The Wedding of Melissa Goodell and Janus Abello - 24 June 2012

The part of the ceremony officiated by Vince Hawkins, lead minister of the Columbia Church of Christ.

This past weekend, I traveled to Columbia, Missouri, to attend the wedding of my friends, Melissa Goodell and Janus Abello. Both the ceremony and the reception were held at Columbia College. They chose to have their ceremony on a Sunday, which is a little unusual, but I liked that I could drive down to Columbia after church.

I first met Melissa when she moved to Columbia to be closer to her then-boyfriend, Brandon. Being from Boston, we instantly bonded over our shared love of the Red Sox. One of my earliest memories with her is watching 'Fever Pitch' with Jimmy Fallon and Drew Barrymore and relishing thoughts of Fenway Park. That and helping her learn how to drive a manual-transmission car. And Janus, I can't remember when I met him, but I've known him for a while. He's originally from Anchorage, Alaska, and came to Columbia to study at the University of Missouri. I think it's pretty cool how God brought them both thousands of miles from home to meet each other, took them halfway across the world to Novosibirsk, Russia, for them to fall in love, and then solidify that love into marriage back in Columbia, Missouri.

Here's some of my favorites:

   

Maks, the lead minister of the Novosibirsk Church of Christ, traveled to Columbia to be part of their wedding. He prayed in Russian (left). The vows portion (right) was officiated by the other minister in the Columbia church, Jason Touchatt. Melissa cries as Janus read his vows. I cried, too. They were great. He talked about how parts of Melissa's character initially scared him because they were so amazing.

The Wedding of Jamie and Mark Roberts - 11 June 11

This past weekend, I assisted my friend, Stacy, in covering the wedding of Jamie and Mark Roberts. Held at Powell Gardens in Kingsville, Mo. (in the Kansas City Metropolitan area). Powell Gardens is a 915-acre botanical garden featuring 6,000 varieties of plants, with 225,000 plants in seasonal displays. The wedding itself was held with the garden's small lake as its backdrop, and thankfully, there was a nice breeze and it wasn't too hot. (Most outdoor weddings I've been to have been on the warm side.)

Here are some of my favorites from the day:

  
One of the things I love to do when I cover a wedding is capture those unposed moments. These two images really highlight the playfulness of their relationship.

  
While we were walking around the garden, Jamie caught sight of a statue and decided she wanted to imitate it. And then Mark followed suit.


As part of the ceremony, two of their friends, Lisa and Jeff, read some scriptures that had special meaning for the couple. This was taken while the reading was happening.

The Allen-Fugate Wedding - 30 April 2011

On April 30th, I traveled to Columbia, Missouri, to attend the wedding of my friends, Monique Allen and Shawn Fugate. The marriage is a joining of two families: Monique and her sons, Vonnie and Shawn, and Shawn and his children, Corey and Kayley.

Here are some of my favorites:

Monique's son, Shawn, right, and Shawn's son, Corey, serve as candle lighters. I love Shawn's concentration and concern over keeping the flame lit.


Monique reacts to seeing someone in the crowd as she is escorted down the aisle by her father.


Vince's expression says, 'hey!' during Monique's vows.

Rusher-Brown Wedding

Well, my friends Camilia Rusher and Chris Brown got married. Someone, besides me, was asked to take the pictures. So, I just took pictures for myself. It's kind of why at the wedding, I'm just in one spot and I basically have no pictures of the bride's face during the wedding - because of where I was sitting. But it was great for seeing Chris's face.

The most hysterical wedding I've ever been to. Mostly due to Chris.

My favorite moment at any wedding - the moment the groom sees his bride and watches her walk down the aisle.

There were several times where you could almost see the wheels turning in Chris's head - like here where it looked like he was going 'whoa, I'm going to get to kiss Camilia soon!' (They didn't kiss throughout their relationship because they wanted to make sure they remained pure. I really think it's cool when my friends do things like this (which other people might think crazy, or way too drastic). I love that they worry more about what God would think and would want and what they can do to help the other person stay focused on godly things than just thinking about themselves.

Brittani and Gerald Get Married

On May 8th, my friends Brittani and Gerald got married in the Old Stone Church in Independence, Mo.

It was a little weird being in the church - the last time I'd been there was my grandmother's funeral. The wedding reception was in the same place that the reception after her funeral was held. It was a little bittersweet, but at least the tables weren't set up the same.



One of my favorite pictures (and the one I chose for my 365 pic). They look so much like 'why are you taking my picture?' I don't know why it amuses me so, but it does.



Gerald seeing his bride walk in. Always love this moment.



I don't remember exactly why they did this, but it's one of those cool goofy pictures from a wedding.

Shots from a Jack and Jill Shower

My friends, Brittani Brown and Gerald Fults, are getting married on May 8th. These are some pictures I took at their recent Jack and Jill shower.

One of the party games was to gather as many rings as possible from people by catching them using wedding- or marriage-related words. Jared was the winner with 5 rings.