We were having a conversation the other day about the most popular “forgotten items” on wedding day.  Now, I’m sure we’ll be coming up with more and adding them to the list, but two of the most popular things we’ve seen over the years are: 

 1. Black socks for one of the men - groom or otherwise.  I think the reason is that if guys don’t get ready prior to arrival, they think their tux bag has EVERYTHING in it, and it does… except the socks.  Some tux services are now offering socks, but it sure seems to be a popular item gone missing on wedding day.

 2. Another is fire in the form of matches or lighter.  When it comes to candle-lighting time, there can be 1000 people around and it never fails that nobody has a lighter or matches to light that fancy candle-lighting wand that the groomsmen use to light the alter candles and/or the mothers lighting the unity candle.

 So… if you’re going to pack a few extra things for wedding day, toss those in there.  If they’re not needed, no loss, but if they are, oh, the stress you’ll save.  I’m sure there will be more to follow.

-shaun larson

We were fortunate to have some family come in this weekend for a visit, and around here… that means a camera is not far behind.  Just within a 30-hour visit, there were plenty of activities during what was an awesome weekend in Tennessee.

 -shaun larson

Below: Among all the on-the-fly candid images from the weekend, we actually did squeeze in a few spontaneous portaits of this pair.  Sometimes these moments just “appear” and you’ve got to be ready.

Below:  This may be appear to be just a regular photo on the surface, but the story behind it is that during our Christmas holiday of 2005, Rebekah’s (my wife) mom unexpectedly passed away on Christmas Eve just before she was to see all the family returning for the holidays.  Needless to say, that was a very tough holiday season with a long road of memories since.  The photo below is Rebekah and her brother sorting a few special items that her mom left behind.  On-looking of the activity is Rebekah’s brother’s daughter who only got to know her grandmother for a few years.  I think this up-coming holiday season will also be a difficult one.

Below:  On to happier times, it was time to celebrate our nephew’s third birthday and it was tough holding back the crowd from the iced cup-cakes.

Below:  Oh, and if anyone wants to know where 1/2 of Franklin was on Saturday…. they were at the pumpkin patch!  That place was crazy busy, but of course we were contributing to that.  Whether we were adding to the busy or the crazy depends on who you ask!   Of course a quick shot of our visitors was in order.

I was fortunate enough to be introduced to the Ray family several years ago when when we were hired to cover Ashley Ray’s wedding.  Since that time, we’ve only become better friends with the Ray family and what a delight they all are.  So…. we were absolutely THRILLED when we were asked to photograph the wedding of Emily and Jonas coming up in the summer of 2007.  And what a hot couple they are!  They look absolutley great together and today they proved it in front of the camera during an engagement session.  We were fortunate to have a variety of locations including the residence of Glen and Cindy - family friends of Jonas’ - who generously offered us an opportunity to shoot on their property.  We like our sessions to be relaxed, so this atmosphere was a PERFECT match.  We had a wonderful afternoon of shooting and we cannot wait until the bridal session and then the wedding!  Thanks for the great afternoon, Emily and Jonas!

-shaun larson

After today’s wedding, about all I could wish for is to do it all again next weekend because I think today was about as near of a perfect wedding as they get.  As photographers, we always monitor the weather and are SO thankful when we get great days like today (which is probably why we comment on the weather so much).  There was a nip in the air, but oh, was it crystal clear.  The wedding and reception were both at Cheekwood and Andrea & Jeff selected to use Wills Garden for their ceremony and the Frist Learning Center for their reception which they reserved long long ago because they were awesome planners.  They planned well in the photography department as well and booked us 14 months in advance which was a great stress-saver!  Planning like that is a sure indicator of such a perfect wedding as today’s.  Cheekwood, of course offers beautiful surroundings, but those were complimented with the work of Sarah & Josh Timm of Stems by Sarah.  As is our normal style of shooting, we blended some formals with our photojournalistic shooting.  We began the day with documenting the wedding preparation details.  Because Andrea & Jeff opted to see each other before the wedding, we accomplished all the necessary formals before the wedding which allowed all the family to immediately accompany the guests to the reception area.  With the ceremony complete and the guests enjoying a cocktal time, Andrea, Jeff, and myself took just a few moments after the ceremony to pick up a few special images of them in the incredible fall light.  After Andrea & Jeff were announced, guests proceeded into the Frist building where the cake-cutting was followed by a group photograph made of all the guests present.  Blair Saldan of Nashville Party Authority did his regular great job of announcing and provided the jammin’ music for all the dancing.  As our day with Andrea & Jeff drew to an end, the chill had dropped into the 40’s but that didn’t dampen the excitement all the guests had for the newlyweds.  Congratulations, Andrea & Jeff!

-shaun larson