I'm a Bridesmaid!

Err, matron? How ugly does that sound? Is that what you really have to call a married bridesmaid?


In any case...yay! I can't wait to be a part of this wedding!!


In true Tricia style, she invited her whole side of the wedding party (including her precious flower girl, Madison) to Cyrano's in Webster for "wedding chit chat."


She treated us to dinner, the best bread pudding in the city (mmmmmmm nom nom nom) and presented each of us with a perfectly wrapped box complete with a tag displaying a cute poem asking us to be her bridesmaids! Our gifts were J.Crew grosgrain flip flops in different colors. What a sweet idea! I'm pretty sure I just called my bridesmaids and said something like, "so you wanna?" This was definitely much better :)


Here are all of the girls, minus one of the Emilys:




Thanks Trish! Can't WAIT for 6.20.09!

Feliz Primer Aniversario...a Nosotros!

Hola de Mexico! (I apologize for any butchering of the language I might have done...quite obviously, I've never studied Spanish)

Just teasing, actually…I recently discovered the feature on Blogger that allows one to manipulate the date and time of a post. Since I knew that we would be busy enjoying the Mexican surf and sun today and would hence be unable to post, I set one up in advance. I couldn’t let our first anniversary go by without a mention!


So, to my husband of one year: thank you for loving me so exceptionally, even and most especially on my worst days, for nurturing my dreams, and for being the one person who knows me so completely that you can anticipate my deepest wishes before I realize them for myself. I don’t know where the year went, but I wouldn’t have wanted to share it with anyone else in the world. I can’t wait for the next 50 or so anniversaries to come (unless, of course, we meet our untimely demise in a freak SCUBA diving accident – really, what are we thinking sometimes??) I love you!

Now then. To avoid this post being completely cheesy, I am including some fun things. Well, I think they’re fun. Understandably, you may not :)

First, let’s take a little stroll down memory lane with some wedding day photos, shall we? Now I could feature the ones where we all look our best, hair perfectly coiffed and smiles just right...but what fun would that be?

Huh? Here, I’m probably reacting to something hilarious Lajuanna was saying to help calm my nerves…as soon as the girls left me, I lost it a little. But seriously, what is WITH my facial expressions? I looked like I was suffering from a stroke for most of the day!

Throughout our courtship, Matt liked to annoy me by asking what I would do if he wore Nikes to our wedding, and then later actually threatening to. Luckily, this is all he got away with…the punk:
The 4-year-old flower girl, who was understandably traumatized by the wacko trolley driver’s decision to ring the bell right into her ear without warning:

My sisters/co-MOHs looking just thrilled about their impending walk down the aisle. Nice, guys:

Pucker up, Lou! Don't be difficult today!

Ok, he looks high and I've either just heard something hilarious, or I'm hissing...either way, scary!

Browers going above (below?) the call of duty:

"Messing up my hair right now would pretty much be cause enough for me to disown you"...the faces here are priceless!

For those of you still with me, here is the slideshow to our first dance and second choice for first dance songs, by the famed Browers duo :) This still makes me sniffle!

Thanks for indulging my sentimental side and for reliving the day with me. Hopefully, I’m off to enjoy another cocktail with my hubby right now. I think you should as well, in the name of first anniversaries and second honeymoons!

The Weekend (yep, can't think of a better title!)

Another painfully short weekend…another beautiful wedding! I know I’m doing something I love when hearing Trumpet Voluntary for the thirty-ninth time still gives me goosebumps, and I tear up myself every single time I look through the zoomed lens to see the groom’s face when the doors open and the bride appears. I love weddings!


Starting with Friday evening first…I boldly continued a solid week of gluttony, gorging on Qdoba and Skinny Cows (yes, plural) during the course of our movie selections: Awake and Things We Lost in the Fire. The first featured a laughable script that was terribly acted (Jessica Alba stars – enough said), but managed to hold our attention with a rather juicy and suspenseful plot. Things, on the other hand, was extremely slow, not to mention depressing, but the cast was super. I still liked it, and it marked the first time I’ve ever been fond of a character played by Benicio del Toro.


