Vanessa & Luis

I met Vanessa a few years ago at her parents place, though I wonder if she remembers meeting me back then. I am friends with Vanessa's brother, Johnel, who is a dear friend of mine. He casually introduced us, we chatted for a second and that was that.

Fast forward a few years into the future. I see Vanessa at her sister-in-laws baby shower and she tells me she wants to talk about wedding photography (for her wedding, of course). I feel both excited and honored that she would consider me to photograph her wedding. We then email each other back and forth and set a time for me to meet with her and Luis. We chatted, connected, booked the wedding, and then later had a great engagement session. Awesome!

Vanessa and Luis are the kind of people that you want to be friends with. They are kind and love their friends and their families, which was evident at their wedding. These are just a few of the reasons why I was excited and honored to be there at their wedding.

So about the wedding. The ceremony was at the BEAUTIFUL Holy Cross Church. The church was amazing to shoot in. Period. Luis grew up attending this church and knows the Pastor, so there is an emotional tie to this amazing building.

After the ceremony the entire party went out to the Adler Planetarium for a few portraits near the lakefront. The weather was perfect (yay, no rain) and the smiles were genuine. What more could a photographer ask for? There was just enough cloud coverage to provide some texture to our portraits and to block out the sun. We all hung out there for a bit and then started to feel the heat of the sun. It was time to get in the air-conditioned bus and off to the reception.

Vanessa and Luis planned the perfect party. The reception was held at the Chateau Del Mar. One of the coolest things about this place is the golf course. The perfectly mowed grass and trees made for a fantastic view. They had a mariachi band play for the cocktail hour. Those guys could SING! And they looked pretty darn cool to boot. The DJ spun a few tunes while the guests ate. After dinner the band came on stage and played a variety of spanish music. They were an amazing band (I will have to get the band name and post it later) and really pumped up the crowd and got them dancing. It was so cool seeing the dance floor so full. I think that the majority of the guests were actually dancing. I know that every last square-inch of the dace floor was taken.

My many thanks to the Flores and Mugnaini families for having me be a part of such an important day in their families history. Luis and Vanessa, you guys are amazing and I hope the absolute best for your future. I look forward to hearing your part of your wedding story. I hope that you both had a blast.

I want to thank Gary Middendorf for his assistance and for his amazing shots. Thanks dude, you ROCK!

You can see the still images on my Facebook page: Click here!

Rowena & Ephraim

I had such a blast second shooting Ephraim and Rowena's wedding with Hinojosa Photography. Veronica had informed me that they were a cool and fun couple, which is always good news to hear about the bride and groom you are about to spend the entire day with. What was extra sweet was that their bridal party (and family) were just as cool and fun. Looking at the photographs above is a testament to that.

You can see more of the images on Veronica's website here: Ephraim and Rowena.

Congratulations to a fine couple. My many thanks to Ephraim and Rowena and their families for making this day memorable. And my thanks to Veronica for having me be a part of it. Rock on!

Matt & Jessicas Wedding

I was very excited about Matt and Jessica's wedding. I met them a few months back at a local Starbucks here in Chicago. As soon as I met them I knew they were a fun couple, Matt is especially funny and likes to make people laugh (my kind of guy). It felt like we all clicked pretty quickly and had a great meeting as we learned a bit more about each other.

The ceremony took place at the beautiful Grace Episcopal Church in Oak Park. This church is amazing to look at and has plenty of room for a photog to move around. Pretty sweet. The acoustics were also great. We did not have enough time to shoot some alter shots (bummer), but the bride and groom were cool with that. So we took off to the reception.

The reception was held at the Morton Arboretum in beautiful Lisle Illinois. The actual reception took place inside the Ginkgo Room (Ginko trees have really cool looking leaves). This room has a great view of the arboretum, and a very beautiful pond just outside of the room. The sun was setting pretty fast so we made the most of the natural light and took a handful of fun portraits of the bridal party and a few sweet shots of the bride and groom. The grass was a bit mushy, so we worked as fast as we could.

So all in all it was a fun wedding with a fun couple. I really hope the best for Matt and Jessica as they start out their life together. They are moving to a different state soon, so I know that they have a lot on theor plates. But I have a good feeling that they will transition very smoothly. Thanks guys!

