I was honored to have my beautiful friend Melissa as my first Bride of the season. Melissa and I have been friends for at least a decade. She is one of the loveliest people I know, inside and out, and deserves all of the happiness that was this day. I felt so privileged to get to spend her day with her, documenting it all!!!

I love that she got ready at her parents house (her childhood home) in the room that was hers growing up. It was sweet to watch her sister helping her get dressed.

Some getting ready details.

Her dad seeing her all dressed up and ready to go.

Her groom looking handsome. Josh was a good sport all day. Like most grooms I assume,  the photos were not his favorite part of the day. But, he did a good job and only complained a little.

Melissa is a nature lover and has a love for Beckman Mill. So, it was her chosen place to have a “First Look” and portraits done before the ceremony.

Some more from around the mill.

Their wedding party consisted of Melissa’s Sister Brenda and Josh’s Brother Jeremiah. It was my first time meeting Jeremiah and the two of them had me laughing throughout the portraits. And, yes they are twins. Although you can’t tell in the photos, it’s actually hard to tell them apart.

The ceremony was sweet and simple. My husband actually performed the ceremony and I think he did a good job (but I’m not partial or anything.)

There was plenty of  joy and laughter.

And a few tears.

After the ceremony, I was under strict order to get the only shot that Josh really cared about. All the guys had to partake in some Comic Book Geekiness. Even Grandpa got involved!

And I have to end with this one because it’s just so darn cute. Melissa’s mom and dad made these for the cake topper. So adorable.

Thanks Again Josh and Melissa for choosing me to document your happy day.

Well, real life sidetracked me from finishing up my Awesome Mexican Vacation Report. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, you can catch up here and here. Perhaps most of you are soooo over me recounting every fabulous detail of my trip. Or, perhaps there may just be one or two of you (Hi Mom!) who are still interested in seeing how the rest of the trip turned out. So, to those faithful few who still care, I offer you Mexico Part Tres.

I’ll start with some more shots from around our resort. There was so much to photograph. Sometimes I feel like a big ol’ nerd walking around examining tress and bushes from every angle with my camera as people pass by. But for me, the environmental details are always such a really important part of my experience. I like to capture those details in a way that will “bring me back” when I look at them.

One of the things that I did not talk about in my last 2 posts were the Nice Dinner Restaurants at the resort. I talked about the awesome buffets, but not the actual sit down ones. They all had really great reviews, and we were excited to try them. There were six dinner restaurants and we tried 4 of them.  We liked them all, but Erik’s favorite was the Steak House and my favorites were The French and Italian. However, taking into consideration the best pesto sauce I’ve ever eaten  in my life and the awesome decor of the Italian restaurant, It’d have to be my favorite. It was really fun “dressing up” each night (because that is something we rarely do.) Sadly, most of our reservations were after sunset, so we don’t have a whole lot of photos of us at or going to dinner. But, one night we did manage to find someone to take a pic of us on our way. The photos below were from Italian night.

I had to get a couple of shots of this interesting Boutique Hotel that we passed pretty much every day on our drive up and down Hwy 307. I was so fascinated by it. A Chocolate Hotel? Yes Please!

On our last full day in Mexico, the stars aligned. We took our 3rd, and yes final, trip to the Tulum Ruins. It didn’t rain AND I had my camera with me. Horray!!! This time I got some colorful shots of some of the shopping there.

We had not seen these guys on our 2nd day and I was just in awe of them. Just seeing them made the trip back again worth it. They all climbed up on this 50 ft (at least) pole with a jury-rigged “merry-go-round” at the top. They then tied a rope around their wastes, got spinning really fast and then lowered themselves down by the ropes which made them fly outward like a carnival swing. It was pretty cool.

Before they would start their “flight,” one guy had the job of going around and collecting donations. If you gave a donation, you also got to have your photo taken with him.

“What’s that? You want me to give you some money? Oh, you and all your friends are going to climb that 50+ foot pole without any safety gear? Then you’re ALL going to sit on that tiny spinning contraption at the top while you attempt to harness yourself to a rope? Then you’re going to descend from that rope while it continues to spin and you hang on for dear life. AND you’re going to be doing this while upside down? Hmm…well, I guess I can spare a couple of bucks.”

