sara & eric

we met sara & eric at elyse & corey's wedding a few weeks back. they loved our work so much after seeing our reception slideshow, they opted to trash her dress in style at larrabee state park located on the shores of bellingham, washington. the park serves as eric's former stomping grounds for rock climbing and they both have fond memories of the scenic locale. the weekend prior, they drove up from seattle to scout the location and it was raining and windy.... not exactly the perfect stage for a bridal portrait session.

so when the big day came, we were super boy scout prepared... i'm talking about a pop-up shelter, blankets, and a gas-powered space heater they packed in. when we left the parking lot, we looked more like we were going overnight backpacking :)

sara and eric were 100% up for anything. the goal of the shoot wasn't necessarily to 'trash' the dress, but photograph them in a beautiful setting without concern of keeping the dress pristine. most brides cringe at the idea of doing something like this on the day of the wedding. sara and eric embraced it. sara even commented how dirty her dress looked after dancing at their reception and figured it couldn't get much worse.

i say if you are gonna make the effort of putting a wedding dress back on (which can be an emotional experience for some brides), either go big or go home!

and we went big HUGE. view their slideshow by clicking HERE.


part of their modern platinum package included a 'summer salsa' bridal bouquet and a vintage bottle of dom perignon.



the moment of just letting go...



after sunset, we busted out the strobes for some high-end lighting. the champagne didn't last long.


then went back to playing in the sand :)



... and then wrapped things up with some edgy lightpainting using mini-softboxes and halogen flashlights lightsabers.