As you can see from the video, we did spend a little bit of time shooting so we thought we’d share some behind-the-scenes images and some of the shots of our fabulous models Meghan &  Matt and Katie & Justin.  We’ve had the honor of shooting the weddings of both these couples and they have truly become wonderful friends.  We were so thrilled they could take time out of a busy Thursday evening to hang out with us.  They were all totally awesome and not at all nervous even though they were being photographed AND filmed at the same time.  In case you hadn’t noticed, they’re also ridiculously good looking so that was also very helpful :-) LOL!

The always adorable Meghan & Matt . . .

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Tee hee! This one makes my insides happy :-)

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Katie & Justin are SO sweet together! After each pose they’d kiss and giggle :-) LOVE!

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Love Justin’s “Come on honey! We don’t want THAT in their video!” face here! LOL!

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When it wasn’t their turn, Meghan & Matt were peaking around corners being silly :-)

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We also got the chance to catch a few shots of Chris in action! He looks so serious, doesn’t he?

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You’d never know from looking at these two lovebirds that there was a camera under them!

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You know that scene in the video where I’m on Ryan’s back?  Here’s a little taste of the cuteness I was getting from up there on my human perch . . .

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And yes, we were actually shooting each other in that opening scene!

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The boys!

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With this group, there was a good deal of silliness on the sidelines . . .

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Thanks so much to Matt, Meghan, Justin & Katie for being such awesome friends! We love you guys!

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We got to work with some very talented models :-)  We told these guys to pretend to be a customer signing in for appointment.  Our furry model decided to put his own twist on it by jumping up and putting his front paws on the counter!  How adorable is that?

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Showing off the exam rooms and the docs hard at work.

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I’m guessing that puppy kisses are included in a lot of appointments :-)

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The whole crew!

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And we wrapped things up with some portraits of the staff and their adorable pets :-)

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Too cute!

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Thanks to the wonderful staff at Scottsdale Hills Animal Hospital for being so great to work with and providing us with such excellent models (of the human and furry variety) and to Michelle for thinking of us!

It wouldn’t be a Gotcher photo shoot without our cutie pie puppy Molly.  We just had to bring her along for the first half of the session.

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Puppy Love :-)

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LOVE this one! She’s such a good little poser ;-)

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Future facebook profile pic? I think so!

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A Gotcher family portrait :-)

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These two make my heart happy :-)

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On to outfit number 2!  Shopping for our shoot was quite the ordeal.  I put a lot of time and effort into deciding what to wear – even enlisting the help of an awesome stylist/personal shopper, which I’ll be posting a blog all about very soon!  It was great insight into what our clients go through.  I think Ryan’s first look was my favorite, but for mine I really LOVED my polka dot dress and teal tights! So fun!

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We don’t have very many romantic photos of us from our wedding so we loved that Aaron & Marisa threw in a few of those too!

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Probably my favorite portrait shot of the day :-)

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These next two – AMAZING!  Totally adore them both.

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Silliness – we do love the silliness :-)

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So much fun! Thank you SO MUCH Aaron & Marisa for giving us the gift of these wonderful memories!  We are so grateful for your talent and all of your hard work.  We’d be happy to be “Hoskinified” anytime!  We heart you guys!

Special Thanks to some fabulous family & friends that helped us out:

• To Lanie (Ryan’s Mom) who graciously agreed to play the ever important role of “puppy handler” for the day.
• To Allison (Ryan’s cousin) who drove across town to do my hair & makeup – thanks for making me look GOOD girl!
• And to Alex of AVE Styles, personal shopper/stylist extraordinaire, for lending me your time and talent and helping me put together two awesome looks.  (You’ll be reading more about her very soon!)

Feast your eyes on the album goodness.   This is one of our wedding albums.  Supple Italian leather cover.  2mm thick lay-flat pages printed on Fuji Crystal Archival paper.  And it smells like a new pair of shoes straight out of the box ;-)  If an album were a type of food, we’re talking about a decadent, super rich, chocolate desert.  Yum-my.

Next up, the chic little brother of the wedding album – the engagement session Guest Book.  Don’t be turned off by it’s smaller stature, this little baby can still hold it’s own.  This thinner, linen covered version of the wedding album still has the same gorgeous ability to showcase your most precious memories.  Since there are a lot more images from a wedding than an engagement session, it’s usually about half the number of pages.  These albums are created with a clean, spacious look, leaving lots of white space for guests to write messages to the happy couple.  Now, there’s a guest book that won’t get thrown in a box as soon as you get back from your honeymoon!  We offer this same style of album for portrait sessions too, although the designs are usually a bit more traditional.

