October weddings in Montana are always a gamble…it might be snowing and 20 degrees out, or it might be sunny and 78, you just never know!  Kelly and Grant really wanted outdoor photos, so we prayed for good weather.  What we got was very strong freezing winds that about knocked the breath out of us!  But I’m looking at these photos and I can barely even remember my fingers almost falling off from the biting wind.  They just look in love (and warm!), and Kelly’s absolutely glowing and radiant.  There are a few images where you can see her hands clenched into fists while denying the cold, but other than that it could’ve been a summer day in Helena!

Anyway, the wedding was at St. Paul’s and the reception took place at the Great Northern.  There were tons of fun folks to celebrate the day, and it was a beautiful affair all around.  Thanks for including us, Mr. and Mrs. Todd!  Enjoy the video and the images.

Miss Pink Fairy, a.k.a. darling little Drew.  Drew and her family will receive a complimentary Premiere Session.  Monkey boy, a.k.a. adorable little Brody, came in second place, and will receive a complimentary 8×10 from their next session.  Congrats to both Drew and Brody!

Thank you to all who participated and made this event such a success.  We’ve had a ton of great response to the contest and are brainstorming other fun things we can do (we love to hear from our readers, so please leave a comment if you have any ideas!)

A couple of my friends have displays up right now that you need to check out.  Eric Wordal, of Masterpiece Portraits (www.ericwordal.com), has some images on display at the Starbucks on the Gulch.  And Miss Ginny Emery, previously an IR staff photographer, is launching her own business (Wandering Albatross Photography) and will have a display up at Imagine Designs on Euclid.  I believe they are having an open house on Saturday.  They are both really cool folks and do great work.

Guess Ms. Andrea Jones needs to get her buns in gear and put up a display, too!

I completely forgot to post about the Art Walk!  We will be at Pipsqueak’s tonight, along with several other artists for “The Art of Mothering,” from 6-10 pm.  Here’s what Sarah from Pipsqueak’s said in her email blast:

“The Fall Art Walk is this Friday, November 14th from 6pm to 10pm.  This is our first art walk and we are SO excited!  Our event is titled the “Art of Mothering” and we’ve got interactive and live art the whole family will love. If you art walk with your kids, they are welcome to come make origami in our playroom…we’re going to decorate the ceiling with all the birds and dinosaures they can fold up!  Andrea Jones will be showing the very best of her pregnancy and baby photography as well as displaying a slideshow of her favorite images.  Traci Palagi will be showing homebirth stills and answering all the questions she can about the art of birthing at home.  At 7pm our lovely pregnant models will begin to be pampered with live belly casting and henna art.  Valerie Lehman will be applying henna and showing her sterling silver pregnant goddess jewelry.  Of course there will be refreshments, when you stop into Pipsqueak you can look forward to a taste of wine, some hot spiced cidar, and yummy snacks!” 

Pipsqueak second chance boutique
639 Helena Ave, Suite C
Helena, MT 59601
406-443-PIPS (7477)

If you haven’t been in to check out the great stuff at Pipsqueaks, tonight’s the night!  Hope to see you there.

We still need a few more folks if we are going to pull off one more mini-session day.  If you are interested or know anyone who might be, please have them call us to get on the list, or you can post a comment here.  We’d love to help out the folks who are on the list, but need at least 3 more people.

Just a heads up…the November 14 cutoff is for sessions to take place, NOT for placing orders.  The order deadline is November 25.  I think I confused everyone with my earlier lingo.  So no worries, folks, there’s still time!  Specialty products may not arrive in time for Christmas, though, depending on vendor cutoffs and turn-around times, so if you know you want to give that special someone a photo handbag or jewelry, etc it’s still a good idea to call us ASAP.

The Halloween portraits during the Little Tykes Trick-or-Treat was a huge success!  We had so much fun seeing all the kiddos in their costumes.  It was the first time we’d tried out the “choose your images before you leave” thing, and while the system could definitely be improved, it was a great way for us to streamline the process so we can get the orders done quickly.  We’re almost done with the editing, then we’ll be posting a poll on the blog (ahem, I’m sure I can figure out how to do that!) so you can all vote for the best costume.  Start stalking the blog, and get all your friends and family to vote if you had little ones photographed.

For now, here are a few of the Jones clan, who are, for obvious reasons, not eligible for the contest