Bridger Mountains Wedding Welcome Party and Groom’s Party Photos

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A few weeks back I had the pleasure of photographing Bridger Mountains Wedding Welcome Party and Groom’s Party of Raven and Jordan outside Bozeman, Montana.

For so many recent brides and grooms, 2020 pandemic has been a year of pivoting and a reliable source of disruption for countless wedding plans.

Raven and Jordan’s originally planned their wedding for an earlier Spring date. Unfortunately, the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic changed everything for them. They decided to delay their wedding celebration to a time when their loved ones could safely be in attendance.

Undeterred, this Arizona couple decided to postpone their destination wedding to a later summer date and to a familiar venue, her parents Bozeman, Montana home. Their extended families arrived for a three-day event at her family’s 140-acre property set against the backdrop of the beautiful Bridger Mountains.

It was a magical setting orchestrated by the fabulous team from Imoni Events. Huge Under Canvas teepee-styled tents decorated the wedding property. For their wedding guests’ accomidations, an additional wall tent city was erected so they could comfortably “glamp” in during their Montana stay. The first two evening parties were causal and laid back. Raven and Jordan spent the time reconnecting and celebrating with their family and guests. It was all in anticipation of their upcoming wedding day!

The first two evenings were causal and spent reconnecting and celebrating with their guests during their Welcome Party and a Nike/Harry Potter themed Groom’s Party.

My role was to document and photograph all of the candid fun while creating special family memories of the weekend celebration.

It’s not every day that wedding couples have all the most important people in their world surrounding and celebrating them. It was a gift this family took full advantage of. This family celebrated their relationships in style. Laughter, great food, libations, fun in the Greener Visuals photo booth, and some serious games of cornhole entertained during the two evening events.

All in attendance at their Bridger Mountains Wedding Welcome Party and Groom’s Party were in high spirits. Even my labrador, Tippet. During the party, she happily entertained, nuzzled, and retrieved objects thrown by occasional wedding guests. Invited to the Groom’s Party (by the bride’s family), my dog promptly managed to cut a good size gash in her leg. Though it wasn’t serious injury, the wound was later mended during a midnight visit to the emergency vet.

During the party, she happily entertained, nuzzled, and retrieved objects thrown by occasional wedding guests.

After social distancing this past year, you could feel the high energy from everyone in attendance. Everyone was thrilled to be amongst friendly, loving faces again. I think it made this event even more special. There is a lot of love and support for this couple.

Here are some favorites photographs from their wedding welcome party and Groom’s Party festivities. It was all leading up to the main event, Raven and Jordan’s outdoor wedding celebration the next day.

A wedding day that I or any other person in attendance will soon forget. -M

To view all of Raven and Jordan’s Wedding day photos, click here.

To view all of the Photo Booth photos from the weekend, click here and click here.

FEATURED VENDORS:
Event Planning and Design: Imoni Events
Floral Designer: Carte Blanche Design
Photography: Greener Visuals Photography
Videography: Moshunal Videography
Entertainment: Joe’s DJ Service
Desert and Cake: Elle’s Belles Bakery

Paper Stuff: Freed Hands
Hair & Makeup: Indulgence
Rentals: Montana Party Rentals
Draping and Lighting: The Party Store MT
Linens: La Tavola Linen & BBJ Linen Rental
Glamping: Under Canvas
Host Hotel: Kimpton Armory Hotel Bozeman

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Prospera Business Network Prosperity Party Photobooth at Rockin TJ Ranch in Bozeman Montana

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Rockin TJ Ranch Greener Visuals Photobooth Prospera Business Network

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Last night’s Prospera Business Network Prosperity Party Photobooth at Rockin TJ Ranch in Bozeman Montana was a huge hit!

I had a blast playing in my Greener Visuals Photo Booth with the attendees of this year’s Prospera Business Network Prosperity Party.

Great people having fun and supporting Montana business owners. While all the photos were taken by the people in the photos, here are some of my favorite moments that stood out.

Greener Visuals Photography strives to support local organizations that work towards bettering the community in Montana.

