I grew up in St. Louis, but I don’t think I’ve ever lived there. What I mean is that I’ve never spent more than a few days at a time in St. Louis as an adult. I’ve never experienced many of the things that make St. Louis the great city that it is. Sure, I’ve been to plenty of Cardinals and Blues games, and I’ve been up in the Arch way too many times to count. But there’s so much more to St. Louis that I wish I knew. The Hill. The Landing. The Loop. The Rams?

If you remember from their engagement session, Bill is the “little” brother of my best friend Joe (the really hairy brother in the group, you’ll know it when you see him). Mindy and I both absolutely love the Bubenik family, so obviously it was a huge honor to be there to photograph Maggie + Bill’s wedding. It was awesome to catch up with so many old friends too.

We started at Maggie’s parents house…

The guys got ready at the church…

As we were scouting out locations, we found this killer little spot sandwiched between a few buildings and a parking garage. We were shooting in the middle of the day, and it was blazing hot, but this little shaded area gave us some great soft light and some relief from the heat.

With the exception of Harrison, the best man, all of these guys are brothers. And they’re huge.

Then, across the street, we found the holy grail. This little walkway between two of the buildings had this absolutely killer rainbow awning. And adjacent to that was a great water feature, and some benches, and some shade. It was perfect and really meshes with Maggie + Bill’s personalities. They were loving every minute of it, and you could just see both of them relax and come out of their shells a bit. This is them.

Yeah… it was hot.

Joe’s daughter Evie was the flower girl, and I swear this little girl cannot get any cuter.

The reception was at The Malt House Cellar, literally one of the coolest spaces I’ve ever been in. Such a great vibe, with the stone walls and exposed wooden ceilings (it was in the basement), it was an extremely casual reception, but everyone was having a great time (and if you ever go there, you HAVE to try to Beer Cheese Fondue. AH-MAY-ZING).

Maggie + Bill // St. Louis, Missouri // July 9, 2011

Flowers: Emily Testrake

Dress: Blushing Bride

Tuxes: Blossoms Bridal

Ceremony: Hanley Road Baptist Church

Officiant: Jon Hessel

Reception: Malt House Cellar

Caterer: Moulin Events

Cake: The Cakery

DJ: Complete Music

Photobooth: Park Avenue Photographers

Definitely another case of friends-turned-clients-turned-even-better-friends. Congratulations guys.

Hello from the Outer Banks in North Carolina! We’re having a blast, and can’t wait to share some of our photos from our trip! In the mean time we’ve got another great engagement session for you!

This has to go down as one of our most favorite engagement sessions ever. Not necessarily because Kaitlin + Eric are more awesome than our other couples (seriously, we love all of you), but because we got to shoot something new. Something we’ve never photographed before. And it was the weekend of the fourth of July. And they fed us. And we love food… like a lot.

Kaitlin set up a session at a friend’s house where she wanted some photos of her and Eric cooking together. They love to cook together, so it seemed fitting. Their friends have a beautiful house just outside of Columbus, and after our little chocolate chip cookie and chopped fruit and vegetable session (which was admittedly inspired by The Sprouted Kitchen), we had the privilige of sticking around and having a huge meal with both of their families. Everything was just ridiculously delicious, and we had a blast getting to know their families and friends.

We want to say a huge thank you to Kaitlin + Eric for having us come crash their Independence Day party with their families, and most definitely for the delicious food and great company.

Check out these shots, and try to tell me you’re not craving some cookies. (Also, I wrote this post before vacation, so no, I’m not working on vacation… yet)

Today’s Friday, which means we’re on the road to vacation! We’re headed to the Outer Banks in North Carolina for a week, but we’ve got a few posts in the queue to keep you entertained.

Meet Ashley + Bryan. They set up a darling little picnic at the spot where they got engaged in Devou Park in Covington, KY. I love these guys because they’re so easy to talk to, I feel like we just get along. In fact, we ended our session with me telling Bryan that I was confident he could change the oil in his car himself, and I gave him a step by step walk through. Yes, believe it or not, even though I’m an artist and like to be creative, I actually do all of the work on my own car. I’m a man, man.

Anyway, back to the point. We really enjoyed spending some time getting to know Ashley + Bryan, and we can’t wait for their wedding this December at the Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati. You have NO idea how excited we are for that.