By now you probably all know that one of my weaknesses is my inability to condense anything I’m trying to say.  Write a 10 page essay?  Sure no problem!  Summarize my thoughts into a single paragraph? Forget it.  However, I’m going to attempt to be short and sweet on my words with this blog (you’ll know by the end if I succeed or not).  The reason being that as I was processing these photos, I realized how much they speak for themselves.  I decided that all I needed to do was to comment on each photo (like I do for all the wedding photos that we post on Facebook… become a fan if you want to see whenever we post new weddings) to sort of fill in the gaps and let the pictures do their own talking, rather than rambling on and on. The photos from this wedding are very moving and I wanted to have just enough words to add to them without distracting from them.  Ha ha, I think I’ve already failed, so we’ll see how this goes! This is Linzie and Chris.  A freaking beautiful couple, don’t you think!?

These are Chris and Linzie’s friends.

I love how this picture is a little bit sloppy with the motion blur and the barrage of sun flare.  I think it makes it feel a lot like it really was with everyone smashed, bumping into each other, and just having fun with a little bit of chaos.  A very put together photo just wouldn’t have done for this. :-)

And let me just say what awesome friends they are!  These were some of the most helpful bridesmaids I’ve ever seen!  They helped with everything from planning… (we shot a wedding for one of the bridesmaid’s sister so she was kind of enough to tell Linzie about us, thanks Daryl!) …to etiquette (telling Linzie what things were appropriate and were not appropriate, which is a great thing to have advice on!)

Look at all the help she had putting her dress on!

They were helpful even to each other!

They also did a great job relaxing her whenever her nerves were about to get the best of her!

I’m sure the groomsmen did a lot more than just stand around looking cool, but I was with them pretty much just long enough to take this picture that Scottie set up for me, so I can’t really attest to that as much!

But I think that a groomsman’s main job is just to look cool anyways, so I’d say they fulfilled their duties well!

I do think that Chris went above and beyond the normal duties of a groom because he took care of all the flowers!  He has a “go to” lady that has been there for him throughout his entire relationship with Linzie and has provided beautiful flowers for all their major moments, so of course she was there to help out with this big event!

And she did a FANTASTIC job, the flowers were amazing and she worked extra hard to create special designs that reflected the uniqueness of this couple… and her hard worked paid off! Everything from the bouquets and boutonnieres, to the flowers in the aisle and on the cake was perfect!

Call Linda Beeckman in the floral department at AJ’s Fine Foods on Val Vista and Baseline the next time you need flowers for anything!

The flowers weren’t the only thing about this wedding that were beautiful… check out this location.  Three cheers for Ocotillo Golf Resort!

In case you’re wondering… yes, that is a horse drawn carriage!  Linzie rode in with her dad…

… and out with her new husband!

You would think the carriage rides would be the highlight of the wedding, but everything in between rivaled it pretty well!

Sorry carriage ride, but you can’t beat a wedding where you get to witness such genuine emotion between the couple.  This is the stuff I love about weddings.

I hope you’re not too embarrassed by the picture on the left Chris, I totally love it so I had to include it!  Ha ha.

We’ve decided that it’s shots like these that are the reason God made Scottie so tall.

How many times am I allowed to say how good these two look together?  If I haven’t met my quota then insert that comment “HERE”.

This picture makes my smile appear and my eyes water at the same time.  I can’t even tell you how much I love seeing a bride THIS happy on her wedding day.

And when you realize that the groom is equally as happy, then it’s even better!

And Chris, I’m sure you know that it’s a HUGE compliment to say that you are as good looking as this beauty here! :-)

What did I tell you about Ocotillo Golf Resort?

This is what I call the “stunning” section of the blog.

Scottie and I had a little competition over this photo.  He took it from his angle with his vision and I did the same from my own perspective.  Well, lets just say this is mine and I won’t include Scottie’s because I don’t want to embarrass him. ;-)

I loved how this family wasn’t afraid to express their real emotions during these dances.

I was told that grandpa was a tough guy, but even he let a little emotion slip out. Sorry if we ruined your image by capturing you in the “Monkey suit” with this softy look on your face.  But it’s beautiful.