So glad I could be apart of the celebration. Check out the awesome and enjoy! -M

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Virginia City Wedding Photo Booth of Marissa and Tyler

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Virginia City Montana wedding reception photo booth

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As part of their wedding reception, newlyweds Marissa, and Tyler added my Virginia City Wedding Photo Booth into the celebration for entertaining their guests.

It was a huge hit.

Complete with old-fashioned furniture to match the old-west theme of their wedding, it seemed like everyone had a chance to play in it. The cool thing is that their guests triggered the camera and professional studio light themselves via remote control. The creativity of their wedding guests knew no boundaries.

Here are some of my favorite photos from their Virginia City Wedding Photo Booth.

It was such a fun evening with some amazing people. Congrats again to the bride and groom!

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Holiday Party photo booth for 2015 Big Brothers Big Sisters

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Big Brothers Big Sisters of Gallatin County 2015 Holiday Party Photos

  • Big Brothers Big Sisters of Gallatin County 2015 Holiday Party Photos

I recently set up my Holiday Party photo booth for the 2015 Big Brothers Big Sisters of Big Sky Country holiday party at Fork and Spoon in Bozeman, Montana.

As a business owner, I believe it’s important to give back to enrich and benefit my community. It was one of the many things I took pride in over the last decade while photographing at community newspapers across the country. Telling the stories of others in my community is one of my passions.

Now as a self-employed wedding, editorial, and commercial photographer, opportunities to interact with the public, like my time working as a journalist, don’t come around as much as I would like. Supporting and donating my photography skill set to benefit local not-for-profits is a service I am grateful to provide.

The Big Brothers Big Sisters of Gallatin County‘s 2015 holiday party was planned for the kids, their families, and the mentors of the program to come together and celebrate. About a week before the event, I was contacted by Valerie Erwin, Marketing and Outreach Coordinator of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Gallatin County. Valerie was in a bind and was short on time. She needed an event photographer to document the fun at their annual holiday party. I was happy to help.

I headed over to the Gallatin County Fairgrounds and set up my portable photo studio. It set the stage for the party attendees to have some fun. This crowd was a hoot. I love documenting humans at play. We all had a great time and I came away with some fun photos from the event. Here are some favorites. Happy to support such a great local organization. Merry Christmas everyone! -M

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Alaska Wedding Photo Booth in Hope Alaska

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    Photo booths just make weddings receptions better. I set up my Greener Visuals Photo Booth for Eric and Brandy's wedding reception at a the Discovery Cafe in Hope, Alaska and the photos turned out awesome. Check them out!

I had the absolute pleasure of photographing the Alaska Wedding Photo Booth at Eric & Brandy’s wedding reception in Hope, Alaska.

When my brother informed the family that he had proposed to his long-time girlfriend Brandy, we were just thrilled. Group effort wedding planning soon commenced. In celebration of the Greener/Hollenbeck wedding day in Hope, Alaska this past summer, I brought along my Greener Visuals Photo Booth for the reception.

The wedding venue was located two hours south of Anchorage, Alaska at the Discovery Cafe in Hope, Alaska.

Wedding photo booths just make wedding celebrations better.

They are interactive, creative, and often hilarious. Bringing your own props allows you to shape the photo booth interaction for the reception guests and invites them to play. Having one at this Greener wedding reception was a no-brainer.

As I mentioned in their wedding day photos blog post, this “do-it-yourself” wedding required frugal creativity on everyone’s part. Everyone aided in making for a really special weekend.

Tasked with final prep for the photo booth, my sister Katie and I drove around Anchorage and visited numerous thrift stores for inspiration. For last-minute affordable photo booth props, our efforts didn’t disappoint.

At Eric and Brandy’s wedding reception, we set up the photo booth against a rustic, weathered-looking cabin wall. It made for a clean backdrop. The photo booth was a huge hit with the wedding guests. Their wedding guests could trigger the camera and strobe via remote control, and make an epic, wonderfully weird self-portraits on their own. Without fail every time, those who enter it let loose in their creativity and leave with a grin on their face. The best part is you never know what you are going to get.

