Jason and Marisa were married at the end of July in a beautiful sun-kissed ceremony at the Northwest Room at Ray’s Boathouse in Ballard. This was my first time shooting there, but I loved all the great natural light and the view right onto the Puget Sound. It was a young crowd in attendance and they knew how to bring the party! Rather than having people clink their glasses when they wanted the couple to kiss, they would have to do a shot, so the guests really had to work for it! 

This was the groom’s best-man. They have definitely known each other for quite a long time and were not shy at all! Just helping the groom prepare for the first dance…

The groom just couldn’t hold in his excitement!

Can’t resist sharing a picture of a cute baby…

The couple’s friend was the officiant, which always makes for a fun, personal ceremony.

The bride’s young niece was the flower girl. I love the “wild-card” of having young kids in the ceremony - you never know what will happen!

The dancing was so very entertaining!

I met Jason and Jessica a few weeks back at the Ballard Locks to take their engagement pictures. Their wedding is coming up in November and although I am not shooting their wedding, I was so excited to do their engagement session, as they are always a lot of fun to do, and they were both a joy to work with - such a cute couple as you can tell from the pictures! 

Isn’t her ring gorgeous? Nice work, Jason!

This picture is particularly funny when you know that Jason works at the Courthouse…the tables have turned! Nice to know that Jessica would at least go visit him if he was in the slammer, that’s love!

From the Locks, we headed to downtown Ballard to get some fun urban pictures. I love all the brick that they have there as it always looks good in pictures. By this time, they were both warmed up and totally in the swing of things so it was a lot of fun.

This is my new favorite spot right outside the Matador restaurant. The window is filled with different colored liquor bottles but you also get the reflection of the trees around, so I love the variety of colors that you get - a very unique backdrop.

Thanks so much for being so easygoing and fun to work with, you two. Have a great November wedding!

I joined Danielle & Greg (who you may recognize from their engagement session this past April) a few weeks ago at Monte Villa Farmhouse in Bothell for their fabulous wedding. This was my first time shooting there and I really loved it - a great mix of outdoor for the ceremony and mingling and indoor for eating and dancing. I started off with Danielle, her mom and maid-of-honor/sister upstairs for some getting ready shots and fun details. Often for getting ready shots, there is a large group of bridesmaids and I am working to get shots and blend in, but I must say that with only three women up there, it wasn’t very easy to act invisible! They were all so sweet and welcoming which made it a lot of fun to start the day.

A little spying on guests as they arrive…

It was such a beautiful day for shooting, we really lucked out. How pretty is this place??

The bride never really chose formal colors for her wedding, things just naturally evolved to shades of purple and green. For not choosing, she had a gorgeous bouquet!

Mom, sister and grandma all ended up wearing shades of purple as well, which made for some beautiful color.

How cute is the bride’s grandfather??!! Love it!

And you know I cannot resist the shots of adorable small children…

My “assistant” photographer. Okay, not really, he was the maid-of-honor/bride’s sister’s boyfriend, but I’m sure he got a lot of good shots!

Hilarious story - the groom’s best man decided to give himself a quick trim before heading to the wedding. Would have been great, except the guard on his clippers fell off leaving him with a nice gash in the back of his head! Made for a great story during the speeches and some hilarious pictures. Moral of the story - never give yourself a haircut before a major event!

This bell dress is so pretty on Danielle, perfect for her body type. And I have to say, it’s nice to see brides in something other than the big princess dress sometimes (even though I always love those).

The speeches at this wedding were so great! They had me laughing so hard I could barely take the picture and then tearing up the next moment. Hard to beat!

The bride has the absolute best laugh of any bride I have ever photographed, as you will see from below and some of the previous shots. It’s hard not to smile and be in a good mood after witnessing that!

The bride’s grandmother and her two sisters.

I’m always sad when I go to a wedding and the dance floor is empty. No worries, though, as that was definitely not the case with this crowd! The money dance started off with some hilarious combos…

The groom and his grandmother.

Congratulations Danielle and Greg! Thanks for having me as part of your special day, it was a blast!

This adorable goldendoodle (who definitely seemed to get more of the golden genes in him) was so much fun to photograph - tons of great energy as most puppies (and goldendoodles) always seem to have and a sweet face to match.

His friend Rio joined us for a few shots before her own session started. I love the tongue sticking out!

This cute little Jack Russell also had a great amount of energy (which is also quite common to Jack Russells). Love the shot with his duck and the sittin’ pretty shot - too cute!

Last is an adorable dog with a great mixed color coat. Great action shots with the tennis ball and the shake photo. But it’s hard to beat the laying down shot with tongue hanging out onto the ground - too funny!

These two came in last week for pet portraits, an adorable and spunky puggle (that’s pug and beagle, a very cute mix!) with the best underbite and a beautiful grey and white cat with striking green eyes. I love the laying down shot below, my new favorite cat shot. They weren’t too fond of the idea of pictures together, but we got some great solo shots of each. Always so hard to choose…

Next up was Annabelle, who had the cutest color with her name on it. Once again, hard to choose a favorite, although I am always a sucker for laying-down-with-head-on-the-ground shot like below. Her “mom” was even brave enough to get in some pictures, which I always love!

Pups Noelle and Nicholas are also brother and sister and so very cute together. While they were at first a little apprehensive of the situation, we eventually got them chasing each other around, playing tug-of-war and just generally cracking me up! I had such a hard time choosing just a few shots of the two of them together as there were so many super cute ones…

I have been doing so many pet portraits lately with the Ahimsa fundraiser and the Furry 5K fundraiser, which has been a lot of fun! However, I was looking at my blog and I realized it was almost all dogs with kids showing up few and far between. So…I wanted to put up some recent kid shots so you can see some of the other stuff that I have been up to lately.

This family is very special to me. I used to babysit occasionally for the oldest boy A when he was just a little baby. They came in last year when little N was just a baby - for people who have been to the studio, A is in one of the pictures on my front wall with his little stuffed Bearzo. They moved to Philly about nine months ago, but I was so pleased that they decided to include a trip to my studio on their visit to Seattle a few weeks ago. They have changed so much in the past year and a half! This time, Dad was able to join us, so we got some great shots of the boys and dad together. They will be so special for the boys as they grow older!

More furry friends from our fundraiser for the Furry 5K…first up is Rufus, a sweet King Charles Cavalier who brought his entire family along for his photo shoot. Little D was super cute and always ready to help me out with getting his pup’s attention. And after a lot of work and patience, we got the super cute head down on the ground shot that is so signature to the Cavalier.

Next up is Duncan, a dog with the cutest ears and an adorable expressive face. I love this shot below with his frog - he looks so concerned! What is that frog doing??!!

Bear, an adorable brindle, came into the studio last week, having traveled long and far, including a ferry ride, to get to the studio. I’m so flattered they came all the way to the studio, and so glad that they did as Bear is just so cute, a brindle extraordinaire for sure!

This cute little ball of fluffy white came in awhile back for some surprise pictures for his Dad’s birthday, which is such a great present! He had some of the cutest rolling around on the floor shots and seems to just crack himself up, which I love!