Arizona Wedding Photographer

Brad and Jennifer’s Wedding in Phoenix, Arizona

Jennifer and Brad were married in the Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Phoenix, Arizona and their reception was held at the Paradise Valley Country Club in Paradise Valley, Arizona. There were a lot of bride’s maids and groomsmen and all of them were lively and fun. The wedding was great fun. Here are a few of my favorite images from the day.

One of the bride’s maids was taking little Polaroid shots during the day. I thought they were cool, so I made my own, but the bride’s maid can pretend she took this Polaroid too. I won’t tell anyone.

This shot was taken by my second shooter, Ray who was following the groom and groom’s men around during the day. I love the composition on this shot.

I love mirrors, moms and that connection of sweet pride. That has got to be one of the most grand moments in a mother’s life.

Everyone learned how to tie a real bow tie. A skill all men should have. Loose the fake bow ties, always go real!

Jennifer, the bride, looked like a million bucks. The dress was perfect, her hair was done just right… what a beautiful sight for Brad at their first look before the wedding.

I don’t recall what was so funny, but not everyone was amused, which is why love the shot so much.

While you are in a long wedding ceremony, or church even, smart phones with data packages have made anything entertaining. There were a lot of football fans at this wedding. In fact, I recall announcements on scores being issued at the reception.

Photography from a wedding in phoenix, arizona by arizona wedding photographer Jared Platt. (11)

The is one of my favorite shots from a recessional in a long time.

The from door on the church was perfect for a photograph and the sun was on its way down, so we had a perfect moment of light (for about 2 minutes), then it was gone. If you are the tech type, this was taken with a slow shutter speed to burn in a darkening sky. The couple is in complete ambient darkness and lit by a Profoto B1 off camera flash with a soft box.

Jennifer makes the dress look great!

One of my favorite parts of the day is the reception and particularly the toasts. Most of the time, a toast looks best in black and white.

The other side of the toast!

The bride loved the doors at the Paradise Valley country club. So we set up a shot at the main entrance. It was pretty dark out there, but two Profoto B1 lights did the trick. One was lighting them and the other was filling in a general bounce to give us detail in the shadows.

This next series was a lot of fun. They had a cigar box for anyone who wanted to have one. So all the guys gathered on the back patio of the country club, and we shot away.

I have to thank Megan, from M.C. Weddings and Events for all of her work on this wedding. Having a coordinator on a wedding changes everything.

Wedding Photography: Jared Platt, Platt Photography

Wedding Videography: Serendipity

Wedding Location: Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, Phoenix, Arizona

Wedding Reception Location: Paradise Valley Country Club, Paradise Valley, Arizona

Breanna and Rimo’s Wedding in Gilbert, Arizona

Congratulations to Breanna and Rimo. It was such an honor to be a part of their wedding. Breanna and Rimo were married in the Gilbert, Arizona LDS Temple with a reception at Noah’s in Chandler. Enjoy the slideshow.

Wedding photography at the Grand Canyon (7)

Daniel & Megan’s Wedding at The Grand Canyon

They were married at the Grand Canyon on Shoshone Point in a small, intimate affair in the largest cathedral on the planet. The vast and stark majesty of the canyon must have provided an extreme contrast to New York, their home. Rising cities and blue oceans to rock cliffs that fall thousands of feet into the earth. If you are going to have a destination wedding, you may as well make it somewhere completely different than home… and they did.

Here are a few of my favorite images from the wedding.

I loved this little necklace hanger. It gave me about 15 minutes of entertainment while Megan was getting her makeup done. I ran around the room collecting the items you see in the photo. There are a number of these items that are special family heirlooms. The old and the new, all together.

The rooms at the El Tovar (and all the hotels at the Canyon) are very small, so you take the space you can find and work within it. I suppose we have to remind ourselves when this hotel was built. I know it is young by European standards, but here in America, something that was built in 1905 is pretty old and it seems that people did not need much space back then. Have you noticed the small hard sided suitcases they could carry their entire life’s wardrobe in? I rest my case…

I loved this shot. There was a lot of flare from the window, so the film treatment helped to enhance the mood and feeling of the image. I love how the light wraps around the bride and through the dress.