What a fantastic day! I could not be more excited for Eric and Brandy! I love you guys! Wishing you a lifetime of happiness! – Your brother Mike

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Hart Ranch Photo Booth during Madeline & Chase wedding day

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    Wanting to have a fun outlet to entertain their guests, wedding couple Madeline and Chase opted for a Greener Visuals Photo Booth at their Broken Hart Ranch Fall wedding reception. Check out the fun photos!

I had the pleasure of photographing the Broken Hart Ranch Photo Booth at Madeline and Chase’s wedding celebration!

When considering their Fall wedding reception in Bozeman, Montana, in addition to dancing, Madeline and Chase wanted to have a fun, creative outlet to entertain their guests. In addition to hiring me to photograph their wedding day, they added my Greener Visuals Photo Booth to their wedding photography collection. I’m so glad they did.

My Greener Visuals photo booth is exclusively available only to my wedding clients! Photo booths are so much fun because you never know what hilarious results you will get. The photo booth is operated entirely by your guests. By simply pressing a remote control button, guests can trigger the professional DSLR camera and studio lights for an instant beautifully lit photo. Combined with boxes of funny costumes, there is no limit to your guest’s creativity and entertainment.

As the night progressed, their friends and family laughed, played, and dressed in wonderfully weird costumes were able to then take their own beautifully lit photo booth photos via wireless remote control. It was a huge hit. Their Broken Hart Ranch Wedding Photo Booth was a really fun addition to their great wedding day celebration.  -M

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Davis California Wedding Photography Booth of Emily & Matt – Odd Fellows Hall

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In addition to photographing Emily and Matt’s wedding celebration, they also hired me to set up my photo booth at their reception at the Odd Fellows Hall in Davis, California. Photobooths are a great way to add some fun to the wedding reception. It’s amazing the positive energy it can bring to a wedding celebration.  Their wedding guests were able to trigger the booth remotely themselves which meant I could continue to photograph the festivities elsewhere. The results are often a surprising and hilarious discovery and random creativity. I’ve made it a rule now never to have beverages around my computer while editing photobooth images. Too funny. You never quite know what you will get. This crowd did not disappoint. What a fun evening! -Mike Greener

To see all of the photo booth images, follow this link.

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Davis California Wedding Day Photographs of Emily & Matt at UC Davis Arboretum

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A few weeks back I had the honor of photographing the spring wedding weekend of my good buddies Emily and Matt in Davis, California just outside Sacramento. I hopped a flight from Bozeman, Montana and flew back to my former stomping grounds of Northern California. Before moving to the mountain paradise of Bozeman, Montana, I lived in Davis for three and a half years photographing weddings and working at a newspaper in the San Francisco bay area. At the time, Emily and Matt were attending UC Davis as Ecology PhD graduate students. Over the years as our friendship grew, I watched their relationship blossom and flourish. Early on, it was apparent to most onlookers in our friend circle that they were a close match and soon it was not so much a question of if they would ever get married but a matter of when. Surrounded by hundreds of friends and loved ones, these two finally made it official with their beautiful ceremony in the lush green scenery of the UC Davis Arboretum. The following evening their reception kicked off in the heart of downtown Davis at the Odd Fellows Hall. Rather than have the run of the mill wedding, these two tapped into their love of dance, performance and the decor of the Burning Man scene – a place and experience both bride and groom hold in high regard- and shaped their reception into a colorful exotic ball. The end result was a wedding unique and beautiful unto itself. The way all weddings should be, a complete representation of the wedding couple’s own awesome style. As it turns out, these two were able to source many talents from friends and family -from helping to plan out the wedding, to DJ’s to florists to foodies to yours truly behind the camera- everyone came together to help make their colorful California wedding a reality. Even the onset of spring rains that at the last minute forced a wedding ceremony to be held inside couldn’t keep anyone’s spirits down for long. It was a wonderful weekend full of laughter, love, feathers and a copious amount of dancing. Don’t believe me? Check out the photo booth these two had at their reception. Yes, those are custom made bride and groom super hero costumes they are wearing.  My friends are awesome. So glad I could be there to photograph their wedding day. I wish them a lifetime of happiness! -Mike Greener

 

To see all of the photos from the weekend and for print inquiries follow the link here.

