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Happy Holidays, everyone! It’s Christmas day and I just wrapped up Larry and Laura’s fantastic wedding at Ana Y Jose’s in Tulum, just down the coast from Cancun and Playa del Carmen. Tulum is one of my favorite places to get married on the Mexican Riviera due to its laid back atmosphere and lack of high rise megaresorts. Larry and Laura had my wife and I down there to shoot their wedding, and we had so much fun with their friends and family.

I’m going to embarrass Larry for a minute because he’s got one of the coolest proposal stories I’ve ever heard: the two were at a parade, where every year, ping pong balls are shot into the crowd with certain deals for local businesses printed on the balls. Larry was about ten steps ahead, so he found himself a ping pong ball beforehand, split it in half, and hid Laura’s ring within. Then he pocketed it and headed out to the parade. Sure enough, the ping pong balls were shot into the crowd and Larry enthusiastically jumped to the ground on his hands and knees to find one. In a stroke of luck, a newspaper photographer was standing right behind them and captured the whole thing. Once down, Larry rose to one knee and showed Laura his hollowed out ping pong ball with the ring. Well played, sir. Well played.

At any rate, the celebration lasted for a couple of days, with a welcome lunch and dinner, a beautiful beach front wedding, and a day-after trip to Hidden Worlds, a cool cenote adventure park in the jungle. What follows are some favorites from the wedding day itself. Larry & Laura, congratulations, and thanks so much for having us down there. You’ll be pleased to know that those goodie bags you left us with were most appreciated! We’d love to connect again, so if you’re out in Colorado you have to give a shout.

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Ally and Scott were married recently in Beaver Creek, just down the road from Vail, in the Beaver Creek Chapel, and had a great wedding reception afterward at Beano’s Cabin on the side of the mountain. The wedding was gorgeous, and Beano’s was in perfect form. The grass was green and carpeted with wildflowers, and the sun cast some incredible light across the Rockies as it set.

Ally and Scott’s wedding had a number of firsts in it, the best being a unique toast given to the kitchen staff for a tasty meal. A groomsman led the way, and had every single guest at Beano’s raising their hands in the air, shouting and clapping for the food. I’ve also never seen a ring bearer sprinting down the aisle with a teddy bear in his mouth (though I have seen one dressed literally as a bear), nor have I seen people jump up and down with so much enthusiasm that they destroyed the paper globes hanging from the ceiling. That means only one thing: people were having a LOT of fun. At one point, a wedding guest grabbed my camera and starting to take pictures with it.

Anyway, great vibe, great party, great couple, great wedding. Congrats to Ally and Scott, and thanks to the awesome folks who made this happen: Carolyn Moorman at Artistan Events, Fred Hammond at A Great Time DJ, the Shamane’s Bake Shoppe, and Vintage Magnolia for the flowers.

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Here’s a fun screen capture from the homepage of Pictage, which is the printer/album bindery/order fulfillment company of myself and the about 11,000 other photographers around the world. Recently they ran a a contest where they asked their members for images of fall for their homepage; this image of mine, along nine other images, were the contest winners. To get this photo I had to scramble to the top of the spindly little aspen tree you see on the bottom of the frame. It was about eight inches in diameter and I was probably 20 feet up. Luckily there was a nice fluffy bed of leaves to land in had it fallen over!

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Sarah and Aaron were married in a beautiful and emotional ceremony on the Larkspur Lawn in Vail this summer, and had a lively reception in the restaurant right afterward. The weather was gorgeous, and the Gore Range seemed so big and close you could almost touch the snow-capped peaks. I was honored to get to photograph such a deep connection between Sarah and Aaron. My wife helped me out with this wedding, snagging some of my favorite images from the day.

Thanks to Carolyn Moorman at Artisan Events for planning this great evening; Fred at a Great Time DJ for keeping the party rockin, the Larkspur Restaurant, and Petals of Provence for the great flower arrangements.

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Blaire and Scott had one of the most memorable weddings of the year with a gorgeous ceremony on the Larkspur Restaurant’s lawn, followed by an absolutely rockin’ reception at the Four Seasons in Vail that went well into the night. Scott was almost thrown out of his chair during the horah dance (see the shot below) by his incredibly enthusiastic friends, who partied hard amidst the incredible flowers and purple decor. It was just so outrageously cool to be there shooting everything. Everyone was having so much fun, and there was a great sense of connection between Blaire, Scott and their family and friends. I’d been looking forward to the event for months.

