Nicole Marie Photography

NEW BLOG

2008-07-21T07:55:00.001-06:00

Click here to check out my new blog.

Rod and Sarah's Wedding

2008-05-31T10:09:00.011-06:00

The weather forecast in Lincoln, NE last weekend called for severe thunderstorms and rain. I was really nervous that we were not going to be able to shoot outside, but it ended up being a gorgeous day without a single drop of rain. Rod and Sarah looked absolutely gorgeous and I felt so privileged to be a part of their special day. The love between this couple was amazing.....they made my job incredibly easy! Leah Lund, my shooting partner, took some beautiful pictures of them as well and you can check them out on her blog.

Liz and Will's Wedding

2008-05-25T05:44:00.006-06:00

I am back in Lincoln, Nebraska for another wedding, but I have been behind on my blogging and I want to share some images from Liz and Will's wedding last weekend. Leah and I had such a great time with this couple.

Liz looked absolutely gorgeous!

Megan and Tom's Engagement

2008-05-17T01:18:00.009-06:00

I am currently in Lincoln, NE to shoot a wedding tomorrow with my great friend, Leah Lund. Megan and Tom are also getting married in Lincoln next year so we decided to take their engagement photos while I was in town. Tom is an alumni football player for the Nebraska Cornhuskers and he was able to arrange for us to take some pictures inside Memorial Stadium. However, there was one condition. The University of Nebraska does not allow us to post any photos on our website! It was an AMAZING photo shoot.....complete with a quick game of catch. I am very sad that I cannot share those images.

After the stadium we spent some time downtown and fortunately I can post these pictures. I had a wonderful time with this couple and I am super excited to shoot their wedding in February.

Published in College Textbook

2008-04-25T21:41:00.008-06:00

Last year one of my old college professors asked if she could use a couple of my photographs in a photography textbook that she was writing. I was extremely honored and anxiously awaited the release of the book. The book launch took place last month while I was out of town for the WPPI convention, so I was not able to get a copy. I finally made it to the Tattered Cover in downtown Denver last week and purchased the book. The two images that I have in the book are not wedding or portrait images. They are from personal projects that I worked on in Mexico and the San Luis Valley in Colorado. The book is called The Elements of Photography, Understanding and Creating Sophisticated Images, by Angela Faris Belt.

Nick and Leandra - Engagement Session

2008-04-22T20:18:00.005-06:00

I have been behind on my blogging, so I wanted to share a few photos of a really great couple that I will be photographing this weekend for their wedding. The weather in Denver has been hit and miss, but we were really lucky and had a beautiful afternoon for their engagement pictures. In fact, the sun was so bright we decided to have a couple of drinks and wait for the sunset.

SPRING IS HERE!

2008-03-25T12:32:00.005-06:00

The weather yesterday was beautiful so we decided to take a drive up to Evergreen and take a walk around the lake. Here are some pictures of my kids....they were so excited to be able to spend the day outside.

AND THE WINNER IS......

2008-03-21T11:24:00.002-06:00

THE WINNER OF THE FIRST ANNUAL FREE WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHY CONTEST IS:

Alyssa & Lee

HERE IS THEIR WONDERFUL STORY:

Our Wedding Day: October 11, 2008

This is the story of how I met the love of my life; the story of how a band-geek-book-nerd and an athletic-skateboarding-firefighter came to love each other and stuck together through a series of both fortunate and unfortunate events (and also why we’d LOVE to win this contest). He also doesn’t know that I sent this, and I’m hoping to win it as a surprise to him…

Growing up, I was always kind of a nerd. As a child of five children (I was the second to the oldest, with an older sister and three younger brothers) of a very creative and musical family, I was, of course, in marching band. You could probably categorize me as the perfect stereotypical band kid: I played the trumpet, was very tall and lanky, had braces, freckles, acne, and was also in a full load of classes in high school (including all of the honors classes, choir and theater…. I know, *snort*).

At the opposite end of the universe existed Lee: the product of a smaller family with just a mom, dad and brother. He was the carefree firefighting skateboarder who had tattoos, a firefighter physique and his Irish attitude that said “don’t mess with me.” This same man, as a teenager, had also been told by a judge that he didn’t want to ever see Lee in his courtroom again.

