The Depot Wedding Photography | Gabrielle & Tyler | Minneapolis Wedding Photographer

This beautiful Jewish wedding of Gabrielle and Tyler took place at The Depot Downtown Minneapolis. I was able to shoot alongside Gina Zeilder to serve this cute couple.

We spent the morning getting ready in one of their sweets drinking apple juice and enjoying lots of laughter. Once Gabrielle added the finishing touches ( And to be extra she even had her perfume of Gabrielle Channel because can you be more extra than having your name on your perfume?) She had her first look of the day with her bridesmaids and Bridesmen. The tears of excitement were real as they soaked her all in. Gabby gifted all of them little Tiffany Co bracelets for the girls and cufflinks for the guys.

With excitement levels high, we made our way downstairs to get Tyler ready to meet his bride. Their first look was beautiful and they were just excited to start the day.

After baring the cold and doing portraits outside. We headed in to see the ceremony space. Gabrielle and Tyler hadn't seen it done but when they did it was all dropped jaws. It was GORGEOUS!

The aisle was lined with high vases with roses in water topped with a stunning bouquet of roses and other assortment of flowers. The Houpa was a show stopper with the whole top show casing the same amount of flowers. The other side of the aisle was decked with white trees with handing crystal and tea lights.

This is a ceremony that dream are made of. The third first look of the day was with Gabrielle’s grandparents Diana and Saul. They were just as blown away on how everything turned out as everyone else.

But they were more blown away on how beautiful Gabrielle was in her full wedding attire. "Have you ever seen anything so beautiful?!" This is what Gabrielle's grandmother kept saying to me when i asked her what she thoughts about how everything turned out!

After Family Formals were done we all headed to the Frost Room to sign the hauka which is a Traditional mini Jewish ceremony.

Once it was signed we all made our way to the ceremony. One surprise for the bride and groom was a performance of Gabrielle's mom singing the 7 blessings for them. Her mom's voice was stunning as she serenaded the couple with traditional Jewish blessings. At the end Tyler crushed the glass ( he raised his arms in triumph) and surprise number two took place as an 18 piece chorus started to sing Gabrielle favorite Beatles Song " All You Need Is Love." She was SO SURPRISED and DELIGHTED!

The reception took place in the grand ballroom with a pink winter wonderland theme. It was just stunning and classy.

Highlight of the reception were Grandpa and Mom's speeches. They were heartfelt and beautiful and showchased their love for their little girl and her new groom, the dessert table was a spread of Wisconsin and Minnesota shaped pies on a stick with the Cake having a little cat topper that was made of Gab and Tyler's fur baby, and the dancing was fantastic!

The day was a dream and I wish this couple all the love as they step forward in this life with each other.

Being Present For Christmas | Personal

Hey guys! I know it has been a long time since you heard from me. I feel like I have had plans in the back of my mind for months on taking off Christmas season from Social media. I have been having this argument in the back of my mind and asking one question. Can I be a business owner in this day and age and not be on social media? This question has been burning in the back of my mind for most of 2019. To be honest, I feel like I would have already deleted everything if I didn’t feel like social media validates my business. As a shopper myself, I look down on business who are not on instagram or on facebook.

In the morning I would find myself mindlessly scrolling instagram and facebook moments after my alarm went off. If I was bored I would again be swipping up and down through the internet to fill time with beautiful things ( and a LOT of Taylor Swift). This year I have taken active steps to feeling like I am in a better place. I took the app off my home screen. I decided to post photos I simply loved for no other reason.

The plan was to take a break from both Facebook and Instagram and just be present for the holidays(see what I did there). The month is now almost over and we are planning to welcome in 2020. (CRAZY) This month has been the hardest one I have had in a long time for other reasons and I think not having the distraction of social was a blessing to focus on the things that actually mattered. It wasn’t hard to go without and I think it has shown me that it isn’t as important as I thought it was going into it.

I think in 2020 I will be taking more breaks from Social to be more present with the real things that actually matter in my life.

