Rachel Ludwig Photography | Abbotsford Portrait and Wedding Photographer

You may recognize my beautiful little sister Elsa and her handsome new hubby from their engagement session this spring…They are now officially Mr & Mrs Dinzey! They had a beautiful wedding day in September, complete with lots of love and laughter and surrounded by family and friends. It was a day that radiated love, happiness and faith, and I was super honored to be asked to take their pictures.

One thing I love about being the official photog for family weddings, is being able to spend time with the bride and groom. Normally on the wedding day they are busy with all the wedding guests, so it’s nice to be able to connect with them and document one of the most important days in their lives. Thank you Elsa & Derek for being so wonderful to work with. You made my job easy and fun and I’m so glad I was able to capture and share in your special day.

Side Note: For all you Pioneer Woman readers, doesn’t he remind you a bit of Malboro Man? I know he isn’t wearing his cowboy hat in any of the wedding pics…which definitely strengthens the resemblance, but even without it I think I see a similarity. So what’s your vote? Yes or No?)

Here are a few favorites from their day…

Doesn’t Elsa look amazing?

Everything from her beautiful hair, to the fabulous hair piece, great makeup and stunning dress…she looked amazing from head to toe!

And, just for the record, you’ll see the cutest flower girl ever below.

(In case you didn’t know, it’s my daughter Arden. She was such a trooper all day long, and barely complained even when she had blisters all over her feet from her new shoes!)

The running and spinning shots…totally Derek’s idea. He just did that as we were walking back to the car. I love it!

I should make a special note of his ring. His background is in iron-work, and he had it custom designed using some type of iron.

(I think? I’m not up on all my metals! But it looks fantastic, almost as nice as Elsa’s bling!)

We were heading back to Abbotsford for the reception, and we were nicely on time, until these words left my mouth:

“I’ve been dying to do some pictures with some old cars, but I can never find any!”

Lo and behold, just as I said that, we passed a property that had about 6 sitting out front, with the owner nearby who gave us full permission to use them for pictures. yay!

We didn’t even have to trespass to get the shots (which is normally the case in these kind of situations!)

I heart these shots…some of my faves from the day

Enjoy your sneak peek Elsa & Derek…thanks for waiting so patiently!

We started the day in Abbotsford, and headed to Aldergrove for the wedding ceremony. For pictures we went to South Langley and the beautiful Campbell Valley Park. The day was finished out at the Abbotsford Ramada for a delicious dinner! A big thank you to Alyssa for second shooting for me…it’s always great to have her along as we work together so well. The videographer was Andrew from PurMedia Design, Michelle Dehaas did the hair (if you want her info, just pop me an email…she is awesome!), and my sister-in-law Jen did the makeup.

In July, Tim, Hudson and I had a whirlwind weekend trip to Ontario to celebrate Jeremy (Tim’s younger brother) and Julie’s wedding. Family weddings on Tim’s side always end up being a mini family reunion because the siblings are spread out over Canada and Australia and weddings are a great reason to get together and see everyone! Although not everyone was able to be there, it was a wonderful weekend with lots of laughter, and not near enough sleep, and too much rain…but it was perfect!

And, even with the crazy amount of rain that started and ended Julie and Jeremy’s wedding day, we were blessed with clear skies and even some sunshine for the pictures. When I woke up to rain on their wedding day, I started to get a little worried as we were in a fairly remote location with not a ton of indoor or covered options close by. Fortunately the rain stopped just as we were starting portraits, and didn’t start again until after the ceremony. Thank you God!

A huge thanks to my sister-in-law Colleen for coming along and second shooting for me. I know she was a little nervous about it, but she did a great job and I was so happy to have her there to help out…couldn’t have done it without her

Now on to the pictures…I will probably be sharing some more in the next few weeks, but here are a few of my early faves:

Julie had some fantabulous shoes. Love the metallic heels!

We started out the portraits at Julie’s parents’ beautiful farm…she is the 7th generation to live there. How neat is that?

These two are just so darn cute together. That swing shot is one of my faves I think

The flowers were gorgeous, and Julie looked amazing…I thought her hair suited her perfectly!

They were married in the church Julie grew up in…the building has beautiful stained glass windows and is over 100 years old.

I shot the gold colored image through this fantastic grate in the balcony (in case you were wondering!)

The shot of Jeremy, Hudson and my Father-in-Law is because they all the same initials…HJL.

Before I left I wanted to share a few more pictures from Katy and Anthony’s wedding in April. I’m sure I will have more…I have so many great shots to share!

