{Dollyanna + Darren @Cross Creek Ranch}

It was a beautiful day for a wedding!  Dollyana's step-father is a pastor, and was the officiant for the ceremony in Cross Creek Ranch's new chapel.  I love the bright white open feel, with wood floors and crystal chandaliers. She added quite a few personal touches to the decor for the day like her guest sign in thumb print tree, mason jars for everyone to drink out of, and her silver sparkly Converse. The color of the day was purple.  Purple flowers, purple bridesmaids dresses, purple tables and a cake with purple accents.  Darren's brother Joe gave a pretty awesome speech throwing cards, and being a jokester:-)  Darren also gave a fantastic toast and thanked everyone for celebrating with them.  Everyone had a blast dancing the night away under the stars and full moon.  Darren and Dolly ended their night with a sparkler exit and it was the perfect day! Congratulations Dolly and Darren! xoxoxox

Venue | Cross Creek Ranch | Hair/Makeup | Collective Creations, Cake | Alessi Bakeries, DJ | Harmonic Events | Flowers | Alta Fleur

Sydney Opera House

David and I have had Australia on our bucket list for a l really long time!  We saved up and actually got to check it off our list.  We were there for 2 weeks and did all kinds of different things and met so many amazing people along the way!  I usually don't take a real camera with me on vacation but obviously this is a little different circumstance:-)  After leaving the US on Christmas day we arrived 2 lay overs and 24 later in Sydney!  We totally missed December 26th, never even saw it!  Our first day there we walked all over the city and did a tour of the Opera House.  Sydney is one of the most amazing cities I've seen and SO expensive, even way more than New York or London!  The views there are amazing, from Sydney Harbor the Harbor Bridge and Opera House are obviously some of their most photographed icons.  The way the Opera House was designed was really interesting, everything has a purpose, the tiles on the outside are self cleaning, and inside the rooms there are no speakers or anything.  Everything is designed so you can hear it the same from wherever you are in the room.  There actually weren't too many places you could photograph inside but you will see some of the halls and entry way.  Yes, David had to try and hold up the bridge:-)  Accross the harbor, there is a little carnival looking place kind of like Navy Pier.  The clown face is a little scary!  These are some of my favorite views of the city scape:-) 

Ritz Carlton & Tearsheet Workshop

The ladies from the Ritz Carlton Salons in Sarasota and Orlando did a hands workshop with Tearsheet team editorial hair stylist Giovanni Guintalo.  Kristen, from Novella Style Group created some of the looks with wardrobe and accessories and the wedding gows were from The Perfect Dress. Giovanni is a trensetter in the fashion week and bridal arena, he gets to work with some of my favorites like Badgley Mischka, Kenneth Pool, and Christos.  I love anything fashion related, it helps me to be more creative and look for interesting ways to pose and use lighting.  The stylists did 2 different looks on each of 4 models over two days while I captured those looks in different locations, with different lighting, and lots of different poses and movement.  The Ritz Carlton Beach club is one of my favorite properties to photograph weddings in, and that was where we did everything.  It was nice to have time to play with different lighting situations and things I don't usually have time to do like with reflectors and using off camera flash in a totally different way.  Here's some of my favorites and some of the stylists hard at work as well.........