I've been going through Trace and Kristie's wedding images, and I will post some of my favorites tomorrow or Thursday. This one made me laugh, though. Seriously... I laughed. I know some people say that, but they didn't really laugh. I did.

I'll have more images to show later this week, but I just got back from Bismarck, North DakOHta where I photographed the wedding of my friends Trace & Kristie. It was a little nerve-racking on my end since this was my first wedding as the primary (and only) photographer, but other than a few travel hiccups and an AWOL flash synch cable, I think it went great. Such a fun time, and Trace and Kristie really are fantastic together as you'll see in an upcoming post. In the meantime, as I was downloading all the images, I thought this one below was killer. I love the American Gothic feel it has. Thanks again, Trace & Kristie! Congratulations & God bless!

I was going through my hard drive getting ready for the new, shiny, screaming fast G5 that arrives tomorrow and almost forgot about the images I shot as a 2nd shooter for Melissa Jill at Ashlie and Eric's wedding in Omaha last month. Melissa was so nice to let me tag along and do a little practice dry run before photographing my first (and possibly only) official wedding next month in Bismarck, North Dakota. The great thing about being a 2nd shooter is that you have a ton of freedom and you're not responsible for any of the formal group shots. Sweeeeeet. Basically, you just get to be a little fly on the wall with a big lens all day... loved it. It was great to see Melissa work, though... so helpful to learn from someone who really knows her stuff and consistently turns out fantastic photographic stories from the wedding day. Check out the images she captured that day including the slide show link at the very bottom. Below are a few of the photographs I took during the day. Here's Ashlie getting a little salon love before the ceremony.

The bride's proud mom adoring her little girl.

Eric gave all the groomsmen personally engraved pocket watches. Very cool.

The bride & groom agreed to Melissa suggestion to see each other for before the ceremony for a mini photo session. I'm a big fan of this because not only does it allow them to have a more intimate, emotional moment than seeing each other for the first time in the church, it also means you can finish the formal portraits before the ceremony and go straight to the reception afterwards. I think it's a win-win situation for the wedding party and the guests.

Check out Melissa and fellow 2nd shooter Julie Morriss capturing a cool moment between Ashlie and Eric. Between the three of us, we had our own paparazzi club.

Loved the location of their outdoor ceremony. Not only was it in a beautiful park, but it was right around the corner from the path where Eric proposed to Ashlie

Love the expression on ring bearer and flower girl's faces in this one. Aren't they adorable?

Father of the bride getting ready to give his daughter away.

Melissa getting 'the shot"... again.

A view from the top floor of the Livestock Exchange Building in Omaha. I know what you're thinking, but the name's a little misleading. There were no barnyard animals roaming the reception... it's actually a very cool building.

The guy in the gray shirt on the right look s little nervous thinking the garter might be coming his way.

There was a friendly dance off between one of the guests and the brother of the bride.

I see a ring bearing gig in this guy's future.

This little girl couldn't care less about the camera pointing at her... or about the the ceremony going on behind her.

Congratulations again, Ashlie & Eric. God bless!

Long time friends Mike and Melanie got married over the weekend, and it was awesome to be able to attend an event just to enjoy it without having to photograph it. They asked a couple times, but I still don't photograph weddings. I did take my camera, though, just to snag a couple images. This image is too funny. Apparently there's a tradition in Melanie's family that whenever someone gets married, it's a right of passage that they have to wear the proverbial (or in this case, the literal) ball and chain at the reception.

Not sure how this works, though. Lemme see if I got this right; Melanie's wearing the ball and chain, but Mike has to carry it and chase her around the dance floor for the father-daughter dance??

Random image of my buddy Jerry who at the end of the night decided to trade out a table centerpiece that I think was holding flowers for his beverage glass. Very resourceful... and one of the reason's I think he and Tina could do well on The Amazing Race.

Jerry's wife, Tina, was nice enough to grab my camera and fire off these two shots of Kylie and I standing in this cool field outside the reception hall.

Not sure who picked up my camera off the table and took this image, but whoever it was, 'preciate ya.