The brutal ugly but oh so perfect loveliness that is the abandoned house. They totally were rockin’ it:

I love this reflection in the old mirror:

Katy looked amazing:

And would a blog post be complete without a foot shot? I think not. Katy had some fab shoes:

Andrea totally inspired me with this shot. We were just about to leave and she grabbed the flowers and started snapping:

And a teeny-tiny little bit of trespassing on the best driveway ever!:

This is what happens when you marry a strapping young volleyball player…push-ups on demand

Katy looking totally gorgeous:

And her equally handsome husband…they are going to make good looking kids one day, don’t you think?

As all women know…the true way to a man’s heart is through his stomach.

And hence a stop at White Spot to keep a smile on Anthony’s face.

Katy told me earlier this week that she’s been obsessively checking my website when she’s at school to see if her sneak peek is up yet. So I figured I would put her out of her misery by posting a teeny-tiny sneak peek before we head out for the long weekend.

We found this most amazing abandoned house…and they totally rocked it. I think I was squealing with glee the whole time we took the pictures, not to mention the entire time I edited them. Fabulous grungy location + fantastic couple who are naturals in front of the camera = pictures that I love. Katy and Anthony…I hope you like these as much as I do! Thanks for being so easy-going and awesome to work with. More to come next week hopefully

I rented a Tilt-Shift lens for the weekend…and had fun playing around with it. This is one of the resulting images:

Katy has some of the best eye expressions. I was quite sad I missed the eye-roll she did during the ceremony!

Last one for now:

At the end of September, just a few weeks before my due date, I tagged along with my friend Karin to do some second shooting for Arenda and Jeremy’s wedding. I just joined her for the portrait portion of the day, and shortly after I went home I thought that maybe Hudson was going to make his arrival that night! Unfortunately, I think that he liked being warm and cozy inside, and he decided to wait another 2 1/2 weeks to make his arrival (stinker!).

But I’m so glad that he didn’t arrive before the wedding, because I love the shots I was able to get of this couple. Who are not only gorgeous, but super duper nice and down to earth. Plus they happen to live in our suite, so I’m hoping these pictures will help make up for the occasional noisiness that filters down to them courtesy of my kids. haha.

Anyways, here are a few of my faves…Enjoy:

One of my favorite shooting locations…Westminster Abbey in Mission.

Karin in action (rockin’ my Shootsac that she borrowed for the day):

A bit of vintage lovin’:

Is she not stunning?:

My husband gave me very strict instructions that I was not allowed to perform any ‘photographer acrobatics”. Seeing as I was 9 months pregnant and all. Um. I don’t know if acrobatics would have included laying on the ground. But maybe that’s why I had false labor that night!?! LOL.

While Karin was busy with the bride & groom, I was able to work with the very accommodating wedding party. Can you guess which ones are siblings to Arenda and Jeremy?

We snuck into the Abbey to take a few shots…the stained glass is stunning:

The weather was amazing that day, as were the fall colors that were just starting. It was perfect!

And one more of Karin in action (because every photographer needs a few shots like this!)

I know I promised to share some more images from Darlene & Larry’s wedding a while ago, and here they (finally!) are. Things here have been going really well, and Hudson is fitting into our family perfectly, just like he’s always been here. But (and there’s always a but, isn’t there?) it feels like there just aren’t enough hours in the day to get everything done. Or maybe it’s that I don’t have enough arms, an extra set or two would sure come in handy with a newborn in the house! A special thank you to Dar and Larry for waiting so patiently to see these. I’ll have your slideshow and ordering gallery to you shortly!

Anyways, on to some pictures! (and I hope to have some more image shares, of both clients and of Hudson) soon, as well as some information on Christmas Cards, a Storyboard sale, and more. Stay tuned!

Lucky for Darlene, her new sister-in-law is a makeup artist, and she did a fabulous job. Michelle did all the girls’ hair, and they looked amazing!

I love this pensive shot of Dar:

Darlene and her bridesmaids got ready at her sister’s (the one on the right) house…their back yard was especially gorgeous!

We had some fun while we waited for the guys:

Darlene and Larry had their pictures before the ceremony, and I love these images from the first time they saw each other:

Some fabulous sun flare. I think this is one of my favorite images from the day:

The bridal couple showing how it’s done (the bridal party is sure looking on intently!!)

Some rockstar action:

Someone’s ticklish!:

Darlene’s dress required a few stitches before the ceremony…I love the light in this shot:

When there’s two year old’s involved, it can take some serious coaxing to convince them to walk down the aisle, but the cuteness factor is worth it

Larry looking a touch nervous before Darlene walked down the aisle:

and one last fave: