When Should The Ring Bearer & the Flower Girl be ready for photos?

One  of my favorite stories of ring bearers was one of my little brother; Christian was a ring bearer for one of my cousin's weddings. He was terrified because he thought he was getting married to the flower girl. He was extremely hesitant, but eventually persuaded by a giant water gun this size of his torso that my grandma Gertie was holding out in the middle of the aisle. To this day it still one of my favorite family wedding stories.  I share this little piece of family history to let you be aware when you have kiddos in your wedding, they have a tendency to think this big party is for them!

Kids have there own schedule but working with them can also be a joy because they are only this little once. For wedding party photos and family photos you want the ring bearer and the flower girl to be ready at the location 20 minutes before we start shooting the full wedding party. In your timeline you want to plan to have them there for long enough that they can be included without it being too much time in between that it is overwhelming for them. If that is too early or interrupts nap time consider doing separate wedding party photo with them after the ceremony.  

As learned with my family, bribes are always acceptable!

Shoot and Share Competition | What I Took Away | Finalist

Finalist against more than 30,000 other photos?! YES, I AM FREAKING OUT!

If you don't know what this is Shoot and Share is a fun and addictive photo competition that anyone can be a part of!  You can add up to 50 photos in numerous categories that fit each niche of your style and passions. 

The photo of mine that made it the farthest was my pancake cake from a shoot last year! This photo made top 100 in it's category coming out to be 25th out of 7,635 photos. <3 Every time i saw my photo when voting my heart would skip a beat and then start to beat faster and I would get giddy with excitment! It is so much fun knowing someone voted for you!

This is my second year entering photos, but my favorite part is the AMAZING talent I see when voting. I have learned that flowy dress portraits can make me sit in awe for minutes where I never want to look away,  movement in photos can cause a almost dreamlike quality to photos, leading lines make wedding photos pop. I learned any time it has a mermaid theme or a corgi in the photo I will vote for it!  It has been such a cool inspiration and new goals that I want to implement in my own photos!  

Here is a little screen shot of some of my favorite photos from this year competition.  The photo by Lexy Parks was my ABOSULTE Favorite from the contest!!  I encourage anyone who love photography to either enter or vote next year! WARNING: Voting for the shoot and share contest is extremely addicting and will steal many hours of your life, but will fill your mind with beautiful photos!

Adult Night at the Minnesota Zoo | Sanchez Adventures | Personal

Do you ever just crave a night out? I sometimes spend hours scrolling facebook events in my area to see what is going on in the outside world and to see if it would be something worth doing.

One event I found was adult night at the Minnesota Zoo! With a free zoo located in St. Paul (Como) I have probably been to the Minnesota Zoo one other time in my life because who needs to pay for a zoo when you have a free one right there! Marcus had yet been to the other zoo so I thought it would be a fun night out and exploring. I was right! 
The entire zoo was open to have you explore; at each big trail they had beverages and food for you to purchase while enjoying exotic animals but this event was 18+ with not kids. 

I found out Marcus could watch monkeys all day and he was completely fascinated by them! The snow monkeys were really fun to watch, but the monkeys on the tropic trail were so interesting to look at. Marcus also really enjoys the bears; they look sooo fluffy I have always been curious how hugging on would feel, but self preservation has won out on that urge. My favorite animal, the red panda, was asleep so not as exciting as a hog with elvish ears that horror movies are inspired from, but I still freaked out when I saw it!

I didn't get too many pictures because I am always torn with the fact that I want photos but I also want to be present in that moment. So for this Sanchez Adventure, I choose to be present.

Overall, it was a fun and new experience for both of us and I am happy we decided to go! It would be an enjoyable date night for anyone who enjoys animals!