megan + jeff :: pure joy

Just finished Megan & Jeff's slideshow...oh, it's a good one, I think!
Their wedding was WONDERFUL!

It was my first time in Catherine Crum, the Salon ~ what a fun place! What great stylists!!
sidenote: I'm so tempted to book a short shaggy cut after oohing & ahhing at so many of Catherine Crum stylists cute & sassy styles...and look, they do makeup, too:

It was especially fun to get a chance to hang with the guys pre-wedding, too.
We often make it to the salon, but this time the schedule allowed catching the tail-end of the guy's golf outing at Perche Creek and then even a few minutes with them at the A-frame at Les Bourgeois in Rocheport before heading back to the hotel.

Hotel rooms can be fun ~

Exhibit A: this fabric on the armchair:

and this from-behind-the-curtain image at Columbia's Courtyard Mariott: (Megan made a specific point of telling me how great her experience had been working with Courtyard reservations & accommodations and asked me to share ....Columbia was hosting the state Show-Me Games and hotel rooms were quite scarce, but Courtyard had a "we'll work this out" attitude from the get-go and, in Megan's words "really came through") Perhaps my most favorite part of the day was heading over to Nifong Park for bridals & girlfriend stuff.

A generalization ~ getting dressed anywhere OTHER than the church dressing room or ceremony site tends to open the doors to greater photographic opportunities. It's fabulous when brides get dressed in their homes or their parent's homes...but even when that's not possible, simply getting dressed "off-site" allows us to explore photographic fun in the surrounding environment. It makes us more mobile -- a good thing! Examples of what I mean:



Probably my MOST FAVORITE IMAGE from this, my favorite segment of the day;
(confession: I have LOTS of favorites with this wedding)
HERE is MEGAN on a tree-lined gravel road at Nifong Park WITH HER MOM:


WAIT, even more good stuff....
really good.

Look at these two images Ashley created:
above:
Megan, just moments before walking down the aisle.
(Ashley, I LOVE how you used bridesmaid silhouettes to frame Megan...beautiful work!)

and below:
yeah, Ash; great ceremony catch here; love the realness of the moment!Here's one of mine from the ceremony
(Firestone Baars Chapel affords some great angles):
It was about 7:30 when Megan & Jeff walked outside and started their receiving line and oh! what glorious light!
Though truth be told, however, I was a little nervous that such fabulous light would dwindle down to nothing prior to us creating any couple shots, but shew...Zack Arias lighting workshop paid off again:

Above: from the bridge over Broadway Below: just outside Kimball Ballroom (yep there's was another all-Stephens wedding...guests, and photographers, LOVE IT!)
I could go on and on
and on!
Jeff & Megan made our jobs really easy ~ it was a day with lots of laughter, lots of love...hey, click here & you can see for yourself :)

~amy enderle
PS - yikes, how could I forget to add this:
It was my first wedding with Thom Howard .
fingerstyle guitar: fascinating.
He is TERRIFIC! and played both during Jeff + Megan's ceremony as well as their reception. Even played the Andy Griffin theme song by request. You can hear snippets of various songs he suggests for weddings, at his site: www.playprettyproductions.com
but the coolest thing ~ he'll even take a song you love & create its fingerstyle/classic guitar counterpart.
groovy

kristen + tim and words to live by....

What a day!

Kristen & Tim were married in Kirksville, Missouri, on the most perfect of summer days (even though her Rhode Island family expressed a wee bit of disbelief that sunny, humid & 82 degrees is for us, Missouri Midwesterners, well pretty much perfect.)

Kristen had a wedding mantra that her parents, her preacher, her wedding party, even her hair stylist knew:
"fun, not stress"
and with focus, determination, grace & beauty she lived it each minute of the weekend.



From Friday evening
at the church,
to the rehearsal dinner,
to the Too Talls Two (the Inferno) fun that followed,
Kristen radiated happiness & calm.



































And Saturday...

more of the sensational, savor!-each-moment same:


I have a big soft spot in my heart for Kirskville and for Truman State.
With the notable exception of SilverBox Photographer Kim Wade, it seems I met all my best friends while there ~ even Paul. [We were in the same "class small group" in Dr. Young's impressive & inspiring Public Administration Class -- so inspiring that it ultimately became Paul's graduate work field.]

Avery was born in Kirksville.

Ronzas might just be my favorite food!

AND,

the first-ever SilverBox billboard (a steaming slice of Il Spazio pizza) now stands over Highway 63. (Fun fact, though really nothing to do with Tim + Kristen...but shoot, forgot to take a picture ...oh well, another reason to pop back into town. )

AND, this man,
Dr. Michael McManis, pictured below as father-of-bride, helped Paul find his first "real" out-of-grad-school job. We are big, big fans of the McManis family! Wonderful, wonderful people. What an honor to have had the opportunity to document Tim + Kristen's wedding.





Above: Kristen's mom, Marcia, between her East Coast sisters.
Pictured below: perfect day draws to close with perfect sky....a day filled with good friends, family and "Stress, Not Fun" .... it just doesn't get much better than this. Click here for Tim + Kristen's wedding slideshow to see what I mean.

Welcome home, Kristen & Tim. Hope your honeymoon was as fabulous & fun-filled as your wedding!!
love, amy

'til the cows come home

It's not every bride whose first task in her wedding dress on her wedding day is to hop in a truck and go feed her cows. "THIS," I thought to myself as we bounced along a pasture in Bowling Green, Missouri in a pickup looking for the cows, "Is EXACTLY what I love about being a wedding photographer." Come to think of it, I was filled with this kind of gratitude again and again during Amy & Mark's wedding. As wedding photographers we are witnesses to some pretty amazing life stuff . . . looks of delight and love on a mother's face



laughter among friends

happiness in the eyes of two people making one heck of a 'til-the-cows-come-home commitment to one another in front of their families & friends



~pure playfulness on a summer's evening

And by the way, Amy & Mark were married on Amy's family's farm, right on the patio of her childhood home (an old farmhouse that was mail-ordered from the Sears & Roebuck catalogue in 1913 and is being lovingly restored by Amy's folks). Beautiful home . . . beautiful day!

And check it out! Amy & Mark's Wedding Album is ready for viewing . . . and to whet your appetite, here's a sample spread from the album that I especially love:

Click on the link above to see it all!
~kim