Grand Cayman: Day 2

If I could only sleep past 7 am, things would be even better! I'm such a creature of habit. I'm pretty sure Josh could sleep until noon everyday (I don't understand how he can do that!). Luckily I took my 4th nap of 2008 yesterday...it was lovely! I've never been a napper, but apparently, that's what you do on an island!

Josh and I started off our day with LarKar and Kara's parents, Judy and Keith (rock stars in their own right) on a little trip. We went to visit the Grand Old House, which is where the wedding will be! Although the lighting will be a bit different for the wedding, I was so happy to look around and get tons of ideas for pictures. I even made Josh be the model (see below :o) We then went to the Marriott, which is where Lar and the guys will be getting ready and where Lar and Kara will be having their first look. Yaye! The hotel actually has lagoon in the middle of it...with baby turtles!!! I'm excited to take pictures here as well.

Josh and I had a bit of R & R in the afternoon...throwing a football with Lar on the beach and hanging out with Kara's extended family. They are so gracious and fun! The Welcome Party in the evening was super fun. The Royal Palms Beach had amazing food and yummy drinks. I've become a big fan of the Cayman Lemonade and the rest of the girls have become fans of the nutty banana drink...or as one person called it by the end of the night, a slutty dirty banana :o) Delicious whatever you call it.

We are ready for the big deal today. We are in GO mode, and ready to rock the day out with pictures for a lifetime! Off to the salon just now...enjoy the pics below!

Smoking guns (I took it right by the Teki torch :o)

The Flying Josh:  I really think that next time you are considering someone to take your pictures, you should ask yourself, "Would your photographer do this for you?"  Josh's motto: Go big or go home.  Side note...only a minor scar on the knee resulted from this near death jump.

My fun girls

Grand Old House:  Just imagine a beautiful bride with a flowing white dress...instead of Kung Foo Josh

This is Kara's color-coded, excel clipboard of fun...eat your heart out my Type A friends...you know who you are...

Are you kidding me...this is the family I get to take pictures of all day!  SOOOO AWESOME!

The Royal Palms at night

Proof that we were there too...a bit blurrier this time (not us, the picture), but still fun!

Grand Cayman: Day 4

Sorry this took a bit longer: reality of laundry and 3 toddlers sunk back in...humph


Day O' Fun
A large group of us that were still on the island went out on a boat (thanks Mr. Keith!) to play with the stingrays and swim with the reef fish...it was rough :o)  I bought an underwater container for my little point and shoot camera.  It was super fun to play around with...I even got some shots that turned out!

Stingray City was our first stop.

Larry conquered his "fear" of the stingrays and I have proof of it (see below)! We were in about 3-4 foot deep water and the stingrays would come up to your feet and swim by.  They were beautiful.  The guide was making everyone kiss the stingrays, whether you liked it or not :o)  Josh and I passed, but I'm pretty sure we were the only ones.  Everywhere I looked, I just saw blue skies.  It was so beautiful!  Just when I thought we were on our way back, I found out we had one more destination:

Snorkeling!

Unbeknownst to me, I snorkeled with a shark.  Let's just say I'm happy that I found out about it AFTER I got back on the boat!  Snorkeling was super fun.  Josh is a pro at it, so I have lots of fun pictures of him as he swam underneath me and scared the crap out of me!  On a more serious note, I absolutely loved the quietness of snorkeling.  I loved stopping over a big piece of coral, and just waiting.  Sure enough, something beautiful would come into focus that I didn't see before.  I especially love how everything works together in the reef.  The little fishes have each other's backs...and I like that.  I took some video as well with my little camera.  The quietness of being under the water is amazing.

On our way back to shore, the clouds came out as it neared sunset.  I love clouds. Keith and Judy...thanks again for taking such good care of all of us!

Here is Lar's first attempt to "get close" to the stingrays

Here's the real deal.  Well done.  Well done.

I had too many favorites, so I had to make another slide show :o) Enjoy by pressing the play button on the bottom left!