Saturday was another big wedding day with the Browers, and it was amazing, of course. Not only was it Michael’s birthday (which no one told me until halfway through the day – I felt like a giant ass!) but he was also sick as a dog. Would I have had any clue if he hadn’t told me? Not a chance, and no one else would have, either. These people astound me! Amy was beautiful and probably the calmest bride I’ve ever seen – nothing like yours truly here J I’ll let the Browers’ images speak for themselves, but I will say that I’ve never had so much fun being chased out of abandoned buildings by a homeless person threatening to beat us down before! Congratulations, Amy and Blake…all of your hard work and planning made for a gorgeous day!


Sunday was meant for cleaning up around the house, but that quickly gave way to hanging outside with the pups as soon as I caught a glimpse of this little scene from the back door:




I loved this so much, in fact, that I took a couple minutes of video just to see if anything cool happened. Nothing really did, but it’s still cute. Unfortunately, it's taking an eon to download, so I'll have to make a separate post...


From there, I didn’t put down the camera for about 2 hours. Working with the Browers has inspired me, but it’s also made me look on our little Canon point-and-shoot with even more disdain than it usually garners. For the time being, though, it’s the only camera I’ve got. So, I decided to make nice and actually give it a chance to flex its (puny) muscles.

I started out with my favorite subjects, of course:

Then I started exploring the most intricate details of my surroundings with the digital macro setting for the next hour:



I started to have a hard time finding things to shoot, so I moved inside, where the offerings weren’t a whole lot better…



I realized that I’ve never ever EVER been able to take a decent photo of my rings and I’ve always been inspired by Lajuanna’s talent for extremely cool ones, so I turned my attention to my diamonds:

Could be worse, right? Maybe?

I’m still dying for a “real” camera, but I’m going to at least do what I can to play around with this guy until an upgrade is an option.

After my little photo session, we celebrated our best friend Matt’s birthday – unfortunately, since I’d spent all afternoon taking pictures and neglected to recharge the camera battery (Browers would be horrified at my lack of preparedness!), I don’t have any pictures aside from this crappy one of the delicious cake. First was dinner al fresco at Massa’s in Kirkwood (a perfect night for it!) followed by ice cream cake from Baskin Robbins. The gluttony continues…

We ended the weekend on a kind of sour note by watching Cloverfield. Worst. Movie. Ever. I mean seriously. I wasn’t the least bit surprised as the credits began to roll to see J.J. Abrams’ name listed as one of the screenwriters, since he’s the same idiot ruining Lost. Do yourself a favor and skip this piece of rubbish!


What a weekend! I’m spent :) And now it’s Monday :(

A Decent Proposal

Two of our best friends got engaged over the weekend! Yeah!

Matt was the Best Man at our wedding...


...and Tricia was our Honorary Dog Handler. She lobbied quite aggressively for mention in the program, as well as a mesh dog stroller resembling a suitcase that she found in SkyMall, in order to better perform her duties. Despite having both ideas shot down, she still very graciously transported Louie to and from Tower Grove Park for pictures after our ceremony...doesn't she look so serious? She's like the Secret Service of dog sitters:

These two are one of the most fun and lovely couples I know, and I couldn't be more excited for them! Don't you want to hang out with them just based on this picture?

It doesn’t hurt that this is sure to be one HELL of a wedding, too...I was talking to her dad on Sunday and I told him to make sure his check-signing hand is ready. I think he appreciated my honesty :)



We’ve all been waiting for this day with great anticipation, as they’ve been together for coming up on 5 years. Matt has been to our jeweler several times over the past few months looking at diamonds, but it was only last Thursday that he found the perfect one. The ring is a gorgeous round-cut solitaire that positively shines, and it’s exactly what Tricia wanted. He met her dad right away to ask for his blessing, and the two of them hatched a plan that involved the whole family, although none of them – not even Tricia’s mom or sister – knew!