Shame on anyone who did not give them money! Risking their lives for our entertainment! And look at that guy on the bottom right, he’s like 80!

The only down side to this day at the ruins, was that it was the hottest day so far and it was quite crowded. It was actually a little harder to get photos at  the picturesque views because there were lines for those spots. We quickly snapped a few though.

Down by my favorite tree again.

More Iguanas and Ruins!

After the ruins, on our agenda was snorkeling and swimmimg in a cenote. We never made it to the cenote, but we were o.k. with that sincewe found an awesome snorkeling spot (back at the small public beach in Akumal that we had visited a few days earlier.) It was super cheap to just rent the gear and you could start right at the shore, no need for a boat. There were turtles literally 20 feet out from the beach. We swam for about 2-3 hrs (Erik longer than I) straight, not wanting to leave. Eventually I swam to shore and waited for him to be done. I kept getting cramps in my legs (I am not a regular swimmer anyway and I think walking flat foot on flip-flops all week and then extending my toes while swimming for hours, did not mix well) and I was getting cold (yes, I even get cold in 80 degree, bathtub temperature ocean Mexico.) While waiting for him, a lady saw me shivering and said, “I bet you never thought you’d be cold in Mexico?” I was like, “Yeah, actually I did. I’m always cold” So, what we’ve pretty much established in this post is that I’m a big wimp. Ha!

Anyway, here are just a couple of pics from the GoPro.

And you can click here to see a video with some of the snorkeling footage in it.

Thanks for sticking with me! One more to go. Stay tuned for some pretty beach landscape photos!

I had the pleasure of photographing another beautiful Senior girl on yet another chilly spring day. Jillian was pretty much awesome. In all of my sessions, I strive to connect with my subjects so that we can work together to create beautiful portraits. My goal is to create photos that capture authentic expressions and movement. And while I do direct and pose them, I also allow them some freedom to move, smile and pose as they naturally would. It’s kind of a balance that I try to achieve with each person I shoot. Sometimes it takes myself and my subject a little time to warm up and get the hang of working together. But, Jill and I just clicked from the beginning. Her inner and outer beauty just shined. The first few photos were from the first 20 min. of her session and I think it’s easy to see she was a natural. Here are just a few favorites from our afternoon.

Thank you Jill for choosing me to record such an important time in your life!!!

Kicked off my first photo shoot of the season with this beautiful and sweet girl. Taryn is related to this lovely family who’s wedding I photographed last fall. Her mom contacted me shortly after to do her Senior Shoot and we agreed that a spring session would be great. Since we’ve had such an early spring this year, we had some beautiful natural settings to work with. Taryn wanted to do all natural settings (as opposed to any urban settings) and I didn’t complain. We started off at the Hononegah Forest Preserve, headed into Downtown Rockton, and then ended at the J Norman Jensen Forest Preserve. It was a bit chilly, but we had some nice light and Taryn was a pro. She did such an awesome job. It was a perfect way to kick off the season!

Thanks So Much Taryn!! Hope you like em.

If you’re just joining me, I’m currently in the middle of a string of posts highlighting some of my favorite photos and moments from a recent trip to Mexico. If you’d like to start with Part 1, you can read about it here. Our next few days brought more adventure, but also a good amount of R&R and FOOD!! Oh the food!!! But I’ll get to that later. BTW, all photos in this post (except for the car photos below) were taken with our little Go Pro H2.

Since we rented a car, and spent a good amount of time in it driving up and down Hwy 307, I thought it was important to get a couple of snapshots of it for the memory book. Below is our chariot in all it’s glory. It also came with a handsome chauffeur.

Funny note. When we picked up our car we thought it was a VW Golf that was missing the “F.” So, all week we kept mockingly calling it the “GOL.” It wasn’t until the end of the week that we realized that “GOL” is the actual name of the car. Joke was on us.

One of the things on our agenda was to visit the Tulum Ruins. We had heard that out of all of the ruins, Tulum’s had the best setting and views. They were about a 45 min. drive from our resort which wasn’t a big deal. However, when it’s sunny at your resort and then you drive 45 min only to find torrential rains, it’s kind of a bummer.

