wedding #2

Another beautiful wedding I got to shoot.  The groom is the son of the couple we work with at Casa G. and his now wife is from Ecuador.  They met at Alliance, the school the kids go to.  She could be one of the most wonderful people ever.  They are a great couple and I loved getting to know them both through their wedding planning and the actual wedding day.

The bride had hair and make up people for her, all the bridesmaids and the mothers.  I was quite a remarkable thing having all these people come to the brides house equipped with everything you could possibly dream of to make someone up.  

I was quite fascinated with their eyelash curler - a spoon!  Each of them had a spoon in their apron of brushes and things.  They were all laughing at how enthralled I was with their lash-curling technique!

Quito had been having weeks of perfect weather but sure enough, the day of the wedding, it rained.  Actually, it hailed!  The two dogs were sent outside so as not to disturb the beautification process - then they were forgotten until they were sopping wet, pathetic puppies.

After almost an hour and a half over our time to be at the ceremony, we finally we about to leave.  That is when I saw this car!  I wish I had known about it before - it was a beautiful old Mercedes.  I pretty much insisted that we had to take at least a few minutes for some photos - we were already very late, so why not just add a little more.  The car was too perfect not to take advantage of it.  Unfortunately the whole thing was much more rushed than I would have liked (and I had to start before all the bridesmaids and the bride were ready!)

We made it to the wedding location and everyone was waiting.  Of course, we still didn't start right away, though.

Due to some lack of communication between the couple and the parents, there was another photographer hired for the event as well.  I won't go into the difficulties of this situation but I'll just say that I didn't photograph the ceremony at all.  Really, that part was fine.  I just snuck around and took pictures of the reception area and all that good stuff.

I also had to fight for some time to take pictures of the couple - but I didn't fight very hard.  I finally resigned myself to just do what I could and make sure I didn't get in the other guy's way.  While not what I hoped for, I was happy with some of the shots I got.

The couple had a ring bearer that they didn't know.  He was absolutely precious but wanted nothing to do with the photos.  He would not sit anywhere near the bride or groom for the photos, and even during the whole bridal party photos, he sat as far off as possible.  It was pretty hilarious.

The reception was beautiful.  Actually, is was more like stunning, amazing, breath taking.....

You'll notice some of the photos have a blue or purplish cast to them.... sounds weird but it really was pretty.  I took them and left them that way to represent how the place actually looked.  

The meal was five courses and each one was beautiful.  My favorite was the palette cleanser - a granita served on a ice block that had flowers frozen into it.

The next one isn't a very typical wedding photo, but I was inspired by the guitar on its stand.

Two of the same make up and hair people that were there in the morning were also posted in the women's rest room the entire evening.  Anyone could go into the bathroom and have their hair or make up fixed (or done!) at any point.  If you were too hot from dancing, you could go into the ladies room and they would put your sweaty hair up in some fancy do.

While the wedding was rather overwhelming in how fancy and beautiful it was, the best part was definitely the people.  So many great people were there and both of the families (bride's and groom's) are so wonderful.  It was an amazing celebration.

wedding #1

I thought it was about time I blogged about some of this summer's weddings.  So far I have photographed the three that were booked a while ago and I have one wedding left this summer - one that was booked after I shot this wedding.  I'm pretty excited about how God has been blessing this venture and in turn blessing the ministry of Casa Gabriel financially.  While the rates you can charge here fora wedding are a fraction of what is charged in North America, it is still great for Casa G to have some income with how financially strapped things are.

This wedding, creatively named "wedding #1", was the wedding of Lucy's first grade teacher and the elementary P.E. teacher at the kids' school.  They are both wonderful people and it was so fun to be a part of their wedding. 

The bride invited all of her first grade students to be flower girls and their escorts.  It was so sweet.  Many of the kids couldn't make it but those who could were obviously thrilled to take part in the festivities.  Thankfully they could just wear whatever they wanted - you can see Lucy below in the turquoise, brown and pink floral dress.

After the ceremony it was time for pictures, of course!  I thought I had this great idea for a picture with the kids and the couple.  Turned out it was a lousy idea - only because the kids were completely and utterly uncooperative.  I wanted them to run around the couple throwing flower petals up in the air.  The plan was for the photo to capture the couple clearly and have the kids and the flower petals in a cool looking blur around them.  The kids, however, didn't do a whole lot of running around and instead of throwing the petals in the air, they kept pelting the bride and groom.  After gently admonishing them several times, I finally gave up.  Oh well, it was cute in my mind.....

