Due Credit:

Planning & Coordination: Lisa Forbes, White Aspen Weddings
Hair & Makeup: White Carpet Bride
Floral: Beco Flowers
Ceremony: Redemptorist Church
Reception: The Guild
Cake: Nancy Stark
Dinner: Olive Events
Entertainment: Wonderfuzz
Stationery: East + West Designs
Getaway Car: Pech Limousine

Calm, present, content.

Put these three words together in any tense and in any order, and there’s my best description of Ryan, and Alex, and their wedding day.

Case, Sara, their families, and the ridiculous amount of hospitality we received made this one some kind of special.

We’ll look back on this weekend and this little nook in Austin quite fondly for some time to come.

Due credit:

Event Design, Stationery Design and Coordination: Lovestruck Events
Floral Design: Bouquet Omaha
Venue: Holland Performing Arts Center
Preparations: Hotel Deco
Hair and Makeup: Kontempo Bridal
Catering: Guckenheimer
Dessert: The Confectionist
Ice Cream: Ted & Wally’s
Ceremony Music: Mahr Quartet
DJ: Brent Crampton
Rentals: AAA Rents & Event Services
Draping, Lighting, and Custom Builds: Ideal Wedding & Events
Calligraphy: Miranda Writes
Rachel's Gown: Rhylan Lang

Gratitude.

Each year at some point not too far in front of or behind January 1, I find some time to sift back through the preceding twelve months worth of photographs. It’s one of my favorite things to do. Brought to the front are quite a few feelings that otherwise have fallen through the cracks into the proverbial catch-all drawer in my head. You know the one – the same place where all the unmemorable day-to-day back-and-forth gets filed and ultimately disappears into.

Truth be told, oftentimes the busyness of life and work nudge me just far enough to consider my work just that, and only that. But then, January rolls around. And thank God for January.

January always leaves me struck with gratitude. And not just the kind of gratitude that makes me glad to have such an occupation, but the kind of gratitude that makes me happy to be alive, and to think long and hard about the meaning of that, even beyond the photographs in front of me and the idea of the preservation of important memories.

I’m ultimately reminded around this time of year that I’m a witness to and a participant in some paramountly good times. Times that are nothing if not worthy of being remembered and relived. Times that your kids’ kids will talk about. Times that, when compounded together and looked back upon, make us all – as humans who get some level of satisfaction out of a good story – well up and close our eyes and sit back and grin and feel.

So you, reader, whoever you are – thank you. You’ve unequivocally got my gratitude. I’m certain that you’re here because we've worked alongside each other in some capacity, and I for dang sure wouldn’t be afforded such gratitude if it weren’t for you.

Here are a select few frames from the past twelve months.

This past winter in Kansas City was brutal. Possibly the brutal-est, actually… so spring was a more-than-welcome sight for us. And, as luck had it, the early stages of such coincided just perfectly with Wes and Jaclyn’s portrait plans. Flower buds popped, the sun shone, and the temperatures rose to an ideal point, all for the first time in what seemed like years. It was one of those evenings that had us lifting all the praise hands and smiling from ear to ear.

Wes and Jaclyn: thanks for your trust here; thanks for being downright great to be around; and thanks for pulling those strings with mother nature. :)

(Wes and Jaclyn will be wedded this coming autumn at Parkville’s Hawthorne House. We’re pumped all the way around for that.)

This was one of the best weddings I’ve ever been a part of.

It was in the middle of Jackson Hole, Wyoming; both Trey and Andrea got ready for the day at the foot of the ski slopes in Teton Village. Their ceremony took place at Rendezvous Lodge… 10,000 ft. in the sky, overlooking miles and miles of mountains and valleys. They ended the night with sparklers AND a gondola ride back down the mountain, and it was truly a dance party for the ages. There’s proof of all those things below.

And while all of those particulars are great (and made my job quite easy, admittedly), none of them were significant in making this wedding — and the process leading up to such — what it was to me. And that’s because Trey and Andrea, and their families, and those in their wedding party, are the best. And I mean the dang best. It was a heck of a fun day. And, my wife Lizzie was able to travel along on this one and help out — you’ll see a handful of Blancbooth portraits down toward the bottom here that she commandeered.

Trey, Andrea: thanks a million. For loving Lawrence; for sharing an affinity for great bakeries and coffee joints; for being the kindest and most hospitable; for trusting. You’re the best.

Due credit:

Planning: Andrea Geubelle
Preparations: Caldera House
HMU: Kelly Rene, Sadie Rucker
Bridal floral: Flowers by Chloe
Ceremony & Reception: Rendezvous Lodge, Teton Village
Dessert: Buttercream Design
Film: Baysinger Films
Emcee and entertainment: Jackson Hole DJ
Signage & Decor: MatriArt

Planning for an autumn wedding in the midwest: trying a year ahead of time to pinpoint the perfect two- or three-week stretch so as to take advantage of perfect weather and seasonal colors, all while evading potential 90-degree temperatures on one end and snow on the other. Quite a conundrum, it can be.

But Bennet and Hilary nailed it. Colors were at their peak and while rain showers rolled in that evening, daytime weather was ideal. Oh, and they chose to wrap the evening with a waffle bar, sooo…

Due credit:
Hilary’s Dress: Ricca Sposa
Hair: Flock Salon and Gallery
Makeup: Jared Covert
Ceremony Venue: St. Paul’s Episcopal Church
Paper Suite: Ruff House Art
Floral: Bergamot and Ivy Design
Reception Venue and Dinner: Carriage Club
Cake: Nancy Stark
DJ and Emcee: DJ Carl G, Fernando Productions
Portraits: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art