The day before leaving for Vegas, this engagement album came in the mail and I’ve been meaning to blog about it ever since. This particular engagement album is special not only because the photos are of the awesome couple, Danielle and John, who are getting married in May, but also because it doubles as a guest sign in book! I think this is one of the most exciting ways to incorporate your engagement photos into your wedding day that I have come across. It is something that I will definitely have when I get married. This way your sign in book becomes a really special keepsake that you will want to pull out and look at for years to come.

Of course you could also get this book as a standard album without all the white space, if you’d prefer to not use it as a sign in book. Either way, I just love it.

On a totally unrelated topic…well, other than the fact that they are both books…I wanted to share info about a book that I’ve been reading that I’m absolutely OBSESSED with. It’s one of those books that I want to tell everyone about, so I figure I might as well blog it. Right? The book is called The Brain that Changes Itself and it is written by Norman Doidge, M.D. Now, let me include the disclaimer that I was a psychology major in college and so I generally love anything that gives insight into how the mind works. Kind of nerdy…I know. haha. But if you are at all interested in that sort of thing, I highly recommend picking up this book. It gets into how we learn and how our brains are plastic and always changing and to be honest, it’s really inspirational. So…go get it. (I just felt the urge to write “but don’t take my word for it”…like old school reading rainbow…that’s really nerdy, huh?)

I was a second shooter for Kelly and Chris’ wedding with Lauri Carbone of Lalee Photography. You can see more photos of their beautiful wedding, which was held at Loews Hotel, on her blog.

It was fun to get to hang out with the guys before the ceremony. Guys tend to have a much more relaxed getting ready routine than the girls, to say the least. Outside of a little shirt drama, these guys were no exception.

Here are a few of my favorites from the day.

Kelly and Chris decided to do a wonderful thing and see each other before the ceremony. When you have a night wedding, in winter, seeing each other before the ceremony is ALWAYS the best idea for photos.

Lucky second flash catching the kiss. This was the end of a six minute ceremony, which might be some sort of record.

I love, love, love this moment. The groom’s grandparents spent the entire night on the dance floor. They can party with the best of them. Here they are encouraging Chris and Kelly to join them. So sweet.

I think my favorite thing about Chris and Kelly, is the history that they and all of their friends share. I don’t think it would have been possible to spend the night with them and not feel it. They went to the same high school along with a large group that they are still friends with…and boy do they know how to have a good time.

I am finally home from Las Vegas. It was a great time and I learned a lot, but I am happy to be home for sure. Vegas is an exhausting city. The last few days we tried to squeeze in all our last minute site seeing (i.e., trudging from casino to casino) and I don’t think I’ve ever walked so much.

One of the things that we got to see was Mandalay Bay’s Shark Reef. It was pretty cool.

Amy lighting up the shark tunnel.

I am sort of bummed that we didn’t make it to the old part of Vegas on our site seeing tour. I went last time I was there and the lights in that area are pretty classic.

On our last day, Lauri and I got to be part of a shooting expedition into the dessert. There were a lot of other photographers and models and it was just a crazy day of mad shooting. These are just a few of my favorites…

If you’re wondering how all these photographers shoot together…it looks something like this.

Lauri, Amy and me. I stole this photo from Amy’s myspace. Do we look fun or what? Woo, woo!

So, now that I’m back I can say that it was nice to be in Vegas while I was there and it is just as nice to be home now.

I am here at the WPPI Convention with Lauri and Mikey and my friend Amy (Jason is not so much a fan of Vegas, so he stayed home. But I miss him!). We are about half way through our trip and we are having an AMAZING time! I am learning so much and feel really, really lucky to be here.

So far, we have spent a lot of the trip exhausted, but we’re getting used to the time difference now and our schedule is a little less intense, so we’re ready to part-ay. ha ha. Tonight we’re going to see Stomp, which I hope will be awesome.

Anyway, less talk more photos. I’ve been trying to keep my point and shoot with me, so here is some of what we’ve been doing/seeing. Sweet!

Well, that’s all I’ve got so far. But keep in mind that I didn’t see the outside of a convention hall until the third day here. ha ha. So hopefully there will be more photos coming! Check back for updates!