Both the ring and the handkerchief are old, so we aged the image a bit to work with the age of the items. I love that she chose a dress that has the same antique nature with a little extra sparkle. It all works together quite well.

Late July, early August in the canyon is the monsoon season. So you may get rain any given afternoon. So, if you are getting married there, durring that timeframe, you have to be flexible with your timeframes. I asked Megan to track the rain the day before the wedding and note the times it rained. Armed with that information, a little observation of the clouds positions and movement and with a little prognostication, we made the call that we should move the wedding up an hour to avoid any rain. And it was perfect.

The broken cloud cover was beautiful and it never rained on the wedding. I think it may have rained a little later that evening, but the weather was absolutely perfect throughout the entire wedding and portrait session. And the light, while occasionally harsh as the sun broke through a cloud here and there, was full of drama.

You know, I am usually much more interested in long lenses and shallow depth of field, but when you have skies and vistas like this, wide lenses and small f stops start making a lot of sense.

You know, when I was young, I spent time photographing the Grand Canyon (this is when I thought I would be the next Ansel Adams), but I couldn’t make an image of the canyon that was anything but boring. Of course we all know that practice makes a big difference, but I think that I just saw the canyon as a big hole in the ground. It wasn’t until I started photographing weddings at the canyon that I started making interesting photographs of the canyon. I have a few ideas as to why that is:

1. When you are shooting a wedding, you are in the same place for a long time, and you have time to observe things as they change. Being on the edge of the canyon during a wedding is fascinating. In a church, you are looking at the same walls, the same candles, the same pews for the duration of the ceremony. And while you are looking to make interesting vignettes and grand images of the space, the space does not change. In the canyon, every minute brings a new lighting scenario, a new cloud formation, new shadows, new highlights… it is alive with activity. Let’s suppose I had spent that kind of time at the edge of the canyon when I was younger. Perhaps I would have found a moment that was worthy of a photograph.

2. I am shooting for a client who expects to see the beauty they saw during their wedding day. So, I am really “working” on my compositions and my exposures and my ideas. I don’t think I was ever as dedicated to making a great image as when I started having someone pay me to make them. With a fee comes a lot of pressure to perform. Good thing I thrive under pressure.

3. I found meaning in what I was doing. In my youth, I was just taking pictures, with no direction, no purpose. But now, everywhere I go, I have a story to tell, I have a book in my head that I am trying to complete. I know what I need to tell the story. I am often surprised with new sideline stories, events and ideas, but I am always keenly aware of what it takes to tell the story. This internal “shot list” makes the entire experience meaningful and keeps me engaged. To say nothing about how important this event is to my clients… this just serves to amplify and heighten the meaning of my work. I am not just telling A story, I am telling THE story of their life! Knowing that, makes the purpose of telling the story absolutely critical. And knowing what you are doing matters, makes all the difference.

So when you see a beautiful photo of the Grand Canyon, you think, “oh, that looks beautiful,” but then you see a beautiful image of the canyon on the moment two young people said “I do,” it means a lot more to them and maybe even to you.

Daniel is one cool cat. I love this shot. It looks like he is ready to take off backward over the canyon. We had some strong sunlight breaking through the clouds during our portrait session, so we pulled out the large soft box to help wrap the light around the right side of his body a little more. Just filling in the natural shadows a bit is all that needed to be done. The sun was doing the bulk of the work for us.

Eirc Greenhaulgh (my second photographer and assistant) was tasked with hanging that large soft box over the edge to get around the groom and fill in the shadows on this next one. At one point, I had to talk Eric into backing off the edge a little. I’m pretty daring, but he was crazy! I think there is an ancient proverb that says something like, “When a man is holding a 30×40 inch sail, that man should not stand on the edge of a 800 foot cliff.”

