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This holidays we’ve been inspired by Giving is Awesome dot com to put up $800 in photography for one needy family or person. And the person who nominates the winning family will receive a $250 credit with Unique Images Photography!

Do you know someone who’s experienced a tragedy, is struggling to stay afloat, is raising kids while holding down more than one job, or is volunteering selflessly despite extenuating personal circumstances? I am sure we all do know someone like this. Send me an email at mark at uniqueimagesphotography dot ca and tell me who they are and why you think they should have the prize.

The rules:

* You cannot nominate yourself, and the person nominated must sincerely be in a position of financial need. If you know someone who is an awesome person and volunteers all of their free time to charity but owns a million-dollar home, well, they would be people we’d love to take photos of any other time, but they’re not people you should nominate. Whoever you nominate should be unable to afford custom portraiture.

* The nominee must reside in Lethbridge or Calgary. Please include a way to contact both your nominee and yourself as well.

* You must email me the reasons and not just send a name.

The winner will be announced on April the 16th 2009, so get nominating! I can’t wait to read all of your entries.

I think this was the first time a man has ever brought me flowers.

We were just chosen for CKVN radio station’s business of the month and DJ Mike LeBlanc came around and presented me with some nice gifts including the basket of teas and coffees you can see in the photo below, which I took on our dining room table.  We also won several other cool things that you can read about over on their site (click here to visit the link).

CKVN is the Christian radio station here in Lethbridge and they’ve done some great things with the station in the year or so that they’ve been running.  So thanks to CKVN—and to the other businesses in town who gave us our prizes. Now Sherri and I will have to arm-wrestle over who gets the hour-long massage. Uh-oh.

Ah, what a wedding! What a great couple. This was definitely one of the most emotional weddings we’ve been to. I think the speeches at the reception will stay in my memory forever. Even when Jen gave her speech to Yuki’s mother in Japanese I had tears in my eyes—and I didn’t have a clue what she was saying! But it was such a powerful moment. All of the speeches were very touching and the atmosphere in the room was incredible. And, yes, that is a real samurai sword during the cutting of the first cake!

Yuki and Jen showed so much love and laughter during the day, it was awesome; this is what weddings are all about! Yuki has a great sense of humour and was constantly joking around. He was bold and irreverent and I liked him immediately. How many grooms, during their photo session, ask to pose with a vacuum cleaner? “This is what my life is like”, he sighed, pushing it over the carpet in the hotel’s hallway.

Jen is a perfect match for Yuki; they compliment each other so well. She is so incredibly sweet. There are always little things that don’t go perfectly during a wedding day and Jen dealt with them with patience and was just so nice. And she looked absolutely amazing.

Yuki and Jen both bought gifts for each other, from Tiffany’s and I-Prima. They both showed me what they’d bought and then told me not to tell. Their rings were from Tiffany’s and were simply beautiful, as you would expect.

Their wedding took place in St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church here in Lethbridge. I just love the wood in this church, and the stained glass window over the altar area has to be the largest one in Lethbridge. It’s a deep blue and compliments the wood perfectly. Erin Phillips, the minister, was very nice. We were not allowed to use flash during the service and we had to stay in one spot until the very end, rather than move around, but Erin didn’t mind me moving a couple of feet and we were still able to record the ceremony without trouble.

During the reception we walked through the University to get some more portrait images and there was a basketball game going on, so Jen and Yuki sat and watched while I took photos of them in the stands. That’s a first for me at a wedding!

Yuki and Jen had asked that we get fun photos during the day and Yuki’s off-the-wall personality combined with mine to lead to some of the strange poses you’ll see below. It was all fun though. I think this is the first time I’ve had a groom who may be even crazier than me. Please click on the slideshow below to see an excerpt of their wedding.