So that about does it!  And if you’ve every wondered about the value of buying a wedding album we invite you check out this great post from our blog archives: FAQ: Do I Need a Wedding Album?  Have a great week everybody!

I’m turning thirty in November. Yep THIRTY. As I inch closer and closer to the big three-oh, I’m realizing than my metabolism just isn’t what it used to be. I’ve always been a pretty unhealthy eater and whenever someone has asked me about it, I’ve defaulted to the Scarlett O’Hara: “I’ll worry about tomorrow” (aka, “as long as I stay skinny, I don’t have to worry about it.”) Well, as much as I hate to admit it, tomorrow has arrived. I used to be one of those lucky few who ate whatever I wanted and stayed skinny. It’s probably a mix of age and the fact that I spend 90% of my life sitting in front of a computer screen, but either way, It’s become increasingly hard to ignore that my clothes just don’t fit as well as they once did. Time to make some changes.

The logical first step was to cut back on the soda – one of my greatest vices. I’ve been a 1-or-2-a-day Coke drinker for as long as I can remember. And since it was already #74 on my 101 in 1001 list, I figured there was no better time than the present. These jeans aren’t getting any looser on their own. My journey began on August 1st and as of today, I’ve been soda free for two weeks! The first three days (with the severely annoying caffeine withdrawal headaches) were a little rough, but since then it’s been pretty much smooth sailing. I think I’ll reward myself with a nice big glass of water :-)

On top of that, I’ve been trying to change some of my eating habits as well, like eating a lot more fruit and trying to cut back on the carbs. I’m a super picky eater so the eating right thing is a little hard for me. I’d love to hear some of your healthy eating suggestions, so leave me some comments love below. Wish me luck!

To get started on this goal I downloaded Water for Elephants on the iPad back in March.  I started reading the first chapter and didn’t put it down for the next 24 hours.  I only stopped reading to sleep – literally.  And then I remembered something about myself – something from my childhood that I had forgotten all about in the busyness of  adult life – fiction is like crack to me.  I absolutely LOVE a good story.  I get totally sucked into the characters and the plot line.  (It’s the same reason why I love movies so much, they just happen to be a lot smaller time commitment that reading a book.)  So in the last six months I haven’t read 5 books, I’ve read 7 and managed to cram in 2 business books on top of that.

Now that I’ve rediscovered how much I love to read fiction (thanks to our 101 in 1001 list) I’m pretty sure I’ll be reading A LOT more.  I even set up an account on Goodreads.com so I can keep track of the books I have read and want to read.  I love that I can rate each one and connect with other friends to see what they’re reading and what they thought of the books on my list.  It’s fun!  If you’re a reader you should check it out :-)

Here’s a quick list of all the fictional goodness I’ve been devouring.  There’s a link to Goodreads for each book so you can read a summary if you want. (Beware of spoilers though if you have any intention of reading any of them – especially the Hunger Games Series.)

1. Water For Elephants:  FIVE STARS – Loved it!
2. The Hunger Games:  FIVE STARS – Loved it! The whole series is pretty much amazing, but this was my favorite of the 3 books.
3. Catching Fire (The Hunger Games, Book 2):  FIVE STARS – Loved it!
4. Mockingjay (The Hunger Games, Book 3):  FOUR STARS – Really liked it.
5. Divergent:  FOUR STARS – Really liked it
6. P.S. I Love You:  TWO STARS – It was ok.
7. Never Let Me Go:  THREE STARS – Liked it.

I like to through up little gang sign every now and then – here’s my “I’m 31 and happy about it” sign.

Here is the view from our room at the Las Palomas Resort and Spa.  We spent most of our time in that giant pool closest to the ocean (Sea of Cortez).  The ocean water was very warm and uncomfortable and every once in a while you’d feel a bit of cold water pass around you – a little scary because . . . hmmm, it’s Mexico.

Take a short walk to the other side of the resort and this is what you see.  Desert and yes, nothingness. See that crazy winding dirt road?  Yes, that’s pretty much the way we came in.

Most of our three days was spent relaxing by the pool and beach.  We promised ourselves that we wouldn’t talk about business the whole time.  And I’m proud to say we didn’t . . . ok, maybe we did like twice!  Here we are trying to get our tan on.

The main pool had a zero edge view out into the ocean and an awesome swim-up bar!

I think we were the only two people in Rocky Point.  It was surprisingly deserted for pretty much the entire time we were there.

Adios Mexico!  BTW, thanks for the tan that you forgot to give me.