Hayward Surprise Birthday Weekend | Wisconsin Travel

Surprise Hayward Birthday Weekend

I know this is a little late BUT this post is what we did for my birthday! I wanted to share how much Marcus did and all we enjoyed! (With a little family photo session at the end :D)
November is my birthday month! I have always been big into my birthday and I think a large part of that is coming from a big family. One day out of the year was my day and I LOVE my birthday! This year Marcus gave me the option early on, do I want my birthday gift to be a surprise or do I want to know. I decided to live on the side of whimsy and be surprised. Then a week later I caved. "You can tell me it is ok." My feeble attempts were futile, until about a week before. Marcus caved a little and gave me 5 questions I could ask and he would answer them honestly. I LOVED this part. I thought through my questions and decided to ask one to help manage me expectations. "Will I be in any way holding, touching, feeding a Red Panda by Monday?" (Red Panda's are my favorite animal and a very high bucket list item to have a live encounter with some day). The Answer was a No. Among a couple of other questions that were more fun than anything I did get out of him that we were leaving the state! I was SO excited!

I took Friday off at his request and after a day at the office I came home to Marcus handing me my weekender bag and telling me once I filled it up we were hitting the road! I took off for my bed room as fast as I could and with permission looked in his bag to get a good idea of what to throw into mine.

3 pair of underwear and 3 pairs of socks. That was all the information I needed to help fill the amount of days we would be away! With a little more hints from Marcus as he watched and packed more things into the truck, I left the bathing suit at home and 30 minutes to an hour later we were on the road! Dunder was coming with us.
It wasn’t until about 2 hours in until Marcus told me what was going on. He had booked us a weekend getaway to a WI Cabin. I was so excited and was pleasantly surprised! This year my family has been talking about renting a cabin for a week where we can all enjoy water sports and fellowship together. Marcus took that and put it on a little trial run. The second part of the surprise was that the following day my whole family would be joining us!

PS Dunder exhausted himself out with how excited he was to be on this adventure he slept most of the way. When we finally came rolling into the small town, it was dinner time. We stopped at a local pizza place grabbed one and then headed to the cabin. We pulled up to this dark wood log cabin that was so cute, even in the dark.

What felt really different from the city was even just unpacking the truck it was eerily quiet. Not something we experience very much living so close to a highway. The cabin was so cozy with a fireplace and plenty of space. All the decorations looked like they were just shopped out of Hobby Lobby’s cabin decor with Moose, Deer, and fish hanging on the walls. With wood panels and dark green carpet, it was perfect for a weekend getaway.

The downstairs had a pool table so after some curiosity exploring, we played a couple of rounds of pool. And I didn’t know this but I married a pool shark. Marcus grew up with one in his house so naturally he is amazing. ( and super proud of that fact).

We ate pizza with the fire blazing and just enjoyed a night of hanging out.
The next day I woke up to a stunning view of the lake that this cabin had been built on. The cabin was higher on the hill so it just held a stunning higher view. We explored outside and found stairs headed down to the water, a little fire pit on the side of the house and a front yard made for throwing Dunder’s Frisbee.

We walked the streets around the cabin and just took a relaxing day at the cabin. Reading some of the books they had there while basking in the sun on their over sized chair. It wasn’t until about dinner time until the rest of the family started pulling up!
We made enchiladas’ thanks to my mom’s hard work at prepping everything for us! Round 2 of pool broke out which is where I found out my sister and father are also amazing at pool. Apparently, this is a talent that skipped over me in my family.

After everyone was assigned a room and chilled with the fireplace on we all headed to bed.
Saturday morning after breakfast, I rounded everyone up to do a couple of quick family photos on the road leading to the cabin! It just struck me the day before how beautiful it was. I am glad we were able to get some family photos to document the time together.
That evening we celebrated with some presents and Dorthy Ann’s Bakery cake. (the one with raspberry filling)

I am so grateful and excited to share this little adventure weekend. My heart was so full.