When I say “torrential rains” I am not exaggerating. Arriving at the ruins, the rain was pretty light. Light enough that we parked, made the trek to the ticket counter,  and then walked to the entrance hut. By the time we got there, it started pouring and we ended up waiting in the hut with about 60 -70 others for at least 45 min. We watched tour group after tour group file through and continue on with their tour. We were SO thankful that we were on our own and not bound to staying with a group. Because there was no sign of the rain letting up, we decided to come back another day. That meant, of course, that we had to make the long trek back to the parking lot in the rain.

If it looks like we were not having a good time romping through the rain and puddles, we totally were. It’s kind of good for the soul and I actually recommend it.

Our plan was to return to the ruins after the weekend as Erik had heard that weekends tend to be more crowded with locals. So, for 2 days we just hung around our resort, got some sun, took advantage of some activities, and of course ATE. A LOT!!!

This was our favorite spot at the buffet on the beach. There was no better place to enjoy the best chips and guacamole we’ve ever had. I also loaded up on a lot of fresh Jicama everyday and had the best soup and best pesto sauce I’ve ever eaten in my life. I’m not really a foodie, but this vacation may have turned me into one!

We also ate a lot of other things and I’m pretty sure that I gained 2-3 lbs within the first few days of our trip. The yummy desserts probably had something to do with that too. Just for the record, the desserts in the photo below were very small (even though they look gigantic int the photo.)  My strategy was always to take one of everything, then take just a few bites of each. I seriously don’t know HOW we ate as much as we did. Or WHY. My theory is that we felt the need to get our money’s worth.

Or, it could have been that we worked up an appetite doing stuff like this. These photos are all captured from the video that we took during parasailing. The bottom 2 photos are from when the boat “dipped” us in the water.

Somehow some moisture must have gotten into the underwater casing for our Go Pro, because after a while the lens got really foggy. Because we were already in the water when we noticed it, we couldn’t open it up to fix it. So, here are a couple of foggy shots from Kayaking. The bottom one is the view from exiting the private river we got kicked out of.

After the weekend, we made the drive down to Tulum to attempt to see the ruins again. On the way we made a stop in Playa again to shop a little. We passed this McDonalds with their cute Ice-cream cone topiary.

Brilliant marketing. I suddenly had a craving for one. The ice-cream was definitely a different formula than in the U.S. and the cones were different too. They also had a chocolate Oreo version that Erik got.

This time, we actually made INTO the ruins and they did not disappoint. It wasn’t so much the ruins that impressed me as it was the setting. I just loved the area, the beautiful beach and blue ocean in the background, and the insane amount of wildlife (ie, iguanas) everywhere. Everywhere!!! At one point we even saw a GIANT python or Boa just lounging in a tree.

The only thing that was disappointing about this day was that Erik had talked me out of bringing my Main camera and I only had the Go Pro. The Go Pro doesn’t have a view finder, only has auto exposure, and has one very wide focal length. So while I still think I got some decent photos with it, I was DYING the whole time not having my 5D.  So, I kind of talked him into agreeing to go back to the ruins the next day (yes that would make trip # 3) so that I could take more photos. Those photos will be in a later post. All of the photos below were taken with our little Go Pro.

The amount of iguanas was insane. Sometimes they were just running right past us and other times they were camouflaged into the landscape. After a while, I found myself looking for them like I do Hidden Mickeys at Disney World. Can you see the Iguana below?

Here is a closer crop. Can you see him now?

If you know me, you know I have a thing for unique trees. I loved this one. It felt very “Gilligan’s Island” to me. I could have laid there all day really.

After the ruins, we headed out in search for a beach to snorkle at. We never found it, but we did get to really explore Tulum and happened upon the most beautiful stretch of beach with some of the most beautiful Boutique Hotels. Hotels that we would love to stay at some day. Hotels that were probably VERY out of our price range. But, a girl can dream.

On that stretch of beach, we found this awesome little restaurant called Zamas. Best Tostadas I’ve ever eaten. Period. Plus, who doesn’t love to to eat right on the beach?

This was probably one of my favorite days, ending with a sunset on this beach.

Thanks for stickin’ with me so far! Stay tuned for more adventure and beautiful beach landscape photos!

