Michael and Sanya, I wish you guys the best, and thank you again for having me out to document your fun wedding!

While the ladies got ready for the wedding…

The  men met outside their room, protected by Sanya’s Serbian brother and his friend. Their job was simple: get Michael, and the guys representing him, to pay as high of a fee for their sister as possible.

…trade ensued, with tickets, gold (chocolate) coins, cash money, and many other things passing hands. Finally, after many laughs and a good amount of shenanigans, an agreement was struck and the two parties embraced.

Meanwhile, inside, the women peeked out trying to keep up with what was going on just outside their door.

…yet, when the time came for them to bring out Sanya, they brought out her maid of honor… and then her and her friend… and then the maid of honor, her friend, and her other friend! It was great!!

I just loved this tradition, because it really put everyone in a good mood. People were laughing and joking around, so we took a few quick shots before the bridal party made their way over to Baleen for the ceremony. But, not before the guys tried on some of the exchanged goods (the hats were AWESOME!)…

Once all the guests and party were at the ceremony, Sanya made her grand entrance escorted by Michael’s brother with the Serbian flags flying proudly on the windows. 

And then the ceremony flowed onward as smoothly as anyone could of wanted. I’ll stop the commentary, as I think the pictures tell the story from here.

Hope everyone’s doing well and leave a comment if you enjoyed the pictures. I’ll upload more from after the ceremony later this week after I’ve had a chance to whittle them down to be post-able.

So, I’ve been crazy busy lately and haven’t been able to update the blog, for which I’m sorry. Don’t worry though, because there are a TON of photos coming your way both in this post and from the wedding I shot this last weekend (congrats Michael & Sanya).

First, from my latest trip with Ms. Maya back to Oregon to hangout with her folks in Ashland, OR. It struck me halfway through editing that I hadn’t done any B&Ws, the pretty greens and blues were just to delicious to throw away. I didn’t bring my camera with me everywhere we went, but I’m really pumped that I got a chance to bring it to Crater Lake and to see the Natural Bridge waterfall.

The top picture was right after we landed in Medford. We quickly (well, after the 30min baggage claim) made our way to Ashland. Giant trees lining the interstate greeted us before our turn off to Ashland. The tree’s scale compared to the valley surrounding them made them feel like a barrier that you had to pass through in order to get the tiny town.

The view from their garden and deck was breathtaking. Mountains, valley, green trees… they had it all!

And, of course, Henny (closer) and Penny (further) the chickens! Who faithfully produced a brown egg each per day. Laying in the sideways washer that Gary fabricated as their den. Pretty nifty!

On our last day in Oregon, we trekked up to Crater Lake (Maya and her mom looking out at below).

Believe it or not… that is WATER, not sky. The water is that blue. It had a description near by that talked about how the red and yellow light waves are canceled out in the deep water, only allowing the bright blue wave to be reflected. Gotta love science.

I “distressed” the lodge picture, because of it’s classic look. It felt like it was begging for it…

The girls stopped often to check out a certain budding plant or flower. Most of the time being able to name it and figure out if it was going to bloom or already had this year… meanwhile, I took pictures, ha. 

I hope everyone is doing well – leave me a note if you’ve been to or around this area. I can’t wait to get a chance to go back!!

Ok, onto the photos…

After rocking out this outfit, they changed into their dressy outfits. I loved that they both used red in their outfit! So cool.

It’s funny, in-camera I didn’t know if this composition was going to work, but I LOVED how the arch below ended being positioned behind them.

We got a bit lost on our way into the shopping center area, and happened on this cool staircase. We liked all the texture, so we grabbed a quick shot before a janitor came through looking at us like we were crazy.

It started getting dark, so I broke out the flash to get some shots back in this little alleyway.

These are my favorites from the entire session. Love how relaxed they are at this point… just hanging out together.

The last shot we got right before we left. The shopping area had all these great cafe lights, and anyone that knows me, knows how much I LOVE cafe lights. I think they just add a great ‘feeling’ to any area you string ‘em up. And, I think they did just that for these two love birds. Thanks again Ryan & Linds.

Please leave a comment if you enjoyed this session, or email me through the contact form above if you’d like to have your own photoshoot. Although I focus on wedding and engagement pictures, I really enjoy taking photos of couples in love at any point in their relationship.