With my busy travel schedule this summer I happened to miss Elaina and the family when they were in Colorado Springs, but luckily I was able to stop in Gunnison on my way back from visiting my best friend in Ridgway last week.  Thank you Elaina for asking me to do this session it was a blast.  Being of a mother of four is a challenging but rewarding job I am sure,  especially with twins!  But you do it with style and grace.

Their wedding at the Air Force Academy Chapel was gorgeous and I can’t wait to share those in a future post.  Rodney attended the Academy and was apparently quite the boxer!  It was amazing that some cadets happened to be running by in some of our photos.  Then when we were shooting in front of the plane a group of cadets ran by stopped and said “congratulations sir.”  Rodney asked them over for a photo(they happily obliged, but I think they have to do what he says).  Such fun!

Rebecca & Rodney there aren’t even words for how amazing and passionate your wedding was.  I hope that these photos are even just a small reflection of your amazing love.  Thank you for blessing me.

Also props to Danielle of Elevation Studio for assisting me at this wedding.  You did an awesome job shooting the guys(some posted here and more to come)!

Hannah:

“The wedding was such a blessing, I was in some state of shock for days after the fact. I couldn’t believe how much everyone did to make it happen! It was really overwhelming how many people poured their sweat, muscles, creative energy, and dollars into making everything so special and so dear. One of the children’s hopechest (where i work) board members (Craig) and his wife (Jeanne, who planned weddings for like 20 years) flew out from California a couple days early and, I’m told, just happily served and worked in the hot barn from dawn til dusk on wedding stuff right alongside my siblings and fam and our closest friends and everyone who was hanging lights, cutting huge branches from yards, wrapping stuff with tulle and twine. Jeanne did all the flowers the morning of! And Craig actually officiated part of the wedding. I found out so much after the fact because no one would let me see the barn the couple days before the wedding — it was all so shocking when i walked down the aisle. People have told me bit by bit all of the ways people pulled together. I could cry… and I could actually gush and gust, but I’ve already gone way too long and could bore you to utter tears… there were so many custom details that my siblings and close friends worked on, my heart is just bursting! God did a good thing – he gave me like 30 sets of ‘parents’ to help with the wedding. Haha! My oldest sister plus her husband and my oldest brother paid for my dress, which was so significant. My sister Lisa (maid of honor) drove me to the barn for the wedding and we saw a rainbow over the barn just as we were coming down the home stretch. So cool. My three brothers did all of the wedding music and there are a thousand other things…”

Seriously a blessing to witness the love and unity that surrounded this couple.  I also would like to give a shout out to Kristi Crosson for doing an amazing job shooting with me at the wedding.  She hung out with the guys while I was with the gals and did a great job.  She wasn’t feeling so well by the end of the night….turns out she is Preggors!  :)  Congrats Kristi and Nate.

There is no mistaking that I love this couple. Andrew has such a tender heart and spent the whole day preparing and running around to make sure everything was perfect.  And Hannah….well she was a radiant and stunning bride and sweet as pie(sorry y’all I am still in the south).  My favorite part of these portraits was when we were shooting in a field behind the barn where they were married and Andrew was spinning Hannah around….the dj happened to be playing the Taylor Swift song Love Story and we could hear it in the field.  This was awesome for two reasons….#1 we all know how I love Taylor Swift and #2 in the video for that song the couple goes out into a field and are spinning around.  Craziness!  I hope you all enjoy these portraits….sorry there are so many but I just couldn’t choose.  In a couple of days I will post my favorites from the rest of the day including the amazing details at this wedding!  Until then…

As a side note I came across the following photo and it kind of looked like Mom and Dad were trying to corral two ninjas.  These kids got moves.

Heidi Leigh Photography is now booking 2011 seniors.  Please contact me for more information.  Because I love fashion inspired portraits and this is great practice for working with my brides I will only be offering senior portraits to the ladies of the Class of 2011!  So ladies if you want photos that make you look as beautiful as you really are and have a blast as we capture them then I suggest you give us a call and get on the schedule ASAP! 

Congratulations Monique and Andy!  I hope that you have an amazing life together.