I Love Seeing You Again (Congrats Jack and Tori!)

Doing wedding and general family photography, its a real treat to be able to enjoy the great relationships I have with my clients. Many become very close friends! Its especially a treat being asked to photograph them again, as their lives change and families grow.


Over the weekend, I got to capture Jack and Tori's sealing at the Mesa Temple! I am so excited for them! I covered their wedding a couple of years ago, and had so much fun working with them- it was great to get to see the whole family again! The way that Jack looks at Tori is just...well...amazing! Just look at the image below if you don't believe me...sweet huh?



Sweet enough for ya? If not heres a favorite from their wedding a couple years ago:



Did I mention that Jack and Tori have the sweetest little family you will ever meet. The kids are adorable and very very sweet. I absolutely love them.

I am only sharing a couple of images for now, because I do not believe that they have seen their preview gallery yet.

Congratulations guys! I had a great time working with you again- the little ones are getting so big!

Vendors We Love- Robert's Catering

Remember a couple of days ago, when I mentioned cake so good it could make you cry?

That would be the wedding cake from Robert's Catering, out of Chandler. An undying fan myself, when Kirk and I were married, they did our cake- in sensual strawberry cream, sinful cinnamon spice and marvelous mandarin cream with chocolate- all topped with fancy purple swirls. Seriously- one of the highlights of our wedding. We still get compliments on the cake!

Two years later, Robert's still remembers. You can get a new top tier every anniversary for a nominal fee and it all comes rushing back! Definitely a sweet way to celebrate your anniversary with your sweetie.

Even without having a memory of your own attached to their delectable wedding cakes (yet), they will knock your socks off. If you are in the market, make an appointment for a tasting. I promise you will look no further. Be warned though, its virtually impossible to pick a favorite flavor!

Robert's service is as sweet as their cake too. They take such time and care to listen to your needs, and such pride in their product that its an absolute pleasure to work with them! You can tell they really really love what they do- and thats what you want really- wedding vendors who are passionate about their craft and your wedding!

Let it be known that cake isn't all they do either! This versatile company caters tasty
hors d'oeuvres and elaborate meals as well! Yum!

Next time you see them at a local wedding show (I think they are at most if not all of them), go say hello and try some cake. Tell them we sent you. You will be glad you did!

Did Ya Miss Out on The Dillards Bridal Show?

Never fear, we are doing it again! We have been invited to be a part of the Bridal Show at the Superstition Springs Dillard's on May 31st! Details coming as the show gets closer, but we are sooooo excited to be participating again!


Here is a photo of our sweet little set up at Dillards Chandler. It might not look like too much, but when space is tight, we put on a great slide show!

Captured in this shot on the slide show run by the new and fab MacBook Pro, are April and Duane- one of our favorite couples! You will also notice our cool contest- complete with funky pens made by moi, our logo and company information, new shiny business cards, 11x14 freebie cards (get em while they are hot!), our vendor contact sheet and of course fresh cut hot pink roses!

Our lovely booth at the Dillard's Chandler Bridal Show
courtesy of Ms. Sharon Davis, another local photographer.

Don't miss out this time around- you have a chance to meet some fantastic vendors, eat tasty wedding cake (for free!) and even win some awesome goodies! Plus, whats cooler than coming to hang out with me?

Keep an eye out for details! See you there!

Jennifer Gets Trashed!

Jennifer is a senior this year, and we got together and got dirty for some fun senior portraits! It was a beautiful sunny day, and we took a nice drive out to the Superstition area to find some of my favorite grungy places!































Jennifer found her awesome dress at a local thrift store for a good price and we got right down to trashing her prom dress in the dustiest, grungiest, grittiest locations we could find. It was a blast, and we had a great time running around goofing off.

Jennifer looks beautiful in her pictures. She really pulls the look off nicely!

I designed her announcements for her and a story board for her mom. Shes gonna knock em dead in a cap and gown!