Last week I was reluctantly and sadly returning from one of the best vacations I’ve ever had. EVER!!  In celebration of being married to my wonderful husband for 15 years, (no I’m not THAT old, I just got married THAT young) we took an unprecedented kidless vacation to Playa Del Carmen Mexico. It was our first time at an all inclusive Resort and we were so excited to be going to somewhere in the Caribbean other than Haiti for a change.  We were also excited for warmth and time together. We wondered how we’d like the All Inclusive thing. We wanted to be able to explore and not feel like we were bound to the resort or tour groups. Turns out, the combo of Resort and Rental Car was perfect for us. We always had great food and accommodations to come “home” to after our days of exploration and adventure. Of course, I have so many photos that I want to post. So my trip will unfold over a series of posts and days. Hopefully you’ll stick with me. I did not take a lot of scenic photos the first few days, so many of those photos will come later.

Getting to Mexico turned out to be a little more of an adventure than we had hoped for. After delays, re-taxiing back to the gate to re-count bags, and turning around in mid-flight then heading to North Carolina to switch planes because our aircraft wasn’t working right, we finally arrived at the Cancun airport at 3:00 a.m., 5 hrs behind schedule. By the time we got our rental car and drove to our resort, we checked in at 5:00 a.m. Our greeting was quite low key, but still have to give props to The Blue Bay Grand Esmeralda for having drinks waiting for us though.

After being up for 24 hrs., we started our first day by dropping our bags in our room and walking right out onto the beach to enjoy our first Mexican Caribbean Sunrise. And, it was pretty great. And, we were pretty happy.

After sunrise we were tempted to take a nap, but realizing that if we tried to catch some ZZZs we’d end up missing breakfast, we decided to continue on with our sleepless streak. What’s a few more hours anyway? So, we took our showers, got dressed and headed to the breakfast buffet. This is what 6:30 a.m., sleep deprived,  no hair or make-up done Mandy looks like. Not the the prettiest picture, but part of the memories.

Breakfast was Amazing BTW. The Buffet that we went to, and ended up eating at almost everyday, was right on the beach. We were so surprised by how good the food was. I am not exaggerating in the least when I say that on this first morning, I ate more calories at Breakfast than I usually eat in 2 whole days!

After breakfast we decided that we should probably try to sleep a bit. So after crashing for a few hours, we felt a little more refreshed and better able to enjoy our resort and this beautiful view!

These were the views from our room and common balcony in our building. We loved waking up to this everyday (minus any Moobs of course)

Our first day was pretty Jammed packed. We ended up going out and exploring Down Town Playa Del Carmen (both touristy and non-touristy areas)  In the touristy area, we were asked by some white dude if we wanted any Piercings or Tatoos. When we refused, he asked us if we wanted some “weed.” When we refused that, he then offered us “Coke” (and I don’t think he was talking about the refreshing beverage.) We were cracking up, cause we really look like those kind of customers don’t we.  I really didn’t take any photos of Playa, but wish that I had. So much to see and do. So little time! We ended our day back at our resort with a Dinner Buffet and me with a pretty bad headache. I was just so sleep deprived. So, we ended up going to bed at like 9:00. O.K. maybe I AM that old.

Lots of sleep was just what we needed and after a full night of it, we were back to normal. This is what rested and relaxed Erik and Mandy look like.

Second Day, we ended up exploring a little more. We found a great beach in Akumal that we spent some time just swimming and relaxing at.  Our Resort’s beach wasn’t very swimable and we were aware of that when booking. We were o.k. with it because we knew we’d be finding other beaches to enjoy anyway. I didn’t take my main Camera this day, but did get a few with my new little Go Pro H2. I love it and was so excited to use it for water stuff. We have a lot of video from it too and Erik is working on editing all of that. It’d been may years since I’d swam in an Ocean and I missed it terribly. Here is me enjoying it.

We also ended up switching to the room next door on our second day. Our first room had two double beds and that was No Bueno for us. Erik doesn’t like to cuddle at night and we thought it would be a little too “I Love Lucy” to sleep in separate beds, especially on an anniversary trip. So, this was our new room. Same great Ocean view and breeze, with a King Sized Bed. I’m very picky about hotel beds and part of the reason we chose this resort was because of good bed reviews. They did not disappoint. They were exceptionally comfy!

This is what our room looked like 90% of the trip. We never had our air conditioning on.

Scenes from the beach…

Not sure what this was all about, but we saw these guys a few different times. Couldn’t decide if it made us feel uneasy or safe. LOL.

