Back at their engagement session, Ryan had said the thing he was most looking forward to about their wedding day was, “finally being able to call Jennie my wife and making her so happy.” Now they are finally husband and wife and I was so honored to be there to witness their marriage and document their memories. We had gorgeous temperatures for April (somewhere in the mid-80s!), but along with that, we had ferocious winds. Thankfully, on one side of The Midnight Gem, where the light was also great, we had a pretty decent wind block so we made major use of that area. (Also, thankfully, the ..read more

Dana and Danny met in Chihuahua, Mexico in 2016 while they were both on an optometry medical mission. “During that trip, we didn’t have many interactions as he was working mostly with third and fourth your students at the slit lamps (the devices we use to assess the front and back surface of the eye),” Dana recalls. “As a second year, I didn’t really know much about disease and avoided that area like the plague even though we were supposed to rotate through all sections. We had a handful of conversations in which he was very nice and showed me cool photos of things they saw…and that was about ..read more

Ever since my kids were young, but especially now that they are school age, summertime has been a time for all the day trip adventures. Since I’m a wedding photographer, summers are typically very busy so short little bursts of adventures are the perfect way to make memories and have fun without committing a lot of time or money. I finally feel like I’ve had enough summers as a mom of planning these fun adventures together that I am confident compiling a solid, though not comprehensive, list to help other families get out and make memories together too.  For reference, I have two children ..read more

I had been looking forward to this [almost] New Year’s Eve wedding ever since Mollie & Dylan first reached out, in part because I had photographed Mollie’s cousin’s wedding last New Year’s Eve and it felt very kismet to reunite with that whole extended family again for another holiday wedding! Then I got to know Mollie and Dylan and I got even more excited. They are so kind, laid back, and trusting. I photographed their engagement session on Dylan’s family’s farm earlier this year and got to meet Zoey, their dog, who joined us again briefly on their wedding day. They chose beautiful dark ..read more

Planning a wedding in three months time is no small feat, and doing that while living in India, a 12-hour difference in timezones, is especially challenging! Mary’s parents picked up the bulk of the local planning in Iowa with Mary flying back once from India to pack in a bunch of planning, including buying a wedding gown. Michael’s parents and siblings all secured visas from South Africa, which was an enormous blessing, and everyone started arriving in the States around Christmas! With a wonderful week of holidays and togetherness leading up to the wedding, the festivities and happiness just ..read more

“I’m so grateful to books, and I’m so grateful to have grown up in a family where my love of reading was not only accepted but fostered. Reading fosters such curiosity, such thirst for knowledge outside of one’s own life. Through fiction we discover entire worlds. Entire dreams.   “These days, especially, as we desperately seek to understand each other, I remain convinced that no one who has made reading a part of their lives is ever too far from the ability to see and appreciate the humanity of a stranger and their people. I don’t say this to be a snob (a usually credible accusation ..read more

I first met Mary several years ago when I photographed her sister Eva’s wedding. In the time since, Mary moved to India, where she directs a Hindi-Urdu language learning center in Delhi. Her business co-owner was the one who first mentioned Michael to her. Michael grew up on a game farm (“basically a house in the woods with wild safari animals around”) in South Africa and was interested in learning Urdu. “I did his sales call over Zoom and, of course, thought he was cute and also had been told by my co-worker that Michael was a really good guy (said with a wink-wink and a nod-nod),” Mary said ..read more

They met at a mutual friend’s house during an Iowa v. Iowa State football game. “Jace swears I ignored him, but he was really just too nervous to talk to me,” said Amy. Their first official date was a few months later to a hockey game where Jace “thought I had made her angry or offended her, but it turns out, it was just bad hockey.” Both of them knew very early in their relationship that this would be their forever. Jace described the first time they had really talked. “I had been trying to figure out a way to talk to her since the CyHawk game in the fall and this was the first chance. I had ..read more

I’m so excited for Ashley and Jon to welcome their first child into their home! I have been lucky enough to know them for several years now, since their engagement back in early 2021 and then their wedding that fall. We took pictures both times at Vander Veer Park in Davenport so it was a perfect full circle to go back to the same place for this next big chapter of their lives: parenthood! We’ve been there now in the winter, spring, and fall so I guess we are just missing summertime ..read more

It was an overcast, but otherwise lovely day for Maddison and Aaron’s December wedding at Bella Sala. The temperatures weren’t bitterly cold like they had been leading up to the wedding and the lack of a breeze helped! I have been so excited for this wedding ever since I first heard from Maddison over a year ago! I had first met her when I was photographing Jessica and Chase’s wedding details and Maddison, a bridesmaid, was in the room with me, steaming gowns. As I recall, she told me she doesn’t like to sit around so she was keeping busy, being helpful. We chatted about how sh ..read more