Scottie and I agree that this photo of the father- daughter dance is one of our very favorite photos we’ve ever taken (and by the way he took it, so 1 point for Scottie there).  Let me start by saying that her dress is fine, his hands aren’t dirty, they’re just stained from his line of work.  The reason I love this so much is because it’s so symbolic.  It says so much about how hard he’s worked in his life and these are the moments in his life where it’s payed off as he dances with his wonderful daughter at her beautiful wedding. Plus as he gently puts his rough hands around his daughter in her elegant dress, it shows that he’s worked hard to provide for his family’s physical needs, but that he also cares for them deeply and provides for their emotional needs as well.  One of Scottie’s goals in life is to have “manly hands” like these one day (hopefully he’ll get more than just arthritis in the finger he uses to snap pictures with).

Well I don’t want to make it too serious here because there was also a great party going on all around us that night!

See, I told you it was a fun party!  Click to see and buy the rest of the photos from the Radiant Photobooth here.  And if you want free photobooth pictures on your Facebook page, just fan the Radiant Photography Facebook page, find the photo album called “Linzie & Chris’ Photobooth” and tag yourself in the photos!

Pheww!!  I made it with the short comments!  Now, I’m going to talk as much as I want!!

Thank you Linzie and Chris for being such great people to work with!  And thanks to Linzie’s parents who we spent a lot of time with before the wedding and who worked to make this occasion special even for their measly little photographers! :-)  Every time we met with this family we spent way more time talking and laughing with them than we did going over business stuff… and that’s our favorite kind of meeting.  The first time we met them, Scottie and I both turned to each other and said, “I really want them to book us!”  simply because they were one of the most fun families we’ve ever met!  We love how well they all get along and how Linzie’s parents are involved enough in her life to not only be close to Chris (it helps that he works with her parents of course), but also close with all Linzie’s friends.  Check out the rest of the photos from the wedding to see some great ones of Linzie’s mom hanging out and laughing with all her bridesmaids!  We loved getting an up close view of a family who is so committed to one another and who genuinely enjoying hanging out together!  Thanks for letting us into your world, we take your trust as a HUGE compliment! :-)

We’re looking forward to working with this family even more as we get ready to do a “Unique Session” with Linzie and Chris pretty soon!  If you don’t know what that is, click here.  Keep a look out on our blog for that one because it’s going to be a great session (and if you’re Facebook fans of Radiant, you’ll get notified when those pics go up)!

Click to see the rest of the photos from Chris and Linzie’s fantastic, fun, and beautiful Arizona wedding!

In 2009 Radiant Photography….

• Got 1,100 Facebook fans (the most popular Facebook languages: English-US, English-UK, English- Pirate).
• Had 4,794 first time visitors to our website (from 55 different countries!).
• Had 2,679 first time visitors to our blog.
• Had 2 destination weddings (we count New Mexico and California!).
• Paid off  all debt to become a debt free company.
• Financially supported 6 different non-profit organizations.
• Started doing “Unique Sessions“
• Launched “The Radiant Photobooth“
• Re-designed and launched a new website.
• Was a LOT of work.
• Was a LOT of fun.

And my favorite part of all of 2009….

People found our blog when they searched the following phrases on google (all spelling is exactly how it was searched):

• “giggling bride”
• “a picture of a baibre trampoline with numbers on it”
• “America’s got talent zebra hat girls”
• “barbie shoes wedding”
• “carried off into the sunset photos o wedding days”
• “dear Mr. Technology”
• “gooey peppermint”
• “help get rid of foster care”
• “how to man up a little brother”
• “pool table cake picture”
• “pregnancy picture poses outside in white gown with older brother”
• “prostitute chandler Arizona” (there’s a good reason for this one, so don’t freak out!)
• “what is genuine love” (this person actually spent awhile on our site, so maybe they found the answer!).

Thanks to all our fans, family, and friends who supported us this year!  Thank you for telling everyone you know about us to help create our success this year! We love you all!

I would like you to meet Matt.

We were the photographers at Matt & Amy’s wedding.

(see, this is Amy).

Matt was also a groomsman at a wedding with the Radiant Photobooth.

Where Amy was a bridesmaid as well.

Then Matt was at a party with the Radiant Photobooth….

…a Christmas party…

…with Amy.

Now Matt has earned the title “King of the Radiant Photobooth“!Amy is of course (by rightful earning), Queen.

Thank you, Your Majesties, for helping the Radiant Photobooth be all that it can be!

We want to see you in there again sometime very, very soon.

If you saw these photobooth pictures on our Facebook page, you were probably left with quite a few things to ponder…

Like… how did we get Buddy the Elf to make an appearance?

Can she eat her candy cane costume?