We all first met back in March when I returned to Colorado from Norway for a couple of weddings, so it was fun to reconnect. I shot their engagement photos in Vail on a bluebird spring day, and the weather followed us into the summer. The Larkspur has an incredible back lawn with views up to the Gore Range, and Blaire and Scott’s big day was one of four in a row I shot there. The others will be online soon!

Also, I’d like to give a shout out to all the folks who helped make this wedding so special: Vintage Magnolia for the flowers, Vail wedding planning by I Do, and great lighting and decor by Pink Monkey Solutions.

Blaire, Scott, a hearty congratulations to you both! Give a shot next time you’re in Colorado!

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Amy and Shawn made an appearance on the blog back in the fall after we shot their engagement photos in Estes Park. Ever since, I’ve been really looking forward to their wedding at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science. I was pretty excited to hear they’d be getting married the museum’s great atrium and would be eating dinner in halls of dioramas depicting the world’s various ecosystems. And when the wedding rolled around, I was not let down. Ever see that cheesy movie Night at the Museum? Well, this was it, in real life. Good stuff! We shot some pictures in a hall going into the space exhibit, I took ring detail shots in an exhibit explaining the geology of Mars and yes, a polar bear in a diorama seemed hungry enough to leap into the dining area.

Amy and Shawn get points for picking such an awesome place to get married — and it was such a fitting venue, too. These two share a hilarious and quirky sense of humor, a loving bond, and strong emotional ties with their family and friends. Amy’s connection with her grandfather was especially heartwarming. I can’t imagine a better pair!

Here’s to you two, wishing you all the best in love and life.

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Michelle and Matt were married recently at the Della Terra Mountain Chateau right up the road from me in Estes Park. Colorado at the time was still recovering from a late winter, so it was a little chilly, but they managed to steam up the dance floor with a righteous party that evening. As you can see, these two and their guests were non-stop smiles and good times. I will probably never forget Matt’s brother’s toast — it goes down as one of the best I’ve ever heard. I can’t even remember everything he said because I was laughing too hard.

Congratulations, you two!

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Just got the results from the latest WPJA quarterly contest, and I had an image place in the Emotion category. This shot is my 20th image that’s won something in the WPJA contests, which feels cool. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again — these contests have gotten increasingly more competitive over the last few years. The depth of talent is really astounding. The WPJA has grown tremendously in other countries, and many of the winning images come from all over the world.

Click the link to see a short excerpt of Brittany and Andrew’s Della Terra wedding in March in Estes Park, Colorado. The winning shot was the same image as this one, but the color version. I’m still a fan of the B&W!

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Wow, what a ton of fun and an absolute pleasure it was to shoot Rebecca and Grant’s destination wedding in the Bahamas three weeks ago. I’ve got so many fond memories from this celebration that I don’t even know where to begin. It was a wonderful way to start the wedding season after an awesome winter in Norway.

These two are some of the kindest, most giving people I’ve ever met, and on top of it, they know how to have a damn good time. I remember when I first spoke with Grant about the wedding, I told him my crazy idea of having an all-star party should I ever win the lottery. I’ll throw a fake wedding reception and invite all the most fun folks I’ve come across on the job. Rebecca and Grant are in for sure, along with many of their guests — including Grant’s grandmother, who basically owned the dance floor every chance she got. I was surprised she didn’t start breakdancing into a head spin.

Their goal was to hang out and spend quality time with their friends and family without any distractions. Fishing trips, beach bonfires, snorkeling, and even a boat trip out to Lincoln Park, a beach on a deserted island where, for lunch, we ate the fish we’d caught on the way there. The wedding itself was fantastic, and the group danced into the night to the sounds of a great Bahamian band. The next day everyone headed to Nippers, a famous beach bar, and then Rebecca, Grant and myself headed off for a sunset portrait shoot.

Here’s a heartfelt congrats to you guys. Give a shout next time you’re out in this neck of the woods – I’d love to catch up.

Scroll down for some favorites as well as a slideshow.

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Brian and Emily’s Bahamas destination wedding (that link goes to the original blog post and a slideshow) just appeared in Destination I Do — here’s the link to the story at the magazine’s site. I’m stoked to see this wedding published; Brian and Emily were so much fun to work with and they did a fantastic job personalizing their big day to reflect what was really important to them as a couple. I definitely recommend swinging over to the Destination I Do site so you can read about the bet Brian made with a friend when he first laid eyes on Emily. It’s a great story!

FYI, the screen grab below is just a short snippet of the post. Emily had a lot of insightful and helpful things to say about her experience, so if you’re planning a wedding far away from home, you might want to se what she had to say.