new york state of [marriage]

i attended a great wedding last weekend.

it deserves this title for several reasons. first of all i've known this couple for a long time. he is one of my best friends and over the years his wife has become one as well.  it was intimate. the couple decided on a very small guest list choosing to celebrate this wonderful occasion with those people who had a direct part of their relationship. next, it took place in new york, a city they've come to love, and a place that helped foster their love for each other. finally, the whole weekend perfectly and beautifully reflected the couple. it was personal, elegant, meaningful, minimal and incredibly well designed, placing the importance on the essential. just the way a relationship should be.

congratulations adam and angela, love you both.

lord of the [bachelors]

bachelor parties should be as unique as the bachelor they're intended to celebrate, and my buddy tim's couldn't have fit him better.  the best man secured a large house on the shores of the lake of the ozarks for 15 of us to enjoy a long weekend.  time was spent fishing, grilling, floating, watching soccer and of course drinking. for the most part we all lived like complete bachelors for a few days have no contact with the outside world.  most of us spent the majority of the time covered in a mix of sunscreen and bbq sauce, using the lake to rinse off occasionally.  meals consisted of grilled meat of all shapes and forms and beer.  with this group of hob heads we probably had the best selection of beer on the lake, and as much as we hate to admit it, the occasional "mangarita" thrown in for variety.  the only thing missing was a conch shell. 

all in all it was a perfect way to send tim, a guy who loves the company of his brothers and friends, off to get married.

[pressing] engagement

so my sister is getting married...

naturally, the past few months, she's had a lot on her mind.  so when she asked if i'd like to design her wedding invitations, i gladly said yes.  not only because i have a not-so-secret love for graphic design, but i thought it would help elevate some stress.

now you would have thought at this point in my life i would have realized; to alleviate someone elses stress, mean you must now take it on.  not only did i now have added stress, but i now know way more about wedding traditions, rules, and etiquette than i ever expected to.

let me give you a summary of every voice message from my sister the past month:

"are the cards done yet?"

"are the cards done yet?"

"are the cards finished?"

"when are they going to be done?"

"any idea when we can expect the cards?"

"how are the cards coming?"

"so...i just wanted to check the status on the cards."

i worked on the cards in my spare time, but found myself getting extremely frustrated with little things like spacing and, a new discovery, kerning. luckily my friend jonathan, a very talented designer, stepped up and helped me finish up the final design. not only that but he printed them on his press as well. sure enough, they turned out wonderful, and they were sent out eight weeks before the big date, something a found out was standard etiquette.  the voice messages have also stopped.

all in all, it wasn't that bad, and i'm honored my sister asked me to do it.  now lets just wait and see how the actual wedding goes!

always double down on [eleven]

memorial day weekend found me attending the las vegas bachelor party of my future brother-in-law, along with 10 of his closest friends.

to say i had apprehension would be an understatement. las vegas is an insane city, and to walk it's streets with 9 people i didn't know at all had me little nervous.  were these guys gamblers? party-ers? crazy? or worse yet, lame or boring?  i had no idea what to expect, and wasn't thrilled about making that discovery while on the strip.

luckily my sister is marrying a great guy, with great friends.  upon meeting them it took a whopping 15 minutes before i could tell we would all get along.  an hour later it was like i was on vacation with my friends.  we lounged by the hotel pool, gambled in old vegas, ate an amazing buffet, golfed, and found a wonderful dive karaoke bar that kept us singing until 8am.

completely out of season, there's a quote from "it's a wonderful life," that says, "no man is a failure who has friends."  if that's true, then i came back from vegas a rich guy, as i now have nine new friends.

if not..

i'm down about $160.

iowa wedding [abridged]

i spent the weekend in iowa attending a friends wedding. as beautiful of a ceremony as it was, i found i filled my most of my camera's memory card with pictures of bridges.

the wedding took place in bettendorf, a town right on the banks of the mississippi river, which had several structures crossing the river. being from kansas, a land lacking in long spanning bridges and wide rivers, it's no surprise i was in awe.

even though i don't have many images from the wedding, in a way, a bridge seems a wonderful metaphor for a marriage. an object connecting two things that were once separate. two things, separated by situations which are difficult, treacherous, or even seem impassable, now joined easily, as one.

