I’ve gotten so many questions about our first international wedding assignment that I figured it was about time I get caught up with the blogging and start by introducing y’all to April + Michael’s recent St Lucia wedding. Since you have had to wait for these posts so long, I’ve made them all especially image-heavy with about 30+ photos per post

I always love starting the day with the bride and letting Charles hang out with the groom - my favorite part is looking through his images and sharing mine with him - showing each other what we missed. I can only imagine how the clients feel having this time documented - it all goes back to helping “tell the story” of the day…

I started with April at the spa:

Charles worked with Michael while I was at the spa:

When April was finished at the spa, we headed up to the room that Michael and Charles were in:

Michael surprised April with a secondary wedding band to complete her ring set:

April was so happy. Michael did good. The embrace:

The long walk down the aisle:

Something about this… I just love him looking at her. A stolen glance:

I’m sure y’all get sick of me saying this - but I swear, they really were glowing:

Just Married:

I love this candid moment of the couple walking toward their reception - I almost missed this shot!:

Reception (part 1) under the gazebo:

First dance as husband and wife:

They treated their guests to a private sunset cruise following their Sandals reception:

Doesn’t April make the most perfect island bride?:

I really like this quiet moment of Michael’s parents watching the sunset at the front of the boat… I wish I had a shot like this of my folks:

One of the last shots I took before getting incredibly seasick! Charles had to finish out the cruise solo:

During the last week of November, Meg & I had an amazing opportunity to travel to the island nation of Saint Lucia. For those of you that are completely clueless about world geography like me (or clueless about geography in general like Meg!), St. Lucia is located just off the coast of South Amercia (near Brazil). April & Michael (you’ll meet them in the next post) asked us to travel with them to St. Lucia to photograph their destination wedding experience! And what an amazing experience it was!

We arrived in St. Lucia on Monday afternoon, and after a 2.5 hour white-knuckle cab ride to Rodney Bay (on the north end of the island), we finally arrived at our hotel called the Coco Palm: Coco Palm Resort. Although Saint Lucia is an incredibly small island (something like 25 miles long, and only 4 miles wide), the cab ride still took well over 2 hours due to the mountains, and the fact that a very small percentage of the roads are paved.

Below are some of the images from our day trip around Saint Lucia!

This is a shot of the world-famous Marigot Bay in Saint Lucia. Marigot Bay was made famous by the movie Dr. Doolittle, which was filmed in Saint Lucia.

This image shows the Piton Mountains in the background…the country produces a local beer named “Piton Beer”!

The next few images were taken in a tiny fishing village called Anse Le Raye. The people depend on the ocean for food, and the local economy is driven by the conch trade.

Being the gullible tourists that we are, we also decided to visit all of the landmarks on the island. One such opportunity was the Botanical Garden in Soufriere (along the western coast of Saint Lucia). The next three images were taken in the Botanical Garden!

Another surreal experience was meeting the “Boa Man”! A common profession in Saint Lucia is for the local people to wander into the rainforests that cover the island, and collect boa constrictors from the wild. They carry them back to the major roads traveled by tourists, and stand along the side of the highway working for tips. This guy was nice enough to allow us to photograph him! Meg wanted absolutely no part of this one, and waited in the car!!! I am deathly afraid of snakes, but I decided to brave it. After all, you can’t photograph snakes by the side of the road everyday!

April & Michael were staying at the Grand Saint Lucian Resort, part of the Sandals family, in Saint Lucia. This image was taken from a small rock jetty just down the beach from the resort. You can just make out the resort (the flag poles) in the background.

Stay tuned for the images from April & Michael’s wedding!
~ Charles

I’m writing remotely tonight via the laptop - so I apologize in advance for any typos!

We’re in St Augustine, FL right now taking a little time to enjoy the city before our wedding here on Saturday - more on that soon! We shot an engagement session with Jackie + Bobby (who y’all will also meet soon!) in and around historic St Augustine village this afternoon and had a blast getting to know them and watching them together - such great chemistry there! Then, tonight, we were in for the biggest treat when our wonderful clients Valerie + Ryan (y’all met them a few months ago when we highlighted their mini-golf engagement session here on the blog) drove from Jacksonville (where they live) to St Augustine and took us downtown for dinner! Good friends, good food, and good conversation - what more could a girl ask for?!

Over dinner we got to talking about St Augustine and our plans for this week/weekend. Valerie asked me who the couple was for Saturday - wondering if she had seen their engagement session on the blog, perhaps. It made me laugh when she divulged that she knew most all of our past clients by name just from being a devoted blogstalker - though she’s never yet had the good fortune to meet any of y’all face-to-face! So we talked about that for a bit and the sense of community that is created through the blog, etc - and then, she ever-so-subtley hinted that I had fallen behind - wait, how did she put this? - I think it went something like “You are so far behind in your blogging - you really need to get to work on that!” LOL So true, Valerie, so true.

SO - y’all can thank Valerie for these next few posts. I have a current backlog of 23 enteries that I need to get up here… yesterday.

Wish me luck!

WedPix is a new online magazine published by the Wedding Photojournalist Association (WPJA). Since they launched, Meg & I have really enjoyed reading their articles. Many of you (especially brides with weddings in the near future) may find the articles interesting!!! Here is the link to the WedPix website: www.wedpix.com.

In the most recent issue, WedPix wrote a feature article on “Photographing The Rehearsal Dinner”, and they interviewed Meg for the article!!! We are very excited to be included, and even more excited that two of the images in the article are from the rehearsal dinner of Johanna + Matt’s wedding in Tallahassee!

Here is the link to the article: Photographing The Rehearsal Dinner.

And in case you don’t remember Johanna + Matt, be sure to check out some of the fun & crazy images from their wedding here:
– Rehearsal Dinner @ Chez Pierre: Johanna + Matt’s Rehearsal Dinner
– Wedding @ The Governor’s Club: Johanna + Matt’s Wedding

So for all of you blogstalkers out there (YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE!) with weddings coming up in the next few months, consider adding rehearsal dinner coverage to your weekend!!! Contact the studio for details on booking! And for the future stalkers, maybe we could photograph your birthday party? Bat Mitzvah? Bowling league social?

Happy Presidents Day!
Charles

Help a girl out, ladies. (and gentlemen, if you happen to be cruising the blog!)

I need some ideas about what to buy a guy (at any age) as a gift.

(Yes, I’ll admit, this question is spawned by the looming Valentine’s Day deadline - but I’m talking more in general.)

I’ve done web searches, flipped through my favorite gift-giving catalogs - but even redenvelope.com typically limits guys gifts to a monogrammed desk thingy or a monogrammed nightstand thingy or a monogrammed bathroom thingy - stop the insanity!

And don’t tell me to give a gift card or cash because “then they can get whatever they want.” Pppfffffttt.

To me, gift cards say “I didn’t want to give you cologne or a tie, soooo…..” (Of course, just one woman’s opinion - I know some will disagree and that’s cool…)

So, let me have it.

Tell me some good gifts for a friend, coworker, brother, father, fiance, husband - whatever. Because truthfully, I am so tired of explaining my last minute purchases with the “well, I never know what to get you!” line.