arizona wedding photography ~ brenda eden photography

Sunflowers and the longest day of the year!

Happy happy happy longest day of the year to you and yours! Happy first day of Summer!

Here are the photos of the sunflowers I was talking about in the post below this. Back in January I had told my mom it would be cool to plant a ton of sunflowers to use as a background for photos. I planted one of the seed packages but the I got busy and never got around to planting the rest of them. My mom saw how busy I was and took over planting them for me. She was getting concerned that they were never going to bloom and it did seem like it was taking longer than it should. The seed package made it sound like they would be blooming in early May and when they didn’t, I kind of figured it just wasn’t going to happen. But finally they did start blooming in the last few weeks, first the mammoth flowers that are buttercup yellow, super tall, with faces the size of a dinner plate and look exactly as you expect sunflowers to look. And then in the last week or so, the unusual ones have started blooming. These ones are a delight because I have never seen sunflowers like them before. See, Mom? They are blooming awesomely and I really hope you get to see them soon! :)

{teepees and stars and sunflowers}

Lately I am obsessed with the idea of teepees, so I decided to make one. I have bamboo growing in my backyard, so I cut about 8 stalks of bamboo and fitted them together with wire. After that I was going to fit some painter’s canvas that I had around the teepee structure, but I got busy and didn’t get back to it for a few weeks. In that time, the grape vines growing in my backyard started to come after my teepee. Literally come after it! Even though the teepee structure was sitting about ten feet away from the grapevine branches, these swirling branches are reaching out and grabbing for the teepee. A few branches have made it to the teepee and are wrapping around it. I will take pictures of that and show you what I mean.

I’m pretty sure my recent teepee obsession can be linked back to Pinterest.

Have you heard of Pinterest?

It’s a really great way to keep track of images and ideas that inspire you. It’s seem so handy for any creative endeavor you might try to undertake. Planning a wedding? Make a Pinterest board to keep all your ideas in one place. Remodeling or decorating your house? Definitely a good way to keep all your ideas in one place. 

Here is my Pinterest board to inspire me to do a photoshoot with a teepee (and stars and sunflowers): Teepees and Stars and Sunflowers.

 

So I keep thinking I want to make a teepee and use it in a photoshoot. It would be a great prop for a kid’s photoshoot or even for adults too. It seems like there are so many ways it could be used.  So when I finally make my teepee and use it in my photographs, I want to also somehow incorporate stars and sunflowers.  Stars because it seems like stars go along with the idea of a teepee. At night you would sit in your teepee and stare up and out at the stars above. And sunflowers because the sunflowers my mom planted have finally started to bloom. She planted the regular varieties – mammoth tiger striped sunflowers and also some unusual varieties. Soon I will post photos of some of the sunflowers.

Heather + Joseph

One of Heather + Joseph from their wedding at the Phoenix Art Museum yesterday. More soon!

Kim + Reggie

Kim and Reggie got married last recently and here are some images from their beautiful wedding! 

My friend Amy of Amy Hill Photography came along to help me photograph.

Kim getting ready:

Kim, you are gorgeous.

One thing I love to do when photographing weddings is try to capture moments that my bride and groom weren't around to see. I relish the idea of the bride and groom and their family looking at the photos later on and asking each other, So what was happening here? Why were you laughing there? What were you saying in this image? That way they get to have a bigger picture of their big day.  In the photo above I like that I captured Kim's dog jumping out the door at that exact second. There are lots of other images of Kim putting on her silver shoes, but this one is my favorite. In the photo below, I heard the grandson ask how to put the tie on and then Kim's father showed him how.

We met at the San Marcos Resort  in Chandler for bridal party portraits. 

Everyone waiting for the ceremony to start.

Kim's father walking with her down the aisle.

I love capturing the guests' reactions. 

Jumping the broom.

I love this image Amy got of the kids coming into the reception after the ceremony.

Kim's father played Ave Maria at the start of the reception. It was so beautiful.

I loved the expressions of the kids watching Kim and Reggie cut and share the wedding cake with each other.

So intense! It's like they are watching the Happily Ever After part of a movie.

So I almost never pose photos. Maybe one a wedding. (I pose group shots and portraits, but otherwise I photograph what is happening.) So this right here is my one posed one. Not long after their parents sliced the wedding cake, the brother brought a slice of cake over and handed it to his sister. And I got a photo of that. But just to be sure I got a good one, I asked him to do it again, because it was soooo cute.  So here's the staged-handing-his-sister a slice of wedding cake photo.

Kim has three sisters and one of her sisters caught the bouquet.

Kim and Reggie's daughter requested that the DJ play Justin Bieber's song Baby featuring Ludacris. (Warning: the song will be in your head all day if you click that link!)

And then all the girls were dancing.

See that little bell on her hand? Pretty sure it was one of the favors on the tables. :)

Thank you Kim & Reggie for having us at your beautiful wedding! I am so happy for you guys! :)

Searching for photographers for your wedding? Click HERE to contact us. Just fill out the form and Brenda or Becky will send you more information. :)

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Kiki loves to chase and hardly ever looks this serious.

Poor Kiki. He doesn't always look this serious. But the light was so incredibly pretty the day I took this photo, that I had to chase him around with the big black snappy box.

He actually loves to chase and be chased. Sometimes he will walk up to me all calm and like it's no big deal, and then he will bat at me with his paw and take off running down the hall. The funniest thing is when he encounters one of the other cats in the hall. He will leap over them and sometimes they will start chasing him and of course I will start chasing him, because that is exactly what he wants!

{Acido Dorado}

Acido Dorado in California 

I wish I could go and stay here. Like get in the car right now and drive out across the Arizona desert into the California desert. But since I can't go now, I would love to go sometime during monsoon season. I'd love to stay up late and watch thunder and lighting from the windows of this amazing house, and I would love to wake up just as it was getting light in one of these gorgeous rooms. 

I came across information about this vacation rental called Acido Dorado by architect Robert Stone near Joshua Tree in California a few months ago.

It's 1400 square feet, $440 to rent per night on weekends (2 night minimum) and I just really, really want to go here someday. Seems pretty dreamy. I am just so drawn to the idea of going and staying in the desert and watching the light of the day from this house, from sunrise to sunset and then all the stars at night. And of course, I would bring my camera. I have read that people have had weddings here, which seems like such a fun idea.

More info about Acido Dorado *  Photos above from this website

Two sisters

These two sisters and their parents are just absolute sunshine. They came over around Easter for portraits.  I could post so many of them and I think I will come back and post more, but here are a few for now.....