Winner: Announced!

05.18.13 by René the latest & greatest

It is with great excitement, peace, and joy that I announce to you the winner of the 2013 Free Wedding Photography Giveway!

Congratulations are in order to:

Miss Heather Chapman and Tom Nydahl!

Cannot wait to share more about this couple and their story!  For now, Heather and Tom’s entry:

René,
You may or may not remember me (Heather). We met a little less than a year ago in Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory when you came in and ordered some truffles. You’ll be pleased to know I am still (obviously) stalking your blog:-)
I cannot get enough of your photos. It is so evident that you pour your whole heart into what you do, and with every post, I feel transported. I feel like I get to partake in each event, like these people are my best friends or family and I get to experience a little piece of their joy. There is emotion behind every shot! I can’t even imagine what those couples feel when they get to look back at those photos, and relive, so beautifully, the happiest days of their lives! I’m sure the joy is without comparison.
We are excited to press on into marriage, even on a time crunch, and I just had to take the chance and submit our story to you. We are paying for everything wedding ourselves, which is definitely daunting, but is letting us get creative and really make us prioritize what’s most important to us. On top of that list, for multiple reasons, are incredible photos.
I have 3 (out of 5) brothers who are Air Force pilots, so if/when my whole family is able to be together, it’s a big deal and those moments are precious (as I’m sure you are familiar!). There is a big back story to this, but my brothers will be the ones walking me down the aisle. One of them is currently in Afghanistan, and will be for while, and another is fresh off the plane from Afghanistan, and leaving for his next assignment in South Korea in a couple months. So if they are all able to be there for my wedding (praying praying praying), it’s something I want sweetly documented. Something I KNOW you’re wonderful at. Our wedding will be probably the only time that all of the people we love and value the most will be in one place at one time, and those are memories I want for forever.
Tom lost his job as a paramedic about a month ago, which while certainly difficult, has opened up other neat opportunities, like going back to school in the fall for his degree in Nursing, while I play sugar mama for a little while doing what I love as a massage therapist. Starting out our lives together as broke college students was certainly not what we had pictured, but is already proving to be better than we could have dreamed up on our own. We are both so excited, nervous, but totally confident in God’s perfect will for our lives.
So, do we deserve your wedding giveaway the most? Perhaps not, we are beyond blessed, and honestly don’t really deserve anything at all. But it would be such a treasure and HUGE blessing to have you as our photographer. To capture our beginning of forever. You have already touched my life in so many ways, letting me get to walk through life and see the Lord’s hand at work through your gift. You are a blessing, more than to just me, and much more than you probably ever realize!
Thank you for all that you do!
Many Blessings,
-Heather (and Tom)

Life in Pictures: Kitchen Makeover

05.17.13 by René personal

Life’s been a little extra busy the last couple of months with the purchase of a home!  My parents and I worked really hard at painting, adding baseboards, cleaning, fixing little odds and ends, trimming doors… the list goes on.

One thing that ate away at me was the kitchen. It was a space that  was dark.  I didn’t get excited to grind coffee in there or more importantly: to cook.  I wanted my kitchen to be a place where I felt at peace and excited to serve people.

So, before engagement and wedding season really kicked in a utilized a couple of my slower weeks to paint my cabinets!

I’ve been teasing you all on Facebook with Instagrams of pieces of the new office.  Still not quite ready to showcase that baby, but I am ready to show off my hard work on the kitchen.

This is by no means my dream kitchen.  In fact, I thought I was an espresso cabinet kind of girl.  Though I’m convinced it would be cheaper to wallpaper this place in hundred dollar bills than to redo it and get it up to my dream kitchen!  haha  It’s just a starter home, remember!  Eventually John and I will turn this place into a great rental property.  But I digress… Back to the kitchen.

With such a tight space, I knew I needed something light and bright to open it up.  So white it was.  I’ve also been on this teal blue kick.  I knew that I better take advantage of it now, because I know when John and I  marry he’ll never let me get this artsy and girly!

So here it is.  The product of my sweat and yes, even a few tears (have you TRIED hanging cabinet doors?!).

