Weddings are such memorable events, and its hard not to celebrate that on here.  Determined to make up for lost time, I am enjoying reliving last year’s weddings, and going back to blog them, one by one.  Its been great to open picture folders, relive so many happy memories, laugh at others, and most of all, remember why I do all this in the first place.

Nikki and Mitch’s wedding was a beautiful day, and no detail was overlooked.  Beautiful touches in the invites and programs, a rosary adorning a gorgeous bouquet, and hints of purple around every corner.  On that early October morning, the ladies enjoyed getting ready at the lovely and historic Benson Hotel in downtown Portland.  Beautiful girls crowding a bridal suite, all too eager to watch their sister, daughter and friend marry the love of her life.  An old-fashioned Portland trolley took the girls to the University of Portland, for pictures, and to await the ceremony on campus in the Chapel of Christ the Teacher.

It was a joy to witness, a unifying ceremony that welcomed Nikki and Mitch into the next chapter in their lives.  A chapel full of family and friends, rich with tradition and meaning, marked the first day that they would spend as husband and wife.  The celebration continued at the trendy Urban Studio downtown, just as the rain began to fall.  Breathing a sigh of relief, the reception carried on indoors, with guests dancing the night away while the rain came down outside, illuminating the downtown Portland sidewalks and turning the streetlights into a colorful glow, a perfect match to the fun lights of the studio.

Congrats to Nikki and Mitch, here’s to an amazing life together!

There are many people in my life that are a shining example of what marriage should be like.  Family members, neighbors, friends, and couples in our church….all of whom I look to for guidance in how a loving marriage should play out.  How to treat one another, how to resolve and respect differences, how to raise a family that would model what you hold to be important in life.  In putting God first, your partner second, self last.  So it should come as no exception that when I met Venisa and Anthony over a year ago, they became one of those couples.

Except, you see….they weren’t yet married.

That part didn’t completely matter to me.  In getting to know them and their families over the past year, I have learned more about each of them, but in doing so, learned the traits that formed their solid relationship.  The care they showed one another, the love and respect that formed it, and the excitement of the impending date, making sure every last detail was covered.   They had waited faithfully and patiently for the date to arrive, and an incredible one it was.

The wedding was simply beautiful.  A packed church on a cold December day, with a line that rambled out the door, as guests jotted down words of wisdom for them to live by.  Bridesmaids, the best of friends, that gathered around Venisa in prayer just minutes before she walked down the aisle.  A ceremony that started their new life together, witnessed by hundreds of guests there to support their vows.  The day was rich in family history–her grandmother’s heirloom broaches to adorn the bouquets, the family’s fine china to share their first meal on,  a ride in the same blue Mustang that her parents left their own wedding in, nearly 25 years prior.  Heartfelt speeches, parents that welcomed a new son and daughter to the family….a beloved grandmother that tenderly held onto her own wedding ring, while she listened to friends and family toast to lifelong happiness.

Venisa’s parents celebrated 25 years of marriage just yesterday.  Here’s to the next 25 years of happiness for them–and the start of the first 25 for Venisa and Anthony!

For starters, she got my name through Patty, who just so happens to be one of the coolest chicks that I know.   She also has one of the coolest jobs, too:  helping brides to find their dream dress for their wedding.  Patty has been a bridesmaid in a handful of weddings that I have photographed, but she has played a huge role in many more.

Second, she’s a farm girl.  Marrying a farm guy.  And they’re having a tractor themed wedding.  Need I say more?  Be still, my beating heart.

Third, she’s one of those rare people whom you talk to for the first time, and it feels like you’ve known them forever.  After exchanging a series of brief emails, we were able to connect on the phone, feeling like it was catching up with an old friend.  She’s funny, down to earth, and one of the kindest girls that I hadn’t yet met.  My husband came in every so often, inquisitively motioning as to who on earth I had been talking to for that long, and I shushed him out each time.  I sat hunched on the floor, holding my prehistoric cell phone into the wall to charge, to garner up enough juice to finish the call.  Hourlong conversations tend to do that sometimes.

I was more than a bit excited to take their engagement pictures.  We hopped in a truck together, drove all over the backroads of Jefferson, jumping out and taking pictures whenever we could.  We ended up the shoot in her wheat field at sunset, and it was then that I realized that it wasn’t the location I was most excited about, the way the wheat photographed against the setting sun, or the fact that my husband would be green with envy in knowing that I got to spend my evening in fields with tractors.  It was them.  Them.  Plain and simple, I was excited for Audrey and Dustin.  A love and a life like that is hard to come by these days.  Working the land and creating a beautiful life together?  Nope, it sure doesn’t get much better than that.

