Marina

Summer Engagement Photos at Saltair

  One of my favorite things to hear is how someone found my website and decided to contact me.  Sometimes it's just a google search for something like "Utah Wedding Photographer", sometimes they picked up a card at a wedding I was shooting, and lots of times people see my work on Facebook as one friend comments on another friend's photo and I pop up in their feed.  The backstory on how Joelle and Brett found me was one of the more roundabout that I had heard.  I met with them earlier this year to book their September wedding, and Brett confessed that he and Joelle had been following my blog for the previous 6 months.  If I got the story down correctly, this is what happened.

 

Brett found some photos of an acapella group on their website who had linked to a couple of photos of another acapella group.  The photos seemed pretty cool, and Brett winded up on Noteworthy's website.  He saw the promotional photos that I had done for them last fall, as well as the photos I took of them at their November concert.  He eventually went through all the photos they had, noticed my watermark on a few of them, and wondered "hey, maybe she does wedding photos too."  They ended up on my blog, and that was that.

 

Joelle and Brett have been together for several years now, and in a state where the common courtship-to-marriage window is 6 to 9 months, it makes for some different dynamics during a photoshoot.  I loved how comfortable they were together.  No awkwardness, no hesitations, no problems.

 

 

 

Love the marina at the Great Salt Lake.  So much variety in textures, and you can photograph it every day of the week with every day being different.

 

 

It's awesome how in summer we've got these tall grasses that turn this perfect gold- it makes for the some of the warmest, happiest photos.  Perfect for an engagement session.

 

  

 

And no WLP engagement shoot would be complete without a romantic silhouette, right? :D

 

 

 

 

Tara's Bridals: Westminster College & Great Salt Lake

Chris and Tara's wedding was on Saturday- it was at Millennial Falls in Draper, and it was A-MAZ-ING!  Gorgeous location, and what a party!  

Of course this means that now that we've captured Chris' awestruck look as he sees his bride for the first time in her dress we can share all her bridal photos with you!  Tara is an alumnus of Westminster College, which is also where Chris proposed to her, so we started the bridal session there.  Afterwards, we drove out to Saltair and shot by the Great Salt Lake and the marina there.

Tara used to eat lunch in this area and the landscaping was a little different.  We arrived for her bridals, and decided that Westminster must have put in this pedestal just for her!

One of Tara's recent loves is sailing, so the marina was a perfect fit for her!  Sailing has a special place in my heart ever since I managed to flip my little one-man skiff on a lake during a summer storm when I was about 12.  I got it right side up and finished out my afternoon.  I loved it!

 

I love the fields around Saltair.  It gives that perfect, romantic-wheat-field look, especially as they sway in the wind.  It was INCREDIBLY cold by then, but you wouldn't know it by the photos.  Tara was absolutely incredible to work with, and I have to give a shout out to Nancy, Chris' mom.  She is a professional costume designer, and she actually made Tara's dress!  Not only that, but Nancy came along on the shoot and helped out with the lighting.  In some of these photos she's actually crouched down on rocks behind Tara with a flash for back light.  Nancy, you completely went above and beyond!  I now grant you the most-awesome-mother-in-law-in-the-world award.   Feel free to put "wedding lighting specialist" in your resume as well.

Tara is such a beautiful girl.  The way she did her hair, her dress... so relaxed, and yet so elegant.

Take a look at her bridal gallery here.