The bride and groom really planned well for the kids.  They rented a bounce house/slide for the kids and they had their own meal of pizza and soda.  While there, we stole the couple away to give them their gift from the bride's first grade class.

I had all the kids draw a picture of either their teacher or the couple - how they thought they would look on their wedding day.   Then I copied the photos onto fabric and made a quilt with each of their pictures as one of the blocks.  The center is a picture I took of their class with all the kids' names listed.

The kids were very proud of their quilt and I'm pretty sure the bride and groom loved it.

The wedding was beautiful.  Gorgeous - huge - flowers arrangements.  Everything was done so nicely. We'll just let the photos speak for themselves (at least for a little while).

Just before sunset the couple had everyone send off paper lanterns.  It looked beautiful having all the lanterns float up into the sky (while they tried to coordinate it, the lanterns didn't cooperate, so only one or two went up at the same time - is was more of a sprinkle than a shower of light, but pretty none-the-less).

This picture isn't the greatest, but place where the wedding was had a few peacocks roaming around.  Close to the end of the event, I spotted this little beauty.  An albino peacock.  It wasn't very friendly and was quite camera shy, but I managed to get two shots of it.  Incredibly beautiful bird.

The groom had pretty cool cufflinks.  One had a map of New York, where she is from and the other, a map of Ecuador - where he is from.

This is one of my favorite pictures that I took.  While I had hoped to capture her a little more in focus (she's close but not quite!), I love the movement of it.

Yes, her eyes really are that beautiful!

The night finished with fireworks.  It was a great day right from the beginning and they did so many fun things to make their day memorable.

kids

Time and time again this summer I have written blog posts in my head, never to get them down on "paper" - or on the blog, that is.  I've been rather ridiculous.  But there are a few things that I just need to scribble down for posterity sake.  Or because I am just finally doing it.

Last Sunday we were walking home from church when I asked Eric "Are you tape recording the diving?" - referring to the olympics.  All the kids looked at me like I was a crazy person and then the mockery commenced.  As I wrote on Facebook, it would have been more subtle if I had stamped "child of the 80s" across my forehead.  Even Eric mocked me because I said "tape record" instead of just "tape" - pointing out my Canadian-ness.
Brother....

Another comical situation.  Lucy was playing in our room one afternoon.  She came running up to Eric in the family room saying "the black cat is in the back yard, the black cat is in the back yard".  Eric just sort of looks at her like "yah, so?".  So Lucy puts on her most sincere face and says "Daddy, can you please go kick it?"
Yes, the black cat is not a friend of ours and it has been kicked once or twice before as Eric has tried to defend our fortress and its contents.

And finally, recently you can often find Cade washing dishes.  The reason is this:

A mere $400 here in Ecuador - thankfully much lower on amazon.com: $76.56. 

He is trying to earn as much money as possible.  It is rather hilarious how often he goes to the sink in search of something to wash.  He is not quite as keen on cleaning his room and making his bed for the money - but he is willing (the kids are required to clean their room and do chores.....but if they make their beds, clean their rooms and do chores without us needing to ask them or with good attitudes when we do ask, they can earn some allowance).  We should have a more tidy place - at least until the purchase is acquired.

I'm not about to tell him about this:

Almost $400 on amazon, and probably over $1000 if they had it here!

we went to a waterfall!

Hi, it's Lucy blogging again!

A little while ago Daddy and I went to Otavalo to see a waterfall.

This is me behind the waterfall and it sprinkled all over our faces and clothes.  We had two picnics there by the waterfall.

Here is the waterfall very close up.  We were on a little balcony house-thingy.

Here is me where the trees and bushes are when we were walking to the waterfall.  We were walking beside the river when we were going to see the waterfall.

There is the waterfall with a log in front of it when we took a picture of the waterfall by itself.

There is daddy behind the waterfall on the balcony.

We went to a hotel and in the night we saw a very very beautiful city.  Some parts were glowing.  I watched a movie at the hotel and had some cookies.  And in the morning we went to the waterfall again and we had another picnic with pringles.

The End.