Abulea Wedding Photography | New Years Eve Wedding | Elle & Patrick |

Elle and Patrick's wedding was on the door step of 2017 new years eve . I shot this wedding with Justin Mark Photography as a last minute favor because Justin was pretty stick the day before! Back to Elle and Patrick they decided to get ready at abulea in downtown st paul right by Mears Park and CHS field. The ceremony was held at St. Thomas Chapel. Although it was pretty cold it didn't phase Elle as she was up for the challenge as was the entire wedding party because no body complained with giant smiles in front of the camera!

As the ceremony began, the chapel forgot to take down the life-size nativity scene at the alter! So tip for those choosing holidays for your wedding remember to make sure SOMEONE is assigned to take down the churches decorations! It would not have been that big of deal if it did not take up 1/3 of the alter where these two love birds tied the knot!  

After the ceremony we all meet up at Abulea for a comfotable and GORGEOUS reception!

Should I have a Second Shooter for my Wedding? | For the Bride

You every have one of those days where you cannot concentrate on anything to the point where you are just frustrated at yourself? That was me, yesterday and that is why you are getting this today! I think it is so important so I just had to share!

I wanted to start off with letting you know a second shooter is not a necessity on your wedding day; I shoot weddings by myself all the time and I capture everything. But there are benefits from having a second shooter that i want to bring to your attention! I know your wondering if a second shooter will be worth it. I just want to encourage you to go for it for a couple of reasons. 

Your wedding gallery will be more rounded out. At the start of the day lead shoots the bridal party getting ready. With a second shooter the lead photographer can focus primarily on the girls and the second shooter can focus on the boys!  This helps give both sides of the story the equal focus they deserve! That does not just apply to the morning but the whole day ! The second shooter will give you different vantage points and more candids of friends and family.

Second shooter are also awesome if you have a tight timeline. I have seen multiple times where grandma is missing for the family formals, so the second photographer can go track her down while the lead is able to continue photos while we are waiting, which keeps everything going smoothly! If the lead photographer needs to go shoot details the second shooter can stay with the wedding party while still documenting the day when the lead is else where. It is wonderful when timing calls to have one photographer in two places at once. ( As much as I would love that ability I am not yet equipped with that particular skill)

Trying And Failing | House Projects

When Marcus and I were looking for a house one thing we were looking for was one that didn't have a lot of renovations.  I knew we both did not have the experience to make something ourselves with certain things.  When we found OUR house, we could not have been more excited to have a home mostly updated! Little projects here or there need to be done, but we don't have to gut the whole house! SCORE! 

Our master bathroom looks like the 60's that it came from that is why we decided to start there! This past weekend we tied up our shoe laces and tore up the bathroom WALL!  The fun factor was tearing it apart, the scary part was trying to figure out how to make it look pretty after it was torn down!

Being the first time we tiled a wall, we made a couple rookie mistakes. Biggest one we didn't have enough tile and didn't check to make sure it was still in stock. We finished about 3/4 of what we needed and then found out it was a discontinued tile.............Fail.  Poor Marcus was so discouraged by our non-straight lines that he didn't want to go any further. So we decided to reach out to a couple of local professionals for round 2!  Once it is complete I will make sure to do before and afters here!