You winter wedding folks continue to amaze me. 14 degrees outside with a -2 windchill and you're ALLLL for going outside to get great pictures. Awesome. Never a problem for me. I get to wear pants and a wool coat and gloves and a scarf... :) Not so awesome for short-dressed bridesmaids. You girls are troopers and there never were truer friends to the bride. That being said, Paige and Chris got a super cold wedding day but still managed to rock it without complaint! Paige got beautiful courtesy of the always-fabulous Danielle Erb, not to mention they had a gorgeous ceremony in St. Charles and stunning reception at the Ritz-Carlton. Ah... i love my clients. And their freezing bridesmaids. Thanks for the opportunity to freeze along side.

And thanks to Von for her stellar second eye!

So here I am cleaning up the last of the 2009 weddings and playing catch-up after the crazy holidays and New Year's out of town (more on that later!) and it occurs to me how little I utilize this blog to let my readers get to know me. I'm surely not one for resolutions of any kind, much less the New Year kind, but I've decided to make a general best-effort in 2010 to find more balance in my life. Work-life balance, Salad-cookies balance, and definitely Wedding-Stevie balance on the blog. I can surely share more of myself here and will be making a conscious effort to blog more often and about more than just the 'workie' stuff. Yeah. :) (Oh and if you want a head-start, go see my Facebook page or follow me on Twitter.)

Onward!! (this is the work part, ha.)

I discovered a new awesome place to shoot at Wendi and Cliff's wedding! They had their reception at the Moonrise Hotel in the Loop and what a cool place it is!  Wendi and Cliff had a small, intimate wedding and reception and the Moonrise did a great job with the food and atmosphere for their gathering. And lets not leave out the Piper Palm House and Sister's Flowers for their lovely part in the day. Beautiful job as always and I think Wendi and Cliff got just the day they dreamed of. So glad I could be there to capture it!

I like to think I'm organized, right? I keep things in file cabinets and my email has endless filters and folders to keep me on track. But one thing I'm not and wish I was: a planner. I try so hard to plan things out and have it come out nice but for some reason, friends, it just doesn't work that way for me most of the time. But Sarah and Brent.... Oh Sarah and Brent are planners! These lovely birds planned their day so well and EVEN met early in the day (LOOOOOVE that!) so that there would be plenty of time for pictures of them and their bridal party! And they planned said meeting at one of my favorite hotels downtown!  So somewhere in our afternoon of toodling around St. Louis for fabulous pictures and having a beautiful Catholic/Jewish ceremony at the Catholic Student Center at Wash U and an even lovlier reception at the Soulard Preservation Hall, all their planning paid off and we have the day you see below.



Flowers: Wildflowers
Hotel: Westin
Ceremony: Catholic Student Center at Wash U
Reception: Soulard Preservation Hall

And Thank You to Jen for being my right hand gal for the day. Rocked my world yet again!

I love fall weddings. Its really the best time in St. Louis to get married and I have to say that even with the questionable weather we've had lately, the colors and brightness of the season really make up for it. Candice and Ryan got married at Cedar Lake Farm, which is also fabulous in the fall, and although it got a smidge chilly at the end of the night, the day couldn't have been warmer with love and happyness. Yes. Happy-ness. Candice was just glowing and Ryan was just ready to see his bride! Perfect.

Uh, and be sure to check out Ryan's stellar MJ impression at the reception. Nailed it!



Thanks to my second Kate for 'chillin' with me!

Ok I know I promised more on the couple that modeled for us at the Jessica Claire Workshop some time ago so I'm sticking to my promise and ready to deliver! Gena and Jeff were the loveliest models a girl could ask for. Although they've been married for 4 years already (!) they were just as sweet and cuddly as if it were their own wedding day. We got a chance to get some time with the Gena and Jeff to do portraits around the BEAUTIFUL wedding scene you saw earlier, and this is what came out.

I really had the best time, learned so much and got some fantastic new ideas and motivation and inspiration for my own work. Its making me think about the way I do most things in my business and how I can improve and put out nothing but the best for my clients. Because ya'll are my favorite. :)  Enjoy.