Our budget is not small by any means, but it is definitely tight. Every cent we haven’t even made yet seems to already have a purpose in store.
We have been SO fortunate that Jeremiah’s dad is a professional photographer and has offered to take our wedding weekend photos and create a book for us. As many wedding planners (professional or personal!) know, that can be a major chunk of the budget… think $5K or more for the good stuff. And trust me, with Jeremiah’s dad, we’re getting THE GOOD STUFF. He is an amazing candid photographer, and edits his photos in a way that makes the colors and facial expressions pop. Check out his website at: johnmartinezphotography.com to see what I mean!
Unfortunately, John lives in North Carolina, so having him shoot our engagement photos in time for our Save the Dates to be created and sent was not likely. Lucky for us, though, we have a couple of amateur photographer friends with mad skills.
Cue in Alex Paananen, Jeremiah’s hilarious and charming buddy from work. Apparently he’s been working on building a more diverse portfolio, and volunteered to shoot us for a few hours. Honestly, I think Jeremiah *may* have volunteered him, but Alex was a good sport through the whole bit.
We had an incredible day in downtown Denver, searching for the most unique and picturesque backgrounds with an intermission of burgers and beers at a local pub. In the end, there were a few really amazing ones where we were both smiling un-awkwardly (I’ll admit, I’m a LONG way from model status) and that portrayed the “us” we felt we wanted to share with our friends and family. Check them out — I think they turned out alright. 🙂 Just make sure to click on them to see them in full — the thumbnails don’t do Alex’s work justice. Extra special thanks to Alex for doing such an incredible job and for a fun day!!
