baba + tad :: married!

if serendipity is a fortunate discovery you make by accident while looking for something else entirely,

what's it called when unfolding before your eyes appears exactly what (in your wildest dreams!) you were hoping to find?

baba and bridesmaids crossed the quaint little bridge from the hawthorne house heading to the chapel. there's nothing directed or posed about this picture ~ i was simply crossing the bridge from the other direction, having just come from taking some camera equipment to the ceremony site. love how each bridesmaid is positioned, including even the spacing and movement of the blue dresses (worn by baba's sisters) within the sea of green. love, too, how that railing pulls your eyes in and how the wee bit of camera tilt provides some dance to the image, but that the picture is still grounded vertically.

when moments like this appear, we hear the hallelujah chorus in our heads, no kidding.

and when something works, stick with it!

same bridge, same idea, still with cute girls (but this time, the 2 moms with dads in hand)

what a day! what wonderful people!! what a perfect location!!! what a fun party!!!! guests came from around the world to be with tad + baba and it's easy to see why.

(a new contender for my favorite family group picture ever:)

so much to love!

can i just say that kansas city's hawthorne house is an exquisite place for a celebration ~ so white and airy:

and a locale even more scrumptious with the addition of hundreds upon hundreds
of dainty and delicious brazilian sweets that baba and her mom and sisters had
spent the week making for guests. amazing and delectable!

and how beautiful is this girl! beauty inside and out in the truest sense:

. . . down to the tiniest of details

as i was creating the images you see above, look what annika miller saw (and captured perfectly!) from the corner of the room:

baba had asked her dad to walk her down to where she'd have a private moment with tad.

these pictures not only show how beautiful baba is (and the cuteness of her sweet dad!)
but how very lovely the hawthorne house setting proves to be from every angle

and just look at these expressions as she turned while tad was walking toward her:

love it, love it, love it!!!

moments later annika and i were close enough to hear tad say

"i so want to grab you right now but i don't want to mess you up" ~

to which baba (a SilverBox kind of girl!) said "oh, just DO IT!"

:D

we LOVED and really utilized hawthorne house's sweeping porch.

one of the things we most loved about this venue is that it offers a lovely and quiet place to get dressed,

a beautiful and spacious reception room with sprawling grounds and ALSO a charming chapel.

t's all right there!

my favorite picture from inside the chapel is probably this one that annika created;

another one of those unplanned, unposed, yet perfect moments ~ and wow, what lovely light
(great seeing, annika miller ~ just tremendous!)

and did i share a detail from inside the ballroom yet? the party was getting started as the sun began to set.

and here's an ballroom overview shot:

aaah, the golden hour from the window

wait, all these images and you have yet to see how very cute tad is, too!

i'm working on their wedding slideshow this very minute and again another realization:

WAIT! you've yet to see the party masks!

much to come via baba + tad's highlight slideshow,

but i don't want to wait one more second to thank and thank again

the fey family who is as gracious and kind as any group of people you'll ever meet,

annika miller for consistently making so many incredible pictures and for her amazing ability to mind-read,

and especially for alex + tim snyder for introducing us to baba + tad in the first place.

all my love to each of you. my life is richer because you're in it and oh how grateful i am.

hugs, friends!

amy enderle

"In the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter and the sharing of pleasures"

~ kahil gibran

everything changes :: PLUS meet grace + levi

remember our posts about our friend sarah?
[the inspiration and love behind Hold that Hug??]
we'd like to take this chance to invite you
to participate in this June 5th Devner, Colorado event.
Tickets are now on sale online, in a limited supply.
AND interested in submitting a picture for the photo contest?
(DO IT! only requirement is the theme: Everything Changes)
Email entries to everythingchanges@becking.com.
Concert lineup looks to include Hazel Miller, Col. Redbone, Velvet Elvis, Sonic Junkies, and Confunkcious.
Doors open at 6:30, show ends when the show ends.

Facebook page on the whole thing is here.
and speaking of changes, amy is now a facebook user, too (and won't you be my friend?)

and speaking of NEW FRIENDS.
oh my goodness how i loved meeting grace + levi!
it was a kirksville shoot which means i didn't just meet new friends,
i caught up with older dear ones, too
AND came home with (nearly a) trunkfull of frozen ronzas.

it had snowed
(and snowed! and snowed!!)
the day before ~
my what crazzzzzzy weather
we were having, so this shoot
has a far greater number of
"interiors" than is the
SilverBox norm.

but i'm LOVING the interaction
between grace and levi.
and those great interior windows
offer such tremendous leading lines
(and shadows!!)

OK, to see even more, try out this
slideshow link.

















and want to know ABSOLUTELY the MOST fun thing i've taken part in in MONTHS?
baba + tad's wedding -- no contest.
changes (etc) in my midst have kept me from processing and posting these incredible images as quickly as i'd hoped BUT . . . oh please hang with me just a wee bit more. pix from tad + baba's party will knock your socks off, guaranteed. 

and a sneak peek will be posted later today. stay tuned!

and thanks to everyone for your kindness + patience ~
hugs!
amy

carissa + erik: steeped in cherry blossoms and love

wow am I excited to share these engagement photos! Prepare yourself, i've posted an unusually large number of photos here, but we had an incredible afternoon of hanging out, photographing, soaking up the day together. Plus, there's a slideshow with even more pics . . . see it by clicking here.

the scoop? carissa + erik are marrying in St. Louis next Fall in the Missouri Botanical Gardens. in the meantime, they brought me to Washington D.C. (they live in virginia) to photograph their engagement session during DC's annual. . . Cherry Blossom Festival!

oh my gosh, was it ever so lovely: we were in snow flurries of cherry blossom petals . . . petals in our hair, on our clothes, in our mouths . . . if you haven't been to the cherry blossom festival in DC, I recommend you add it to your "list of things you WILL DO while here on earth." (next year's dates: March 27 - April 11, 2010).

by the way, here's what cherry blossoms look like up close:



and here are carissa + erik at our first cherry tree of the day . . . in Old Town Alexandria (where carissa and erik spent time together during earlier dating days)





we took a "photo stroll" through Old Town, stopping wherever we felt inclined . . . at a cobblestone street:









in a residential courtyard:







and oh how i loved being with carissa + erik. he described driving around one day after he'd begun dating carissa, feeling SO VERY LUCKY to have carissa in his life that: "i felt like i'd just won the lottery!" i could see that feeling in his eyes every single time he looked at her:



and the feeling was mutual . . . just look at carissa's expressive hands:



and our next stop: a convenience store on the way to ice cream and the landing:









and then we dashed to the national mall:



on our way to the tidal basin to stand with hundreds of others (from all over the world . . . we heard dozens of languages spoken around us) watching the sun set on the more than 2000 cherry trees along the shoreline:

















we had a day of being just steeped in abundance: in cherry blossoms, in history, in love. (have you clicked on carissa + erik's slideshow yet . . . have you?!)

and coincidentally, the day after i returned home, my son showed me a fourth grade writing assignment he'd just completed . . . on the Cherry Blossom Festival! here's what i learned from my 4th grader:

Writer and photographer (yes! the cherry blossom festival was the brainchild of a photographer!) Eliza Scidmore dreamed of bringing fruitless cherry trees to Washington, D.C. after seeing her first one during a trip to Japan in 1885. She enlisted the help of First Lady Helen Taft. Eliza persisted for years, despite setbacks. And in 1912, the first 2 trees were planted and are still blooming today (even though life expectancy for these trees in only fifty years). Now thousands of the trees bloom each year in DC.

and now you know too. dream big.

~kim