If I had ordered the light, just the way I wanted it, I would have asked for the light happening in the background to happen throughout the entire canyon, but once I brought it back into the studio and stared working on the images, I found that I responded to the darkness in the bottom left hand corner of the image. It seems to heighten the drama to see the cliff overlooking not only a deep precipice, but a rich darkness. It almost seems that the light emanates from the bride. Sometimes, we are better off not getting exactly what we want, because the results are better than we might have concocted ourselves. When you photograph in locations like this, you are really in collaboration with the earth itself and its Maker.

Megan had a moment where she needed to sit down for lack of food (she had not eaten enough during the day). So Debra (our stellar GC Coordinator) ran some granola mix and water down to us. Well, Megan had taken a seat right there on that rock and Daniel stood by her side for support. As we talked, I saw the perfect photo. So, we relaxed for about 15 minutes and then, when she was ready to go, I told her to stay where she was and we got this shot. It is one of my absolute favorite shots of the day. So while I would like to remind all brides to make sure to eat throughout the day to avoid getting a little light headed, we would not have ended up with one of my favorite shots had Megan not needed a little break. She kept appologizing, but really Megan, we can’t thank you enough for needing a break.

I suppose the point should be made (and I tell my brides this all the time) that it doesn’t matter what they are doing, I am going to be getting great images of it. Even sitting down because you feel a little light headed… yep, we’ll get a great shot! That’s what is so exciting about the work I do. I am challenged moment to moment to create something great no matter what is going on. That’s a fun kind of pressure.

Thanks again to David & Debra Joaquim, who put together the entire wedding. Debra does such a great job accenting the natural beauty of the canyon and both of them do a great job officiating and watching over their clients.

I love these next two shots of Daniel and Megan. Just candid shots after the wedding.

On our way back to the El Tovar Hotel we had to stop the car for this sunset. I would have preferred to get to higher ground, perhaps a balcony, etc, but those colors only last for seconds. Good night!

Wedding Photography by Jared Platt, Platt Photography

Wedding Location: The Grand Canyon, Shoshone Point

Wedding Officiant: David & Debra Joaquim

Post production by Shoot dot Edit

Wedding Slideshow music by Sparrow, courtesy of Triple Scoop Music

Simple Style: Details from Ian and Megan’s Wedding

Yesterday, I posted images from Megan and Ian’s wedding at The Farm at South Mountain in Phoenix Arizona. Today I am posting my favorite details from their wedding. Enjoy.

Buttons and fabric! That’s what made up the bride’s bouquet. Beautiful, don’t you think?

Here is a cool way to carry the rings down the isle. The ring bearer simply carried the book down the isle. I loved the idea.

Sections of the long banquet table were identified with a very small chalk board. Everything was on chalk boards.

This was a great cake top. I especially loved the scrabble letters. Although you don’t get many points for an I a D and an O.

The fans doubled as the program, or should I say that the other way around? They were cool… in more ways than one.

Nicely played!

No wedding cocktail hour is complete without a game of “Corn Hole.” I loved all the games they had for people to play during a long enjoyable cocktail hour.

Like I said, everything was on chalk boards. What a great way to post signs all over that don’t distract from, but add to, the visuals.

In keeping with the overabundance of beards, those who did not have facial hair could don a mustache for the moment by sipping from their straw.

In keeping with the Quaker style wedding theme, the wedding banquet table was one very long table rather than many round tables.

Again, I can’t emphasis how cool the wedding was and how impressed I was with all the little details. Great job Megan and Ian. Everyone was having a great time, even your photographers.

Wedding Photography by Jared Platt, Platt Photography

Wedding Location: The Farm at South Mountain in Phoenix, Arizona

Simple and Fun: Ian and Megan’s Wedding in Phoenix, Arizona

Ian and Megan were married at The Farm in Phoenix, Arizona. The wedding and reception all occurred outdoors on one of the last pleasant days before the heat started picking up here in Phoenix. It was a beautiful day and the wedding was perfectly simple and full of fun. Here are a few of my favorite images from the wedding.