Matt has known for years that he wanted to propose at the Grand Basin at the base of Art Hill in Forest Park. Picturesque, n’est-ce pas?


Tricia’s dad told the whole family that everyone was getting together to celebrate her grandfather’s birthday at the Boat House in Forest Park. So on Sunday, Matt told Tricia that he would have to meet her there because he’d promised to do some work with his dad earlier that afternoon.


She drove with her parents to the park and as they approached the Grand Basin, her dad slowed to a stop. “Speed bump?” she wondered. Suddenly, she noticed Matt standing there in front of the fountain in a suit, holding an umbrella and flowers. All her poor dad could manage to get out at that point was, “Tricia, get out of the car.” Awesome!


After they met their immediate families for a toast at the Boat House, they hosted everyone including us and 10 more friends at Massa's, their favorite Italian restaurant in Kirkwood:




Matt gave a sweet speech about how happy he was and can’t wait for the next year…precious…

As for Tricia, you couldn’t wipe the smile off of her face with a towel!

We decided that she should probably walk around like this for a few weeks, just to make sure that everyone is sure to see her gleaming rock! Just kidding, this is actually an inside joke…our guys have this friend from high school who got engaged awhile back. The first time we all ran into him and his new fiancée post-engagement, she literally thrust her left hand into our faces every 2 minutes. Calm down! Whenever her name comes up, we do this pose.

Congrats, guys!! Love!
Aww…and to think that it all began over penny pitchers at Humphrey’s :)

I Could Have Danced All Night...

...but I didn't, I worked my ARSE off instead! Let me apologize in advance that this post about a day spent taking photographs has none in it. On the other hand, I could write a book about all of the details from my 8:00am - 12:00am workday with team Browers on Saturday, but I'll see if I can sum it up for you:

-I look tres chic in all black.
-I drove a truck for the first (and second and third) time. I'd say I parallel parked it too, but that was really more of an attempt.
-I'm sore in places I never knew existed on my body.
-PSA to all future brides: Budget plenty of time for yourself to get dressed on your wedding day!
-Arriving at your church with 5 minutes to spare before the start of your wedding ceremony is stress-inducing, for you and for your photographers!
-You can coordinate 50 formal family shots in 15 minutes AND make them look damn good if you know what you're doing.
-GPS is a glorious invention.
-Ted Drewes offers free custard to bridal parties!
-I don't completely suck at taking pictures when armed with a mack daddy camera!
-Bee Tree Park is so far away that I'd have sworn we had driven to Arkansas.
-P'Sghetti's sandwiches are delicious - what have I been missing all my life?!
-The bathrooms at the Ritz-Carlton are more beautiful and smell better than anyplace on earth.
-I take back my stance on wedding videography (it's actually kinda cool!)
-I feel cool carrying around photography equipment, even if I don't know how to use any of it!
-If you use a video light, you can get amazing pictures through the back window of a Rolls Royce.
-The Ritz serves truly amazing raspberry creme brulee.
-Congratulations Bridget & Carl!

I seriously had a ball and am now even more impressed with Michael and Lajuanna after watching them from the other side of the camera. They are absolute work horses, and are so genuinely concerned about making the day perfect that you'd think each wedding they shoot was their own. All I can tell you is that if you're planning a wedding, book them. Book them now. If you've already done so, you probably already know this, but you are in for an amazing day!

I also have to give a ton of credit to a couple of the other vendors, some of whom I had the pleasure of spending 15+ hours with:

Joe and Jeff from Switzer Films are amazing at what they do and hysterical.

Mighty Big Band - this was the first time I'd heard (or even heard of) them, and while it pains me to say this because I've always been partial to our wedding band, Galaxy, I think these guys (and girl) might be the best I've heard. Galaxy is still phenomenal too, though!

All in all, I learned a great deal even with limited training time, and Michael even encouraged me to play with their Canon 1D Mark II (forgive me, but I don't even remember what lens I was using)! I'm fairly confident that Michael will want to feature each and every shot of mine on his blog , so watch out for those :)