In January, I took a 10 day vacation to visit my parent’s home in San Miguel de Allende, GTO, Mexico.  The point of the trip was to spend time with my family, so I didn’t pull my camera out much.  But I did make an effort to shoot a little every day.  I will spare you the photo of the scorpion that stung me though!

Below, my breakfast at a cafe one morning! Yum!

This wall is on my parent’s street.  We were walking in to town and I stopped to photograph it!  My mom claims she has lived in the house for four years and never noticed the rad wall!

I was on vacation, so each meal was accompanied by a margarita!

One of the days we went to a bull fight.  To be honest, I had no idea what I was getting myself in to.  We ended up leaving 20 minutes in to the “fight”  I posted two photos below this one, but they are a little graphic, just to warn you.  Not as graphic as some other shots I took, but it was really hard to shoot through all my tears!

These guys were supposed to taunt the bull, but the bull fought back and speared one of them!  They just pulled the guy off at this point!

Since we left the bull fight early, we got to see this bride and groom walk out of the church after getting married!  There was no professional photographer in sight!

My last full day in Mexico, we drove to the city of Guanajuato since I had never been there.  You take this Funicular to the top of the hill and this is the view you get!

Isn’t this light amazing? I couldn’t pass it up!  And my parents are pretty adorable (married 40 years in August!)

This is back in San Miguel, a view of the Parroquia on the way in to town

And a close up of the same taken from the Jardin!

This was my second time down there, can’t wait to go again!  Next up…learn more Spanish!

xoxo, M

Last Saturday was my second wedding of the year – starting to a GREAT start if I must say!  I didn’t know Mike and Sara too well going in to their wedding day, since they live in snowy Washington DC.  They were so much fun to hang out with, they make me consider moving East just to be their friend!  🙂  The Dana was a little windy that day – but NO rain!

Huge thanks to Courtney Tibetts from After the Engagement for making the day run so smoothly!  You rock girl, I look forward to more weddings together this year!  (Courtney even put aside cupcakes for me and Mandi – so thoughtful!)

Teresa Piazza did a fantastic job on Sara’s makeup! It was my first time working with her and I hope to see more of her in the future!

Meanwhile, the boys were being silly with Mandi and couldn’t get their ties just right…

The gorgeous flowers were done by Sally at Exquisite Blooms!  Notice the yellow rose in honor of Sara’s mother.

They opted for a ‘First Look’ which is the reason I am showcasing so many bride and groom photos below – we had a ton of time!

Mike is incredibly funny…

I get asked a lot if I shoot with another photographer. I do, and its mostly Mandi unless she is shooting her own wedding!  One reason I love having two angles?  Check out my version below…and Mandi’s below that!

This was so cute, I had to share it!

Mandi’s view at the ceremony…

And my view of the hand-off!

The yummy cupcakes were from Babycakes Bakery!

Isn’t that some gorgeous uplighting?  I LOVE uplighting!  Mick from Elite British DJ did them as well as kept the dance floor packed!

Sara gave Mike this book earlier in the day 🙂

Mandi and I had such a blast at this wedding, she had to drag me away!  Hope you two are having an amazing time in New Zealand!

xoxo, M

Enjoy the Slideshow!

Last night, Cathy, Helena and I attended the Spread the Love tour by Justin and Mary Marantz.  I laughed, I cried, I rolled my eyes (in a good way)!  It was definitely a fun night.  They only have a handful a cities left in their tour, but if there are seats, sign up!  It’s worth the money!

Spread the Love LA: February 5th
Spread the Love San Fran: February 8th
Spread the Love Seattle: February 11th
Spread the Love Salt Lake City: February 15th
Spread the Love Denver: February 17th
Spread the Love Kansas City: February 19th
Spread the Love Chicago: February 22nd
Spread the Love Maine: March 24th

The tour helped give my business a little kick in the butt and I am excited to be developing some new ideas for 2010!  One of the first things I will be doing is dedicating myself to blogging more.  Everyone in favor of this?  This means I will have a few more personal posts, but I hope you enjoy them (and leaving a comment to let me know helps too!)

I’ll leave you with two photo booth photos from past Saturdays wedding (coming to the blog soon!)

If you know me in real life, I’m pretty goofy. I love to laugh. And I love to be laughed at…I mean with.  Mandi and I always have fun on wedding days!

And here we are with the wonderful Courtney Tibetts, wedding coordinator from After the Engagement!  She likes to laugh too 🙂

Photobooth by Red Cheese

My good friend and wedding coordinator Eve Harrison of Ooh La La Wedding Touches and her darling husband Marvin had their 2nd little bundle of joy show up the day after Christmas!  Big brother Shay wasn’t allowed in the hospital, so he isn’t in any of the photos, but you can see their cute family here.

Baby Kross is so adorable and was so calm when I met him at 12 hours old!  Take a peek 🙂

Big hugs and Congrats to the Harrison Family!

xoxo, M

I first heard about Lori though my good friend Cathy with Love at First Invite.  Cathy has started a new side business that includes website, logo and blog design as well as branding and marketing!  One of her first clients was Lori of Paper and Thread Invitation Studio.  Lori contacted me for new headshots for her brand new website!  Don’t forget to check it out.  And when you are done there, hop on over to Cathy’s new website, Love-Inspired!

I love this prop-sewing machine Lori brought to the shoot!

Lori, it was great getting to know you and laughing with you, even when we were both getting over the sniffles!  Your new website looks Fab!

xoxo, M