Both the flower girl and the ring bearer were as cute as they come, so there were so many great shots of them. But this is a blog about the wedding, so I will try to keep the shots of the kids to a minimum. The flower girl was always ready to pose for me.

The guys were all in casual wedding attire. The whole thing was done with a kind of quaker style, which was so very cool. I loved everything about it.

The bouquet was made from fabric and buttons and together with the texture of her dress and the 20’s style veil, the bride was absolutely perfect.

The Farm is a great location for this kind of a wedding (any kind really) but this wedding really fit in. I told Ian and Megan that they couldn’t have chosen a more prefect place in Phoenix to match their wedding style.

This is also where I mention again how important post processing style is to a wedding. The way we treat an image after it is captured changes the way it reads, which should be very much in keeping with the feel of the wedding itself. And the image treatment on this wedding is a perfect example of how effective that can be.

This is the way group photos were meant to be. Are there a few where everyone is looking at the camera? Yes, but this is the one that should be used in the album or printed for the wall. Too many people and too may photographers see it as an either or situation. Either it is a portrait or it is documentary. If it is done well, it is both.

Here’s the ring bearer. You’ll love every shot of him.

There were more beards at this wedding that I have ever seen in one place. I have never been to a beard convention, so I don’t have much to compare this to, but there were a lot of beards. I enjoyed taking portraits of everyone sporting their cool facial hair.

So, when you are shooting family portraits at a quaker style wedding. You should shoot them in the right way. There’s no question, this was the right way to treat the family portraits.

Not posed. These little kids were gold mines all day long!

They look good together. And I love her shoes.

Seriously. Can you be any cooler than to have hula-hoops at your wedding cocktail hour?

Well, you can! Instead of doing a first dance, you could perform a first song together! That was pretty cool!

Sparklers are always fun too!

I put this last image in here to make a quick comment about this band. “What Laura Says,” is the name of the band. They have to be one of the tightest bands I have heard in a very long time. Every song, original or covered, was fantastic and the covered songs had their own unique spin on them. If you have a chance, go see What Laura Says, buy their music on iTunes or hire them to play at your wedding. I stayed an extra hour past our official end time, just to hear their music.

Wedding Photography by Jared Platt, Platt Photography

Slideshow Music by Mindy Gledhill, Courtesy of Triple Scoop Music

Location: The Farm, Phoenix, Arizona

Band: What Laura Says

A+T: Engagement Portraits in Gilbert, Arizona

My wife and I have known Allie since she was in high school. Neither one of us thought that there was a man out there as cool as Allie, but of course Allie had to prove us wrong . . . . and found the lid to her pot. I had the pleasure of spending the afternoon with Allie and Tyler in a grove of pistachio trees in Gilbert, Arizona. Here are some of my favorite images:

Note to self: buy mirror sunglasses.

I had a great time playing with the colors in this photo. If I were 14 I would say it looks “chill” even though it is warm.

Long before he fell in love with Allie, Tyler fell in love with the outdoors. Not one to shy away from a little competition, Allie drummed up this little number to catch her man’s eye. I was laughing the entire time we were shooting. Which is problematic because laughter creates camera shake. But I kept it under control.

In today’s world of social networking we have all at one time or another written up a personal profile – a brief description of who we are and of the events that have occurred in our lives to make us that way. I told you that I have known Allie for a long time. Her personal profile is full of strength, hard work, optimism, and survival. I am so pleased with this next shot of Allie. It does what photography does best and provides a visual representation of that description of who we are and the events that have made us that way.

Is it possible that Tyler likes her even better without the antlers?

Yep!

As the sun set, I opened up the aperture on my 50 mm 1.2 lens all the way to 1.2 which gave us this extreme limited depth of field. I told Allie and Tyler I was going to be making some extremely grainy old looking photographs. They were excited about the idea. I think they turned out well.

This is definitely on of my favorite shots of the day. The grain, the encircling branches, the soft light. It is all there.

Ever the hunter!

Tyler brought several deadly weapons to this photo shoot . . . and I just brought my camera.

