Archive for the ‘Wedding Photography’ Category

Roller Derby Wedding!

May 14, 2009

So remember back in March when I spent a night at the roller derby and thought it was the coolest thing ever? Yeah, that experience got topped. Because last weekend, not only did I attend the championship of the North Star Roller Girls, I got to witness and help photograph a derby wedding. Say what?

Below is the lovely wedding couple whose post-wedding names are Cookie and Fadam Strange. They got married at the half-time of the Championship bout at the Minneapolis Convention Center.  Prior to that, we met at St. Anthony Main to do some portraits because really, could they be more fun looking? Both hairstyles are courtesy of Cookie.

The first look…

bride and groom at St. Anthony Main

bride and groom at st anthony main

Photo booth fun at Nye’s Polonaise.

Bride and Groom at Nye's PhotoBooth

What else would a derby wedding cake look like? Hand-crafted by roller girl Becky HomeWrecky. (If you need your own awesome cake, you can contact Becky HomeWrecky (Karna Hudoba) at karnaann(at)msn.com.)

skull wedding cake

wedding party in ticket booth at minneapolis convention center

All the roller girls served as bridesmaids at the wedding. And you’ve never seen a finer looking bunch, let me tell you.

North Star Roller Girls in birdesmaid dresses

North Star Roller Girls in bridesmaid dresses

The ceremony was performed by Kili St. Cyr and that stunningly dressed ring-bearer on the left is announcer Grizzly Madden. You might wonder how Mom would feel about a roller derby wedding. Take a closer peek at Mom’s outfit…that bit of red poking out is her Violent Femme’s uniform.

roller derby wedding

roller derby wedding

First dance to Foreigner’s I Want To Know What Love Is…

dancing at roller derby wedding

bride and groom dancing at roller derby wedding

You might not think a derby wedding would be all that sentimental but there were some teary eyes as the couple danced the bridesmaids sang and waved their arms. In reality, as crazy and different as it was, it was really everything a wedding should be – fun, meaningful and full of friends. I was honored to witness it.

bride and groom dance at roller derby wedding

bride and groom dance at roller derby wedding

And then back to business!

North Star Roller Girls

North Star Roller Girls

North Star Roller Girls

North Star Roller Girls

You can also see the whole wedding party portrait, taken by Preflash Gordon.

Jennifer Chaney: This is the craziest wedding I've EVER seen! Awesome job, Mandy. Makes me wish I had been there!

stalker: i *love* your photos! thanks so much for being there to help out! can't wait to see more of you next year...

Rachel: Mk, These are outrageous! Awesome captures. You rock.

Vanessa Lam: These are so COOL!!!! You did an amazing job Mandy. This has got to be the most original wedding I've ever seen. Love it!!!

cassie: Great colors! Looks like a very fun day!!!

Kellie: These are really great...

Candy: SWEET! love. them. all.

Orange Ruffy: Mk, thank you so much, these are great pictures. you made this Momma really happy. Cookie couldn't be happier with how the whole day turned out and now she has these great photos to remember it. I can't wait till her kids want to get married and I get to pull these out!!!!

Maria Hays: So super cool. I bet it was such a blast shooting this, and your pictures rock!

Megan: These are so cool and unique, I LOVE them!

Laurie K.: Wow, I have never seen anything like this. I love all the vibrant colors!

gwendolyn waite: coolest. wedding. ever. you rocked the photos.

Buglady: I want to get married again so you can photograph it !!!!

Deirdre: I have to know what you are shooting with and how you shot this because..... they are all BRILLIANT! You are such an amazing photographer!

Preflash Gordon: I just *knew* from the word go you would do brilliantly on this day, and looking at these shots MK I'm absolutely bouncing up and down. One after another after another of this is absolutely AWESOME. Wedding and derby shots both! You really have made a HUGE contribution to the day and I hope (like Stalker says) you'll be around the North Star Roller Girls for a good long time to come. :-)

mickeydismantle: Thanks for coming back for more! Beautiful pictures. The b&w in front of the ticket booths is my favorite.

Libby Doe: WOW! Beautiful pictures. I can only imagine that this couple would have a life filled with happiness. Imagine how cool it would be to be a child in a house hold that enjoys life so much! Congrats to the happy couple, and to the derby mother in law that just adopted a pretty cool looking son for her beautiful daughter! THanks for sharing these pictures, Derby luv- Libby Doe Fox Cityz Foxz Appleton, WI

Emily: That looks like such a fun wedding! I hope you didn't have to put yourself in harm's way to catch any of those action shots!

Colette: This has got to be one of the coolest weddings I've seen. I love how the couple did the wedding 'their' way and didn't succumb to what society wants/says. You did a great job of showing how they obviously feel about each other :)

Betsy: This looks like such an original & honest idea for a wedding - and you captured it just beautifully! I especially love the ticket booth photos. Awesome, Mandy!!

misty: Looks like tons of fun! Great job!

juliek: This looks like quite an adventure. Great expressive faces. I enjoyed the pix Your Auntie Julie

kendi: cool!

Lindsay: Oh my gosh MK.....how fantastic are these?!? How much fun! I normally hate shooting weddings but this would have been an absolute blast!!! Fab job!

Cara: You rock! And so does this bride and groom. Love how you captured *their* day and how special & unique it was. You're so dang talented!

