Its my Birthday today!!! (well, for the next 10 minutes anyways!)

The big 3-1! Holy Moly, when did that happen?! ….well, this morning at 12:00am I guess? (After a hard day’s work that was my humble attempt to be funny).

Today went by in an absolute blur, I shot an totally gorgeous wedding and then came home to a plethora (yes I just said plethora) of gifts. Tomorrow the family is having an un-official birthday BBQ and I am making my famous Dr. Pepper Ribs, so before I relax and put up my feet I have to get them ready tonight so they can marinate in all their marinated glory.

Pics will most likely follow, but for now I leave you with one of me as a kid. In fact the shirt I am wearing says “The Kid”.

Yup thats me. To my soon-to-be-born son: Don’t worry. You’ll be cuter than this. :)

P.s. can you believe my sister’s hair?! what kind of animal IS that?!

When Joanna emailed me saying she had access to a hazlenut orchard and wanted to use it as a backdrop for their engagement session, I was STOKED for two reasons: 1) Hazlenuts, hello?! LOVE EM. and 2) I haven’t seen it done before! Well at the very least, *I* have never shot in a hazlenut orchard before, let alone BEEN in one! I had all these amazing ideas of shooting at sunset, the rays of light peaking through the orchard…and when we got there on Sunday?…

..rain. Not just rain, actually…TONS of rain. Like, monsoon rain. Boo.

I am glad though that we both planned ahead and saw that rain was inevitable, and still the 3 of us wanted to trudge on and make the day fantastic! And we did. I think the images turned out beautifully. Besides, Joanna’s smile and Jamie’s charm and OBVIOUS love for Joanna could make any day sunny. That was pure cheese, I know, but its true. :)

Joanna and Jamie are getting married in August at Whonnock Lake, and its going to be fantastic! I can’t wait to see them again and meet their friends and family! :) Hope you like the images!

click below to watch their engagement slideshow!

On the ferry ride over I remember thinking to myself “Jeez, I come up to Rockwater so often, we may as well MOVE there!”…and seriously, if it wasn’t for my insane love for the White Rock area where I live, I would definitely consider it. Every time I blog about a wedding at Rockwater Secret Cove Resort I mention how much I love it there, so really why should this one be any different? :) I love it there.

Now, onto Carla and Kevin & Co. :) These guys…well, what can I say about these guys? I can write about how much they are in love with each other, and how great they were to work with…but really, it won’t do any lick of justice to how amazing they truly truly are. I covered their day for only a few hours, (it was an intimate wedding of just over 20 people), and in those few hours there were SO many beautiful moments…the kind that we all would live and die for. One of the most vivid and memorable moments of the entire day was after the ceremony, I was standing behind Carla and Kevin at the receiving line, shooting all the hugs and congratulations, and I looked off-camera and noticed just out of frame was Carla’s dad, who was next in line. He had a little twinkle in his eye and I remember anticipating a tear or two but as I composed the shot I didn’t realize that some of those tears would be my own! I kept as composed as I could (pun-intended) but when he got to Carla I was a mess! I remember after the moment passed they looked up at me and were wiping their eyes as I was wiping my own. I remember someone saying “Hey, you just met them a few hours ago, you’re not supposed to be doing that!”. Something magical happened next…after seeing what was happening and feeling that energy in the air, some people waiting in LINE started even hugging each other and getting teary eyed! It was such a great moment to be laughing and feeling connected with this amazing group of people..they truly are the perfect definition of Family.

Every. Single. One of them.

From the bottom of my heart, Thank You.

Click below to view their slideshow!

Last week I had the pleasure of spending a little while with the very sweet Baby Liyana. She is just a month old and the amount of facial expressions she has is simply adorable. I just love the little bow! :)

Happy Monday everyone!

So I have been running around all day today getting ready for Mexico tomorrow (will be back in the office Wednesday May 19th)… it always seems that no matter how prepared I am for travelling, I always end up feeling rushed! (I was sitting down eating supper tonight, and felt like I was wasting time haha). Yup, I’m odd like that.

Anyhoo, Grit has decided to make a lil’ somethin’ for baby boy, and I can’t wait to see it when it’s done! I pulled out the camera and did the ‘daddy documents everything’ thing, and thought this pic was pretty cool.

I will be checking emails as often as I can while in Puerto Vallarta, so any questions/concerns should be answered within a day.

Cheers,

Michael