Summertime Snap Dragons

Alas, the last bits of Fall

These are the final bits of fall from my yard. Nice to still find some last bits of color before it is literally all over with!!!

Fall Water Feature

The water feature outside of the hotel that my kids swim at each week has been lack luster this summer. Now that fall arrived and brought in some gorgeous fall leaves it sure did make this plain feature into something a lot more enjoyable. I am going to miss this when they close it down for the winter.

Silhouette

A Weekend Off

My hubby and I had a chance to stay at the Hotel 340 in St. Paul this weekend. It was great to stay in a wonderful old building and yet have great amenities in our room, like great fluffy white bedding, huge tvs, and great big sectional to snuggle on.The foyer was a two story with amazing architecture.

We had a great dinner at a restaurant called WA Frost and Company. Another awesome old building that has been re-purposed into a great restaurant. Yummy food. I only snapped a couple pictures since it was a dark place, but so good. 

The following day we were able to grab lunch at Biaggi's. It is one of my favorite places in the cities. For sure the fact that they provide me gluten free bread makes me super happy! It wasn't the only thing to love, I had a great meal and so did my husband. One of the best.

We checked out all our favorite places to shop, hung out together and had fun! Our weekend was great and we are ready for the week ahead!

Fall Snowfall

The first winter snowfall happened today. It didn't last super long and the snow is indeed already gone, but it came. It was fun to see a little sign of winter coming. My kids are super excited about the winter coming and bringing on the winter fun of skating and sledding. I just love great photo ops!

Gorgeous Maple Tree

This tree was outside a friend's home. Oh my it was fun to find such beautiful color on a tree when it seemed like there were so few trees left with any color. Love!

A&B's September Wedding - Cold Spring, MN Area Photographer

We had the opportunity to shoot an amazing couple back in September. They were young, full of life and had an amazing heart after God. I really love photographing weddings and the story of love as it is told throughout the day. The special details on the tables, the personal touches, plus my favorite colors made it altogether very fun!

The wedding had a travel theme associated with it. Each table had a different location and a picture to go with it. What made that especially wonderful was that each of the table names had been places that the bride had personally been. I am all for great travel and her and the groom had been a great many places.

 To play on that we made sure to capture all the details associated with that AND even play up the travel theme with pictures we took during the day.

To start the day I took pictures of the groom and his groomsmen. As always, for parts of the story that you find missing out here, be sure to head over to my partners site: http://cmelifestylephotography.wordpress.com/.

 

I love all the details in the wedding day. The bride and groom usually have thought about each detail so carefully, it is fun to see the dreams come to fruition. 

 After some detail shooting and such at the church the couple had their first look. Love that opportunity when the couple can see each other alone for the first time and then get to spend the rest of the day together. So sweet!

Then we took off for some formal portraits of everyone AND some fun playful ones too. For this wedding we planned on taking them to three different locations for their portraits. While we were so thankful for a beautiful sunny day, shooting in the middle of the day meant finding locations that were not in the bright sun. The bridal party were such troopers as we ventured to our three spots and thankfully no one got lost.

 Here we are at the second location. I loved this old brick building in Cold Spring.

 Here is where we brought in the travel theme again. The couple is off on their adventure. Loved that they had a suitcase for us to play around with.

At the final location we were able to incorporate it one more time. Seriously, isn't this just awesome!!?!

 Feel the love!!

 I just love capturing close up portraits of each of the bridal party members.

 These were the final pics at the last location. The bride was so perfect for this look.

 I have to say, this might be my favorite shot of the day. I hope the bride loved it too!

After some family shots that day, the bride and groom had a few minutes before the wedding ceremony, which was altogether lovely.

 Congratulations to the new husband and wife!

 We were able to run outside quick as the sun was setting and grab a handful of newlywed pictures. I was so glad they were able to have a few minutes together before the rest of even progressed into a great meal, great stories and happy hearts.

Congratulations A&B! I hope you have the most amazing life together!