Vote for Photo Divine to win a $250,000 grant...

You know you love us!!!

Empowering photo shoots designed to encourage positive body image.

Niki and John ~ Durango Engagement Shoot

Turns out I went to college with Niki and John! They were in the forestry department at NAU and I was in the parks and rec department (same building). We overlapped maybe a year or so of school, so I have no doubt that we passed each other in the hallways. I love small world connections almost more than wine with lunch; doesn't happen all the time, but it is awesome when it does! :)

The other thing I love is how much John enjoyed this shoot. He got to kiss his beautiful bride-to-be over and over and over again! How sweet is that! Kyla and I cannot wait until their wedding in September. It is impossible to find a kinder, more laid back couple with great style, cleaver ideas and a badass dog with a mustache!

Thanks Niki and John! Looking forward to seeing you soon!

 

Aly and Chase

This is the most fun wedding blog that we have ever posted! We finally decided, "who wants to hear what we have to say?" We want to hear all the juicy details from the source!!! So we asked Aly to answer a few questions for us and this is what she wrote. LOVE HER! And Chase, too, of course. 

What words, images, or feelings cross your mind when you think of your wedding day? 

Family, love and celebration. We love to celebrate as you saw! It was great to have our friends and family come together and get a taste of Durango, a place we love so much and where our relationship really grew. 

Your favorite moment?  

Walking out with my dad towards the aisle, as he held my hand so tightly, we stopped for a moment to look at our friends and family and I felt a very strong energy  from all of them which calmed my nerves. I then  remember giving Chase a wink when I made my entrance to sort of  say "ya babe we got this!" 

Best thing about planning such a beautiful wedding? 

Planning the wedding with my mother. She worked so hard over the year to make sure everything I visualized came to life. It brought us even closer and when I saw her on my wedding day in her beautiful dress it made me cry, I think I told her she looked like a beautiful ballerina, thank you MOM. 

Most stressful thing about planning such a beautiful wedding?  

Putting all your trust into other people to create exactly what we wanted. I have a degree in art so sometimes I visualize things in a different way than others but I am happy to say  that the wedding came out even better than what we visualized and it is because we hand picked the very best vendors from the planner, to the florist to photographer and caterer. 

After seeing a few of your wedding images, can you describe how you felt?  

I felt overwhelmed with love and emotion. I have been with Chase for 10 years but the way I felt before I walked out was like it was our first date all over again. Seeing the emotion on my husbands face and the joy in his eyes through the beautiful photos made all the stress well worth it. I wish we could do it all over again in slow motion, but thankfully we have the photos to remind us of all the details and love that was present at Blue Lake Ranch that day. 

Details of anything that you can think of .... 

dress ~ my dress and crystal belt were both by Lian Carlo, a Cuban designer  based out of Miami (which was a shout out to my Cuban roots), I made it my own by adding the crystal buttons down the back, the sweetheart neckline and the custom veil. I love that it was elegant but had a sassy sexy Latin feel.  My sister said it looked like I was walking on a white cloud.

veil ~ Lian Carlo as well, we took a piece of the french tulle from my dress and added it to the bottom of the veil, it made the veil and dress just perfectly flow together. shoes ~ Badgley Mischka silver sparkly heels. They were fun and had an attitude to them, totally my style.

invitations ~ the invitations were printed on vintage handkerchiefs from a place called Lucky Luxe. I loved the southern and romantic feel they had and we wanted to give people something they would keep for a long time. Most everyone got a different variation of hankys and the groomsmen, our dads and most of the male guests wore them  in their jackets as pocket squares to the wedding.

save-the-dates ~ the save the dates were custom made in Austin Texas by Inviting Affairs. They were made to look like a ticket to a festival and had our wedding reception site drawn on them with the La Plata Mountains in the background, music notes and our dog Sierra. It was a nod to our love for music and the mountains. 

Wedding details ~ I wanted to keep everything fresh looking, so the colors were mostly white and shades of greens. All of our flowers were white with succulents, the succulents were grown locally. My mother and my aunts spent the last year collecting vintage plates for the dinner and I had rented beer barrels for the entrance to the aisle way, at the arbor and for our cake table, the barrels were a surprise to my husband and a nod to his profession as head brewmaster for Aspen Brewing Co. We also had cans and kegs of his handmade craft beer that we brought up from Aspen.

Food ~ our food was all upscale southern, from the Yellow Carrot. We are from Texas so we wanted comfort food which included fried green tomato salad, shrimp and grits, short ribs and pickled watermelon. The food looked so beautiful on our vintage plates.

Chase and Aly, you are our more-than-ideal couple! We loved working with you from day one (which was kinda crazy since we sorta spaced our first meeting! With a good, yet inexcusable reason of course), to the awesome expensive ;) Champagne engagement shoot, to your extravagant wedding day and dancing the night away with your FANTASTIC friends and family. We love you guys and hope that we stay friends for life.

Local Vendors:
Venue ~ Blue Lake Ranch/Ridgewood Event Center 
Flowers ~ Blossom 
Wedding Planner ~ Celebrations 
Catering ~ The Yellow Carrot 
Cake ~ Sweet Treats by Morgan
Beer ~ Ska Brewing
           Aspen Brewing Company
Band ~ Durango Orquestra de Salsa