so last week danielle and i had a little vow renewal ceremony at elmwood gardens.  (that place we were married 10 years ago.)  for the past 5-6 years we have held a little ceremony in our backyard with just our kids and it’s always been a blast so this year we decided to go all out. well, as all out as our budget would allow.  rule number one was pay cash.  after all it’s only 1 day. right. (more on that later.)

the main reason we wanted to do this was to give our kids a tangible memory/moment to look back on so they know that we are committed to each other till death do us part.  (that’s code for when danielle kills me.)  so, in keeping with that theme we really let them decide on most of details of the day.

HUGE HUGE props to elmwood for making the day run smooth, brandi burkett for all the wonderful images, and vanessa mckellar for a killer video that you’ll want to view at the end of this post.

on to the images.

this was danielle’s bouquet from our wedding day and it made for great potpourri flower girl basket toss dealy boppers

this is as dressy as jo gets.  (all our kids selected their own outfits)
luke and eli at almost 2 years apart but they look close enough to where people always ask them if they are twin.  lately they ave decided to start saying yes.  the latest part of this phase has involved matching outfits.

you can’t get married without a ring bear.

sara was totally into the vows.  including creeping on what i had to say before i said it.

we are not too big on jewelry over here.  i ditched my ring for a tattoo and danielle has only ever had a $300 band.  so far so good.

awesome tasting cookie/cake thing from edible art. (i may have eaten 6 pieces of leftover in one sitting later in the week.)

why get boring monogramed napkins when you can blow all your money on fancy plates?

we had 2 options for cool getaway photos.

1. give lots of little people fire stick to hold.
2. come up with something better.

we went with option 2.

i’m not gonna lie.  it was super fun to get married all over again.  need more proof?  watch this 3 minute trailer.

i love shooting weddings when they happen at people’s homes.  it really gives them a laid back feel.  almost a throwback to a simpler time.  a simpler time when you have a famous country rock star legend at your house.  :)  that was jus the case when kay and wayman got married last month and they had joe nichols  play their reception.  needless to say it was a blast.

lori valenti from Event Services put the whole thing together and she did an AMAZING job.

and how about a bit of mug machine to top off the evening?

hey look everyone!  it’s gini & charlie!
and… for all you brides out there planning a wedding, you too can have this very same wedding.  just call up all these people.  (and joe)

Perfect Catering
http://www.perfectcateringonline.com

Event Services
Lori@perfectcateringonline.com

Fantasy & Fairytale Floral Designs
fantasyandfairytalefloral@yahoo.com

Cindy’s Creative Cakes
cakesbycindy@cakesbycindy.com

Stageworks (lighting and sound)
tommyochoa189@yahoo.com

Iron Inspired – shepherds hooks, lanterns, fireplace set up
Iron4urwedding@aol.com

A-1 Party & Tent Rental
A1partyrental@cablelynx.com

Dino Perelli Videographer
dino@jamyeperelli.com

a few months ago lee proposed to this one girl names kristin. we thought going back to the place where it all went down would be a fun idea. check out a few of the images and if you have not been there, you totally need to check out lago del pino.

you want to see 59 images from my trip to haiti right?  i thought so.

leaving my wife and kids for the week was by far the hardest part.  the longest i had been away from them up to this point was 3 days.  it was a long 8 days for me and a longer 8 days for danielle.  HUGE shout out to her for allowing me to go and taking her parenting to another level while i was gone.

this is what a sunrise looks like in haiti.  it’s kinda cool.

our church partnered with an organization called praying pelican.  they have groups coming and going all the time and this was our swanky school bus that we rode around in.

we arrived late saturday night and so we missed the “early” church service.  we ended up going to the late one at 9:30am. :)  this was the church we attended and one of the kids’ sunday school classes.

there were steps coming down from one of the classrooms and right on the other side of them was this.  the theme of beauty right next to trash was something that kept appearing the whole week we were there.

having a camera around your neck makes you pretty popular with kids and less so with grown ups.  the boys all posed on their own for their shots.

i found this on one of the bulletin boards at the church.

for most of the week, we spent our days moving rocks and shoveling dirt to help build a church.  this tent is where they meet now and the building should be done in about a year.

here i am being a baller at an orphanage.  i crushed the 10 & 12 year old kids.  i got mad skillz.

there were so many adorable kids everywhere you looked.  here are just a few of them.

boom.  just like that.  i didn’t pose them.

i loved seeing their faces when they saw their pictures on the back of my camera.

check out the toy car this kid made.  it’s both awesome and heartbreaking all at once.

again, haiti is both beautiful and sad all at once.  gorgeous coast line filled with tent houses that have tarps for roofs.

trash piles along the city road.

many of the houses had broken bottles along the walls for security.  keeps people from jumping over.  pretty cool idea.

i went to one orphanage/school that had this for a basketball goal.  for comparison we have 4 basketball goals with backboards, rims and nets at our house.

these three kids were walking a long long way to bring some water back home.

they have these things called “tap tap”s there. you jump on when you want to, tap when you want to get off, and then pay.  this was a nice one.  most of them are really small pickups.

saw two tires buried in random locations.  figured they were worth photographing.

that tiny white dot is a man doing a bit of farming.

our last day we went to this beach.  how awesome is this coast line.

and this is along the shore.
again, haiti was an amazing experience and my heart breaks for the people there.  they live in a gorgeous country and have been dealt an incredibly hard hand.  it’s both the most beautiful place i’ve ever been to as well as the saddest place i have ever visited.  i can’t wait to go back.

just got back from a week in haiti.  it was a heartbreaking experience.  i’ll be posting images in the coming week but for now i’ll share a video that i put together for us to show in our church yesterday morning.