Jennifer got accepted to ASU for next year, and we are so excited for her! This gal is going places!

Yay! We had a GREAT time at the Dillard's Bridal Show!

Thanks to everyone who stopped by- we were so happy to see you all! Seriously, every single person I met was completely AWESOME!

The Dillard's show was a huge success! Hopefully we will have some photos to share very soon- and in honor of some of the awesome fellow wedding industry people we met, all this week I will be sharing info on some of my favorite vendors from the past, and some cool new ones we got to know today!

Highlights included an awesome hair style/ fashion show, pretty flowers, cake so good it makes you cry, and treats that I can not even imagine the calorie count in. On top of that there were a few fabulous local photographers with just gorgeous images, and even a cool video guy! See what you missed out on? Seriously- awesome.

With that said, I am off to crash. Its been a long (fun) day, and I am beat!

Personal: Someone Vandalized My Car Last Night

This morning I got a visit from one of our neighbors and his adorable puppy. He wanted to inform me that someone had vandalized my miata during the night.

Crud.

I got home late last night, after delivering prints and visiting with family and doing the usual "its Friday night" thing. It must have been late or early early early this morning. Its frusterating. This neighborhood is usually so safe and friendly. Unfortunately the gates have been open the last three weeks now, due to continual damage to them caused by someone hitting them with their vehicle intentionally.

The neighbor led me out to my silver miata, artfully covered in yogurt, bologna, mustard, ranch sauce and some lovely home made blackberry preserves. The perps were kind enough to leave the jar and both pieces of the kerr lid decorating my bouganvilla, which is just beginning to flower. At least they were careful not to get it in the car, or apply the lunch meat directly to the paint. At least they were kind enough to pick a cool night with an overcast next day.

I admit it, I cried like a baby. I was so hurt. Who would want to do this to me?

Kirk being ever the voice of reason, reminded me that this was random kid shennanigans, and "most likely LDS kids based on the beautiful home made preserves their mothers and sisters probably poured a lot of love and sugar into".

We washed the car, filed the standard police report and are going to move on with the rest of the day. While I do not understand why on this green earth someone would do something so wasteful and senseless, I hope maybe they grow up one day to see why its not right.

For the perps: The next time you would like to share tasty preserves with me, please ring the doorbell. I will bring out icecream and we can share in a nice way!

In the mean time, a short reminder. Come see me Sunday. Seriously.

Come See Us at the Dillards Bridal Show!

You are cordially invited
to attend the

Dillard's Bridal Show
and
Total Bliss Afternoon

An I Thee Wed Event
Hosted by Dillard's, Chandler Fashion Center

Sunday, April 20th
12 noon- 3 p.m.

The event will take place in the Home Department on the Upper Level and is presented by the Dillard's Bridal Registry and Total Bliss Spa and Salon. They will be presenting a fashion show (showcasing hair and makeup designs by Total Bliss Spa and Salon) as well as cake tasting and Estee Lauder and Clinique makeovers!

This event will be a great opportunity to meet some of the best wedding vendors in the valley as well! Its a great time to come meet local caterers, florists, photographers (including us!) and other service providers in an intimate and relaxed setting!

Come by our booth, say hello and get a card for a FREE 11x14 print from your engagement session or wedding (while supplies last)! You can also enter to win a free engagement session with RedFeather Photography.

There are other great prizes up for grabs from other vendors too, including a complimentary spay day at Total Bliss Spa and Salon!

It should be a really fun event! For more information or to RSVP, call 480.735.2060 ext 5739. See you there!

Mac addiction here we come!

Today was an amazingly good day, putting me in an amazingly good mood. However, the cherry on top, is the new shiny hardware Kirk and I just could not help but treat ourselves to.

I was surprised with an "emergency trip" to the mac store tonight. We go in there now and again to drool on the latest shiny goodies in Apple's line and stare glossy eyed at the sometimes insurmountable price tags.

