSD is growing. There will be some changes in the very near future.....

Jacqui And Roy Are Getting Married!!

This weekend not only did we get to photograph a fabulous wedding (slideshow coming soon), but we also got to photograph Jacqui and Roy's engagement photos. Jacqui and I actually met through Xanga too from my old wedding blog, and it just so happened that Jacqui and Roy chose us as their wedding photographers :) I know she and I have been looking forward to their engagement photographs probably a little bit more than Josh or Roy, and was it worth the wait! 

Five Things We Learned About Jacqui &  Roy:

1. They were up for anything which we absolutely love! When I mentioned that I wanted to use a prop for their photographs (in this case a dozen red balloons and one heart shaped balloon), Jacqui said sure! "You guys are the creative ones." And although Roy was reluctant at first, I think he ended up enjoying the balloons most of all :)

2. Roy and I share the same sardonic sense of humor. Yay for wit!

3.  They are both originally from New Jersey. I love how they say waater heehee.

4. Roy has good tastes in jeans. 

5. They are happily in love. You should of seen how excited Roy got when he was talking about goccoing their wedding invitations. I think Josh tied one bow through out the whole wedding...

On to the photos!!!

First things first. A photograph of the lovely bride to be: 

Roy is a lucky fella, but he's a pretty dashing fella too:

We had a lot of fun with the balloons:

We walked around for a while taking photographs, and waiting for sunset. Josh knew it was going to be amazing, and it didn't disappoint. 

I love this photograph. I love how it shows how small we really are against this gorgeous world:

We were getting ready to leave, and some killer spot lighting caught both Josh and mine's eye at the same time. I didn't put any of these photographs in the slideshow because they didn't fit into the mood of it, but hot diggity dang! They came out hot! 

Definitely not your parent's engagement photos lol. Jacqui and Roy, we had so much fun hanging out with you guys on a scorching hot day, but hey between the four of us I think we produced some scorching hot images. We can't wait to see you at your wedding!

I know Jacqui's been soooo excited about her slideshow! Guess what? It's here :) 

Never Take Love For Granted...

I wanted to blog about something, that I meant to blog about on May 2, 2008 and sadly didn't make the time too, but I figure it's never too late. That day I was browsing the internet and stumbled across the headline "Mildred Loving, matriarch of interracial marriage, dies". Now it immediately caught my attention since Josh and I are interracial. I'm El Salvadoran, and he's Jewish. Two very different cultures. I read the article and tears quickly swelled up inside of me. You see, Mildred Loving and Richard Loving, are the only reason that Josh and I, and hundreds of couples, are now allowed to be legally married and live a peaceful life together. They challenged the Supreme Court against an ancient, and out dated law that stated that races were not allowed to legally be married. They suffered through humiliation after humiliation. Convicted for a one year jail sentence and eventually kicked out of their home state of Virginia. Turned away, unable to rent or own a home due to their relationship. The ridiculing that they must have faced  just because they fell in love with each other. I just couldn't imagine, and yet it didn't even enter my mind that Josh and I would of once ever shared such hardships. On June 12th, 1967 the supreme court ruled that the government had no right to infringe on who a person was allowed to marry. Tragically, Richard Loving passed away a few years later in a car accident, and Mildred went into seclusion. But on June 12, 2007 she made a rare statement to the public.

"Surrounded as I am now by wonderful children and grandchildren, not a day goes by that I don't think of Richard and our love, our right to marry, and how much it meant to me to have that freedom to marry the person precious to me, even if others thought he was the "wrong kind of person" for me to marry. I believe all Americans, no matter their race, no matter their sex, no matter their sexual orientation, should have the same freedom to marry. Government has no business imposing some people's religious beliefs over others. Especially if it denies people's civil rights. I am still not a political person, but I am proud that Richard's and my name is on a court case that can help reinforce the love, the commitment, the fairness, and the family that so many people, black or white, young or old, gay or straight, seek in life. I support the freedom to marry for all. That's what Loving, and loving, are all about."

It's funny how sometimes we get so caught up on silly things. What to cook for dinner, the desire of a new ipod, whether you'll have time for a manicure this week, and we quickly forgot the important things in life. To read and learn about such an amazing couple that helped pave the way for so many of us, including some of our brides and grooms, just reaffirms my thought that the human race is an amazing and beautiful race. 

Mildred and Richard Loving

P.S. If you would like to read more about them here are some direct links:

Loving Day Org

Wikipedia

An Old Fashioned Strip Tease...

I'm so excited! I seem to spend half my life excited according to this blog, but seriously, I'm excited...

I am performing an old fashioned strip tease using our new album company....

Cue the stripper music....

Let me entertain you....

Let me make you smile....

I'll make you feel good....

I'll make it worth your while...

lol...sorry I'm silly :)

While this is a sample album using their company's photos, I'm currently designing an album with our photographs in it. I love it. The pages are not as thick as a flush mount album, but not as thin as a coffee table book. I'm calling it a hybrid album. Check out the actual pages:

I also love that you can order these mini versions in sets of eight. They'd be great to give to grandparents, special aunts and uncles, or even your bridal party.

Check out the bobby pin above the book. They're 4x5 inches.

