During the month of February I had the opportunity to work with the Grand Rapids Region of the American Heart Association. In their effort to promote Heart Wellness Month particularly as it affects women, they asked me to take photographs of women that would be used on billboards throughout Grand Rapids and Kalamazoo.

The Grand Rapids billboard

The Kalamazoo billboard

As their culminating activity, they hosted a Go Red for Women luncheon at the Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculture Park. Again, I had the opportunity to photograph many of the women for their Circle of Red display boards that were put together by Joe Petz of X-Rite Inc.

It was a wonderful event with heartfelt stories of women surviving heart disease. To wrap up the luncheon, they heard from Diana Nyad, the great long distant swimmer and comentator for National Public Radio.

I was really glad that I was able to contribute my photography to this very worthwile cause in honor of my granddaughter, Kaitlin, who was born with a heart problem.

I am happy to say that after surgery as an infant, she is one active little girl who is now six years old.

One of the more unique weddings I have had the privilege to photograph happened this past summer. It was the wedding of Stephanie and Christopher, who both live in Chicago, but Stephanie’s parents live in Douglas, Michigan., near Saugatuck.

What made it unique was the attitude of the bride and groom and her mother’s artistic flare. You see, the bride’s mom operates the Art Barn where individuals and groups can go and create art in the areas of glass, jewelry, ceramics, and painting as well as others. The bride and all the bride’s maids made their own jewelry for the wedding.

The wedding took place in a white tent on a bluff overlooking Lake Michigan. The wedding itself was quite tradition except for the setting. The bride and groom created their own vows which reflected their individually and how they wanted to help the other become the person they wanted to be. The flowers were exquisite and were done by Barry Jeter of Procedo Events in Saugatuck.

They rode to the reception, which was at her parent’s house, in an old Ford roadster that the bride’s father had restored.

They also had a huge white tent erected in their yard with little sitting areas near the tent. All the tables were covered with black and white striped table clothes and instead of chair covers, a simple colored piece of cloth was draped over the chair back, very simple but very colorful.

One of the unique things I had never seen before was a candy buffet. One table was filled with all kinds of old fashioned candy in containers. It was arranged so that there were different levels like a floral arrangement. They also has little plastic takeout boxes that people could use to take the candy with them.

Since the bride’s mother was an artist, she had made purses made out of glass that the bride’s maids put their flowers in for the reception.

Instead of a sit down meal or buffet, they had grazing stations through out the tent with a large variety of different foods from Italian to Chinese to American. People could just help them selves at their leisure. The other thing that made this different is that the Bride and Groom did not have a head table, they just table hopped throughout the evening.

Angie and Brett are both veterinarians who work and live in Kalamazoo but they met at the Veterinary School at Michigan State University. So, on Friday we went to the campus for our informal photo session. We wandered around the batonical gardens, took a photo in front of Sparty, and went to the 4-H Children’s Garden which is next to the Veterinary School.

In most sessions like this, there is one photo that really stands out and captures the personality of the couple. For me, it was this one.

This is one of my favorite areas in Grand Rapids, the Calvin College lagoons, to take the informal photos for weddings. We had a great time taking photos at the different locations in this little area off The Beltline and Burton. Here are a few more photos from that session.

Traci & Yannick will be getting married on August 2, 2008.