In Travis We Trust

... because he produces work like this:

(I was once a greasy assistant mechanic, this photo tugs at my heart strings)

And with a little over an hour time (include picture taking AND processing/editing!) the guy also gave us this FOR FREE:

By pure miracle, I found the fabulous Travis Hoehne (rhymes with PWN) waaay back in July of '07, and he is the best thing that came out of our long engagement. This ultra talented boy was barely starting to bloom, with only 6 weddings shot solo under his belt at the time of our meeting. It was also right around when I was beginning to give up hope in finding a photographer that fit both my beer budget and champagne taste. After seeing some pictures on his blog, I emailed him for rates with fingers, toes, and eyelashes all crossed. Long story short, we got in contact, set up a meeting, and we threw ourselves at... umm, I mean, booked him.

He is so young, but he seemed to have it so together! Professional yet friendly, he made us very comfortable (and made me want to just hug him!). I commented on his adorable son whom he shows off on his blog, and he just beamed proud-daddyness. I don't know about you but I prefer employing /working with people that are good people, and he gave me that vibe.

Because I found him before his fame and had no other references for him, I requested for a test shoot to prove that he is who he claims to be. He traveled from So Cal all the way to Sacramento (which happens to be his hometown) to meet with us, and he even scoped out the areas near our meeting spot prior to our meeting for this test shoot to happen. Here are some more from the session:

It was really bright, and Travis made sure we got a pic to remember it by...

This looks almost sophisticated, and I don't know how he squeezed that out of us:

The test shoot was always in my mind for preview purposes only, and we couldn't believe that Travis just gave us copies for free. Though I'm sure he would have done an even better job if we committed to a real engagement session, I cannot be more pleased with the bonus we ended up with. We never intended to have engagement photos taken, but we put these pictures up on our wedding website and received quite a few positive feedbacks from our guests!

With everything coming more and more together on these final days before our wedding, I feel rest assured that he will capture the emotions along with my gazillion details with due justice. From Optimus Prime to the twisted tea everything (not to mention much more weirdness I haven't even begun to blog about), my dear Travis, I've got serious work cut out for you. Oh and, I hope your photoshop skillz are just as top notch, coz imma need it.

Just about every married person I speak to tells me that the most important thing to have at your wedding is a good photographer. When it is all said and done, the photos and your own memories are all that remains to remind you of the day. How did you find 'the one' to perform this vital role?