When we added goal #16 (have a wedding published in a bridal magazine) to our 101 in 1001 list we had no idea we’d be blessed enough to have TWO weddings published in magazines at the same time!  WOO-HOO!  And it’s all thanks to the two fabulous couples who gave us the honor of capturing all the time and effort they put into creating a beautiful and memorable wedding day.

Flo & Brad’s Wedding: Featured in DIY Weddings Magazine

Flo & Brad’s modern DIY masterpiece took place last September at the Novelty Hill-Januik Winery in Washington State.  They put tons of thought into the details of their day and made it a true reflection of their style and personalities.  Our favorite detail was probably the favors – Flo actually baked chocolate mint cookies and packaged them individually for each guest!  They were served along side individual servings of milk – regular, chocolate & strawberry!  So adorable :-)  It was because of all the wonderful details that their wedding was chosen for a four page feature in DIY Weddings Magazine’s Summer 2011 issue.

Flo was even kind enough to mention us in their interview for the feature:

“Q: What advice do you have for other brides?
A: Research. Take the time and meet with at least three vendors before signing.  We did a lot of research in figuring out where we wanted to have the ceremony and reception before we found the perfect place with the perfect events director that worked at the venue.  We lucked out and met who would be our photographers at our best friends wedding and fell in love with them.  Finding people you know and can trust makes all the difference in the world.  Your wedding day is going to fly on by, take a few minutes with you and the groom to enjoy the moment knowing that the pieces are in place and that your friends, family and various vendors, etc. will make it all happen.” 

Thanks Flo  - we love you guys too!

A big thanks to the all-star team of vendors that helped create their day!
Venue: Novelty Hill-Januik
Flowers: The Petal & Stem
Cake Artist: JW Desserts
DJ: John Meyers
Makeup: Erica Madera

Shaina & Matt’s Wedding: Featured in Arizona Bride Magazine

The feature in Arizona Bride did such a great job of summing up Shaina & Matt’s gorgeous wedding last October that I think I’m just going to have to borrow it:

“Taking cues from the Tempe Center for the Arts’ contemporary vibe, Shaina Solocheck & Matthew Rozen filled their wedding with modern takes on old traditions.”

Their wedding was such a blast!  Not only were the details incredible, they also incorporated so many fun, unique elements like having dueling pianos as the entertainment at their reception and an ice cream sundae bar instead of a traditional wedding cake.  They wanted their wedding to be on their terms and decided that they didn’t have to observe traditions just because “that’s what everybody else was doing.”  A cookie cutter wedding was just not in the cards for this awesome pair and we absolutely LOVED it!  Magazine worthy – I think so!

Props to the top notch vendors that helped make their dreams a reality!
Event Coordinator: Planned to Perfection (Sherri)
Venue: Tempe Center for the Arts
Florals: Ever After Florals (Jen)
Catering: Santa Barbara Catering (Melissa)
Entertainment: Big Picture Interactive Entertainment
Hair: Indulgence Head 2 Toe (Shelley)
Makeup: Faces by Marlais

Oddly enough, I happened to have taken a behind-the-scenes shot of Ryan while he was shooting the photo of Shaina & Matt that was featured.  I think we’ll have to call this image “The Making of a Magazine Feature” from now on. LOL!

Thanks again to Flo, Brad, Shaina & Matt for helping us check this goal off our list!  You guys ROCK!  And to DIY Weddings and Arizona Bride for featuring our work.  We are truly honored :-)

Overall, it was a great show with super fun music by the always awesome Elton John (“hold me closer tiny dancer!”).  My only negative comment was because of a little “technical difficulty” that happened on stage during the show.  There’s a point in the show where Billy is dancing in a dream sequence and he’s supposed to be suspended in the air over the stage doing (what I imagine) was some awesome “circ de soleil” style choreography.  Well, apparently something went wrong because what the audience actually got was an awkwardly long sequence of another cast member trying to hook the Billy character onto a wire followed by an equally awkward sequence of Billy standing motionless in the center of the stage with the other dancer doing random choreography around him.  That’s the beauty of live theater I guess – you never know what you’re going to get.   (Just a thought for the cast though – you may want to have a backup plan with choreography for Billy that’s suited for the stage just in case the harness doesn’t work.  You know, so the audience doesn’t have to stare at his motionless back as the emotional music swells.  LOL.)

Either way, I had a blast and was reminded how much I love musicals.  My weekly episodes of Glee typically keep this side of my soul delightfully filled, but when it all comes down to it there’s just nothing quite like a night at the theater :-)  If anybody is planning to attend West Side Story in September or Wicked in February, feel free to invite me along. LOL!