happy ALMOST valentine’s day!!!

last year, we didn’t get our christmas cards out until around valentine’s day. haha…oops! so we’ve surrendered and switched to doing valentines day cards instead we’re thinking we might even get them out ALMOST on time (less than a week late?!)

and in the spirit of our new tradition, today we’re sharing the picture that ALMOST made it on the card. it was between this one and another. so if you haven’t met our kids yet, meet (from left to right) langley (aka, “princess peach”, 4), keegan (7), and carter (5)!! yup…we love ‘em!

we were in chicago this past weekend and only caught a glimpse of the Golden Globes awards while we were at some swank italian restaurant on State St (seriously, may have been the best filet we’ve ever had!!!). OK….so this is a far cry from the Golden Globes, but this morning we were quickly caught in the spirit when we were notified that we were selected to receive WeddingWire’s 2010 “Bride’s Choice Award” for wedding photography. what a great way to start the day!!

i suppose it’s time to pull out a list of thank you’s, haha…but for us it’s pretty darn to know who to thank! seriously, it would be hard to imagine having any better brides and grooms! they all looked so amazing and did such a great job with all of their details. so kudos to you! and to all of the brides and grooms in 2010, we can’t wait!!

now, here’s the press release which makes it really sound official

Grand Rapids, MI – January 19, 2010 – WeddingWire, the nation’s leading wedding technology company, just announced STUDIO 6.23 has been selected to receive the 2010 Bride’s Choice Awards™ for wedding photography.

The annual Bride’s Choice Awards™ recognizes and celebrates excellence in quality and service within the wedding industry, as determined by recent reviews and extensive surveys from over 500,000 newlyweds.

STUDIO 6.23 is among the top five percent of all vendors in the WeddingWire community, which includes over 100,000 wedding professionals across the US and Canada. Awards were given to winners across 19 different service categories, from wedding venues to wedding photographers.

“We are excited to recognize and honor the success of the top wedding professionals within the WeddingWire Community” said Timothy Chi, WeddingWire’s Chief Executive Officer. “The annual Bride’s Choice Awards™ program has given us the unique opportunity to highlight the best wedding professionals in each region as reviewed by brides and grooms who have utilized their services in the past year.”

We are happy to announce that STUDIO 6.23 is among the very best wedding photographers within the WeddingWire Network, which includes WeddingWire and Martha Stewart Weddings. We would like to thank our past newlyweds for nominating us for the 2010 Bride’s Choice Awards™.

About WeddingWire, Inc.
WeddingWire is the only online wedding planning resource designed to empower both engaged couples and wedding vendors. WeddingWire enables engaged couples to search, compare and book over 100,000 reviewed wedding vendors nationwide, from wedding photographers to wedding cakes. WeddingWire also offers an online community and a suite of cutting-edge planning tools, including wedding websites and wedding checklists, all at no charge. For wedding vendors, WeddingWire provides free online management tools creating the only market opportunity that gives businesses control over their clients, reviews, leads and performance. In addition, WeddingWire has partnered with Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, Inc. (NYSE: MSO) to provide its network of local vendors and online wedding-planning tools in the Weddings section of www.MarthaStewartWeddings.com. For additional information, please visit www.WeddingWire.com.

we were excited when we got an email this morning from katie over at color inc. to say that one of our images was chosen for the “picture of the day”!    and of course we were also very excited that it was of our good friend and fellow photographer, kerri banyas (of taylor grey photography) and her family!!!    so this is your sneak peek of the banyas family session…… more to come soon!!!  and thank you color inc. for choosing our image…. a happy way to start a monday!! 

we have been email friends with the fabulous ryan + heidi of mango ink for a while now, but they live in spokane, washington, so we had never met in person!! when we figured out that we’d be out east for some photo sessions and they would be in NYC for a conference, we knew this was our chance to finally meet and hang out! and oh my goodness……. what a BLAST we had with them!!! we met at grand central station and from there had no idea what the day would hold. we wandered around some shops in soho, grabbed coffee and then headed to the most incredible mexican restaurant ever (recommended by a local, of course), called ‘tortilla flats’. when you see the pictures from this cool place below, you’ll see why we loved it!!! authentic, colorful, great food, off the beaten path…. all around fabulousness!!! and to top it off…… on the way there, we randomly came across the movie set of ‘fair game’ and saw sean penn and naomi watts!!! what are the chances?!! so what did i do? i jumped right in with the paparazzi, of course!!! i did not have the right lense on, so i only got okay shots, but it was still fun!

after a long and wonderful lunch, we wandered around some more, got some shots of ryan + heidi and just hung out like we’d been friends for YEARS! they are the coolest, sweetest and most incredible people! we knew that we’d love them before we met them….. but who knew we’d be like besties before we even got to lunch! check out their fabulous custom invitations and more at: www.mangoink.com. they have everything from uber awesome birthday invites to save the date cards for engaged couples to whatever else you can think of!! we do our christmas cards through them every year and have been thrilled with their sturdy, high quality, cool cards.

now that we have officially met them and hung out, we have a few more trips planned! we will also be heading out to spokane, washington sometime this year to do some family sessions. if anyone out there is interested…. let us know!! ryan + heidi….. you ROCK! so thankful for our new friendship and can’t WAIT to see you again!!! next meeting place…… destination europe! here’s some pics from our adventures in new york city, baby!!!! enjoy……..

hello mr. penn!

and hello naomi!

seriously?! some serious iPhone love. although in this case, i think it was GPS love.

some serious bro-friendage going on...

here’s some pics of my HOT bride. we got married on 6.23 (ring a bell?) — NINE YEARS AGO! and she’s still smokin’.

so we’re putting together a custom mini-website for each of our brides and we needed some pictures for the header. theme = weddings are on our mind. and after taking these pictures, i’m thinking second honeymoon is on the mind.

funny story about the pics that we just had to share. we set up our lights and backdrop in our basement late at night – walk out basement with windows and sliding door. who woulda thunk that the flash would light up the whole neighborhood. poor Mr. Denny woke up twice thinking there was lightning outside. that is till he looked out the window at 1:00 a.m. and saw mindy sporting her wedding dress and an occasional bouquet of flowers. haha!

so, everyone…you know mindy the photographer. now, meet mindy the bride!!!