Mario & Liliana

The Lopez wedding was an absolute party! Mario and I are co-workers, so I knew that his wedding was going to be full of energy. Needless to say, I was very much looking forward to his wedding.

The day seemed to be perfect. The weather was absolutely awesome (look at the sky in the photos... saweeeet). The church was beautiful and the priest allowed me to walk around the entire church. That was cool of him. And all of the family members were present for the family portraits. After the portraits we jumped in the limo and drove over to the Adler Planetarium. Oh, did I mention that there was little to no traffic, on a Friday night!!! That was sweet all on its own.

So we get to the Planetarium and the sky is looking luscious... it was just asking to be photographed. There was also some beautiful light bouncing off of the building right next to the Planetarium, which gave me some amazing fill light on Mario and Liliana. They loved the photos and I was a happy camper. My Nikon and I were best of friends that day. I guess the only negative was that it was pretty darn chilly that evening, so our shoot was crunched down to about 12 minutes (fun).

We then took off to the reception. The music was pretty much blasting from the moment we arrived and it never let off. I think my ears are still ringing from that night. I could not have had a better time with the Lopez and Galarza families. Thank you again Mario and Liliana!!!

Chris & Lindsay

Joliet, Illinois was rockin' on 09.26.08. The Lotysz wedding was a very fun wedding to shoot (man, all of my weddings have been a blast this year. I'm not complaining). I met up with Lindsau and her girls in Flossmoor at the Marc Alan day Spa. These are some pretty awesome girls and you can tell so much from the company that you keep. So I know that Lindsay has some great friends and family.

From there we traveled to The Renaissance Center in Joliet. Let me tell you, the Rennaisance Center's website does it no justice. This place is very nice with plenty of room for great photographs. There is where I met up with Chris and his groomsmen. soon enough the ceremony started and the rest is history.

I am grateful to the Lotysz and Smith family for having me be a part of their special day. I must mention that Chris and Lindsay played "Always With Me, Always With You" at their wedding. This is the first time I have heard this song since MY WEDDING almost 7 years ago. Chris, you are one rockin' dude! Hearing that song made my day. My many, many thanks.

Rob & Jill

Jill was very excited on her wedding day, as she should be! It has been a while since I have worked with such an excited bride. It was a joy seeing her this happy. I could tell that she was soooo ready to get married. Rob must be a pretty awesome dude for this gal to be so over joyed. Good job Rob!

Thanks again guys for having me be a part of your wedding. You all have such caring and loving family and friends. Rob, your friends are a blast, and boy can they dance.

Thad & Kristin

My many thanks to Thad and Kristin for having me shoot their wedding. I always find it such an honor to spend an entire day with a couple and photographing them in one of the most important days of their lives. That is pretty darn special and amazing to me. There is so much trust in that relationship, one that must not be broken either before or after the wedding.

I am also amazed at how quickly the wedding day goes by. All of that planning... all of that worry... all of the anticipation... and then it is done. Then all that is left are the photographs and a few choice mementos of that day. Man, it is so cool to do what I do.

These photographs that I make mean something to my couples, and they mean a whole bunch to me as well. All of the hours and investment in knowledge and photo equipment all makes sense when the couple sees the photos for the first time and are in awe at how amazing they look. That is the moment that I look forward to every time. My thanks again to Thad and Kristin.

Matt & Joy

I have to say that out of all of the weddings I have done this year, Matt and Joy's wedding stands out for a couple of reasons.

First :: Matt and Joy are a very warm and loving couple. I could see and feel this from the moment I met them at my Starbucks studio. They have an innocence that I have never really seen before in a couple. That was very refreshing to see and experience. The ceremony took place at the Linder Conference Center in Lombard, IL. This was a very cool place to shoot a wedding. The reception was at the Wyndham Drake in Oak Brook.

Second :: This was one of my first weddings to incorporate different lighting techniques during the portrait sessions. Mainly the use of Pocket Wizards to trigger my Nikon SB-800 flash unit. I also used a CTO gel on my flash giving me the beautiful warmth to my images. It was a different approach to the way I normally work, but I think that the results were very satisfying.

So my many thanks to the Ling and Shen families for having me be a part of their wedding day. Thanks Matt and Joy!