Every year I put together an annual group photo-shoot for the Vegas PUG (a local meetup group I lead for super-cool professional photographers). It’s a chance for everyone to get out on location, have fun shooting with others in the community and hopefully come away inspired and having picked up a new tip or two. This year I wanted to do something a little different, so I surprised everyone with a styled shoot filled with eye-candy just begging to be photographed!
For for theme, I took inspiration from the unique style of Sofia Coppola’s ‘Marie Antoinette’ (if you haven’t seen it, it’s a must!). I’ve always wanted to do my own take on it for a wedding-shoot and love how it turned out. Huge props go to my incredible team that pulled the vision together and made the shoot-out a huge success: AMAZING floral by Layers of Lovely, the epic cake and treats by Gimme Some Sugar, killer hair and makeup by Your Beauty Call, decor from The Pottery Shop, inspiring off-camera lighting demo by Steve Fogarty, an awesome behind-the-scenes video by Lighten Films, my girls Kristin Wilson and Liz Le for all their help bringing everything together and last but not least, our models: Carrie, Sarah and Lindsey – (all real and completely FABULOUS brides). Tons of love goes out to you all!
Here’s some of my images from the shoot:
Admittedly I always go a little crazy over Catherine at Layers of Lovely’s floral designs. Here’s Carrie modeling the pearl and peonies bouquet:
Lindsey’s rockin’ the macaroons - one thing a Marie Antoinette themed shoot would be incomplete without!
Towards the end of the shoot we topped things off with a surprise cake fight! While it was a bit sad seeing Gimme Some Sugar’s masterpiece getting torn apart, it was so much fun (and delicious too)! I couldn’t resist digging my fingers in for a little cake action – YUM!
Below is a fantastic behind the scenes video by one of my fave videographers, Terrence of Lighten Films!
You may notice that I sound like a complete dork at the beginning. I’m going to blame it on the cold, lol. It was freezing! Props go to the brides for rockin’ it out in the crazy weather we had that day.
**Click here to check out more images from this shoot in the feature on The Wedding Chicks!**
I’m excited to share a few images from Shauna’s trash the dress session! I feel like I’ve known Shauna for ages. We started chatting last year when her and Dustin were in the beginning stages of planning out their wedding. They had an intimate wedding in New York, then came out to Vegas for their honeymoon and post-wedding shoot. It was awesome rocking it out together!
To top things off, Dustin’s a firefighter and brought his fire gear all the way from Florida for our shoot! Here’s a few of the images from our day together:
These first two were photographed against the colorful backdrop of the Neon Boneyard! 
Shauna brought along Dustin’s extra name badge to use as an adorable prop in celebration of her new last name:
To see more from this shoot, check out the feature on Destination Inspirations wedding blog!
Johnnie is a pilot in the U.S. Air Force. For the past two years he has traveled across the globe to fly in air shows for millions of spectators. And the love of his life, Angela, has been right there with him. So it’s safe to say: Flying has played a huge role in their lives together.
After some brainstorming, we came up with the idea of doing an Amelia Earhart-esque style vintage aviation shoot in the middle of the Nevada desert.
The plane in the first image is a P-51 Mustang – one of Johnnie’s favorite vintage airplanes and one that he had the opportunity to fly alongside during many of his air shows.
I grew to love Johnnie and Angela when photographing their wedding way back in December of 2008 so I was stoked when Johnnie wrote to tell me they were returning to Vegas and he wanted to suprise Angela with a trash the dress to celebrate their 2-year wedding anniversary. It was awesome being able to both catch up on everything and capture them again at this new stage in their lives. They are bidding adieu to air shows and are starting their next adventure together in South Korea (where Johnnie’s now stationed for work). Angela even keeps an awesome photo-blog where they document all their travel and adventures.
Couldn’t resist doing my happier take on the iconic cinematography of Robert Burks in Alfred Hitchcock’s classic “North by Northwest” (1959).
As this year comes to a close, I’ve started to look back on my 2010 goals. One huge check off that pretty audacious list was teaching at Pictage‘s Partner Conference 2010. I was chosen to lead a shooting workshop in New Orleans. PartnerCon is a photography conference that I attribute as one of the biggest parts of my growth since the start of my business, so it was a huge honor to be on the other end this year. I was also blown away at how quick my class sold out. Thanks SO MUCH to everyone who attended and allowed me to give a piece of myself back to the photography community. I hope you came away with some solid tips and inspirations to make your own photography and connections stronger.
We had such an awesome group! Big thanks goes to my good friend Rueben Poon of Celebration Packages for helping out on the shoot and capturing these behind-the-scenes images for me to share.
Sometimes you have to get a bit dirty to get ‘the shot.’
Also, thanks must go to our fantastic newlywed couple, Tiffany & Patrick! The workshop was the first day we met in person, but we instantly became great friends. These two are such awesome people and their love totally shines through — even in the chaos of 18 photographers, which I’m sure must be a bit awkward! They totally rocked it!
Here’s a few of my images from the shoot:
Tiffany’s dress was successfully trashed:
Last, I want to share the other blog posts of some of the awesome photographers who attended! Everyone got completely unique and fantastic images! Click below to take a look and be sure to leave them some blog-love:
Aubrey Greene
Danielle Fuller
Reuben Poon
Sarah Deshaw
Stacy Conner
And if anybody else has images blogged, please send them my way. I’d love to share your link!
Meet Kristen & Marlon:
Kristen and Marlon came out from New York City for an intimate Las Vegas wedding with close family. We got together the next day for a day-after trash the dress session downtown.
These two are easy going and up-for-anything, which made hanging out and exploring the streets with them a total blast. And I think the photos we captured really show their chemistry and love for each other.
I love their retro style! Kristen was rockin’ a beautiful feather headpiece and Marlon a vintage skinny tie.
They were also sporting some awesome converse shoes!
K & M: You two are so perfect together. 
Congrats again on tying the knot!!
**This engagement shoot was featured on Destination Inspirations!
Hope everyone’s enjoying their Saturday night! Jayse and I are ready to cuddle up for a movie-night in. But before we do I just had to share a little sneak peek of the shoot I’m working on:
More to come very soon!
Here’s a few more photos from Kerri’s trash the dress in New Orleans!
During my shoots I often like to go to a location and have fun just exploring the little hidden wonders it has to offer. It’s my way of keeping things fresh and fun. These next couple images were photographed in a little alley-way on one of the backstreets. You could barely see it from the street and we almost just walked right by.
We had so much fun! And that’s not all – Graveyard images are still to come! Thanks Kerri for being absolutely gorgeous and daring with our crazy locations!
A+B: Thanks for an amazing day, for being up-for-anything and rockin’ it out in the Vegas heat with me! I had so much fun with you guys. 
Cara made Nathaniel a skinny black tie to match with his outfit for the shoot. I loved the knit hearts – such an adorable little touch.
Nathaniel plays in several bands and collects punk and garage singles. So as a little prop he brought along an issue of his favorite magazine, Ugly Things, all about sixties garage bands. And Cara rocked a copy of Knitting for Dummies! Minus the desert backdrop, this is exactly how they can be found in their free-time - Cara with her knits and Nathaniel chillin’ with a good magazine.
by chels
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add some love link to this post send to a friend