gardens, tavern & courthouse columns

Ellen and Ryan, yours was a sweet and oh-so-complete day. Everything just flowed. Even the light rain showers at Shelter Gardens gave us all a chance to cool off a bit with umbrellas at the ready. It's hard to believe that you and your wedding party had the gardens, Boone Tavern, the courthouse columns and all of 8th St. to yourselves (that's a college town a week after graduation for ya)!

Hey, speaking of graduation...congrats, Ellen, on completing medical school & best of luck as you both head to Oklahoma for residency (Ellen) & med school (Ryan). How have you managed to graduate, get married, enjoy a honeymoon, move & begin your next educational stage in ONE month?! Amazing.

Ok, you've got to see this album:

TAKE A LOOK at Ellen & Ryan's ALBUM!

And thanks for retreiving my umbrellas from the limo :')
~ kim

3 cheers for Carrie & Bill!

Someday soon I'll relay the true story of the SilverBox Tree.
It's thanks to that tree that I was lucky enough to meet CARRIE & BILL
[thru Amy & Joe via the Anna & Jim branch].
OK, but that part, the "the-house-that-Jack-built-part" well, will save the narrative for later.

The HERE & NOW is [drumroll, please] look, l O O K ! . . . LOOOOOOK:
it's our first

full wedding S L I D E S H O W

These images, this celebration, THESE GREAT PEOPLE! were just too much fun not to try my hand with this (new-to-me) technology.

Enjoy, ENJOY! E N J O Y . . . . . .
the pictures, the people AND the tunes: music provided by my brother-in-law Parker's band

Sometimes Three

Their first concert is coming up SOON, May 30th, in Kansas City. Thus, the common THEME of this entry...unique & fabulous LOCAL VENUES. Billy & Carrie were married at The Sheldon Concert Hall in St. Louis and Sometimes Three [S3 for us fans] will be rocking the house at The Grand Emporium, BOTH buildings Missouri circa 1912. Amen for architectural richness combined with colorful souls. I am surrounded by the Cool...and I'm loving it! hip hip HOORAY ~ amy

" a p p a r e n t " ~ as in " to a P A R E N T " ? ? ? . . . c o i n c i d e n c e ? . . . hmm, perhaps, not.

Kim & I both LOVE documenting weddings.
At the core I think we so love it because what we DELIGHT IN is documenting LIFE.

For each of us [though we hadn't yet met] such joy became apparent when we became well, PARENTS. It's that fierce attempt to reach out & grab & commit to memory the fleeting.

When I first saw the picture Kim took of her daughter Sophie with the falling leaves [found under "kids in context" on the SilverBox website] I nearly cried. Kim, that ONE picture is worth every single penny you've ever spent on camera equipment. To have that to treasure and hold onto and to remember.

My oldest daughter is now 12. No longer tossing leaves above her head or baking cookies in a tutu. Already, there seems to be so much time that is long gone. Quite grown up these days. Articulate and opinionated and, well, not always MY biggest fan. So can I just tell you how delighted I was when Avery asked if I would take pictures of her with her friend Sarah?! She didn't only ask, Avery takes matters into her own hands. She arranged for the shoot to happen. And she had an idea in mind of what she wanted, a notion she described as "real life pictures of us together being friends"



And for today, life is good.



Hope everyone out there can take a little time to savor the present.
What a present it is, indeed. ~ amy

trolley trips & cartwheels on campus

Each time I photograph a wedding, I discover yet another reason why I love this fast-paced, unpredictable, emotionally-rich work of wedding photojournalism.

Reason #78 (or thereabouts...) from Lori & BJ's wedding: getting to see and document the ways in which couples honor their loved ones. Before putting on her own dress, Lori wore her grandmother's wedding dress (sewn by Lori's great-grandmother) and looked over this same grandmother's wedding photo & handwritten notes (!), saved from her wedding day decades earlier.

What a gift to work with Lori & BJ, who are so undeniably and unabashedly in love with one another. And what a day they had!
-trolley rides around downtown Columbia, Missouri;
-getting featured on KOMU's 10 o'clock news segment (he he) Click here to read "Wedding Party Rides in Style," a summary of KOMU's news story;
-a stop for drinks at Flatbranch brewpub (where, incidentally, my husband, David, met his groomsmen on our wedding day 10 yrs and 11 mos ago);
-cartwheels on campus;
-meeting the elderly couple celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary right next door to Lori & BJ's reception.

CLICK here to see some of these highlights & more in Lori & BJ's coffee table book

Congrats, Lori & Bj! And Leah Gallo, THANKS for putting your great photojournalism skills to use while assisting at this wedding!
~kim

destination wedding: mid-Missouri!

What a treat to photograph Kimberly & Geoffrey's wedding! Being a Missouri girl through and through, I loved their choices of locations to give their guests a true Missouri experience:

- Friday's Welcome Dinner at Kimberly's folks' home with a taste of several mid-Missouri goodies (Show Me barbecue sauce, Shake's frozen custard...)

- a ceremony at The Church of St. Mary, Aldermanbury on Westminster College's campus (the light-filled, airy church designed by Christopher Wren that was re-erected as a memorial to Winston Churchill in Fulton after being damaged in London during WWII) 

- a feast on the blufftop at Les Bourgeois winery (ok, we ended up inside the winery with the views of the Missouri River obscured by a massive rainstorm), but you know, looking back through these pictures, I think the rain added to the warmth and coziness of the day.

And Kimberly, wow did you impress me with your grace and good humor! I will always remember your reaction to the prospect of getting from the church to the bus amidst this downpour on your wedding day: you laughed in the doorway, grabbed your guy and an umbrella and plunged into the rain, pausing en route to give your respects to Winston. That was class and Missouri-style grit!

While I doubt you're getting homesick yet...I'm hoping, Kimberly & Geoffrey, that you get a chance to see this album while you're still honeymooning (are there cybercafes in the Vatican? a parisian cafe?)

CLICK here to see Kimberly & Geoffrey's coffee table book

All the best ~kim