 

Reviews of the Day

Greener_Mike_042614_EmilyMattZeffermanWedding_2193-2-950x635“My husband and I met Mike in Davis, CA, where we had the privilege of getting to know Mike as both a friend and a talented photojournalist and burgeoning wedding photographer. When it came time for our wedding, there was no question that we wanted Mike to be our photographer, despite having to fly him out to CA from Montana.

We have zero regrets. I appreciated that Mike talked with me before the wedding to get a sense of our vision, and share some of his own ideas. When our plans for a fun photo shoot didn’t work out the day of our wedding, Mike just rolled with it and rescheduled it for later that weekend. He made a point of making sure that he wouldn’t add any extra stress to the event. Far from adding stress, Mike’s positive energy and supportive attitude made him a blast to work with, for my husband and I as well as our guests. At the end of the weekend, I kept hearing the same words from my friends and family, almost as though someone passed them a political talking point: “Best wedding photographer EVER!” And that was before we saw the photos…

Mike’s photojournalism background is evident in his approach to wedding photography: rather than doing round after round of boring posed portraits, Mike keeps the focus on candid shots, making people look their best while also looking REAL (though he snaps a nice portrait as well!) While looking through our wedding photos, I feel like I’m reliving the events, seeing genuine happiness and love in the faces of our friends and family. We now have the story of our wedding captured in beautiful photographs, and we will treasure them for a lifetime.
It’s hard to say what I appreciate more about Mike as a photographer- his positive energy and downright charming manner, or his fabulous photographs. It’s rare to find a person who is both easy-going and fun, AND extremely professional. Mike is both of these, and I highly recommend him to anyone who needs a wedding photographer!” – Emily & Matt, married 2014

Greener_Mike_042614_EmilyMattZefferman_WeddingPhotobooth_SisterReview“May I just say how thrilled I am that my sister hired Mike Greener as her wedding photographer? His warmth, energy, and enthusiasm made the day all the more wonderful for all of us. Mike was able to capture so many details, expressions, and special moments without ever getting in the way. My sister, friends, family and I couldn’t have been happier to have him with us to document the weekend-long occasion. When the bride endured some wedding stress, Mike helped her re-focus on the positives of the day, keeping her laughing and making her feel beautiful. His pictures were a reflection of that positivity. No matter how rushed or stressful things got (which, you know, often happens at weddings!), Mike kept his focus, rolled with the punches, and extracted joy from every subject. The vibrant, creative, beautiful photos he captured that weekend will be a permanent reminder that my sister chose the right photographer. We can’t recommend Mike Greener highly enough!” -Laura, sister of the bride

 

 

 

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Ralston White Retreat Wedding Photo Booth of Jenn and Chris in Mill Valley California

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God I love photobooths! In addition to documenting the fun throughout the day at Jenn and Chris’ Wedding, they wanted a fun way to entertain their guests at the reception. The Greener Visuals Photobooth was the perfect answer. They provided the fun costumes and toys while I set up my remote photobooth so that their guests could take the picture themselves throughout the evening. It’s always a riot editing through them because you never really know what you are going to get. I could only hold out for so long before I hopped in the booth myself. Here are some of my favorites from the reception. Cheers and congrats to the bride and groom!

To see photos from Jenn and Chris’ Wedding Day you can view them here.

