garden wedding. { frost on flower }

A few years ago Tyler and I had new gutters put on our house.  Our old gutters were original to the home and were full of big holes.  This was causing quite the problem in our basement which had it's own set of holes.  The person who did the work was a referral from a friend in Oklahoma.  After our gutters were installed we ordered gutter screens through that friend but he was unfortunately unable to install them for us.  We planned to get around to it but, as happens too often with home projects, we didn't get around to it as quickly as we would have liked.  Part of the problem was that the screens had to be trimmed a bit to fit and we also don't own a ladder tall enough to reach our second floor.  Our gutters got clogged and some were overflowing.

I wasn't able to do a darn thing without a ladder and with a small baby at home.  So I sat down and thought hard about what we could do - paying someone to do it just wasn't feasible at the time.  And then it dawned on me!  Trading!  I LOVE trading services!  So I posted a little add on Craigslist and was overwhelmed with responses.

I settled on a guy named Joel.  He works for a roofing company that was doing a lot of work in my neighborhood, specifically roof and siding work after the tornado went through north Minneapolis last May.  We weighed the numbers and Joel decided he would install the screens and do some other custom wood work on our exterior.  He was also gracious enough to reroof our garage, which was basically to the point of caving in, for a very low cost.

Over the course of last summer and earlier this summer Tyler and I both got to know Joel and even invited him in for dinner while he was working on our garage.  Little by little we learned more about him, his family, his fiance, and their wedding.

A couple of weeks ago I was finally able to hold up by end of our trade - I photographed his lovely wedding in Lindstrom, MN!

Be warned... there are A LOT of photos in this post!

Best first look reaction ever:







Lots of great buildings and textures at the Gammelgarden Museum.











Stretching out smile muscles:









Great groom & best man "pose" after arriving at the Panola Valley Gardens:



Snack break for the guys, just as it was starting to rain:



Twinsies:



Attempting to take cover from the rain in a little wooded area:



Portraits with the bridesmaids and family took place under the cover of the ceremony location:







The father of the bride was still a little wet from our previous adventure:



I love the series of photos I got of the bride & groom attempting to pose with the groom's niece and nephew.  This one, of everyone checking out his blue tongue, is my favorite:



The rain cleared up just before the ceremony so we were able to squeeze in a couple of wedding party shots:



I grabbed the rings and the wedding party prepared themselves:



Great idea! We programs/fans for a potential hot August day:



Oreo cookie break, of course:



Antsy little guy climbed up the gazebo.  He was dressed, ready, and waiting hours before the ceremony:







The groom's parents flew in from Japan.  The groom's father officiated:































The receiving line was in a perfect location:





The groom's grandfather gave the blessing before dinner:



The kids REALLY enjoyed the "Just Married" balloons and the large dance floor:















After dinner and speeches by family and the wedding party everyone watched a slideshow of highlights from the bride & groom growing up and their lives together:



Lovely first dance:





I love father/daughter dance hands, I think it's my "thing":











It's been so nice to get to know Joel, his wife, and his family.  A big thanks to Craigslist for an awesome trade!

Congratulations Amy & Joel!!

fall mini sessions! { frost on flower }

Summer isn't quite over yet but fall is certainly in the air. It's time to start thinking about warm cider, crunchy leaves, little Halloween costumes and.. photos! Schedule your session today! :)

olive's first trip to the fair.

Honestly, I don't love the fair.

I don't think I went to state fairs much growing up - we lived in the "city" and they're usually in the "country". I grew up going to the summer festival in my downtown. Really fun, but really different. In college I went to a county fair. Yep, I did.

Since living in Minnesota I've been to the state fair three times. Why do I suddenly attend the fair? It's a little different here because the fair is located right in St. Paul - in the "city". So it doesn't take much planning or extra work to attend. This also makes it really really really busy.

Busy. That is one of the reasons I don't really like the fair. It is SO unbelievably FULL of PEOPLE. Oh my gosh. My first two times I attended on the weekend - obviously more people

Expensive. You have to pay to get into the fair and then pay to do just about anything once you're inside. One of the big draws is food. Specifically food on a stick. Weird, right? I'm cheap frugal.. so expensive fair food is not really my thing.

There are many vendors selling all kinds of things. From trinkets to wine to soap to trucks and snow plows. Nothing I really need. Especially when it cost 25x more than it would not at the fair.

There is music at the fair. But I don't really care. There are big buildings full of animals... I guess that's pretty ok.

This year I thought Olive might enjoy going to the fair. We didn't take her last year - I wasn't interested in lugging baby and baby gear through seas of people. This year I thought she would probably be a bit more interested, we probably carry around fewer baby care items, and I thought going during the week would be a little less... stressful and overwhelming. For both of us.

Our friends Amber and Ethan came along. We met at a park and ride lot in Roseville and took a bus. For free. Instead of paying something like $15 closer to the fair. The bus ride was maybe 10 minutes long. I'm not really sure why would park closer and pay that much.

We wandered around. Ate some food. Had a malt (sugar - oh no!). Found some dogs - looked at them, pet them, got licked by them. Went potty a million times. Drank some water. And took the bus back to our cars when Ethan and Olive started acting a little too sleepy. We're deathly afraid of car naps.

Here are some highlights of our morning:

Riding a big bus:



 

Being cool (actually it was very hot):



 

Olive and some plastic bottles. I guess only 25% of plastic bottles get recycled in Minnesota.  Come on folks...



 

Sampling some kohlrabi soup, after having had some local popcorn, and some local drinkable yogurt:



 

Checking out the dogs.  Specifically this one putting a child.



 

After our third stop for potty we stumbled upon the "Lactation Station" and stopped inside for some "me me":



 

We waited in this line in the dairy building.  Fresh dairy.  From Minnesota farmers.  With pride!  You pay first - so I ordered a chocolate malt (sugar - oops!) and a blueberry yogurt.  Then you go up to the next counter where you get your things.  They handed me a low fat Land o Lakes blueberry yogurt.  Full of weird things included High Fructose Corn Syrup.  Local?  Fresh?  With pride?  I was bothered.



 

Some butter ladies:



 

Oh hi butter girl.