BORYS FAMILY

while in winnipeg last week i did a quick mini session with my uncle stephen and his wife hazel and of course, roman.


stephen is the director of winnipeg's art gallery, the WAG. hazel is the managing principal for placemakers, a company that designs green, walkable communities. and roman is director, chairman and c.e.o. of awesomeness. being an awesome kid gets tough at times, which is why he has an army of teenage mutant ninja turtles to assist him in his daily tasks.





and if you know roman you will understand the importance of including a photo of his staff.

I ♥ U, BLOGS + COFFEE

omg, you guys... my fingers? are honestly like, spasming right now. f'realz. 


our internet has been down for the last 24 hrs and my brain is literally about to spontaneously combust and start shooting little URLs and domain names all over the walls. every time i open a new tab i have to sit there and think for a good 30 seconds and determine the order of importance of each site i need to go to and which one i should open first. i have somewhere around 17 to 25 blogs to check and five or six online purchases to make and (no joke) 94 new emails... lol only probably half a dozen of which are slightly urgent but seriously? i do not understand how people used to function without the internetz. 


omg and can you imagine if something terrible had happened to me while i didnt have access to google!? i could have died ya'll! I COULD HAVE DIED!


k… i think my coffee was a little on the strong side this morning. my apologies.

so i was sitting there drinkin my cupa joe listening to that song enya sings where it sounds like her mouth is sealed shut with crazy glue when I was like, enya! omg i totally understand and connect with you right now!

i too have a song inside me, straining to be joyously released. actually, its just a secret. but a secret that i cant tell anyone. and its killing me. the only person i can tell is my mom. but I know she wont tell anyone. except for, maybe the other people that wont tell anyone. (ive always been really good at keeping secrets. i make sure that everyone I tell knows that they should not tell anyone) so yeah, me and enya are homies. we connect on levels you wouldnt understand.

on another subject. i was in winnipeg this week and got to photograph my adorably cute cousin again and this time his parents too! they were so festively cute in their holly jolly red and festive furs. lol, are furs festive? anyways... ill post that later. after the other 127 and a half other things on my list that i couldnt do without the internet. 


honestly, like all i could do was eat and sleep and shower. it was excruciatingly painful and im so glad to be reunited.

also, i need these bandaids in my life.

TYLER + DOROTHY

these two little lovebirds are the cutest thing since marcel the shell with shoes on... after i got over the fact that i was now taking the engagement photos of the little boy whose diapers i once changed. ok, not really but i DID babysit him once upon a time so this makes me feel reeeallly old. 

i almost pulled the "i remember you when you were thiiiis big", which is usually followed by polite laughter and a comment along the lines of how much they've changed since then. but then i told tyler to pose in front of the restrooms, which really cracked him up, and i realized not much had actually changed. (kidding tyler, ur the coolest:) 

totally stoked to do their wedding at pineridge hollow next may!

BRAD + TARA

when tara contacted me asking if i would shoot her wedding in november in scottsdale, arizona at a gorgeous luxury private villa estate i reeally had to think long and hard about it for a total of four seconds. i had never met tara or brad (we were friends through a friend of a friend... on facebook... which basically makes you acquaintances, especially if you have more than 10 friends in common) but they were such an awesome laid back couple that i felt i had known them forever.


i was on cloud 9 as soon as i pulled up and saw the venue... but then i was introduced to the dress and shoes. omg you guys my mouth was literally watering. a GORGeous paloma blanca couture gown accompanied by the perfect jimmy choos gazed back at me begging me to take their duchess satin-sequined perfectness in my arms and do wonderful things to them all night long under the soft moonlight. but then i had to be professional and take pictures and stuff so our romantic love affair was cut short.


when brad was little he told his mom he wanted to buy his wife a ring like Princess Dianna's so tara was given a round brilliant cut diamond ring with a sapphire on the wedding band ... pretty sure brad has his girl figured out.





this is tara and her bff since forever and ever. i'm skeptical about her friend situation tho. i have this sneaking suspicion she went online and rented a pile of gorgeous hot models and paid them to come to their wedding posing as their "friends". i'm like, 95-97% sure... if there is a www.rent-a-perfect-person.com out there, that is where these people came from...oh ya, and did i mention the shoes were fabulous?

loved the big juicy bouquet too... big juicy bouquets are the best!

the ceremony took place in the back yard overlooking fountain hills and the couple said their vows just as the gorgeous desert sun set behind the mountains. couldn't have done it better if we'd planned it. which we definitely didn't.



her awesome wedding coordinator, devin hernandez invented this creation... pretty sure its one of the coolest wedding cakes ive ever seen.

the mini burgers and french fries were soo cute... and the fact that they were served over little tiny warming pebbles made them even tastier!

ESAU + KATIE

this was TOtally such a stress-free wedding i wasn't breaking a sweat at all never, not once! no, like it was literally the work equivalent of riding a unicorn down a mountain, carrying a pail filled with rainbows and small children's laughter.


katie is a photographer herself, as well as the daughter of a very experienced photographer. sooo yeah, haha. HAHA!


it was a great day, don't get me wrong... I just had to hire a sleep therapist for the months leading up to the wedding. my re-ocurring nightmares entailed either my camera getting backed over by this cement truck, or the bride getting backed over by the cement truck or the entire wedding party and guests and town and universe getting backed over by the cement truck, which would clearly suck.


however, nothing of the sort happened. in fact, nothing at all really went wrong and the day was considerably less stressful than my nightmares had foreshadowed. it was a huge honour to photograph esau & katie's wedding and im really glad they didnt have the same concerns i had.



katie and her sister amy got ready in the dressing room of the very old and very interesting masonic temple in devils lake. this was also where the ceremony and reception took place... it was an awesome building full of character. dusty character, but character none-the-less. 



not being the overly traditional type, esau and katie opted to do a 'first look' rather than wait till the ceremony. it was such an awesome moment and i was sad i didnt have any streamers or party blowers on me... i foSHO would been all up in they biznizz. haha no, not really. 


...then they had to compare in the mirror and see who was taller. awww, cute little esau haha. you're just like me! :)

katie had the coolest ring ever! i had a lot of fun with them...


i think its safe to say this is one of the happiest days of their live's... or else katie is a super good faker! esau and katie have been through a lot to get to where they are and it was so awesome to see their families and friends all together, loving and supporting them in this huge step. 


the trick to marriage is really quite simple tho, esau just has to remember... happy wife= happy life. i advised him of this and he looked at me with an expression that told me he had no idea what i just said or else he was previously unaware of this little tidbit of advice i had to share. 

I may be a little biased as some of the party included my brother and my brother's girlfriend and other cute faces, but this was definitely a goodlookin bridal party!


aww, there's those cute faces.

there were huge amounts of effort put into every last detail, i dont know how katie wasn't regurgitating wedding decorations. which is OBviously to be expected... once youve been to your fair share of weddings you start to form an opinion whether you like it or not. 


katie did a great job in keeping it elegantly simple while tying in a little taste of guatemala... and i loved that they served chips and salsa as the appetizer... so cute.