...and now that i know it's only six hours away, i might have to venture to madison county, iowa. i here there are some bridges up there as well.

everybody loves [lent]

it wouldn't be a fat tuesday celebration without listening to my favorite cajun band, the mudbugs...which also happens to be the band of one of my most loyal blog commenters. their music proved once again, to be the perfect soundtrack to a gumbo and jambalaya feast.

as accordion and washboard sounds bounced around the brick walls, i started pondering what i might give up for lent this year. as every catholic knows, what you give up needs to be a sacrifice. something in your life, difficult to refrain from for 40 days, otherwise...what's the point.

pondering this sacrifice, i wanted to find something in my life i could do without, that would be unique as well as insightful. this led me to the thought of "giving up" my twenties. now although that will happen during this lenten season whether i like it or not, it's more of a lifestyle change.

i'll give up my busted blue jeans, and start wearing pleated khakis. i'll start using starch and tuck in my shirts. i'll stay clean shaven year round, and schedule haircuts every 3 weeks. i'll start watching the news in the morning while eating oat bran cereal. i'll pay attention to the stocks and be able to discuss the market at length in any given conversation. i'll eat dinner at 4pm. i'll start attending michael mcdonald concerts. i'll start watching re-runs of "everybody loves raymond" and laugh at all the marriage jokes....

...or i might just give up dr. pepper.

my [second] engagement

if you measure a business in how much free chipotle it gets...well then, business is a-boomin'.

after seeing the engagement photos i took last month, some recently engaged friends of mine asked if i'd take theirs as well. with the promise of free chipotle, i agreed. it ended up being a real quick session, but my friends were wonderful and patient with me while i tried to figure out how to pose them. although i'm happy with a number of the shots, i'm discovering there's still a LOT to learn. one thing i have learned however, is to end the photo shoot near one's favorite bar. happy clients tend to pay for the drinks.

engag[ing]

after this weekend, my amateur photographer hat goes off to my friends at ericamay photography, the juice stop, darrin hackney photography and divispix photography.


last sunday, i had my first ever engagement shoot, and i was incredibly nervous. i love taking photos, however over the years the vast majority of my subjects have included buildings, doors, windows, patterns on walls, cracks in the sidewalk, and various other urban elements. static, stationary, somewhat stoic objects. unfeeling, with emotion projected onto them only from the viewer. everything being human is not. humans are dynamic, full of energy, feelings, life, and emotion. all things hard to capture in a fraction of a second. all things, the photographers mentioned above, do so well.

knowing i loved photography, and the fact i was in kansas city, brooke and roger asked if i'd take their engagement photos. the fact they're on a shoe string budget, and i mentioned i work for food, it was the perfect fit. the afternoon was spent traveling from location to location, ironically including some of the cities significant architecture. however, the buildings this time played backdrop to them, a couple young and in love, with a new and exciting future in front of them. an emotion and a feeling, i hope was captured for them.

my best [family] friend's wedding

our grandparents started out as neighbors, and became friends. then my mom, met her dad, and became lifelong friends. through the years and miles, they grew up, and married their spouses, and eventually my parents became dear friends with her parents. three generations later, my sister and i, call ashley and aaron our friends.

last weekend, ashley was the first in our little group of four to get married. it was a beautiful outdoor ceremony with the rocky mountains acting as backdrop. over the past twenty some years, ashley has become a second little sister to me, and in a way, it was hard to see her all grown up and getting married. however, sometime during the reception, i realized, that although she was now an adult and starting a new life with an amazing guy, our friendship was not ending, but rather, like our parents and grandparents before us, it was simply starting a new chapter.