I cannot wait for their wedding this August.  They are planning a traditional Catholic ceremony, followed by a tractor themed reception out on their family farm.  Dustin will take his gorgeous bride, and families and friends alike will gather to witness the perfect match that I caught a glimpse of that night.  I can’t wait for the celebration.

And Dustin?  He proved to be pretty cool too.

With love on my mind, I decided to start out February making good on that promise.  After all, there’s been too many fun family moments, gorgeous couples and brand new babies to not share.  It would be wise to start fresh with 2012, but I’ve missed sharing all but one wedding from last year, and I thought I would work backwards a bit these next few weeks and see where I get!

Mike and Denise’s wedding was the last one of the year, taking place a few days after Christmas on a dreary, rainy day.  It was the second of two Christmas-week weddings, both brides high school friends with half a nation between them in college.  Unlike the wedding just a week and a half prior, this one threatened a day of nonstop rain.  I had an hour long drive to Salem from Portland, so on the way down, I worried myself sick wondering if the impending weather would put a damper on their moods.

Who was I kidding?  I walked into a room full of girls getting ready, and if I hadn’t known any better, it was 70 and sunny out.  Moods couldn’t be budged, this was a day to celebrate.  It was Mike and Denise, for crying out loud.  It would take a lot more than a bit of rain to get these two down.

The wedding went off without a hitch, a crowd filling their home church and joining at the Mission Mill in Salem to celebrate the night away.   We caught a slight break in the rain to get outside for some pictures around the historic woolen mill.  It was a beautiful day, such a fun wedding to top off the Christmas season, and mark a new chapter in their lives.

I can’t wait to share some more amazing moments with you.  I’ll stop hogging them all to myself. 

So what if I am an entire month late?

Luckily, I don’t think the boss will mind.

This time of year has me thinking a lot about whats important in life.  Second only to the Lord, family takes the highest priority in our lives.  While I enjoy raising our “little family” here in the Northwest, its hard to be away from our extended family, who live out of state.  Its a void that we’ve struggled with and has been difficult to fill, but one thing has come pretty darned close to doing so.

You.

Being able to be with your families year after year, and throughout the year, has been a huge blessing.  Does it completely take the place of our family?  Not quite, those are pretty big shoes to fill.  Our family is pretty special.  But does it get close?

Oh yes.  More than you’ll ever know.

The relationships with all of you can’t be matched–I am forever thankful for each one of you.   Thank you for sharing your days-old children with me, for letting me be one of the first to see you in your dress, and for giving me the honor of capturing your family as they grow.   I used to think I hogged you all to myself here, but when my husband comes home saying he ran into you at the mall or grocery store, my neighbors ask how a certain wedding went when there was a threat of rain that day, or my kindergartener walks by my computer screen and exclaims, “those girls can walk now?”  it makes me realize that I am not the only one blessed by you.

Its become more than just our “family away from family.”  When totally unrelated families keep tabs and ask how a premature baby is doing that I photographed, or when they wait to hear how much money was raised at an auction for children at Doernbecher?  That is the joy that I speak of.  When families come together to support another in their grief in the loss of a child to cancer, this is the bittersweet joy that could never be matched.

2011 marked the first year that things have come “full circle.”   Couples that trusted me with engagement pictures back in 2009 and whom got married in 2010 welcomed their first babies this year.  And to think that I had fun shooting their engagements and weddings?   Seeing them weeks away from a due date and then again with their precious newborns—Now that is something pretty amazing.  More of these babies are expected to arrive in the next few months, I cannot wait to meet them.

For those of you whom I am looking forward to photographing this year, whether it be your wedding, engagement, portrait, or a new baby…..

Welcome to the family.

Click here for a peek at 2011.

Its not too often that I get to utter those sweet, sweet words.  If you ask my husband, hardly at all.  But in this case, I had something right.  You see, a few months ago when I blogged about Chris and Shannon’s engagement pictures, I knew that this wedding would be a big deal.

Sure, at nearly 500 guests, its the largest wedding I have ever photographed.  And with 15 people standing up for them, its the largest bridal party, as well.  But these things are all minor details in comparison to what was big about this wedding.

Pendleton may be a small town, but I’d be darned to say that its not full of the biggest hearts around.  You see, when that many gather to celebrate two people coming together, you know that they’ve got something that you don’t see everyday.  And that was certainly the case with Shannon and Chris.

Hotels were booked to capacity, parking lots packed full, and excited parents and relatives filled the halls with the bustle of last minute preparations.  There was a joyous excitement in the air, as scores of friends and family overflowed into the hall, in a long line waiting to be seated for the ceremony.

All for these two.

Was I nervous about a wedding like this?  Oh yes, like you wouldn’t believe.  But I brought in backup, who didn’t disappoint.  I was fortunate to have the talented Jason shooting alongside me that day, capturing even more memories as fast as we could snap them.  It was an incredible weekend, full of amazing people, fun memories and a celebration like you wouldn’t believe.

