I met Adriana at the Bridal Faire that we did in February at The Venue. I am so glad that she contacted me later about doing her wedding at the Japanese Friendship Garden in Idaho Falls. It is a really neat space right on the Snake River near the falls. It was such a beautiful and fun wedding. The Japanese Garden is a gorgeous backdrop for a wedding ceremony with lots of greenery, cool structures, hidden pathways and of course the waterfall. I was able to get some of my favorite shots of the year from this wedding due to the awesome location and the stunning couple who were dressed like a million bucks. After the ceremony, they also loaded me up a plate of the most delicious food. Adriana’s mom and family made some authentic Mexican food, and they had me try a little of each and boy was it amazing!

The reception was at Snow Eagle Brewing and Grill; I hadn’t been there since it was the Brownstone. That reception was full of fun, drinks, and dancing. The newlyweds did all the common traditions of cake cutting, bouquet and garter toss, which are also so much fun, but they also had some unique traditions as well that were a blast to photograph. One of these was when the wedding guests had to “buy” a dance with the bride and groom by pinning on cash to clothing as they danced. Be sure and check out the photos of this below. They had some very generous guests! My favorite part of the night is when the bride and groom each stood on top of a chair surround by their bridal party. The party held them up in the air and supported them while other guests ran all around and between them to try to knock them off. Adrian explained to me later that this tradition was to represent how people may try to cause rifts in your marriage and things might get hard but if you stay strong and hold onto your support system everything will be okay. I thought this was such an awesome visual representation and crazy fun to watch and photograph. Life can be hard at times, but staying close to your loved ones and supporting each other is everything.

I have seriously hit the jackpot this year with my brides and grooms. I have gotten to work with so many fantastic and new venues I had not gotten to photograph at before. This wedding was no exception. I had a great day and loved being a part of it.

Below is a mix of film and digital images. All film images were shot on a Pentax 645n medium format film camera or Canon 1n 35mm film camera with Kodak Portra 400 film and developed at The FIND Lab.

“Is that one of your favorite images down below!?” you say. Well yes. Yes it is.

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