Photography by Jared Platt, Platt Photography

Location: The Groves, Gilbert, Arizona

Slideshow Music by Fisher, “It’s a Beautiful Life,” courtesy of Triple Scoop Music.

Heather and Jeremy: A Wedding in Gilbert, Arizona

Heather and Jeremy: A Wedding in Chandler, Arizona from Jared Platt on Vimeo.

Jeremy and Heather were married at Noah’s in Chandler, Arizona. Noah’s is a small even hall south east of Phoenix. I have photographed a few weddings there and all of them have been in the heat of the summer, so we spent the entire time inside. When Heather approached me about the idea of not going outside for portraits and photos, I said, “YES!” Who wants to go out in 107% temperatures and sweat it out. Plus, it made for an interesting challenge. So, I put together a portrait studio and with their retro style wedding dress and tux, I thought the portrait studio should feel a bit retro itself. I was pleased with the outcome. I love doing something a little different.

I loved the artwork for the programs for the wedding. Very cool. Very personal.

The chandelier was quite beautifully decorated by AZ Wedding Decor. It is not often that a centered “bullet composition” works, but I like this one.

I love the use of the monogram in both the boutonnieres and the bouquet.

And what bride can resist the cute shoes. It is all about the shoes. Of course, I know this more because I am married and my wife loves shoes as well. I don’t know a woman who doesn’t. But I am always excited to see what the bride has done with her shoe choice. It says a lot about her more private side.

But the bouquet says even more about the bride and her public side. And you have to admit that a fruit and vegetable bouquet is something very unique and different. I loved it. This was designed by How Appropriate Floral. It, changed the way I felt about the colors in the wedding. So, a lot of the decisions I made about how to shoot the images and how to effect them in post came from this one detail. I shot a lot of wide open f1.2 images for their portraits and details and pulled back the colors to make them more muted and soft. While what I know of the client before the wedding, helps to dictate the direction of the imagery, it is the visuals I see when I get to the wedding that shape the final imagery and how those images will be seen. I think that being open to changing direction, based on what is in front of me, helps me to truly describe the event and the people I am photographing.

This of course, has to be my favorite image from the wedding. I love everything about it. I love the bouquet. Heather looks fantastic.The lens and aperture choice makes it soft and dreamlike. The colors are perfect. Sometimes you have a vision for a photo and you execute it perfectly, but the subject does’t nail the look, but she nailed it! Way to be Heather. Way to be.

And these little kids just made me laugh. What a funny concept. They loved their little capes and they were certainly fun to photograph in my studio. They were not “ring bearers” but were announcing the coming of the bride. Yet, another way Heather made her wedding a little different from the typical.

Jeremy’s tux was the one other thing that directed me to the style and feel of the final images. His tux and his beard put me in the right frame of mind for the style. We shot very high ISO, wide apertures and fixes lenses to create a grainy old school look to the portraits and photographs. And when we didn’t shoot high ISO, we added the grain in post. I think we got a great consistent style across the entire photo collection. I am very happy with it.

The center pieces on the tables were created by Ethereal Events Decor. They made for great foreground elements.

The tables were all covered with these big glass jewels, so I couldn’t resist putting the rings in the jewels. This is always an entertaining few minutes of the evening for me.

Thank you Jeremy and Heather for trusting me with your wedding.

Photography Details:

Photography by Jared Platt, Platt Photography

Wedding Location: Noah’s, Chandler, Arizona

Slideshow Music: The Genesis by Jared Platt

Flowers by How Appropriate Floral

Decorations by AZ Wedding Decor & Ethereal Events Decor

Mesa, Arizona LDS Temple Wedding Portraits

Nick and Shelby: A Wedding in Mesa, Arizona

Nick & Shelby’s Wedding, Mesa Arizona from Jared Platt on Vimeo.

Nick and Shelby were married in the Mesa, Arizona LDS Temple. Some of their portraits are there on the temple grounds. Others are our near Red Mountain and then others are at their home on South Mountain where they had their wedding reception. Here are a few of my favorite images from their wedding.