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2011 Lavish and Fabulous Couture Bridal Event VIP Black Carpet Photo Booth

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Last night I had the privilege of photographing the 2011 Lavish and Fabulous Couture Bridal Event at the Arden Hills Resort Club & Spa. The annual event is put on by my wedding planner friend Fearon, of Fearon May Events, in association with Real Weddings Magazine as a chance to show case the top wedding vendors in the Sacramento region to local brides and grooms in numerous themed vignette table top design settings. It was incredible. Each room within the spacious resort vicinity had a different theme that introduced brides to an assortment of different design possibilities they could apply to their own wedding. I was asked by Fearon to help out by photographing two of the rooms (which I’ll talk about in a future blog post), documenting the guests having fun at the event and lastly to make portraits of the brides an grooms on the black carpet entry way as they entered the event. This turned out to be a lot of fun. I decided it would be fun to turn it into a glorified photo booth and set up my big lights combined with a reflector to create a beautiful lighting scheme that helped to make everyone’s skin toned really pop. The “black carpet booth” was also a great chance for me to meet all of the brides and grooms and get them riled up and smiling for the event. Everyone was in a great mood and it made for some really nice portraits. I had a great time. Here are some of my favorite photos from the black carpet photo session. I’ll be writing up a post on the rest of the Lavish and Fabulous Couture Bridal Event experience soon. Stay tuned…

To see all of the black carpet photos you can view them on the Lavish and Fabulous website here.

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Colorado Wedding Day Photo Booth in Parker Colorado of Erin & Ryan

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Sometimes it’s the little things that can make a wedding peak over the top of awesomeness. A couple weeks ago, I helped Erin and Ryan do just that by setting up a photo booth for their guests to play in and take photos of themselves throughout the reception. What I love about offering photo booths to my clients is that they are totally customizable by the fun props and backdrops clients provide and are limited only by the creativity of their wedding guests. I have yet to keep a straight face while editing a photo booth take. So often they yield hilarious results. Being a high up the totem pole in the marketing department over at Facebook, Erin really wanted step it up a notch and have a social media aspect to her wedding day. She approached me about a concept of having her photo booth photos posted straight to Facebook throughout the evening so her friends and family could tag themselves and share the photos. I thought it was a pretty cool concept that I had never tried before but was up to the challenge. Through the help of my trusty photo assistant and local Denver photographer Justin Edmonds, we were able to figure out a solution using presets in Adobe Lightroom 3. The result was a couple easy clicks (on my computer which was tethered to my camera) and the photos uploaded straight to her Facebook page dedicated to her wedding day. It was a huge hit with her wedding guests and a new challenge I was pleased that we were able to conquer. In the end I couldn’t resist and stepped in to make a couple photos of myself. Too much fun. Here are a couple of my favorite images that were made during Erin and Ryan’s wedding. You can view the full photo shoot here on my archive site. Stay tuned for their wedding shoot. Coming soon. Until then, -M

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4th of July Party Photos from Greener Visuals Photography

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I can’t believe it is the 4th of July already. I’ve been so busy with weddings and photographing events that the patriot holiday snuck up on me this year. After a long fun weekend in Denver photographing the wedding of an old high school friend, I returned home exhausted but satisfied. Since my return, it’s been nothing but one hundred degree heat and barbecues with friends in Sacramento and Davis, California. It was a treat to slow down and enjoy a relaxing afternoon. I decided it would be fun to set up my Greener Visuals Wedding Photography photo booth for the event. It was a great excuse to play and draw with sparklers. It reminded me of my youth growing up catching lightning bugs and celebrating the Independence Day fireworks in northwest suburbs of Chicago. Happy memories and just like that…summer is halfway over. Time flies when your having fun. Happy 4th of July everyone! -M

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The HideOut Wedding Day Photo Booth of Zack and Anna

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The Greener Visuals photo booth is open for business.

For its inaugural run at The HideOut Wedding Day photo booth of Zack and Anna in Kirkwood, California, the photo booth was an instant success. The idea was to set up a camera rig that would allow all of the guests of the wedding to take photos of themselves from a remote radio camera trigger. I had never done this before so there was a bit of a learning curve.

Despite the frigid mountain temperatures, numerous people found their way over to make some pretty creative photos with the help of the costume box from distinguished members of the UC Davis Ecology crew. Thanks for your help guys! I uploaded the entire take to show the progression of the evening. It yielded hilarious, fun results. Truly a great time was had by all.

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