Why is Santa showing his butt off… and doing the Macarena?

What exactly is… that? A person? A faun? Someone distantly related to elves?

Why do those elves look slightly intimidating?

Why did they invite a zombie to the party?

Is this a wanted kiss?

Is he jumping or just really that tall?

While we probably can’t answer any of those questions.  We can tell you a little bit more about what was going on here.  The High School Ministry at Scottsdale Bible church asked us to bring our photobooth to their Christmas Extravaganza party!  And really there is no better word than “Extravaganza” to describe the goings on at this particular party! (Fan us on Facebook so you can tag yourself in the photos).

In case you were wondering, yes, there was an ugly sweater and a costume contest.

(Ms. Candy Cane here one the costume contest)!

This was the first time we didn’t really need the props we bring for the Radiant Photobooth!

The theme of the party was “Techno Christmas” so everyone had a bunch of glowsticks and at random times they’d turn out the lights and turn up techno renditions of Christmas songs for everyone to boogie down to.  This was all complete with a fog machine and red and green spotlights. It was equal parts insane and awesome!

They had a bunch of performances including… 3 grown men dressed as elves doing an interpretive dance, Buddy the elf singing a hilarious Chrismas Medley, and a Christmas music video competition (the Seniors won).

(There was also a skit in which this group made up a family… of some sort).

And all of this was complete with tons hot chocolate, egg nog, cookies, and general sugar all round.  It was the Christmas experience of a lifetime.  I vote that it should definitely be televised next year.  It’d be a better Christmas special than Dick Clark, Jay Leno, Ryan Seacrest, or any of those guys put together could do!

Click here to fan our Facebook page so you can tag yourself in the photos to use on your own profile.

Click here to purchase prints of these photos.

There’s dancing, a cake, decorations, gifts, and Radiant Photography… but no bride?!  Replace the bride with a 16 year old girl, the regular wedding guests with hundreds of high schoolers, wine with Red Bull, and the normal kitchen appliance gifts with posters of Taylor Lautner (that’s Twilight for all you non- teenagers) and you’ve got Morgan’s Sweet 16 Party!

(click to see all the photos from the party)

The set-up was fabulous, the guests were ready for a good time, and the DJ’s were flashing all kinds of lights and turning up the volume.  It was the perfect recipe for the perfect party.

I want to back it up a little bit and tell the story from the beginning…

We showed up early to set up our photobooth and take pics of Morgan and her closest friends getting ready.  It was so fun to hang out with them and hear them talking about all the things they were hoping would happen (or wouldn’t happen for that matter) at the party.

(this is her little sister doing her cousin’s makeup).

We took a few posed photos of the girls and then headed out front for Morgan’s big surprise…

That’s right, she got a Mustang for her birthday!!

Her friends are excited to have a new ride to school!

Once everyone arrived, it didn’t take long for the dance floor to fill up!  The DJ’s were amazing and their set-up was absolutely perfect for this party (and for photos)!

dancing, dancing….

more dancing…

(I guess that’s more like crowd surfing than dancing)

there was a lot of dancing! :-) (click to see even MORE dancing photos from the party)

The other bit of entertainment we had there was the Radiant Photobooth!  These people knew how to work it!

(If you were a guest at the party, make sure you fan our Facebook page so you can tag yourself in the photos and use them in your profile.  You can also buy prints here).

A friend of Morgan’s dad is a graphic designer so he made a logo for her party that was all over the decorations, invitations, and our photobooth backdrop.  Definitely cool.

(This is the logo on a light they had moving around the dance floor… awesome).

Overall, I’d say this party was a huge success… minus the fire in the pool (that was no one’s fault and was put out quickly!).  Happy Birthday Morgan! Thanks for inviting us to be a part of your big moment… we had a great time and it was definitely a memorable party!  I hope you’re too busy driving around in your new car to even read this blog! ;-)

Click to see the rest of the photos from Morgan’s Sweet 16 party!

We have reached a huge milestone that we’ve been working towards for the past 9 months (no, we didn’t grow a baby)…. we paid off our debt!  Now the only debt that we have (both as the Chansons and as Radiant) is school debt!  No more credit card payments, no car payments, no mortgage payments (only because we don’t have a house though- ha ha), and no -absolutely no- business debt to make payments towards!!  Hooray!