This is my absolute favorite image from the wedding. The light coming through the trees is fantastic and the couple looks perfect. I have another shot with them kissing, but I always prefer the almost kiss to the kiss itself. There is more anticipation in it.

Shelby’s hot rod car. I love that she brings the hot rod to the relationship.

I love the tone on this image. It takes an otherwise, harsh sunny day and softens it up and cools it down quite nicely.

This little flower girl was super cute throughout the entire wedding. It’s always fun to follow the kids around.

This was a cute idea. The kids all drew posters for the bride and groom and then shared them with the couple at the end of the night.

The boys on the roof were tasked with trowing bird seed or something like that down on the couple as they left, but they completely missed. The best laid plans… But I did enjoy the motion in this shot.

Photography by Jared Platt, Platt Photography
Wedding Location: Mesa, Arizona LDS Temple
Slideshow Music: Kevin Burdick, Courtesy of Triple Scoop Music

Bride and groom kiss - Wedding Photography in Phoenix Arizona at the Wrigley Mansion

Sara & Jay: A Wedding at the Wrigley Mansion in Phoenix, Arizona

Sara and Jay’s Wedding at The Wrigley Mansion in Phoenix, Arizona from Jared Platt on Vimeo.

Sara and Jay’s were married at The Wrigley Mansion in Phoenix, Arizona. The mansion is an old, eclectic building with hallways and doors that lead you around in circles. Each room is a unique place to shoot. Which meant we had a number of choices for photographing the dress. But this room ended up winning. I loved the portraits hanging on either side and the texture of the translucent drapes. Generally, I dislike the plastic hangers that come with the dress, but in this case, I was happy with the hanger because the white helped to set it apart from the wood valance. I would like to know though, why it is that a bride can spend thousands of dollars on a dress and the dress shop only gives her a lame plastic hanger? That is ridiculous. They know the dress will be photographed before it goes on, and yet, they give her a white plastic hanger that, in most cases, takes away from the photograph. I carry a hanger around with me to make up for this oversight, but in this case, the plastic hanger worked in the photo, so I didn’t use my wooden one.

We were on our way up the stair case (where I am shooting from) and I saw this little archway and the light coming down the staircase. So we had to use it because the light was perfect.

The bride’s room at the Wrigley Mansion is full of soft feminine colors. The paintings, wall papers and drapes are perfect for a slightly desaturated photograph. I love the layers in this photograph. Sara looks fantastic in it, the veil is coming into the shot, the painting is framing Sara nicely, the left side of the frame, though vacant, is held together by a bride’s maid’s shoulder and hair. I just enjoy looking at this one.

This is one of those doorways in the Wrigley Mansion that leads through a series of rooms and hallways that make you feel like you are in a game of Clue. And, it was a perfect spot for a portrait. It is not often that you find this much wall without it being interrupted by frames, drapes, light switches, etc. So I used every inch of vacant wall. Just to the right and left are elements that would spoil the shot. It is all about the Bride. No other distractions are allowed.

This little ring bearer was quite a show. Here he comes down the long stairway, which serves as the beginning of the isle at the Wrigley Mansion. But he caught sight of the cameras and all the people watching him.

So he literally walked the rest of the distance, down the stairs and down the isle with the ring pillow in front of his face to avoid the paparazzi.

The entire way! He was not interested in the publicity! Everyone was laughing. You couldn’t have planned that kind of entertainment. I think that is why we have little children walk down the isle at weddings, in hopes that we get some comic entertainment.

Because the mansion is on a mountain, there few flat spots. Lots of stairs and hills. But there are also a lot of trees, and because it is on it’s own knoll, you can find great shade somewhere at any point of the day. I am always photographing, regardless of what is going on. Whenever the bride and groom are walking, I am snapping a shot here and there and always looking for little moments like this one. A small glance, a smile, something. I was happy to find this one.

