It’s not everyone that would enjoy the winter’s ‘brisk’ breezes on the banks of the Yellowstone River during their engagement photo session! And by the looks on their faces, I think Jessica and Charlie enjoyed every minute of it! As for this seasoned photographer, I went dressed for the job and worked quickly. It was splendid! Then we drove up into the mountains to get an over view of Paradise Valley.
Where to start this story? Let’s see, it was almost 39 years ago that I married the love of my life Heather Van Wessem in southern California. Life was exploding with excitement and the months passed quickly as we prepared to follow our dreams and move to Montana. Heather was nearly 9 months pregnant with our first child when I put her on a plane to Bozeman. I stayed over a few weeks to fulfill business obligations and pack the rest of our earthly possessions for my exodus. Push came to shove when I got a call late in the evening with news that Heather was showing early signs of labor. I scrambled to book an early morning flight and just before I left for LAX I got news that my first sweet daughter had been born. So I was in rare form on the flight, barely able to contain myself when people would say hello and notice that I was beaming!
So that was the beginning. The story continues… When we had married we received the wedding certificate signed by the Pastor and safely put it away. What we didn’t realize was that we should have gotten it certified or notarized in Las Virgenes before we left. Years went by quickly and the need to have a certified wedding license was forgotten. We had the paper and it was signed by the Pastor so we just thought we were all good.
Recently Heather was getting our paperwork together and when she pulled out the certificate as a form of ID, it was noted that it was not complete, and legally we were not married all these years.? yikes…
So, I came up with the idea to propose again and take all the steps to make this beautiful and solid. Heather was awash in joy and accepted. I suggested a simple little wedding with our adult daughters and their families and my dear sweet sister in law Marla.
We chose a place near our home where we have always played, ran & swam for all of these years.
So, why is this on my wedding blog? Simply because this is ‘our’ story. I have captured and shared so many other’s joyous stories and images for over 20 years of weddings that I have photographed. So now, I thought it time to share a bit of our story!
Thanks to my fine friend Carlie Breen for being our photographer and to my friend and officiant extraordinaire, Reverend Bradford Lartigue.
Enjoy the view!
We have always been married, just missed an important detail! Now once we get this piece of paper stamped we’ll be able to prove it!
In every walk of life, may your path be fruitful and solid! And… if you need photography, give me a call.
Photographs by the amazing Carlie Breen! Thank you Carlie, we love you.
Well this is just about as sweet as it gets!
With the recent threat of the closure of Yellowstone, I was not sure this surprise proposal in front of Old Faithful geyser was going to become a reality. And… as fate would have it, happily … the stars aligned, we all arrived at about the right time and the proposal was made and accepted!!! So, this sweet little child will be going to Mommy and Daddy’s wedding soon.
Pulling off this surprise was pretty tricky because the time between eruptions can and does fluctuate daily. So I got there at about 9 am and Old Faithful had erupted nearly 30 minutes early. That pretty much blew our initial plans of a 9:30 eruption and surprise proposal.
There was no way to contact Bob as it would blow the secret. So, I hung out until the next guesstimated eruption and everything fell into place.
Soooo… what a way to end the summer season of many happy surprise proposals in Yellowstone National Park! Enjoy the view!
And… as for me, I made some new friends and witnessed their love! And that is such a blessing.
Ryan contacted me in the early months of this year with his plan to make the long trip to Yellowstone National Park and propose marriage to Payton, the love of his life. When planning a day in Yellowstone in the first week of October, you never know what sort of weather you may get. At about 8000 feet above sea level, you may have 65 and sunny or, 15 degrees and snow. It’s a roll of the dice. As this date was coming up on the calendar I watched as the temperatures were dropping and precipitation was on it’s way sooner rather than later. Fortunately, the weather held!
I headed out before sunrise to get to our meeting place that looks directly into the face of Yellowstone falls. Everything went like clock work, the surprise was a great success and then we took a drive to several other of my favorite locations for photos.
Congratulation to this wonderful couple!
Enjoy the view!
Happy, happy, happy!
Jessica and Colton married at the gorgeous 320 Guest Ranch in Big Sky. It was a very private and wonderful wedding. It seemed that everywhere I looked, I found magic! I felt honored to be hired to photograph this beautiful wedding. They made me feel like family!
An Intimate wedding at Chico Hot Springs Resort
Mekenzie and Tyler married in the ‘Field of Dreams’ overlooking Paradise Valley on the beautiful Chico Hot Springs property. They were joined by their family and dear friends for this gorgeous wedding day. At the end of the evening we hustled to a high hillside to capture the show of light and color of Paradise Valley, that is like none other! Congratulations to Mekenzie and Tyler.