New Year's Eve came about 4 days too late for everyone.  We had all been up pretty late every night, so we decided to take the party to the beach after we found out that our "happening" bar, wasn't so happening.  (I think the exact words our waitress told me was, "Yeah, I hope we close right after midnight so I can go have some fun.  This place is usually dead by then...")  Luckily for us, it was amateur fire works night right where we were sitting.  These guys literally had fireworks going off for almost an hour!  We all just byob to the beach and relaxed with one another.  My trusty point and shoot wasn't so trusty with NO lighting.  So I played around a bit, and this is what I got:  Happy New Year Everyone!

Grand Cayman: Day 3

WEDDING DAY!

It was perfect.  It didn't even seem like work for me and Josh.  Everything went off without a hitch.  Blue skies, light breeze, great friends, Michael Jackson dancing moves, weird fish, love for all things Ohio and Michael Bolton, and an outpouring of love.  The day started in the salon for me.  I was with the girls.  They were so amazing...just loving on Kara all day.  Josh was with the guys as they got ready at the hotel.  They had their "first meet" earlier in the day, which was such a great idea.  We were able to get almost all of the pictures done before the ceremony, which left the sunset pictures a piece of cake (well, beside the part of me making everyone walk on sharp pointy rocks...hey sacrifices must be made for artistic vision!)  Let's just say this family is NOT hard to get into picture mode.  They made my job so wonderfully easy.  It's funny, because I consider my job during the wedding day to take care of everyone and to make everyone feel relaxed as I move the day along.  This family was doing the same for me and Josh all day!  Selfless and caring come to mind.  Again, how blessed am I to have a job where I am encouraged and loved! Thank you thank you thank you families!

Here are just a few of my favorites from the day.  I haven't gone through ALL of them yet, but I wanted to give you a taste from the day :o)  Enjoy!

Just push the play on the bottom left corner...it may take a sec to load!


Oh...and here's some more proof that we were there :o)

100 Days and Counting...

My Adventures with LarKar:

I'm so excited! I get to be Kara and Larry's photographer for their wedding in 100 days! Did I mention they're getting married in the Grand Cayman Islands?! Holla! I met Kara at Teresa and Joe's wedding last year. I remembered her immediately when she called because she was soooo much fun.

We follow each other's blogs and keep up through facebook etc. So even though I've really only met her once, I feel like I've known her for years! I can't say enough how much I love these two.

When we heard they were going to be in Indy this past weekend, Josh and I were so excited. We went out for some drinks Saturday night and we had them over to our house on Sunday afternoon. Let's just say it was more than likely great birth control to be with us all afternoon :o) After a sweet cookout with not one, but two, different types of potato salad, we went on a quick photo shoot. I literally laughed after every picture I took. I had to make a quick slideshow of my favorites. So many of the pictures had a short story behind them, or a scene of a movie, etc. For example, LarKar recreated the last scene of The Karate Kid, J. Crew magazine covers, and poses like that of the American Gothic painting and so on. WARNING: You may laugh out loud.

LarKar...we can't wait to see you again in December!!! Kiera and Josh

PS Lar...Josh thinks you have some mad ups.

Grand Cayman: Day 1

Josh and I made it down to the islands around sunset. We were a dead ringer for a typical midwestern couple, complete with tennis shoes, big back packs and woolly sweaters. As soon as we got our luggage, we shed sweaters and switched out the tennies for some flip flops...ahhhh. We were then greeted in our hotel (on Seven Mile Beach) with a welcome bag from our awesome couple, LarKar. Are you kidding me? How amazing!

They gave us monogram beach towels...


Coozies (sp?) for beverages on the beach


STAMPED post cards


Our "Clipboard of Fun" for the week


All of this and more all wrapped up in Trader Joe's bags to take to the beach!


I'm beyond words! So thoughtful, so generous, so kind. I LOVE my brides!

I had to get everything organized in our room right away. I know this may shock some of you since you just read my CLOSET post, but when it comes to business...it's on. Our room is perfect. There is a big table for me to set up my computer gear. I rented, borrowed etc. a TON of camera equipment so I didn't forget anything. Canon users...eat your heart out :o)


Josh and I went out with the crew later that night for dinner and fun. I took my little point and shoot. Apparently Lar and Travis (a close buddy) are closet Pong players...they cleaned up the whole the place (although the MOH and Joe gave them a run for their money and deserve an honorable mention).


Proof that we were here!


Off to relax a bit today...everyone is getting together tonight on the beach for more shenanigans. More soon!