How We Met
In June of 2004, my sister, who had been dating a firefighter, had asked me if I wanted to go to the firehouse with h.… and I was halfway there before she even finished her invitation. It wasn’t long after I met Lee at the firehouse that day, that we started dating. (This is the part where I mention that he is also shorter than me…)

I actually was so self conscious about my height that at the time, I wasn’t sure how I felt about dating someone shorter than me. Fortunately for Lee, he made me laugh, and the more time we spent together, I wanted to spend even more time with him.

When I Knew He Was The One
A little more than a year after we had been together, in late July of 2005, Lee and I were driving home from a camping trip and I got the phone call that still rocks me to this day: “Alyssa, this is Dad, Scott has been in a car accident and you need to come home now.” My closest sibling, my brother Scott, had been in California in the Navy for the past eight months and was finishing his training to become a Plane Captain.

When we arrived at my parents’ house, we all sat down and called the hospital in California. Lee clenched my hand as the doctors told us that he was in a car that was hit head-on by a driver that fell asleep at the wheel. He and his friends were on their way back from an amusement park in California and the driver came into their lane. Then came the news that hurt the most. My brother was brain dead (which to the medical world meant that they were just keeping the blood flowing through a lifeless body) and to quote the doctor we “needed to start discussing organ donations.”

Everything after that was kind of a blur: my parents left to spend a week in California to make arrangements with the Navy to have his body sent back to Colorado and my sister and I stayed to take care of my two younger brothers (aged 4 and 10 at the time) as well as make arrangements in town for my brother’s funeral.

The one thing that I do remember from that point in time was that Lee took time off from the firehouse to manage my parents’ house and keep my brothers occupied. He mowed the lawn, cleaned the house, took phone calls, and even fed, clothed and bathed my brothers. Lee swept in at a time when those little boys had just lost their oldest brother and kept them playing and laughing, which was such a blessing at a time when I couldn’t even take a shower without breaking down.

It was at that point that I knew I couldn’t live without him.

How He Proposed
Two years later, in late summer of 2007, Lee and I had still been going strong. Our relationship was fantastic, and he guided me through such a hard part in my life and helped me to see that it was okay to be sad, but that we could still enjoy what we had and be optimistic about the future. We went about or lives as usual with my marketing job at a credit union and his job as a firefighter and the things on weekends we did together like camping, boating and atv-ing.

On September 1, 2007, during my family’s annual Labor Day campout at Lake Dillon, my entire family was sitting around at dinner. Lee stood up on one of the picnic tables (to my thinking, how much has he had to drink?) and started telling an Irish Love Story. He told everyone about how a short Irishman came to fall in love with a beautiful tall green-eyed red head… (at this point I looked over and saw my dad start to cry…) and he, with his voice slightly breaking, asked, “Alyssa Mally, will you be mine forever?”

I accepted with tears streaming down my face and we celebrated the rest of the weekend with my family. It was absolutely the most perfect weekend with fireworks over the lake that evening and the two of us being surrounded by our closest family and friends.

My Turn…
Two weeks after Lee proposed, I was driving to work and Lee called me. “Alyssa…. my dad died.” My heart sank. The one family member that Lee talked to the most and was the closest to, it couldn’t be happening again! His dad had health problems, but he had seemed to be on the mend, especially after hearing the good news about Lee and I.

I flew home and walked in the door and just held him….

I think We Deserve To win Because
Lee and I have had the opportunity to see each other at the absolute lowest point in our lives. We have both seen each other through the best and worst and my heart tells me that there will more of both to come. I am confident, though, that we are able to help each other through whatever gets thrown our way and that we will not only come out on top, but we have the rest of our lives together to look forward to.

To My Lee
I love how you can make me laugh when you sing to me at the top of your lungs when no-one else is around. I love how you search out ways to cheer me up when I’m grumpy or sad. I how you push me to try new things and to “live life to the fullest.” I love how you make me soup when I get sick. I love how you close my book when I’ve fallen asleep reading and cover me up so I don’t get cold (cuz we both know that I’m ALWAYS cold). I love how you have patience when I’m not good at athletic things… and you’re trying to teach me… and I’m not taking it seriously….. But most of all, I love how you still call me Beautiful at the end of each day.

