Tampa Wedding Photography: Jen and Mike's Wedding

Jen and Mike were married at the Tampa Marriott Waterside, a beautiful venue nestled in a great location with awesome views of the water. They decided to do a first look and Jen was overwhelmed with emotion. As she walked up to Mike, I could feel the love beating in her heart. And, as he stood, waiting for her to tap him on the shoulder, I could feel the anticipation and the emotion swelling inside of him.

Jen and Mike gave us a couple of hours with them on the wedding day to take pictures of just the two of them and their wedding party so we were able to walk around outside and set up in various areas inside the hotel and get a lot of great shots.

Here are a couple of teaser photos followed by their highlight wedding slideshow movie!





Here is Jen and Mike's wedding reveal slideshow! Hope you enjoy!

Elspeth and Miguel Engagement Session Sneak Peek

Latanya and I had the honor of photographing an amazing couple recently for their engagement photos. We bonded instantly with them as people as well as clients and we really wish they were getting married locally so we could shoot their wedding as well!

Elspeth attended the Brides Against Breast Cancer VIP night a couple of months ago and she was the highest bidder in the silent auction for my photography package that I donated for the cause. So, shooting this session, knowing that her session fee was going to such an amazing cause made me all warm and fuzzy inside!

Most of you know, I don't really do the whole traditional photos and park scene because my work is more bold and artistic and urban. But, some times we need to step outside of our comfort zone and try something new. These photos are quite different from my usual but that's part of why I love them so much.

Here are a few quick sneak peeks! Hope you enjoy!











Until next time.....

Trash the Dress at the Florida State Fair!

Kori met us at the Florida State Fair after we all spent several hours stuck in bumper to bumper traffic and were terribly late getting started. But, it forced us to be more creative once we quickly lost all available daylight. It was a frigid evening and Kori was quite cold but we did our best to warm her up inbetween shots and she was a real trooper! We had a lot of fun and got some awesome, creative shots and we didn't really even hurt the dress that much! :-)

As always, here are my favorite photos from the shoot!

I get permission to shoot at awesome places and to use interesting things for my photo shoots sometimes. Many of my clients have kind of come to expect it and while it may not always be possible, we often are able to gain access to somewhere really cool for some awesome photos or convince people to let us use things.

A trainer was out training this beautiful horse and I got him to stop for a minute to allow us to get a couple beautiful bridal shots of Kori with the horse. This is my favorite one!



Then we headed into the barn for some photos real quick while we still had beautiful daylight wrapping inside.















And everyone knows how much I love COLOR! So outside we went to play and roam around at the fair and discover the vibrant colors everywhere! I felt like a kid in a candy store!













The guy who was running the ride was really hesitant to let Kori on the swing with her big poofy dress but a lil' convincing did the trick!







And on to another ride we go! Watching Kori hold on tight to her veil and scream was quite amusing!







Ok, so you remember the helicopter that was flying over Kori's head for those perfectly timed shots a few photos back? That is the official batcopter that was used in the 1960's TV series of Batman. They had it at the fair as an attraction! The guy who was running it wanted to know if he could take a picture of Kori. My bargaining chip was that if he got us out on the tarmac and let us shoot some photos while they were refueling the Batcopter that I'd let him take her photo. It was a win-win situation although I think I got the sweeter end of the deal! :-)









Did I mention there were tons of people in line waiting to get on the historic Batcopter? They all thought we were celebrities or something since we were granted access out on the tarmac for the shoot. It was pretty awesome!

And then as the light died, the pretty fair lights came on and I felt like I was in heaven. We've spent so much time recently experimenting with night time wedding shots and gotten quite good at it so we were well prepared for this when the time came. I absolutely love how Kori stands out in the scene of crowded people. She sure is a stunning bride!







Hands down - this is my favorite shot of the day. The motion was perfect, the lighting, everything... just adore it!! :






Loved the reflection of the fair in the water from across the fairgrounds. Absolutely beautiful!




Thanks again Kori for rockin' it out with us at the Florida State Fair in your wedding dress! We had a blast and you were awesome to photograph, as always!!!

Until next time....

Jamee's Maternity Photo Sneak Peek

Latanya and I had so much fun yesterday shooting Jamee's Maternity Photos out on location. I'll do more of a write up later but I just had to share 1 photo for now! Baby Kylee is making her way into the world! I can't wait to shoot the newborn photos!

Julie and Flo : Don Cesar Wedding : Sneak Peek

Hi everyone! I haven't blogged in forever! However, I have put up a brand new website with tons of fresh, new images in case you haven't noticed! Over the next few weeks, I plan to blog tons of stuff we've edited over the past 3 months!

I guess you'd like to see this sneak peek now, right? :-)

Julie sent everyone their wedding invitations in this beautiful box:


Their wedding rings with the invitation that came in the above box (More photos of the invitation where the invitation is the main focus to come in the big reveal!)


Julie's shoes for the ceremony and reception:


Julie's ceremony wedding gown:


Julie's girls all had the cutest flip flops with their initials on them!