Congratulations Chris and Shannon!

Kelsey and her mom met me in the Pearl on a warm, breezy summer evening for her senior portraits.  I couldn’t wait.  I had been talking to her mama for a few weeks, eagerly anticipating these pictures and how they mark the start of an amazing year.

On the drive downtown, I couldn’t help but think how beautiful it was.

And that was before I had even laid eyes on her.

Friends, yes.  Role models, yes.  Teachers-of-all-the-things-that-matter-in-this-world, yes.

And these two are no exception.

It didn’t take long for me to figure out that there was something special about Venisa and Anthony.  A cousin of one of my oldest and most special families, I knew from the get-go that I would be blessed in getting to know them.

We had a great time exploring around the farms and fields near Anthony’s home in Dallas for their engagement pictures, and I took in every last second of watching their joy unfold on the other side of the lens.  Their two lives so beautifully intertwined, the love that they have for each other is one that anyone would long for.  With a content heart and a steadily snapping shutter button, I got a glimpse of their amazing future together.   A future groom that would stand as her rock, a gorgeous bride long before stepping in that long white dress. 

The only thing that these guys love more than each other is the Lord, and its pretty incredible to see that as the stronghold in their relationship.  I am honored to be one of the many, many people there to witness and celebrate their commitment.  You know I can’t wait.

Lilli Trippe joined the ranks of the most beautiful of Heaven’s angels this morning.  She took her last breath in her parents’ arms in the early hours of the day, just days shy of her 4th birthday.

Cancer may have riddled her little body, but it sure didn’t dampen her spirit.  Nor her spunk.  It didn’t stand a darn chance against the multitudes of those who loved and cared for her.  And it most definitely didn’t win.

Tears fall as I type this, her loving parents etched foremost in my mind.  But the tears carry some element of relief as well, that the pain and discomfort is long forgotten.  That years of treatment, chemotherapy, doctors, IV’s and MRIs have been traded for the amazing glories of an eternity with Jesus.

With hundreds of friends and family members across the nation praying, thousands upon thousands of visits to her Caring Bridge site, and blue bracelets worn proudly, there’s no doubt that love won in this case.  Love that shifts gears just ever so slightly, from lifting up a sick child in prayer, to standing behind her grieving parents as they say goodbye to her on this earth, and wait for the joyous day that they’ll be reunited together.

Heaven wins.  We win, for knowing this amazing girl.  Tears come and “why” questions linger…but there is no doubt that this sweet girl’s life will prevail in the hearts of so many that love Lilli.  And that her legacy has just begun.

Thank you, friends, for your support of the Trippe family, and for your prayers for Lilli.  There are many of you that booked sessions throughout July in support of Lilli.  Yes, those will still take place.  And yes, 100% of the session fee will continue to go straight to the Trippe family.

Please continue to lift up Kristin and Aaron, Lilli’s parents, as they navigate their next steps together.  They’ve got an angel watching over them.

With love,

Stephanie

Photo taken October 2010, at the Masquerade Ball for the Chelsea Hicks Foundation.

I sometimes wish that I didn’t have to pray for things that are tough.   Or figure out how to word a blog post that isn’t exactly so easy to write.

But then again, without these things, we wouldn’t know Lilli.

So I’ll take it.  I’ll pray for a daughter that is the same age as one of my own.  An only child, with enough personality and spunk for an entire clan.  I’ll pray for parents that are stronger than any army, fighting a battle that rivals any war.  For relatives and friends that are uniting across the country, lifting up voices from their knees for a little girl who means the world to them.

I met Lilli back in the Fall at a healthier time, at the Masquerade Ball for the Chelsea Hicks Foundation.  Her mom spoke on behalf of what the foundation had done for their daughter to bring some laughter and healing into the stark halls of a hospital, their home away from home.  Diagnosed with leukemia at 8 months, she’s bravely fought this fight for the last three years with spunk and determination.

Lilli needs our prayers now more than ever.  She was rushed back to Doernbecher by air ambulance this last weekend after she became too ill en route to see family and take a vacation at Disney World.  Upon their return, they discovered that the leukemia was back in her bone marrow.

For any new portrait session booked in June (and can take place anytime now through the end of July), 100% of all session fees will be donated to Lilli’s family to help cover medical expenses.  The emergency air ambulance to bring her back to Portland was denied coverage by her insurance, so every dollar from any new session will go directly to her family.  Sessions are all-inclusive with a disc of your images, so your support goes straight to Lilli.

There are a lot of people in costume at this Masquerade Ball, but I think you’ll recognize whom we pray for.  They’d be eternally grateful, if you might pray for her as well.