I give you my sorta-shabby-chic, 1950s-inspired, you-only-live-once, single-20-something-girl’s kitchen. :-)

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Still gotta deal with that awful light fixture.  Love the light it puts out.  But open to suggestions on replacements.

Featuring heavenly Fleur de Sel sea salt lotion from Williams-Sonoma.
And handmade sugar scrub from my friend Jen. :-)

One of my favorite Napa trips with our friends Kevin and Eryn.
A reminder to slow down and enjoy friends and sunshine.

The awesome utinsel holder was a gift from John’s mom from Anthropologie.  Loooooove it.
My fat baker’s cookie jar was my Nana’s.  Dad says she got this before WWII.

Ahhh!

*sigh* Much better.

Still need to get my herb planters to hang on the right side of that pretty mirror, which was a gift from my friend Sarah.

Apron hook and kitchen timer also from Anthropologie.

New dishes: Anthropologie.  Pulls: Martha Stewart, Home Depot

Knobs: Anthropologie

A few behind the scenes pictures from the iPhone

Cabinets were painted with Rustoleum Cabinet Transformations.  It was a piece of cake!  Loved this. I used Pure White.

Hinges were just spray painted with Rustoleum Metallic Spray Paint – Nickel

Knobs and pulls were installed by my awesome daddy. :-)

Colorado College: Karissa & Trent

05.16.13 by René engagements

Good morning and Happy Thursday!  Hope you’ve been enjoying this awesome weather, to include a little May moisture.

Today I’m excited to introduce you to Karissa and Trent and their lovable pups: Roger and Tucker.  We were originally schedule to shoot in April but rescheduled for May in order to, hopefully, capture a bit of this late spring.

We met at Colorado College where the grass was green, the dogs could run, and the light was bright and warm.   I’ve never met a couple who laughs as much as Karissa and Trent.  And not the nervous laughter.  They just laugh. :-) And it made photographing them a breeze. And a blast. :-)

These two took advantage of our Black Friday Special last November.  They’re getting married this November in the beautiful Dominican Republic.

Hope you enjoy this very sweet, mini-session!

xoxo,
René

Making Occasions

05.15.13 by René personal

The other night my friend Jason and I were driving home from an engagement shoot.  He’d been helping me as a second shooter. We were in this discussion about wine, which, let’s be honest, is where most of our discussions lie.

I confessed my problem of having too many special wines (good problem to have, right?) and not enough good reasons to open them.   It’s not that I don’t want to open them because because they cost more than your average tank of gas (if not two or three tanks), but because how each of those bottles came to be in my hands are all little miracles in themselves.  I feel like those bottles deserve a special occasion to make their entrance into my world again and to dance and wow us.

That’s what he gave me some really awesome advice.

“Sometimes you have to make occasion.”

He went on to explain that looked like… Opening pictures from that wine trip.  Calling the friend with whom you purchased that bottle and reliving stories. Etc. Etc.

What really threw me for a loop was the next day when my pastor in church gave the following example:

There was this couple about to be married at a destination wedding. Both collectors of rare and yummy wines.  Several days before their wedding, the wife came around the corner and saw her fiancé packaging up a box of wine.  When she realized he was shipping it to their wedding to be enjoyed at the reception, she asked, “Honey, aren’t we saving that wine for a special occasion?” 

Uh…..?

Sometimes we wait and wait and wait for the perfect occasion when really TODAY is the day at the Lord has made.  Not tomorrow.  He made today.

It’s like the inexperienced golfer at the driving range who hits ball after ball after ball and then when he gets the bottom of the bucket,  realizes “Oh shoot, I only have a couple of balls left, I better start getting my act together,” and starts to take his time hitting the remaining few.  Then there’s the experienced golfer who understands he only has a finite number of balls and he takes his time on every single one perfecting his form and stroke.

Something I’m learning right now is to take my time on each ball, on each experience… that’s even though that interaction with your neighbor or your mother-in-law may seem mundane why not give it a chance to be a memorable one?

Slow done.  And live your life.

Many of you know my sweetheart is assigned to an Air Force Base in New Mexico.
A few images from a recent visit where we leisurely enjoyed his quirky little town… :-)