A couple of photos of Julie and Flo right after their First Look:


Julie had seen us do this shot before and she wanted it too:


Then we headed over to the cocktail hour set up to get some great detail shots. Julie hired an amazing company, Signature Events, to make her cocktail hour look Miami Chic with beautiful white lounge furniture. Signature Events also are responsible for beautiful touches to the reception room decor. We loved the details! We have tons that will come in the big reveal but here are just 2 for now:

My abstract take on the set up -


And a normal shot that showcases the entire set-up


We let Simon and his beautiful wife Becky shoot the party of the cocktail hour and we went on to get some other great detail shots of the ceremony set up and reception set up.

Fishawk Florists did an amazing job and lined the ceremony aisle with over 54,000 white rose petals. It truly was out of this world




As I mentioned before, the ceremony was very touching. This is one of my favorite shots. The evening light caught a tear as it fell down Julie's cheek and when I saw this image pop up on the back of the camera, it made me quite emotional too.


Staci Mandikas from Unique Event Design was the wedding coordinator for this marvelous affair. She kept everything running smoothly and pulled all of Julie's visions together and even infused some ideas of her own to inspire Julie to think bigger. She went out of her way to make sure time for set up shots was part of the wedding day schedule. We, of course, LOVE planners who do this because we love having time to shoot the amazing details that our clients work so hard to put together and spend so much of their wedding budget on!

We took many reception detail shots because there were SO MANY awesome details to shoot!!! Here are just a few for now..

The head table had over 30 seats and again Fishawk rocked it out with over 18,000 red roses on the head table alone! We like this abstract shot showing off the depth of field of the chairs lined up


No details went forgotten. Julie had her programs, thank you cards, menu cards and invitations all done by "Flamboyant Designs Couture" (www.flamboyantdesignscouture.com) and they did an amazing job and added that perfect elegant touch of BLING to each item




The Grand Ballroom at the Don Cesar is so stunning and beautiful. Quinn Noonan, the Don Cesar Catering Coordinator was so awesome to work with and really went above and beyond to make sure we were able to get some great detail shots and that her staff got out of the way when we needed the room for some set up shots.





The wedding cake was absolutely stunning and beautiful. Many photos of the cake to come but here is one I liked because of it's artistic value. I held the drape in my left hand and steadied the camera in my right to create the draping at the bottom. I just adore it! The amazing and talented Pastry Chef, Tara Bishop of the Don Cesar is responsible for this beauty!


Julie and Flo got to come into the reception room and see it before their guests were allowed in. Her reaction was a huge smile followed by many tears of joy. In that moment, we got to see her dream wedding come true before our very own eyes. The wedding coordinator, Staci and I were both in tears. It was beautiful and special and most importantly, it was genuine. I'll never forget that moment as Julie grabbed Flo's hand just a little tighter, looked at him and a tear fell down her face because all of her hard work and meticulous planning had finally paid off. Her dream had just come true with the man she has loved for a decade.




A touching moment where Julie's daughter was afraid she was going to be in my picture and was about to leave but I told her not to go because she was adding something special to the photos as Julie got her make-up touched up during the reception.


I must say.. I adore tattoos! I grabbed this shot of Julie while the make-up artist was changing brushes! LOVE IT!!


Natalie at Chic Sweets did an amazing job on the candy table. Everything was personalized to put the special "Julie and Flo" touch on it including the BLING factor and their monogram. More detail shots showing off individual parts of the candy table to come later! Did I mention it was quite tasty? Thanks Chic Sweets for sending us home with an awesome goodie bag!




That's all for now! We hope you enjoyed the photos we took at this amazing wedding and we can't wait to share the rest with you soon!

There were many other vendors who we would like to mention really quickly as well. We don't want to leave any of these lovelies out!

Breezin' Entertainment had beautiful music for both the cocktail hour and the ceremony. While we weren't there to hear them perform, we heard they did an amazing job!

The Don Cesar handled the bartending and catering as well as the wedding cake. Everyone raved about how delicious the food was and the drinks looked quite tasty! Their staff was on point, running all over the place to the very last minute to make everything just perfect.

Julie's personal hair stylists Lazzaro and Jorge were so much fun and of course, they made an already beautiful woman look magazine worthy!

Her make-up was done by Christy McDonie of Tampa Bay Makeup Artist. Stunning work Christy!

Arctic Ice brought out a beautiful ice sculpture for the cocktail hour.

Jose Orterro of "Just Outstanding Entertainment" had the dance floor packed before dinner was even served. His DJ rig was bigger than my living room! He had awesome lights and he played a rockin' slideshow that featured some awesome music videos as well as photos from Julie and Flo's first "I do" ten years ago.

Reverend Tom Green officiated and did a beautiful job. He really seemed to understand the special connection between Julie and Flo and his words were touching!

And last but not least, Celebrations of Tampa Bay came out and did the video of the wedding. I've yet to see any video but I am sure they did a great job. They were easy to work with and be around!

That's all folks! Until next time.....