I had a crazy Saturday rotating between the Colorado HIgh School volleyball finals and the soccer finals. I photographed a handful of volleyball matches including the 4A final between Cheyenne Mountain and Lewis-Palmer. Congratulations to Cheyenne Mountain for winning the 4A state title.
I photographed the Colorado High School Boy’s Soccer Finals for 3A and 4A this past Saturday at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park in Denver. The weather was beautiful and there were some great soccer shots to be had. Kent Denver defeated Fountain Valley to take the 3A crown and Evergreen nipped The Classical Academy, 1-0, to take the 4A title.
I photographed the 2015 CHSAA softball championships this past weekend. The weather cooperated by raining on Friday when I couldn’t go, so I got to be one of the photographers after all. Our local high school, Mountain Range, took the 5A crown while Valor Christina my alma mater Wheat Ridge in 4A and Strasburg outlasted Eaton in 3A. As usual, the girls provided lots of dramatic moments. None more so, however, than Pomona’s 13-11 victory over Fossil Ridge in 8 innings, as Fossil left the bases loaded in the bottom half of the inning. Enjoy the photos.
I photographed the Colorado vs Oregon football game this past weekend. Colorado hung tough against Oregon for a half Saturday but the Ducks pulled away late to win 41-24. The game was delayed for an hour by lightning. It was one late night. College football games should not get over past midnight. The Buffs look better this year but still don’t seem to be able to pull out victories against higher ranked teams.
The Mike Bobo era at Colorado State got off to a good start Saturday. The Rams defeated Savannah State 65-13. Despite 5 turnovers, Colorado State looked dominant. Of course, Savannah State was 0-12 last year so we’ll see how good the Rams actually are when they play Minnesota. The game featured some big plays particularly by Rams quarterback Nick Stevens who tossed 5 touchdowns. Colorado State football looks to be competitive again this year and should be one of the best teams in the Mountain West.
I photographed the Erie Softball Festival of Champions this past weekend. The tournament features many of the top softball teams from around the Denver metro area and even a few from Oklahoma. I some good games and some great hitting from a couple of teams. I can’t wait until the state softball finals in October!
I volunteered to photograph the Thornton Blues concert this past Saturday featuring Doug Macleod. The event was part of the Thornton Dog Days of Summertime Blues series sponsored by the Thornton Arts, Science and Humanities Council. I had a great time doing the photography for the event. Mr. Macleod is a wonderful performer. He is a one-man show, singing and playing the acoustic blues guitar. He has a wonderful sense of humor and is a very entertaining performer.
The photography was a bit of a challenge since the event was held in an event room inside the Thornton recreation center. Time to test out the low light capability of my Canon 5D MKIII. Next year, the event will held outdoors in the amphitheater so the ambience should be better. I highly recommend catching Mr. Macleod in concert and he will reportedly be back next year!
Choosing the right florist for a wedding can be a challenge, especially if you have a limited budget. Spending thousands of dollars on something that undeniably adds beauty and elegance to the wedding but will die soon after can make many brides pause. One local artist is adding a unique touch to the concept of wedding floral design. Felicity Day at Lissy Allyse Designs makes paper wedding flowers out of recyclable materials. Her bouquets look realistic but are archival and can be preserved for a lifetime.
Felicity got the idea for her business when she was a bride on a budget herself. Having previously dabbled with dyeing coffee filters, she decided to put her creativity to good use and make her own paper wedding flowers. Currently, she is the only person doing realistic paper wedding flowers in Colorado.
There are many benefits to paper flowers. The arrangements are typically cheaper than artificial flowers but look more realistic than traditional paper flowers. They also add a unique touch to a wedding and can be kept as a keepsake afterwards.
Other than the greenery in the arrangements (preserved plants are used for this), everything is made by hand. Flowers are made out of many different materials including coffee filters, fabric, and even metal. Arrangements are easy to customize, especially since it is easy to produce almost any color you can imagine. Felicity notes that the process for making paper flowers is time intensive. Each flower takes about five minutes to make and an entire bouquet takes about 2.5 hours to complete.
An average bouquet costs around $140 and flowers for most weddings average between $1700 and $2000, including centerpieces, bouquets, boutonnieres, and pew flowers. Felicity prepares flowers for other occasions as well, including anniversaries and parties.
Felicity also designs invitations and other paper products for weddings. They are also handmade and custom printed. She refers to them as “little mini scrapbooks on a piece of paper.”
Lissy Allyse Designs is located in Littleton, CO. Felicity has done floral arrangements for weddings nationwide, including two in Texas last year.