In case you missed this guys cheese. Here’s a close up.

Some scenes from around the resort…

I’ll end with some details of vegetation. If you know me, you know that I’m kind of a crazy plant lady. So I can’t resist.

Stayed Tuned for Part II and more scenic photos!

What better way to end my wedding season than with a beautiful couple on a beautiful day at a beautiful venue. Also, I had the fantastic Carrie Bower as my second photographer, which made it even better. I am not exagerating when I say that EVERYTHING about this day was gorgeous. After many days of cold and dreary weather, the sun came out and gave us a day full of warmth and some really amazing light. In fact, if I had one word to describe the day it would be LIGHT. Not just the ambient light you’ll see in the images below, but also the light that just exudes from Dan and Chelsi. It’s evident that their love for God permeates and flows from their lives, and to everyone who is around them. And, as you can see from the images, Chelsi’s smile just lights up a room.

The ceremony took place at First Evangelical Free Church in Rockord, which has some really nice property for taking lovely photos. See what I mean about the beautiful light?

I always love to capture the first looks of both the bride and groom as the bride comes down the isle. There were definitely some teary eyes happening between the two of them.

A special moment as they  took communion.

Just some lovely details.

The reception took place at the brand new Nicholas Conservatory and Gardens in Rockford. Chelsi and Dan had the honor of being THE very first couple to have their wedding reception there. They even got to be on the news because of it! The Conservatory is beautiful and the staff all did a fabulous job!  As you can see, it was an amazing place for portraits with, again, fantastic light.

The conservatory happens to be right next to Sinnissippi Gardens, so of course we took advantage of it for some more beautiful portraits and bridal party shots. Once again, perfect light. And, it helps when you have such a good looking bridal party…

…who happen to be the best jumpers I’ve ever photographed.

I love this photo because of Dan’s look. More than once during the portrait time, I would catch him just being in awe of her beauty. I think every girl should have a guy who’s breath is taken away every time he looks at her.

And of course, right on cue, we had the most beautiful sky at sunset. It was like God was just smiling on their day.

I have to end with this last one. Their first dance was perfectly choreographed and just so fun to watch. I smiled through the whole thing.

Thank you Dan and Chelsi for letting me be a part of your day.

My last Senior Session of the season happened to be with my Nephew Dustin. I seriously considered sharing all sorts of cute “when he was little” stories about him here. But I’ll refrain…I won’t share ALL of them. I will tell you that he was THE cutest little guy. He was one of those little charmers too. You know, the kind of kid that just flashes a smile and suddenly whatever mischievous thing he did is cute. He always had older girls swooning over him and wanting to take care of him. The when he got older, little girls swooned over him. My daughter Abra  hadn’t really known him before he and his family moved here to Wisconsin from California, and when she met him for the first time she was obsessed. She kept calling him “That Big Guy.” When our other daughter Ashley came from Haiti and met him for the first time she was obsessed with him as well. To me he will always be that sweet little 4 year old who truly believed that MY wedding was taking place so that everyone could watch him walk down the isle in his handsome tuxedo. Hard to believe that little guy is all grown up. Here are a few of my favorites.

Dustin, We’re really proud of you!!!

I really enjoy photographing Senior Guys. While the principles of photography are the same no matter what, the posing and interaction for a guy are so completely opposite of photographing senior girls, or babies, or weddings. It’s kinda fun, and the results bring some diversity to my portfolio. I was really excited to photograph Cody because he’d mentioned using his skateboard as a prop and I had all kinds of ideas for it. My favorites being the 3rd and 4th photos below where I had him jumping over me several times. I was also excited because he wanted to use one of my favorite spots, The Williams Tree Farm, as one of his locations. Cody works there and I thought it made for a perfect backdrop. Of course I also found some great urban spots downtown that really worked well with the clothes and colors that Cody chose. Here are a few images from his session that I really liked.

Thanks Cody. You did a great job!

Meet Branden. I was very excited for his Senior Session because not only is he an awesome guy, but he is really talented. I think he is a Rock Star who is going to change the world. I get to sing and serve with him on stage at my church (my other job) and I can tell you that is he the real deal. We had a great time at some great locations and I was quite impressed with his modeling skills.  He made my job so easy. Here are some of my favorites from his shoot.