I love you,
Your Sweet Pea

CONGRATULATIONS....I can't wait to meet you both and photograph your special day!

It was so difficult to select just one winner so I have decided to offer the other two finalists 50% off of any package that I offer.

AND THE FREE WEDDING FINALISTS ARE...

2008-03-17T13:27:00.002-06:00

(In no particular order)

COUPLE #1 - Joy & David
Wedding Location - Crested Butte, CO

COUPLE #2 - Alyssa & Lee
Wedding Location - Arvada, CO

COUPLE #3 - Jennifer & Eric
Wedding Location - Denver, CO

The winner will be announced on March 21, 2008

Wedding Photography Contest

2008-03-15T07:11:00.002-06:00

Thank you to everyone who submitted an entry for the Free Wedding Photography Contest. I truly enjoyed reading everyone's letters....it is going to be so hard to pick a winner. Check back on Monday for a list of the three finalists.

WPPI Convention - Las Vegas

2008-03-15T06:53:00.004-06:00

I just arrived in Las Vegas for my first WPPI (Wedding and Portrait Photographers International) Convention. I am so excited to be spending the week learning from some of my favorite photographers in the business. As a matter of fact, I met Joe Buissink last night in the most embarrising way. I noticed him standing in the lobby of the Paris Hotel and as I approached him to introduce myself I literally tripped right in front of him. Needless to say, I was horrified, but he was so kind and gave me a hug. In the photography world, Joe is a superstar. He has photographed numerous celebrity weddings including Jessica Simpson, Christina Applegate, and Jennifer Lopez. It truly was an honor to meet him!

1st Annual Free Wedding Photography Contest

2008-02-13T17:36:00.011-07:00

In honor of Valentine's Day I have decided to announce the 1st Annual FREE Wedding Photography Contest.

Here's the deal:
-The couple must be getting married in 2008 or before March 31, 2009 and of course the date cannot be a day that I'm already booked.
-You can write in for yourself or a deserving couple that you know. Please make these good letters. I want to laugh and cry.
-Please submit an email explaining why the couple is so deserving. Any obstacles they have overcome, any adorable love stories, unique ways of meeting each other, or anything extremely romantic.
-You MUST attach a photo of the couple together.
-The couple must be comfortable having their entry posted on this blog.
-The contest starts today and the deadline for entries is March 14, 2008.
-Three finalists will be posted on my blog on March 17, 2008.
-The winner will be announced on March 21, 2008.

The winning couple will receive:
-Unlimited hours of coverage
-Engagement Session and slideshow
-Online Gallery for viewing and ordering images
-1 High resolution DVD of all wedding images
-1 8X10 20 page flush mount album

Please send all entries to nicole@nicolemariephoto.com

I look forward to reading all of your letters!

(There is no cost and no obligation whatsoever attached to this offer.)

Angela and Matt....The COLDEST Wedding of the Year!

2008-01-24T15:40:00.000-07:00

I just got back from Lincoln, Nebraska, and I wanted to share a few photos from Matt and Angela's wedding. The temperature was 9 degrees on the day of their wedding, but they were such good sports. Angela kept saying, "I don't care if it is cold, I am only getting married once". After the ceremony she put on her Uggs and we spent about an hour outside. It was FREEZING, but we got some amazing pictures!

Such a beautiful bride!

LINDSAY AND MATTHEW

2008-01-11T11:31:00.000-07:00

Last weekend I photographed the wedding of Matthew and Lindsay. This couple was so much fun to work with. They are high school sweethearts and every time they are together they both have the most contagious smiles. Matthew is an officer in the Unites States Navy and had to ship out a couple days after the wedding. It was an honor to work with such an amazing couple. I wish them both the best for their new future together.

Here are a few images from their wonderful day!

My MEEZ...

2007-12-02T08:58:00.000-07:00

WELCOME TO MY BLOG!

2007-11-27T12:42:00.001-07:00

I've decided to take the plunge and join the world of bloggers. This will be a great way to keep my clients up-to-date with what I am working on. Also, this will allow those who haven't met me a chance to get to know me and my work.

Here's a little bit about me...

- I have two beautiful children (Alyssa, 5 and Zachary, 3)
- I am a full-time professional photographer
- I love to photograph children (especially babies)
- I have recently begun to photograph weddings and it has become my
new passion