A little over a  year ago I photographed this darling little boy  along with his 4 siblings and parents.   His mom called and asked me to photograph a very special session for Khalil, which has since been titled “the warrior.” What warrior doesn’t come to the studio without a cape, belt, helmet and super powers?

Here is a little bit about this special guy in his Mom’s words…On his 449th day, Khalil, last born of premature triplets, was diagnosed with a cancer so rare and severe that only 300 cases are diagnosed in the U.S. annually. The diagnosis ended his family’s four-year assignment with USAID, Senegal, and began a journey of courage, perseverance, and love. Khalil, who learned to walk pushing an IV stand, is midway through a grueling 15-month treatment regimen that includes eight rounds of chemo-therapy, two stem-cell transplants, several surgeries, and radiation followed by six months of anti-body therapy.

I photographed Khalil’s warrior session at the end of his radiation treatment to document how courageous he has been throughout the entire process and to illustrate his incredible strength and perseverance. He is full of so much joy and love and had a wonderful time working with him again. I can’t wait to see him back in the studio with his family for their next session.

KCA Khalil! See you in the Spring

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Images by Kris wins the Brides’s Choice award for a second year in a row! Thank you so much for all of your wonderful reviews! I am incredibly grateful to work with such creative and wonderful clients. This wouldn’t have been possible without you!

Minneapolis, MN – January 23, 2012 – WeddingWire, the nation’s leading wedding Marketplace, is excited to announce Images by Kris has been selected to receive the prestigious WeddingWire Bride’s Choice Awards™ 2012 for photography!

The esteemed annual awards program recognizes the top local wedding vendors from the WeddingWire Network who demonstrate excellence in quality, service, responsiveness and professionalism within the wedding industry. While many industry awards are selected by the organization,Images was selected based on its stellar reviews from past newlywed clients.

Images by Kris is recognized as part of the top five percent of wedding professionals in the WeddingWire local vendor community, comprised of over 200,000 wedding professionals throughout the United States and Canada. The Bride’s Choice Award recognizes the best local wedding vendors across 20 service categories, from wedding venues to wedding photographers, based on their overall professional achievements throughout the past year.

“WeddingWire is thrilled to honor the success of the top-rated wedding professionals within the WeddingWire Community,” said Timothy Chi, CEO, WeddingWire. “Since the launch of the Bride’s Choice Awards™ program four years ago, thousands of outstanding wedding professionals have been recognized by the bridal community for their supreme service and dedication to the wedding industry. It is with great pleasure that we congratulate Images for their continued professionalism and commitment to enriching the wedding planning experience for engaged couples.”

We are happy to announce that Images by Kris is one of the very best photographers within the WeddingWire Network, which includes leading wedding planning sites WeddingWire, Project Wedding, Brides.com, Martha Stewart Weddings, and Weddingbee. We would like to thank our past clients for taking the time to review our business on WeddingWire. Thanks to their positive feedback we were able to receive the WeddingWire Bride’s Choice Awards™ for 2012.

For more information, please visit our WeddingWire Storefront today at http://weddingwire.com/imagesbykris.

To learn more about the Bride’s Choice Awards™, please visit www.WeddingWire.com.

About WeddingWire, Inc.
WeddingWire™, the nation’s leading marketplace serving the $70 billion wedding industry, is the only online wedding planning resource designed to empower both engaged couples and wedding professionals. For engaged couples, WeddingWire offers the ability to search, compare and book over 200,000 reviewed wedding vendors, from wedding venues to wedding photographers. WeddingWire also offers a comprehensive suite of online planning tools for weddings, including wedding websites and wedding checklists, all at no charge. For wedding professionals, WeddingWire is the only all-in-one marketing platform for businesses online and on-the-go. WeddingWire offers one simple solution to build a professional network, improve search visibility, manage social media and reach mobile consumers. Businesses that advertise with WeddingWire appear on WeddingWire.com, ProjectWedding.com and other leading sites, including MarthaStewartWeddings.com (NYSE: MSO), Brides.com and Weddingbee.com.

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I had the opportunity on Saturday to be the matron of honor at my sister’s wedding at Fort Snelling Memorial Chapel. My husband and assistant photographer Pete, photographed the majority of the day and Jason from Joy Orcutt Photography also helped out for a couple hours. The photos below are a combination of  Pete’s and mine. A very special thank you to Luna Vinca for gorgeous flowers and to Amy Stuzriem for beautiful hair and makeup!

They started off their winter wedding at the studio getting ready where they had their first look outside on the cobblestone streets.  Then we headed to Fort Snelling for some gorgeous photos. The lighting was incredible and we even managed to find a couple patches of snow Matt, a former Marine suited up in his dress blues shortly before the ceremony in the gorgeous intimate stone chapel. Candles lit up the aisle and live music from the very talented Jeff James filled the chapel throughout the ceremony. We headed to Mears Park in downtown St. Paul to capture some of the twinkling lights, then headed off to Ideal Hall for a reception filled with mason jars, candles and birch trees. The evening was complete with great music played by DJ Travis Stanich of Sound Factory Systems. Enjoy….

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