Lexx: Those are my two best friends!! :) Uggh, they are so cute together. You did a great job on their wedding! Thanks!

sally oakley: wow, i love it!!!! great pictures! makes ME wish i'd been there, too.

Erica: These pictures are awesome! My husband is a ref and I play roller derby. We got married in Vegas(because I was pregnant, and insurance and legal reasons) but when we have the "real" ceremony I want to do something like this... too bad I have this ugly post-baby body now!

SheNaNigans: This is the coolest thing ever! Thanks so much for catching that and sharing with us!

A Year in Photos

December 25, 2008

I’m really a fan of this whole “going green” movement. I mean, partly because I care about the environment and all that stuff, but mainly because it’s given a more positive term to so many things I’ve already been doing.

In previous years, when we saved and reused and re-reused wrapping paper, we were “cheap.” Now we are “green.” In previous years, when I didn’t send out Christmas cards, I was “lazy.” Now I am “green.” So I present my Christmas card/newsletter detailing what I’ve been up to this year – in an entirely visual format. Greenly. Take a peek, you might see someone you recognize. :)

Bernard Shuford: Sorry to be stupid and out of touch, but who's the singer? Love the song.

So back in Miss Ellie’s entry, I mentioned that my cousin was in town for a wedding and I’m finally getting to the “more on that later” now. My cousin A.J. married his beautiful fiancée Tara a few weeks ago in downtown Minneapolis. The wedding and the reception were both held on the 50th floor of the IDS Tower in Windows on Minnesota which provides an amazing view of the city.

The wedding itself was gorgeous too and I loved the fall colors they used. I was also lucky enough to be assisted by my good friend and posing expert Jeannette of Wild Curl Photography.We get together frequently to edit photos (and sometimes goof around, don’t tell) but we haven’t worked together since our spring trip to The Homestead so it was fun to get another chance!

A handful of images from the event:

(Hey, if you were the one who stuck your finger in the cake before they even cut it…what the heck? :P )

wild one: These are beautiful! You rock!!!

Tara & AJ: These are fantastic! Thank you so much for working hard to capture the moments of our wedding. We can't wait to see more!

Mat: An amazing set. I'm sure the B&G will love them.

Onsite Minnesota Photography, Minneapolis: I love the black and whites! Great work!

Langdon is one of the creators of DPChallenge.com, a digital photography site where, over the past few years, I’ve spent waaay too much of my time. That’s how we originally connected. This past weekend, I flew in to Norfolk to photograph his wedding to his lovely fiance, Sharon. They’re in Aruba now and I know they are anxious to see a few of their photos. Having had multiple cups of hot chocolate and sitting near a space heater for the past two days in an attempt to get warm, I’m not entirely sympathetic to their Caribbean desires but they’re good people so I’ll post up a few anyway. ;)

Candy: Great moments captured Mandy!! I LOVE the one of Sharon and the bridesmaids! ;) How was Virginia?

Betsy: Mandy, these are stunning!

Sharon and Langdon: They look great! Thank you so much! And we do need your sympathy, because the first three days of our honeymoon were plagued by hurricane Omar!

Drew: Mandy, these are quite lovely. Great job. Nice to meet you this past weekend, too!

Ben Dodds: MK- I love the 1st photo. She looks so so happy! And her dad looks like he's thinking to himself...."Langdon don't let me down buddy!" You captured some great emotion.

L1: Awesomely awesome...beautiful, elegant, and classy. Just like you! :)

Last Saturday, I had the opportunity to shoot a wedding at the Semple Mansion with Daniel Snow. The Mansion is a beautiful location and the wedding was beautiful as well. I wanted to share a few quick shots while I’m in between editing sessions!

tara bjerke: What a gorgeous location! (and fab photography too!)

Betsy: Breath-taking, Mandy!

Just a few quick images for tonight. I had the opportunity to shoot a wedding with Scott Bolster a few weeks ago, down in Winona. The weather threatened rain on and off on my drive down there and this is what it looked like when I arrived.

But the weather cleared up and we were able to get some great portraits.

Across the street was a great old house (tudor style I think? I don’t know my house styles very well) that was covered in ivy and had a yard full of beautiful trees so we “snuck” over there (turns out one of the groomsmen knew the people who lived there and was able to call and get permission) to do some storybook portraits.

It did start to rain shortly after that so we spent some time waiting it out under the tent but it cleared up nicely in time for Dad to walk the bride down the aisle.

I had a great time shooting with Scott (who kindly took a tentroof full of water for me) and his beautiful assistant (and wife). Unfortunately, the circumstances that brought me there weren’t so ideal. Scott was originally to be accompanied by Julie Steiskal, an accomplished local photographer and dear friend to many. Sadly, Julie lost her life several days prior when trying to pull a younger girl from the Temperance River. Just a quick Google search of her name shows the number of lives she touched in her short time and the positive ways in which she’ll be remembered.

From her website…

“we need a renaissance of wonder. we need to renew, in our hearts & in our souls, the deathless dream, the eternal poetry, the perennial sense that life is miracle & magic.”
e. merrill root

L1: Such a lovely bride and scenery to match. Although the circumstances that brought you there were tragic, your pictures are stunning! I'm so sorry to hear about the loss of the other photographer. The dramatic skies were probably making the bride a bit ca-razy before the big moment...but they sure do look cool!

Jennifer: Oh such a sad reason to be there - beautiful beautiful photographs but so sad too. The bride and groom look so happy!