Derek Regensburger is a wedding and portrait photographer based in Thornton, CO. He specializes in fun and fashionable wedding photography. Call (303) 478-7586 to schedule a consultation today.
Flowers are a key component of any wedding. They play many important roles–they set the ambiance for the wedding and help add a romantic feel to the event. They are also a critical element of wedding photography, serving as a ubiquitous prop in almost any good wedding photograph. Done right, they pull together the theme of the wedding by complementing the color scheme and conveying the appropriate tone. If done poorly, however, they can detract from the bride’s vision. Some colors don’t work well together. Rustic flower arrangements and earth tone colors don’t usually work in a formal setting and vice versa. As brides are picking bolder and bolder colors for weddings, it creates challenges for florists to select flowers that work well with those visions.
As a result, looking for a good wedding florist can be a challenge. Pairing the bride’s vision of the style and colors of the floral arrangements with the florist’s choice of flowers and artistic vision isn’t always as easy as it sounds. Simply running to your local florist with a printout from Pinterest of how you want your flowers to look isn’t always the right approach. While that can be a great starting point, it’s a bit like going to a painter with a printout of the Mona Lisa and telling him or her to paint you just like that. Florists are artists, too, and are going to want to add their own artistic vision and experience into the equation. So matching the two visions of the bride and the florist is a critical piece of the puzzle. Budgetary constraints often play a role as well. A bride may want hundreds of flowers for the wedding but only be willing to budget so much. Compromises will have to be made. Some brides have even gone the do-it-yourself route. But realize that it takes lots of time to prepare bouquets and centerpieces and it can still cost several hundreds of dollars just for cut flowers and supplies. Not to mention the additional stress the day before the wedding.
So for those brides looking for professionals to do a great job at a reasonable cost, I’m profiling two of the best Denver wedding florists in the metro area–Cherry Blossoms florists in Westminster and Flowers Elite based in Firestone.
Cherrie Silverman owns Cherry Blossoms florist in Westminster, CO. She has been in business for 33 years. In addition to the main store front in Westminster, Cherry Blossoms also opened up a new gift shop inside the St. Anthony’s North health campus at 144th and I-25. Cherry Blossoms was tabbed the Best of Westminster for 2015. Cherrie has been certified by the American Institute of Floral Designers (AIFD) since 2000. She has even worked on many of the floats for the Rose Parade in Pasadena, CA.
Cherrie loves doing weddings and has done the flowers for 50-70 weddings the last two years. She embraces the challenge of combining her artistic license with matching flower bouquets to the wedding colors. Cherrie feels that the quality and uniqueness of her floral arrangements set her apart from other florists. She visits her suppliers in central and South America to ensure that the best quality and freshest flowers are delivered to the bride. Cherrie believes her secret to success is the fact that she is transparent about her pricing and that she is very up front with people. She provides a tool on her website that allows brides to easily determine what package will fit within their budget. Her website also features countless photos of her work so that prospective clients can get a sense of her work before sitting down to meet with her.
Kathy Shepherd owns Flowers Elite in Firestone, CO, which has been in business for 13 years, but between her designer and herself, they have over 50 years of experience in the florist business. Flowers Elite has developed an outstanding reputation in the north Denver metro area for exceeding expectations of brides and keeping prices affordable.
Flowers Elite specializes in wedding floral arrangements and does only weddings, sympathy flowers, or other special occasions. Kathy believes that her focus on quality, including the time and attention she puts into each wedding, has helped establish her reputation. Flowers Elite provides a full-service experience on the wedding day from pinning corsages and boutonnieres to set up of the wedding venue.
Kathy orders flowers for each individual bride so the bouquets look unique and are at their freshest. She also creates many combo arrangements which can double as ceremony flowers and be reused as centerpieces.
Kathy has seen many trends over her time as a florist. Purples, lime green, and other vibrant colors are hot right now so finding the right flowers in those colors can be tricky. Another trend that Kathy has seen in recent years is brides incorporating special objects or momentos like lockets or brooches in their bouquets. But it’s all part of the fun for Kathy. She loves the challenge of finding the right flowers and creating the perfect arrangements for each bride.
Derek Regensburger is a wedding and portrait photographer based in Thornton, CO. If you are looking for fun and fashionable wedding photography in the Denver area, call Regensburger Photography today at 303-478-7586 to set up a consultation.
I photographed the Colorado 4A high school baseball finals today. Green Mountain defeated Lewis-Palmer 4-0 to take the 2015 title. The Rams repeated as state champs. The weather forced a four-day delay and necessitated a move to the Metro State campus, but in the end the games went off without a hitch. I saw some good baseball over the past week, culminating with today’s championship game. Enjoy the highlight gallery of the 4A baseball playoffs.