So if you are planning your wedding during this recession and you are worried about your vendors going bankrupt and shutting down while holding onto your down payments… never fear, Radiant will still be here!  No one’s going to come take our business because of the money we owe them and no one is going to tell us we can’t come shoot the wedding that you have paid us to shoot!

(These photos were taken with our Radiant photobooth set up, minus our usual white backdrop)

We are not saying this to brag about how good we are with money (in fact we wouldn’t have been in debt in the first place if we were money geniuses) we say it because we have been waiting for the day we can whoop it up and get excited about this feeling of freedom and we want all of you to celebrate with us!  We’re also saying it because we wouldn’t be able to sleep at night if we didn’t publicly give credit where credit is due.  We didn’t do this on our own, we actually took a class on how to become debt free and we had an AMAZING group of people taking this class with us who rallied around us to make sure we actually made it to this day!

Not only that, but the person who led the class was a wonderful woman named Karyn LaRocca who is also a personal budget counselor.  Karyn met with us personally and was always available to help us figure out all the specifics of our finances (which is a big deal because our finances get pretty complicated since we own a business).  Karyn is super passionate about helping people dig themselves out of the hopelessness that debt can bring.  She really truly just wants to see people live their lives to the fullest without the unnecessary stress, relational tension, fear, etc., etc. that debt brings into life and she is very skilled at helping people do that.  Her compassion for people in difficult financial situations is what motivates her daily, so you never have to feel judged or intimidated as you open up about this major area of life that most people are not used to talking about.  If you need help “reclaiming financial control” as Karyn says, then please make sure you call this lady!  Thank you, Karyn, for your passion and dedication to helping people find freedom in life and for working your fingers to the bone every day just so you can help people like us.  We know you pour your heart and soul into your business and we pray that it really pays off for you in the end.  Bottom line… Karyn’s amazing and you should call her!

Karyn can also help you get hooked up with a Financial Peace University class, which is the one we took that brought us to this wonderful day!  If you’re lucky, you’ll end up with people in your class who are as wonderful as the ones we met in our class (even though I don’t think that’s possible since the people in our class were the most amazing people EVER)!  Once you start discussing finances, it’s amazing how many other extremely important issues come to the table as well, like marriage, family, life crises, depression, etc….which is probably exactly why we SHOULD find people we can talk to about money so that we don’t have to go through all these things in life alone! We really do believe we made life long friends as we spent time bonding over these deep issues in life that are usually considered too taboo to talk about in our culture.   We can’t even begin to describe how grateful we are for the Brannans and the Ellisons for walking through all of this with us and for constantly encouraging us, while being very open and genuine about their lives at the same time. You guys seriously, actually, really did change our lives and we will never be the same… for the better of course.  We love you, and your friendships mean the world to us.  Thanks for getting involved in all the messy parts of our life and for working so hard to help us clean them up.

One last hoorah for us…. yay, yay, yay, YAY!  Radiant Photography is DEBT FREE!!!!!!!!!!!

P.S. CALL KARYN!

On a scale of 1-10, I’d say I’m about a 7 when it comes to being sentimental and emotional. That means I don’t cry when someone proposes on the big screen a at a baseball game, but you can find me silently shedding tears when the main character dies in a movie… I consider myself right in the middle when you’re talking about girl sentimentality. So to find me crying during both a wedding and a reception for people I haven’t known for very long… well that must mean that there’s something really special about the people involved.  And that was me (hiding my tears behind my camera) at Emily and Jon’s Scottsdale, Arizona wedding… at multiple points in time.

I’ll start by explaining the couple.  Emily and Jon have been dating since high school (or somewhere around the end of it), only they have hardly ever lived in the same place for long!  I don’t know the whole story, but it has something to do with going away to college and lots and lots of trips over seas… or something like that (forgive me if I’m getting the details wrong on this… just post comments with the corrections)!  All I know is that Jon was living in South Korea up until about a week before their wedding!  Fortunately, he was still being a very good fiance’ and using Skype to help her with all the planning!

