Kristine and Charles were married this last Saturday and Kim Cooley and Evah Goodwin from Carpe Vita were there to document everything from beginning to end.  All of the festivities were held at the Gaylord Texan and what a night it was!

We love the Gaylord because we can always fun places for the formals.

The gift exchange proved to emotional for all who was near.  Here, Charles sees the framed portrait of Kristine that shows a little but not too much.

Then it was time for the wedding…  Cason and Cayla did a great job!

Then time for Mr. Hurt to escort his lovely daughter…

Mr. and Mrs. Charles Pratt!

A lovely first dance…

We snuck Kristine and Charles off for a few photos between one of their dinner courses.  They are tiny in this photo but it shows the grandeur of the fountain and where their cocktail reception was held.

This flower feel from Kristine’s bouquet (the exquisite florals were done by the amazing ladies at Willow Creations) and Charles had a little fun of it.  We were walking and photographing at the same time so it is a little fuzzy but very cute!

Charles’ best man was his dad, Chuck.  For his toast, he asked his lovely bride/Charles’ mom, Ginger, to join him.  He left everyone with their eyes glistening and Kristine’s sister Michelle followed with the perfect compliment.

Sparkles and Mallards, oh my!

Kristine dancing with her dad and her mom videos.

Charles with his mom.

Of course there was tons more partying… But we will save that for another day.
The Pratts left the reception surrounded by love and bubbles.

They indulge us with a few minutes in their sweet suite.  The look of love in Charles eyes while Kristine tries to keep her tiara in place is priceless.  Kristine, does this qualify as a photo of you being you?  Your genuine heart felt smile reveals that it was a great ending to an incredible celebration!

Special thanks to Shanna Marko of the The Organized Event for her Day Of guidance.

Brooke with the Gaylord – thanks for filling in for Tristin while she is on maternity leave and thanks for finding me a fork so I could have a little cake.

FX Entertainment did a great job of keeping everyone of their feet dancing the night away.

To REGISTER to see all of the photographs from Kristine and Charles wedding, click here and you will be taken to our online partner Pictage. Pictage does require an Event Key to protect the couple’s privacy.  If you are a friend or family member who gave us your email address at the reception, hopefully you received an email from Carpe Vita Photography telling you about this blog entry and what the Event Key is – please refer to that or contact Kristine or Charles directly in a few weeks.

Please note – the photos will not be ready for you to see for a little while which is why you should register as an email will be sent to you once they are available for viewing.

Thanks and enjoy your honeymoon Kristine and Charles!

Heather and Jermaine’s Memorial Weekend wedding was an elegant affair with some serious partying and Carpe Vita Photography was honored to be there documenting every moment and detail.

A lovely embossed detail in their luxurious wedding invitation.

Miss Heather getting ready.

We started at the Magnolia Hotel in Downtown Dallas. Beautiful people in a beautiful place!

The Rolls Royce to take Heather and her father to Perkins Chapel at SMU was a classic sweet ride

Jermaine and some of his fraternity brothers with their tongues hanging – little did we know at the time that this was a preview to some major celebrating later.

The lovely bride ready to walk down the aisle.

This was a very special touch.  Since Perkins has a policy of no unity candle, this was a creative alternative – pouring of sand.

Yea, they are married!

Some more personality were shown in the couple’s choice of shoes for the day.  Check out those sparkling Jimmy Choos!

Headed to the reception at the Magnolia’s Pegasus Room.

A definite highlight of the evening was a taste of New Orleans with the Inner City All-Stars Band who had the heart beats pumping and jumping and helped lead the guests out of the Pegasus Room where they danced on and on under the stars.

Special thanks to Tami Winn and her crew at Tami Winn Events for keeping everything moving so smoothly through out the celebration.

The lovely florals were Fete des Fleurs contributions – truly breathtaking!

Confections in Cakes did the awesome cakes.

To register to see all of the photographs from Heather and Jermaine’s special day, click here and you will be taken to our online partner Pictage.  The photos will not ready for you to see for a little while which is why you should register as an email will be sent to you once they are available for viewing.

Pictage does require an Event Key to protect the couple’s privacy.  If you are a friend or family member, you might have received an email from Carpe Vita Photography telling you about this blog entry and what the Event Key is – please refer to that or contact Heather or Jermaine directly.

Well of course you know, we love weddings at Carpe Vita.  We love getting to know everyone and being a part of their special day.  Julia and Matt were meant to meet each other but they had to go almost around the world to do it.  And come to find out, they lived around the corner from one another.

Their wedding was a sweet celebration of those closest to them coming together for a ceremony and then a lovely dinner together.  As you will see looking through the photos, Steve and Jassen were granted a little tour of the Gaylord Texan facility with the couple which makes the album an even more intimate representation of Julia and Matt’s special day.