The set of them together:

The albums are beautiful and person, and are imported from Italy using the highest quality materials. We are currently building the pricing for these albums, but I'm ecstatic to offer them to our brides...

P.S. Does anyone know any synonyms for "seriously" and "excited"? I figure it's time I replace my two favorite words with something else. 

Of Ice and Men...

We didn't shoot a wedding last weekend, nor an engagement shoot. It was our first weekend off in a while, and we truly enjoyed it. Josh and I went to Josh's second cousin's 9th birthday party instead. It was held at an ice skating rink. We sat around and relaxed and enjoyed just hanging out with all of our family. I ice skated until I fell down, and then I was done. We swore we weren't going to photograph anything...but as always we couldn't resist.

Cassandra was the birthday girl. I think I wore that exact same hair doodad on my 9th birthday, although I sported a I Love JTT tshirt instead. I think I like Troy more though....

Josh was grouchy as always, so I decided to skate by myself :)

Although after about ten minutes I was done, and the skates were off. 

Plus I missed Josh. We're never really apart for very long.

After that it was time for cake....

I think you could tell I was anticipating it...

Cassandra had a hard time blowing out all the candles, but after about oh....six or seven times she finally blew out the last one.

I don't think I was the only one anticipating cake....

I think we all enjoyed it. Some more than others:

Finally, we all watched in awe as the Zamboni machine cleaned the ice. I always wanted to ride one when I was little...I think it's every little boys and girls dream to ride the Zamboni at one point....

All in all, it was a great party. It was so nice just to spend time with our family. We're actually doing our soon to be cousin-in-law's maternity photos in the next couple of weeks so stay tuned...

Happy Mother's Day!!!

It's six minutes before midnight, so it still counts!!! I just wanted to say Happy Mother's Day to everyone. I'm so lucky to be blessed with two terrific mothers. One my mother, and the second one my mother-in-law, and before you accuse me of kissing butt, I seriously count Barbara, as a dear, close friend of mine. Anyway, to all of our brides that are now mothers or will be soon *wink,wink*, Happy Mom's Day. May it be full of fun, sun, and plenty of margaritas :)

Jennifer & Chris Got Married!!!

Last weekend, Josh and I got to photograph probably most fun wedding we have ever been to. From the beginning when we showed up and the bride asked for a margarita until the minute we left when the guests were singing loudly along to Benny and The Jetts, we had a rocking good time. That is all owed to the amazing Jennifer and Chris. When we met with them for their final consultation they mentioned to us that they just wanted to get hitched and have a terrific time with their friends and family. They definitely got hitched and they definitely had a good time with their friends and family. 

Five Things We Learned:

1. Jennifer had the most gorgeous dress I have ever seen (Melissa Sweet Dora).

2. Chris was such a goofball in a totally fun and happy kind of way.

3. All of Chris's groomsmen had nicknames including Chris. Here I go....Turtle, The Fonz, Owens, and Deuce (or two pence). 

4. Cake fights can get seriously brutal....

5. Receptions should always have a groom and groomsmen serenading the Bride. 

On to the photos:

Jennifer was one gorgeous bride:

She had amazing tastes. Check out her amazing dress and shoes:

This is hilarious. I wanted Jennifer to pose for a photo which involved her looking outside her limo window as she reflected on her wedding day.

Here's the shot:

Chris got all jealous (in a total just kidding kind of way) and decided that he also wanted the same pose. Here's his version lol:

I hope you noticed the Bud Light at the bottom of the frame heehee.

Before we went to the ceremony location we decided to stop at the Vegas sign for some quick potraits....

Now here's the thing, as we pulled up to the Vegas sign in the limo, a couple of men were filming what looked like a news report in front of the sign. They were from ESPN filming a special news report in Vegas. They were going to give away three fishing trips to Guatemala to random strangers, the only catch was they had to leave the next day. They ended up offering one of the trips to Jennifer and Chris!!! They couldn't take it because Chris didn't have his passport with him, but they ended up filming us shooting the portraits of the two of them and the bridal party. I just had to take a photo of the ESPN guys for proof!

After the Vegas sign, we headed straight to Lakeside Weddings in Summerlin. The location was beautiful and even though they told Jennifer she wasn't allowed outside photographers, they ended up letting us photograph the ceremony as well as some quick portraits of just the bride and groom. 

Then we were off to the New York New York, where they had a sit down dinner at Nine Fine Irishmen (the food was delish!), and an after party at the Piano bar where they had dueling pianos! One of the piano players was sweet enough to allow Jennifer on his piano while Chris and his groomsmen serenaded her to the song from Top Gun!! It was so much fun.

Their cake was so awesome and from Freeds! (my personal favorite). They ended up getting in the ultimate cake fight. Josh got some great shots and they're in the slideshow.

And of course a shot of the grand serenade:

I'm so sorry this took so long for me to post, but I spent a long time on the slideshow for this one. I wanted it to be fun, spunky, and perfect, which I think I accomplished. I hope you enjoy it!

Thank you Jennifer and Chris for letting us come along on your ride!!! We had such a blast.

A Sneak Preview Of What's To Come....

Why you should always trust your photographer: 

Sooooo much fun! Wait till you see the slideshow and hear who showed up at the Vegas sign!