Laura the Photographer

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Courtney + Mike // Las Vegas, NV

My husband Mike and Courtney’s husband Mike are basically soulmates. Like, they text every day with each other and I am pretty sure Courtney’s Mike knows more about my Mike than I do. When Courtney’s Mike texted my Mike about their Vegas vow renewal, we immediately cleared our calendars and booked our favorite hotel there, the Palms. Because, the bathtub (if you have been, you know what I’m talking about). Anyway, Courtney’s Mike, or as my Mike refers to him, DX, and my husband Mike have been best friends since Gettin’ Jiggy Wit It was a hit Billboard song. This vow renewal was basically the renewal of Mike and DX’s friendship as much as it was about Courtney + DX. Also, my Mike was DX’s best man, which made it even more sentimental for him to attend their vow renewal 10 years later. It was the perfect amount of adorable, cheesy, and absolutely hilarious.

The vow renewal day started as any day should: watching Courtney + DX’s kids’ baseball game. We hung out near home plate, shouting above the Thunderbirds flying to Nellis AFB, and loosely stringing together plans for what to do for dinner after the ceremony. There was only six of us, including Courtney + DX, for the vow renewal, and eventually we landed on an old school Vegas steakhouse for dinner, which happened to coincide perfectly with their plans to have post-ceremony couples’ photos in an old, urban parking structure.

Also, did I mention that Courtney + DX used to be wedding photographers? That created absolutely NO pressure on me when they asked me to take their vow renewal photos. None at all whatsoever. Fortunately, because they are close friends, it was just hanging out at their cute house, playing with their kids + dogs, and reminiscing about terrible experiences we have had as wedding photographers.

Before we left the hotel to go to the vow renewal, my Mike quickly chugged a Red Bull, and when we arrived at the wedding chapel, both Mikes chugged another energy drink together. Because Vegas is super lame, many of the venues do not allow outside photography. I quickly snuck in some photos while we waited in their small bridal suite of my ultra caffeinated husband teaching all six of us his version of Flossing, Mike + DX helping each other get ready, and of course photos of Courtney + DX being cute.

While I wasn’t allowed to take photos during the ceremony, what transpired afterwards is what we still laugh to til this day: the terrible photographer hired by the wedding chapel showed us all the photos after the ceremony and not only made all of us look orange in the photos (auto white balance, on camera flash pointed the wrong way, etc.), literally almost ALL her photos from the ceremony had my Mike in the background with the cheesiest, giant grin on his face due to the amount of Red Bull he had drunk beforehand. Not only was he in the background, but he was perfectly framed in the background of almost all their ceremony photos, just perfectly third wheeling in the best possible way. I’m pretty sure you could hear us laugh-crying all the way back in Palm Springs. It was perfectly cheesy and probably exactly what they didn’t know they needed for their vow renewal day.

But finally, after we had the most luxurious old-school Vegas steakhouse dinner, Mike + DX frolicked around the parking structure with bags of glitter and rusty pipes as props for perfectly non-traditional, slightly cheesy, Las Vegas wedding photography that I hope they both reminisce about for years to come.