I am going to catch up on some long overdue blogging over the next few days.  YEAH!  lots of fresh photos and fun times!

First up are Ivy and Charlie.  They got married at the lovely Mission Ranch in Carmel.  Ivy and Charlie chose the location for several reasons, but I was most impressed with the unrivaled views from the ceremony location...you overlook a beautiful meadow all the way out to the ocean.  Complete with adorable grazing sheep. 

Ivy had lots of relatives in from out of the country, and unfortunately her mom couldn't make it for the ceremony for health reasons.  I sure hope that through the day's photos she'll be able to feel like she was there, too.  Now, if Ivy and Charlie can share photos of their honeymoon in Italy that will make *ME* feel like I was there...that would be great.  I've always wanted to go to Italy!  I am exceedingly jealous of their trip.  One day...a couple will figure out a way to put me in their carry-on baggage for their vacations, right?  LOL!

Stay tuned for some awesome photos from their day-after session.  We couldn't make it together for an engagement session before the wedding...so we did it after!  The results were amazing.

Charlie's mom was beaming all day long. She was so happy for her son.

Yesterday's wedding was so incredibly fun.  I'll be back to give the details, but the photos are still downloading.  I was watching them import to Lightroom and saw this one go by...had to stop and share it.  I ADORE this shot!

I'm going to sneak just a couple photos from Ivy and Charlie's wedding at Carmel Mission Ranch right now.  They are leaving for their honeymoon in Italy tomorrow afternoon...and just in case I can't blog more before they leave...I want to leave them a tease.  :)  More to come tomorrow though.

About a month ago, I posted a story about my former clients Kate and Paul.  Like a lot of my former clients, they've become my friends...something that I consider one of the incredible side benefits to being a wedding photographer.  I get to meet and befriend some really cool people.  Anyways, I'd just had a conversation with Kate not too long before where she'd told me they were pregnant and surprisingly expecting twins.  Girls.  They'd had good luck and gotten pregnant quickly.  They also defied odds and conceived identical twin girls. 

Unfortunately, they also continued to achieve statistical deviations in that they experienced the relatively rare twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome.  What does that mean?  Well, in my simple explanation...they shared a placenta, but had two amniotic sacs.  Because they shared a placenta, they also shared a blood supply and depending on how things develop, one baby can end up getting too much blood supply and the other not enough.  Little Sadie had not enough blood as it turns out and little Isabella had too much.  In what can only be described as a miracle and great science put together, Kate and Paul had an ultrasound at a critical time in the twins gestation.  The doctors saw some developmental differences between them and delivered the girls early at just shy of 28 weeks gestation.  For the uninformed...a typical gestation is considered full term at 40 weeks.  So, we're talking about babies born months early!  In fact, they were born on April 14 and their due date is still over a month away on July 9th. 

Sadie was 1lb 9 oz and Isabella was 2 lbs 3 oz.  So what is that?  Something like 5 sticks of butter?  TINY.

I was overjoyed this weekend to pay them all a visit.  They are just over 7 weeks old now, and growing well.  Sadie is up to 3 lbs 11 oz and Isabella is up to 4 lbs 9 oz.  Tremendous strides have been made in their breathing, eating, and body temperature regulation...all important milestones for preemies.  Not to mention, their personality developments have also progressed!  They are definitely two different little girls...sassy and spunky.

Kate and Paul are handling all these huge life changes with an unbelievable positivity.  I'm amazed by their newly found NICU lingo and skills.  Kate sounds like a NICU nurse and as the photo proves below...Paul is trying to actually accomplish what women everywhere have been asking for...male lactation.