This album spread shows Jassen’s overhead shots – very nice.  By the way, Marty Younkin  of Love Notes Weddings was Julia and Matt’s officiant. He was spreading lots of love May 8th, 2010!

Here is our first draft of a wedding album design for them:

Here’s a link direct to the website with the design if you are having any issues viewing the design here.

May 8th was a busy wedding day for us.  I was photographing Margaret and Johann’s wedding while Steve was photographing Julia and Matt’s.  Lucky for us, we weren’t very far apart – in fact, we were under the same roof but what a big roof the Gaylord Texan has. So big that our couples near saw one another which is the way it should be!

There is so much that I loved about Margaret and Johann’s celebration and as I edited their photographs this week to create their initial album design, I was reminded of how special everything was.

I loved the use of vibrant purple – I have been wanting to photograph a wedding where the groom has cool socks and Margaret’s gift to Johann definitely did this justice.

I loved that Allison, the supreme flower girl  (hope I am spelling her name correctly) would correct me when I called anyone gentleman with in ear shot of her “handsome”.  She would say, “His name is handsome, it’s ______”.  And then to see her precision for laying the flowers down and the seriousness she took with her responsibilities – very impressive!

I loved how Bill, Margaret’s dad took the time to publicly acknowledge Shanna Marko of The Organized Event, Tristin Jumper of the Gaylord Texan (who is currently on maternity leave with baby Grant who decided to arrive early before this wedding) and Jorge of the Gaylord Texan Catering Staff.  How very classy and how very well deserved.

I loved how Ann, Margaret’s mom kicked up her heels as much as the guests.  And of course, we loved how royally they promoted the Carpe Vita Photography Out of the Box Photo Booth that we had there.  To see the photos from the booth, which can be downloaded simply by right clicking on any other photos, click here.  When I just checked on the link, I see that Steve left the photo of me with Johann and his mom in – I’m not sure that I like that…

I loved getting to work with my sister Evah Goodwin – she has a great eye, keeps me on track and has lots of fun ideas. It was her, who took Johann and encouraged him to climb on the rocks for a special photograph – see, Tristin and The Gaylord Texan gods, it wasn’t me. This came after we had learned Johann really wanted to rappel in from the Gaylord atrium ceiling for his entrance so having this special photo adds even more Johann to the day. And as a photographer, I loved the extra time we were given to photograph Margaret and Johann after the reception was over.  They were tired and were good sports and in turn, I think we got some stunning ending photographs of their day. Let us know what you think.

So please enjoy this first draft of how we saw the newest Mr. and Mrs. Dutton’s day.  If the slideshow of the album design is too wide for your monitor, click here and you will be taken to a website that shows everything appropriately.  We hope you love the albums (there are two volumes to make everything fit with the style and elegance of Margaret and Johann’s day) and please leave comments here or on the slideshow link sending your thoughts on the photos to the couple.

This is just a sampling of the hundreds of photographs taken that day, if you would like to see all of the photography, please register by clicking here. In a few weeks, after Margaret and Johann have had a chance to view everything and do their own personal edits, they will release the event and you will be notified that the photographs are ready to be viewed.

Best wishes,
Kim

Our first wedding of 2010 – a whole new decade! – was with Brandy and Jake in Ft. Worth this last Saturday.   The wedding was at the beautiful St. Patrick’s Cathedral downtown and the reception was held at The Ashton Depot.

After a wonderfully weird week of 70 degree temperatures, Saturday came with gray clouds and some brisk winds.  But even the drops of rain (which are supposed to be good luck) didn’t dampen the spirits of the day.

Brandy’s touch of blue in her beautiful shoes was very classy.

When we arrived at the Ashton Depot, the clouds moved away to show a little blue sky.

The blue shoes were adorable but they gave way to her extremely comfortable boots early in the evening.

Trey & the Tritones provided the music for the evening and they definitely kept the crowd on their feet all night long.

And we experienced two firsts with this wedding – a groom’s cake that looked like a fish and what a great looking fish too!  (Just in, Brandy let us know the fish cake came from Central Market – I’m thinking it must have been the Fort Worth store that she worked with).  Brandy also let us know that the florals were provided by Phillip Combs – I believe this was our first time to work with them too.  Have to say Phillip’s mothers flower bracelets were really unique and something I would wear without the flowers on a daily basis.  Another neat detail to note is the bottles used on some of the tabletops came from Brandy’s grandfather’s collection.  Unfortunately her grandfather wasn’t there in person, but he and her other extended family were there in spirit.

The other first for us was the couple’s chosen method of get-away transportation.  After running through sparklers, Brandy and Jake hopped on a bicycle built for two and away they went into the night.

Brandy and Jake, we had a great time and we appreciate you including us in your celebration.  Enjoy Chile!

Cheers,

Steve and Kim

p.s. Friends and Family, a slideshow of more photos will be posted here soon.