I am particularly fond of this shot. My wife saw it and said, “fantastic lines!” Yep! That’s what I was thinking when I was shooting this series. This is one of those images that has to be seen at the camera. It doesn’t appear from the contact sheet as a happy accident. You have to see the lines and square up to them, otherwise they just fall apart in the frame and while you may get an ok shot out of it, you won’t get those “fantastic lines.” The frame dictates the effectiveness of the lines.

The Wrigley Mansion’s entry way is full of visuals. It is a rotunda with a staircase or a balcony completely surrounding the room. You could shoot this room again and again and get something different every time.

I loved the graphic quality of this image with half of the frame in complete white and the other half in an textured white with a few darker elements and lines. And then, of course, the main event, the kiss, happens in the corner of the frame making it more dramatic and full of energy as it battles with the convergence of the bottom and right hand edges.

Photography by Jared Platt, Platt Photography

Wedding Venue: The Wrigley Mansion, Phoenix, Arizona

A Wedding at the Grand Canyon on Shoshone Point

Manuel and Samirah: A Grand Canyon Wedding

Manuel and Samirah’s Wedding at the Grand Canyon from Jared Platt on Vimeo.

Manuel and Samirah were married at the Grand Canyon in front of a small group of family and friends. The small intimate wedding was full of beautiful ceremony and the location was as beautiful as it could be.

Here is a slideshow of images with my thoughts on the wedding, if you’re interested in what I was thinking about the wedding.

Photography Notes: A Wedding at the Grand Canyon from Jared Platt on Vimeo.

No chapel, no cathedral, no resort can match the awe inspiring combination of 17 million years of erosion and unpredictable in-climate weather. The view was breathtaking and the light was ever changing and fantastic. Of course we had to bare some cold weather. But, I’ll take the cold weather in exchange for the storm clouds and perfect light any day.

Just a note from the guests, left on a rock on Shoshone Point at the Grand Canyon. “Kiss the Bride”. And he did.

This has got to be the coolest way to make a bouquet. These are dried flowers made into a bouquet. They certainly fit in with the natural surroundings. And as a bonus, they were light and never started drooping.

Here comes the bride.

This is the longest isle. Samirah was escorted by her father in spirit by the soft beating of a drum. It was probably the most touching procession I have ever experienced.

To get a shot like this, you sometimes have to lean a little too far over the edge of a cliff. I was not completely comfortable with my proximity to the edge of the cliff, but we have to push the edge to get the perfect shot.

There were many tender moments in the wedding, but this one was difficult for me to shoot. This was a washing of the feet ceremony. This is something Christ did for his apostles before he was crucified. It was an act of complete humility. John the Baptist had told Christ that he was not worthy to lace the savior’s sandals, and yet, years the savior kneeled before his 12 apostles and tenderly washed dust and soil from their feet, to show his love and his purpose to serve them (John 13:5). It was truly the Condescension of God. So when Manuel washed his bride’s feet and she in turn washed his, I was struck by the complete sacred nature of the act. Of course, I am being paid to photograph this, but I felt like an intruder at this moment. It was truly the most religious act I have every photographed at a wedding.

Did I mention it was cold! It was May, but it was only 43 degrees out there on that pointe. And yet, Samirah bore the cold to get these great shots.

After the sun had dropped below the horizon, we went to a burned out section of the forest and got a few more portraits. The quality of light that exists after the sun sets is the best light, hands down.

Both Samirah and Manuel are pilots, so this was an appropriate setting for their wedding dinner. The entire wedding was a small group, so they all fit around this large table. The candles were a nice touch, but to avoid explosions, it was not possible to light the candles. Airplanes are full of fuel, even some of these old planes.

And finally, the rings! I wanted to use something that was unique to the wedding to photograph the rings. I think I nailed this one. It says so much about them, about how they came together (they met in a flight school situation) and I even though the dials, words and arrows made a great point. So I am very proud of this shot.

Photography: Jared Platt, Platt Photography
Slideshow Music Courtesy of Triple Scoop Music
Location: Shoshone Point, The Grand Canyon