You’d think the extreme long distance relationship would be what stands out the most about this couple, and it would be if it wasn’t for the fact that they are one of the funniest couples I’ve ever been around!  They had a slideshow at the very beginning of their ceremony, and let me tell you… you didn’t have to know them very well to be moved to out loud laughter and open mouthed moments of shock at their antics!  The pictures captured their personalities perfectly and it showed how much they really, REALLY love being together.  They truly are best friends and that fact was reinforced through many of the details throughout the day (including the repeat playing of the song “Lucky” by Jason Mraz and Colbie Caillat that says “lucky I’m in love with my best friend”- perfect for them).  I have to brag and say that one of the pics from the slideshow was a picture we took when they were in the bridal party at another wedding we shot.  We were flattered to be included and to be given the chance to show off the pic again (below). :-)

So now that I’ve talked your ear off about the uniqueness of their relationship story, the hilarity of their personalities, and the beauty of their friendship, you’re probably sure that pretty much covers how awesome this couple is.  But oh no… there’s definitely more!  And this has to do with the pieces of their life that make up all of this and have brought them to where they are now.  What I mean by that is, both Emily and Jon have come from unbelievably beautiful families.  I met some of their family members on the day of the wedding for the first time, and even with being that new to my introduction to these people, it did not escape me that there was something very, very special here.

It seems like many people consider a wedding to be the one time that it’s OK for everyone to be selfish. You know the story, the bride is mad that not everyone is looking at her, or the mother of the bride gets upset if her dress isn’t prettier than the dress the mother of the groom is wearing… and it gets worse and worse. Of course this kind of thinking doesn’t make much sense considering that a wedding has to do with the uniting of two people into selfless love, but still… the story we’re fed our entire lives is that wedding days are all about ME.  So here was a family that disregarded that myth completely.

The bride was NOT demanding her bridesmaids pay attention to her every need and jump (out of fear) when called, but rather she was laughing with people and greeting everyone that came in with a welcoming smile.  She was so considerate to all her bridesmaids, family, and vendors… but not in a way that was trying to please everyone (therefore pulling her apart in too many directions), but just in a genuinely caring way.  It was so obvious that this day was about so much more than herself or her love for her fiance… it was about her love for EVERYONE around her general.  For someone to be really thinking about how to care for others on her wedding day (in a way that is not out of obligation or a desire to be a people-pleaser) is a pretty much unheard or thing and it is such a testimony to what a beautiful person Emily really is.  She was shining on the outside AND the inside on her wedding day.

The mothers of both the bride and groom were NOT chewing out the florist because the bows on the flowers were not the right color (they were the right color, that’s just an analogy) or sitting around gossiping about one another, but rather they were talking to people calmly and basking in this special moment of love for their children.  Both mothers were just radiating kindness to both Scottie and I.  When they smiled at us, it was like we could feel their happiness and joy flowing out of both of them (rather than the usual stress and frustration that lies behind the mothers’ eyes at too many other weddings).  Both mothers were just full of genuine compliments and caring comments towards us the entire night.

The fathers blew us away as well.  It was extremely evident that both fathers were heavily involved in their families lives in a way that supported and encouraged all family members to excell in their own individuality, while remaining united in love to their families.  I know that’s a huge statement, but we just couldn’t ignore the strong leadership their fathers both expressed through a level of humbleness (rather than arrogance or dominance).  Both fathers were very verbal in their affirmations and praises of their children and of each others’ child.  They uplifted and spoke so highly of everyone around them, that you couldn’t help but tear up just from knowing how it must feel for a child to hear their father speak of them AND their new spouse in that way.

And then there were the siblings.  Again, the sense of involvement in each others’ lives was apparent.  You could tell they were hardly able to contain their excitement for the wonderful things that were happening in their brother and sister’s lives.  Not to mention, the siblings were just as fun as the couple and the speeches reflected that very well (most the time I was laughing too hard to hold the camera steady).  The friends of the couple who were in the party were just as excited for this couple and their speeches were laced with a genuine awe for their friends who they look up to as examples.

Here’s a shot of Jon and his brother…

This is Emily’s brother giving his awesome speech (and apparently Jon heartily agrees with what’s he’s saying)!

So you try sitting through speech after speech that reflects the kind of love and genuine family bond that you’ve seen demonstrated all day, where a mom cries when talking about how much her son has affirmed and encouraged her since he was a little boy, and a father talks about his emotions throughout the progression of his little girl’s relationship from a crush to marriage and see if you can keep from tearing up… it’s really hard!

So thank you to Emily and Jon (and families) for letting us witness such a truly beautiful moment in the lives of such truly remarkable individuals.  We wish the best to all of you.

P.S. I had the hardest time deciding what pictures to put in this post because so many of them communicate all the stuff I’m talking about.  So you really should check out all the pictures from Emily & Jon’s wedding.  And speaking of how fun everyone at this wedding was… check out all the wedding photobooth pictures (like the one below)!