For me, its usually the ginormous monitors, or teensy tiny little hardware that makes me stop and stare. For Kirk, its whatever is new, fast, and awesome.

After several years of "passable but not pretty" IBM dinosaurs, we have decided (only sort of on a whim) that I needed a MacBook Pro. Not want, need.

Lets face it, they are fantastic editing machines. That thing is as fast as my current editing box and I can edit images and not miss the latest episode of my favorite show or whatever other distraction is in the living room. Heck, I can edit in the park, or in the car between the wedding and reception if I want to.

This opens up a world of whole new possibilities for us. Freedom, without feeling like I have to explain the butterfly stickers on the IBM (what? its the only way to tell ours apart from one another...). Not staring around the coffee shop during consultations anymore wondering if people notice that my laptop is roughly as old as the dinosaurs.

Not to worry, I did not get so excited that I bought it at the Mac store. Kirk calmly dragged my instant gratification loving self out of there, and home to order it on amazon where it was about $300 cheaper after Amazon's rebate on it right now. It gets here Wednesday.

I am so excited!

Bebe Noir

I went back to visit Mindy and Steven and Little Mr. Jace to try to finish up our list of newborn pictures with a hopefully sleepier munchkin. While he was a tiny bit more tired than he was during my last visit, he was still very alert and interested in all the goings on. We did not get them all done, but since we were not really expecting to, that was just fine. We got some beautiful results!

I am proud to report that there was no peeing, pooping or spitting up on the studio equipment this time! Truly a strange thing to have happen. All the same, we are still thinking he strongly dislikes all the lights and lenses so close to him.

I am feeling a bit quirky this evening (maybe lack of sleep) so tonight's selections will be black and white versions only for your viewing pleasure. Not to worry, I have full color and diluted versions too...the kid is too pretty not to have them all! Once again, blogger with the artifacting. Click them and take a look at the uploaded size for all the beautiful details.













This is it for a little while. The kid has a busy couple weeks of growing and doing super important new baby stuff ahead, but hopefully we will have more as he grows.

We spent a lot of time today focusing on his little toes! He definitely got daddy's big feet. You know what they say about big feet right? Big shoes.

Jace- The First Session

Newborns (and babies in general) are tough subjects. Nothing for it, and they are adorable so we persevere. Jace is no different.

I warn parents that if they want "naked as the day they were born" baby shots, be prepared to get wet. Thats a very nice way of putting it and oh-so-true. At least Mindy was a good sport about it. Jace most certainly earned his "automatic sprinkler baby" title...in every way possible. I guess at a mere six days old, thats really all you have in your arsenal of defenses. Either way, it provided some comedic relief for the session.

It was an uphill battle with this session, the little guy is so curious about what is going on around him, that he stayed awake and pretty active the whole time. With newborns and little ones, they pretty much run the show and dictate the way the session goes. We are going to try again very soon with a hopefully more tuckered out baby for some of the other very sweet shots we had hoped to get done.

In the mean time, here are a few photos from this first session of the very cute, very sweet, very awake baby Jace. As always, if you click the photos the full web sized version will open to view. I don't know why, but blogger artifacts them a little bit.



















Beautiful isn't he? Mindy and Steven are going to have to beat girls off of him with a stick in a few short years!

Steven's mother showed me some photos of him as a little guy, and really, they could be body doubles. Jace looks exactly like him!

Hopefully we will have some more goodies coming soon- including some pictures with mom and dad if we are lucky! I can't wait to see this kid grow- hes so dang cute!

New Logos, New Truck Stuff and New Babies Make for a Happy Kate!

Today was awesome. We had dinner with my mom. She got Mirabella puppy the cutest little shirt, which is good, because Aldo keeps eating Mirabella's shirts. Funny how that works out. I guess even with dogs, boys will be boys.

