Couture short wedding dress by Sara Marie.

Big congratulations to Sara Marie for being selected for the Omaha Fashion Week runway finale! Sara Marie lived in Nashville for several years before relocating to Nebraska with her husband. I had the privilege of photographing two of her custom gowns for Premier Bride magazine before Christmas 2009, including this head-turning flirty floral textured gown.

Omaha Fashion Week organizers announced today the 14 finalists who will compete for the $10,000 grand prize. The runway finale on August 24, 2013 concludes a week-long celebration of fashion at The Capitol District.

Complete information about Omaha Fashion Week is available at the official site official site. Read the full press release here as well.

Sara Marie is missed here in Nashville, and we’re excited to see her continued success. Perhaps a slot in Nashville Fashion Week 2014 would be in order, yes?

See the complete editorial shoot for Premier Bride magazine at this link, starting on page 110. Cheers!

One of the many favorite aspects about photographing bridal portraits and weddings is that these events are flooded with love. Love between bride & groom. Love amongst wedding parties. Love within families. Love all around…which makes this morning’s tragic news from Aurora, CO all the more jarring. A senseless reminder that we live in a broken and fallen world, elevating the importance of love for one another.

Though the shooting took place 1,100+ miles from my front door, the impact hits home here. I have a large number of friends in the greater Denver area. Some I’ve known for over 20 years; some I’ve known for 20 weeks. They could have been there. Odds are, some of them were there; I’m still trying to check on everyone.

Many of my Nashville friends attended the midnight showing of Batman: The Dark Knight Rises through Nashville’s multiplexes. This could have happened here, and in your neighborhood, just as senselessly as it happened in Aurora.

The sadness and frustration bring to mind the simple and profound lyrics from “Get Together” by The Youngbloods from decades ago.

Love is but a song to sing
Fear’s the way we die
You can make the mountains ring
Or make the angels cry
Though the bird is on the wing
And you may not know why

Come on people now
Smile on your brother
Everybody get together
Try to love one another
Right now

It’s been encouraging to see phoenix-like responses to this tragedy on Facebook, strength and virtue rising from the ashes of tragedy:

“Many news organizations are going to politicize this event. Let us try to keep our focus on what we can do to support those whose lives have been forever changed by this tragic event. The people that are trying to make the world worse never take a day off , why should I? Light up the darkness.” (David)

“To celebrate the lives of citizens we lost today and to honor the wounded, their friends and family, and our fire and law enforcement personnel, doctors, nurses, please consider doing a kindness for a total stranger today. Make a donation. Hold the door open. Pay for their coffee. Pick up their tipped-over garbage cans. Show them that even though you don’t know them, you still know that they are there, and that they are precious people.” (actual source unknown, presumably a public official in Aurora area)

This affects all of us.

Now is our opportunity to turn the tide collectively. “Come on, people now. Smile on your brother. Everybody get together. Try to love one another right now.” Especially right now.

This will be the shortest blog post I’ve ever written. Kept it at 1,000 + 21 words. What are they saying to you?

So you throw this amazing party, and you want to commemorate the event. Of course, you’d hire a professional photographer to capture it all, and you’d be happy to consider hiring a painter for the event too. Yes, a painter. Brushes, rainbow of colored paints (including the glittery, sparkly kind), big canvas…and a uber-cool painter to turn your event into a one-of-a-kind work of art. Enter Heidi Schwartz of Paint Your Event. I recently sat down with Heidi to learn a bit more about her approach to the Paint Your Event experience.

gb: Why do you do what you do?

hs: It’s creative, interesting and a challenge. I get to do something for people that they enjoy and I enjoy doing.

How did you discover this talent/gift?

By complete accident! I fell into live painting. I’m a singer/songwriter, and I made a record where every song had a painting that incorporated the lyrics (kind of like a word picture). I contacted the entertainment manager at Gaylord Opryland hotel about doing some singing gigs. He checked out my website to hear my music and saw my paintings and asked if I could paint a dinner. It built from there on…

What one wish do you have for your clients?

I want my clients to have a painting years from now still hanging in their house and it brings them back to that special moment in time. And at the same time, adds beauty to the present.

She does just that. You may recognize Heidi from the behind-the-scenes slideshow of the Betsey Johnson-inspired photo shoot from a few posts back. Check out this time lapse video of her in action at that photo shoot and see for yourself.

We delight in looking at the finished 48″ x 48″ painting on our wall everyday as we are still amazed she gathered so many different style elements from the shoot and put them all onto one canvas right before our eyes. So, so good. Check out more of Heidi’s live event paintings at www.paintyourevent.com and book her for your next event before someone else does.

P.S. Big thanks to my friends of Worldwide Groove Corporation for the cool chill tune in this time lapse video. Hear more of their music at the official Worldwide Groove Corporation MySpace page.