Vadnais Heights Commons Wedding Photography | Michelle & Jason | Minneapolis & St Paul Wedding Photographer

Last Saturday Michelle and Jason married at the Vadnais Heights Commons surround by all their loved ones; the day felt like the first real day of summer with warm sunny skies.
 Michelle and Jason did not meet by chance; they were thoughtfully paired by their best friends for a wedding. As they walked down the aisle to support their best friends they did not think that 2 years later they would be at their own wedding!! Michelle is one of the sweetest people I have had the joy to serve; knowing she was marrying Jason, she had the biggest smile on her face all day.
The first look took place at a nearby park that Michelle had had her heart set on. As Michelle walked up and tapped Jason on the shoulder, Jason yelled out “whose there?!” making Michelle giggle as he turned and was able to take in her beauty for the first time that day.
 The ceremony took place at Vadnais Heights Commons with large windows and vaulted ceilings generously bathing natural light throughout the space.  The greenery details throughout the decorations were the perfect touch, giving the room a splash of elegance.  A personal favorite moment of the day (had me even a littler teary-eyed; vows and toasts get me every time) came during the speeches. The maid of honor was scrolling through their memories together and how excited she was for her best friend.  She said she knew that Jason was proof that all good things come to those who wait. Cue Tears. 

It was clear to everyone in attendance that these two are made for each other. I wish them all the happiness marriage can bring. <3

Second Styled Shoot is in the Bag

I have always loved movies.  You would often find my family in the living room cuddling up on the couch absorbed in stories being told on a big screen. Dream retirement job would be writing movie reviews just like Movie Mom on 94.5. One of my most recent favorites was the movie lalaland! The visuals danced into my heart making me want to be a part of it! After finding some fantastic vendors who wanted to be a part of my vision too we did a styled shoot.this is my second one and it was as just much fun as the first one! I am still in the publishing process so here is a couple behind the scenes photos for now! I wanted to say thank you to Hannah with Morning Light Photography for helping shoot a couple with me behind the camera! 

This is my second styled shoot and it just amazes me the talents of those around me. One thing I LOVE about these types of shoots is not only the willingness to give there time, but the beautiful things creatives make when you give them free reign to create what they love! With this shoot I feel like I meshed really well with the planners and models which was a good feeling. It is also a great way to warm up for this coming wedding season!!!

Don't worry this whole session will be on the blog SOON!!! 

Asus Laptop Review | Why I chose it over HP Spectra and Dell | Photography

Marcus and I did not have internet at home for the first couple of years of marriage. (*Gasp* ) I can tell you all about the weird comments I get telling people that, but it was something we could save money at that time. So, any online editing that I needed to do to upload photos I needed to be at a place with free wifi. 

A couple of months ago I was sitting at my Caribou Coffee working on editing an event I had shot the night before and my laptop was going PAINSTAKINGLY SLOW. Just hitting the right arrow to the next photo sometimes took up to 30 seconds. I had been working on my laptop from college all 6lbs of this laptop was making me more and more frustrated with it freezing or exerting itself to try to work with Lightroom. Frustrated and defeated, I came to the realization that this was no longer working.  What should have taken me and hour and a half was now taking me 4.5 hours! 

I knew what I needed that was a necessity for my business 1) it needed to have an SD card slot 2) it needed to be fast (no more 4 hr wait time) 3) cost needed to be close to 1k 4) had had had to be lite for portability on wedding days/travel

So after weeks of youtube reviews and information it came down to these computers : HP Spectra 360, which was the most beautiful, review the craziest reviews, and second most expensive on my list (specs: 13.3" - intel core i7 - 16gb memory-512gb solid state drive) | Dell XPS my lightest choice but the most expensive (specs: 13.3" - intel core i7 - 16gb memory-256gb solid state drive) | Lenovo -  Yoga 900 (specs: 13.3" - intel core i7 - 16gb memory-512gb solid state drive)| Asus Q324UA  (specs: 13.3" - intel core i7 - 16gb memory-512gb solid state drive) Note* you will see that Apple product is missing this is due to being out of my price range and me being 100% Android platform user. It would have been weird having one item out of that platform. ;)  

Multiple trips to best buy and talking to multiple sales associates I finally decided on the Asus. It was light, had everything I needed, nice to look at and the price range was perfect. (I looked at it again a couple weeks later and it had gone on sale which helped me save over 300$!!!) 

So I have had it for a couple of months and here are the big things - it is super light. I can carry it to work and around the house without killing my back. It will be easy to take on wedding days and not add too much more weight with my other equipment.   I no longer have long weight times in lightroom, it is efficient and fast. 

My only issue with it is sometimes when I am typing the courser will jump unexpectedly. I have yet to figure out what causes this.  

So I was able to make a good investment in my business and it so far was well worth it!