Kirk has been holed up in the garage until way way past bed time the last few days trying to install a new ac compressor on the truck, because its getting hot out and some nice guys are letting him beta test a really expensive bracket for it. Apparently they are a bit upset its not done already- he just got all the parts Monday though and its a pretty time consuming installation! I am convinced we need to give the truck a female name and call it his wife instead of me! Haha. Certainly gets more attention than I do these days! Poor Kirk is a trooper and has been very good about not getting grease on everything in the house. I know hes really looking forward to having it done- that truck has been miserable in the summer about as long as I have known him!

I got a chance to swing by for a very quick visit with Mindy and Steven and the baby tonight. My step mom in law was there too. She did not put Jace down for a second, and I don't blame her.

He is the. most. beautiful. baby. of. all. time. Ever. Bar none. He is flawless.

I could not spend long...it was a zoo at their place with everyone dropping by! I stopped in just long enough to fill their freezer with treats, have a short conversation with the new mommy, marvel at the munchkin and dash before the living room was too full of people to count! The phone rang off the hook too. That little family sure is loved! No wonder- they are the sweetest people you will ever meet.

No pictures yet, but I hope very very soon when things calm down a little bit.

In the mean time I checked another goodie off the list of to-do's around here...I redid our logo!


Do you like it? Alright, I know it looks a LOT like our old one...but we have a brand that our loyal clients know and (I hope) love...so it just got a little face lift. All the same I feel accomplished because its something thats been on "the list" for a while now.

On a completely random side note- I found a music artist I absolutely love that I had never heard of before. Check out Steven Speaks - in particular the songs "Out of My League" and "What'll She Look Like"....both FANTASTIC wedding songs (first dance and parent dance maybe?)! So awesome! I love them!

Yay for Mindy and Steven (and baby Jace too)!

Alright, I have been holding out on you. I admit it...ya caught me! Gosh, I hate keeping happy secrets!

I was waiting for Mindy and Steven to announce on their blog (hey at least I had a good reason!). After what seemed like forever of shaking, jiggling, walking, eating stuff you would otherwise never eat and whatever else you are supposed to do to make a baby come out already- Mindy and Steven welcomed baby Jace into the world yesterday.

Mere hours after his arrival I have officially dubbed him prettiest baby ever! You can check him out in all his angelic newborn cuteness on their blog.

Don't say I didn't warn ya though- hes adorable.

I don't have pictures of the little heart breaker just yet so in the mean time, here is some photos of him (and his gorgeous mama!) from their maternity shoot a couple weeks ago. Who knew being pregnant could be this sexy?












Don't you just love them?!? More on the way as I pick my favorites and get faster with the blog frame we just added to our line up of fun new stuff. In the mean time, stop over and wish them a big congrats (and good luck...they are gonna need 18 years worth!).

Look Ma, New Stuff!

After staring at my website for what seemed like a painfully long time, I realized that we need a bit of a revolution around here.

So...here it is. Kinda.

Its a work in progress (if you know me well, thing like this often are) but you will notice a new look around here.

So far we have some very cool new stuff:

Fun new damask pattern with cute bright pink accents. So me. I so love it but may still tweak it a little bit.

Cute new packaging for our products. Hooray!

An AWESOME new album line...details to follow but you are gonna love them! Priced so that anyone can afford a beautiful, amazing, high quality book! Seriously? Love them!

New product offerings including masonite story boards, new address announcement cards (too fun and way practical!), press printed cards and more. Lots of fun goodies coming your way! Stay tuned for details!

As for the blog, some stuff is gonna change too! We will be running just one from now on (two makes me dizzy sometimes) and I will be updating a minimum of twice a week. I have been pretty bad about that and I apologize. They blog will also be getting a little more personal- theres so much going on around here that I don't share. I want past/present/future clients, fellow photographers, friends and family to enjoy what is essentially going to be a window into my life (with some great images along the way). Again, coming soon, so keep an eye out!


Other exciting changes are soon to follow. Keep an eye out and don't miss the fun! (seriously, don't!).