Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Byron and Rebecca - the ceremony

As promised...more photos from Byron and Rebecca's lovely vintage-theme wedding in BC, Canada!  Here's the ceremony, and a few of the photos we took just afterward.





A very small but entirely capable escort.  ;)  It was very sweet to see how seriously Justin took his job!


Rebecca's mother and grandmother


Moshers and Ardrons




Rebecca's little sisters were adorable flower girls!


Rebecca and her father


Byron's first sight of his bride






Lyle Mosher, Byron's dad, gave a wonderful, heartfelt wedding message for his son and daughter-in-law.  I love hearing "words of wisdom" from someone like this -- he and his wife have been happily married for over 30 years!


The parents gather around the couple for prayer



Exchanging rings



Mr. and Mrs. Byron Mosher!


Unbeknownst to Rebecca, Byron brought this awesome Triumph and parked it around the corner.  After they recessed back up the aisle, he led her here -- talk about a surprised and delighted bride!









Parting shot...haha...this is Kilmeny, Byron's little niece.  Wonder what she's thinking? ;)



More photos of the family and wedding party coming...stay tuned!

- Kelsey

Discovering beauty...

Kelsey Schweickert  |  San Francisco Bay Area wedding photographer
Visit my website  |  Email me  |  Follow me on Twitter  |  Like my photography on Facebook

Friday, September 23, 2011

NorCal Tough Mudder

Ever heard of the Tough Mudder?  It's a 10-12 mile obstacle course that only the tough (and slightly crazy, in the opinion of yours truly) can finish!  The British Special Forces designed the event and it's caught on like wildfire (err, pun intended) since it began last year.  Tough Mudder is an official sponsor of the Wounded Warrior Project, and to date, participants have raised over $2 million.  With such a worthy cause, and with the event billed as "Probably the toughest event on the planet", well, who wouldn't go?

My brother Chris has done the TM twice, and my dad joined him for the one in Southern California last spring. When Dad saw that there was going to be a Tough Mudder at Squaw Valley in Tahoe, he decided to get a team together.  So after months of training, the twelve members of Team MudShark descended on Squaw last Saturday, and tackled the course...and of course this photographer went too!

Gotta say, after skiing quite a bit at Squaw, scrambling all over the mountain in the summertime with a bunch of heavy camera gear made me a bit lonesome for snow and skis.  ;) But it was easy compared to what the Mudders were doing, haha!  Plus Squaw is so beautiful in the summer.  There were tons of wildflowers, several pretty little snowmelt creeks, and of course Lake Tahoe views from higher up.  And the weather was just about perfect -- lovely September sunshine.

So here are some of the 16,000+ Tough Mudders who ran the course last Saturday.




Chernobyl Jacuzzi -- tanks full of ice water. The guys had to dunk under the board in order to get to the other side.


It was COLD -- they were constantly dumping chunks of ice into it.


Mt. Everest -- a curved 14' wall that was greased so it was almost impossible to get up on your own. Definitely a teamwork moment.


Some of the teams had hilarious costumes...



Monkey bars (and yes, these were greased too!)


Gotta hand it to this guy, whoever he is.  Apparently he did the course barefoot.


There were still quite a few snowfields on the higher part of the mountain.


It's beautiful at Squaw in the summer! :) (Next time I ski there, I'll be thinking of all the wildflowers that lie slumbering underneath the snow...haha...)


Berlin Walls


Walk the Plank


Boa Constrictor

 

Electric shocks (10,000 volts, I'm told)


Almost there!  Joan gives her husband Dennis a high-five near the finish line.


Jay on the balance beam (another obstacle with a cold pond underneath!)


Scott and Caleb after successfully making it across


My mom gives her friend Lisa a hug near the finish line



Dad navigating the nets



Uncle Mitch just rolled across...


Matt


Chris, never one to do things normally, exited the high nets head-first...and then...


...did a push-up at the bottom.


And he pulled off some ballet moves on the way across the balance beam. Grand battements are probably a little harder on a wobbly 2" piece of wood, eh?


Some of the team, alas, ended up in the drink.  So in a spirit of true camaraderie Chris joined them.



Chris takes on the final obstacle -- shocks. (Just after this photo, he got shocked and knocked to the ground!)


Marissa


Across the finish line! Bananas, t-shirt, and an official Tough Mudder orange headband.


Vince


Sarah, you were there! :) The team carried this rock the whole route!

Caleb, Jay, and Dennis


Scott's little daughter was passing out flowers...which these guys made good use of...
Chris, Scott, Tom, and Mitch


A very happy spectator with her Tough Mudder daddy




Want to become a Tough Mudder?  (Of course you do.)  Here's the link.

I'll post more photos soon in the Facebook album and on my online proofing site.

- Kelsey

Discovering beauty...

Kelsey Schweickert  |  San Francisco Bay Area wedding photographer
Visit my website  |  Email me  |  Follow me on Twitter  |  Like my photography on Facebook