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Ira Meets Myra // A Few of My Favorite Things

The past couple of months have been totally crazy, as most of you guys know. Between my dad’s stroke, the big move to Alabama, and trying to get caught up on all my Salt Lake business while getting things settled here…. man oh man. But everything’s slowing down, and Jamie and I will be flying out to New Jersey this weekend to attend and photograph Lindsay and Michael’s wedding, and then I’ll be headed back to Utah next Thursday for a whirlwind trip to photograph Leona and Alex’s wedding, so I don’t think the down time is going to last too much longer. :)

That said, I thought I’d share some of the things I’m lovin’ these days. Things that have helped me keep my sanity during the stress of it all. Just a few of my favorite things!

This American Life

So one of my new dreams is to be interviewed by Ira Glass. I’ve caught the occasional episode of This American Life, his weekly radio show, on NPR, but when I knew we would be trekking out to Bham, I decided to download a bunch of old episodes for us to listen to. (There’s really only so much music you can stand on a 35-hour car ride.) I think we listened to 15 or so of the hour-long shows because they are super addictive. Each show, he and his team of reporters pick a theme and bring all sorts of stories, songs, interviews, etc. related to that theme, and often they divide the show into “acts.” But what I love is that it’s not just a typical dry newscast… They make a point to really dive in and find unusual stories, or they just find random people and turn an ordinary topic into something really interesting and extraordinary. Plus, the sound of Ira’s voice is just dreamy. Every week you can download the latest episode for free, but the archives can be purchased for 99 cents each. Well worth it for long car rides!

McDonald’s Sweet Tea

Okay, so my obsession with sweet tea is no secret. But I gotta say, it’s amazing being back in the South where people know HOW to make sweet tea. I mean, you’d think at a national chain like McD’s they would make it the same everywhere, but nooo. If I ever actually could find it at one in Utah, it was usually yucky. And $1? Are you kidding me? That’s almost cheaper than making it at home! Okay, so I know I’m probably killing the Earth with those styrofoam cups (which, I admit, I love), but I can’t help it. It’s not like I can drop $5 every day on Starbucks, so let me have my addiction OKAY? Just kidding. It’s not that bad. I only go…. oh…. every morning or so. :)

Mad Men


OMG. Why have I not been watching this show since Season 1? It is so up my alley it’s ridic. Between the outfits and the decor and…. can we just talk about Joan for a second? Wow. I have a total girl crush on her. Well, her, and pretty much everything about mid century anything. I’ve always had a thing for mid century fashion and design, but watching this show has only been fueling the love.

That said, I’ve been really inspired lately, and I’ve been drooling over all sorts of lovely things to furnish and decorate our new townhouse. Don’t get me wrong…. most of these things I will NEVER be able to afford, but I’ve been searching for knockoffs and scouring secondhand stores for similar items, and I’ve started saving for the big stuff. (helloooo sofa!) I just love those inspiration boards they post on sites like Design*Sponge, so I thought I’d make one of my own. Even if I can’t own it all now, it’s still fun to look at. :)

(clockwise, from top): Eames chair, $349. Paige Reads Peyton Place Open Edition Print, $26. Silver arc lamp, $268. Emilio Lemon Drop fabric, $14.95/yd. Bertoia wire chair, $481. Teak mid century modern dining set, $1200. Live Simply Print, $20. Crate and Barrel Petrie Sofa, $1599.

Mumford & Sons

I used to be one of those music snobs who got all uppity when “I discovered it first.” But over the years I’ve outgrown Early Adopter Syndrome, and it’s a good thing, because even though I arrived to the Mumford & Sons party late in the game, I’m pretty smitten. Obvs I love me some banjo, but I also really love the honest, soulful lyrics. Go listen to “Awake My Soul.” Great stuff.

Miss Myra’s Pit Barbecue

And finally, because I’m now an Alabama resident, I have to sing the praises of the local BBQ joints. There’s literally one on every street corner, it seems like. We were driving through the boonies on the interstate and it still smelled like BBQ. At Miss Myra’s (which, despite its humble appearance, has food so good it was featured in The New York Times AND The Wall Street Journal), I love the loaded baked potato piled with pulled pork. OMG. Between that and the sweet tea, it’ll be a wonder if I don’t gain 20 pounds by this time next year!

And that about wraps it up for this post! What’re some of the things YOU can’t live without right now?

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Ashley @ Everyday Inspirations - Oh my gosh, Morgan, you make me so happy. Thanks for the smile on a Tuesday afternoon.

Things I currently cannot live without:
- A big cup full of Crystal Light raspberry lemonade on my desk (it’s like my goodbye to summer drink).
- Comfort foods (lasagna, meatloaf, chocolate chip cookies). I think it has to do with all the moving madness.
- Soduku puzzles during downtime.
- The Hangover soundtrack. Don’t ask me why. It’s been a pick-me-up as I drive home from work.

Ash

Elisa - First of all, I’m insanely jealous that you get to live in the great state of Alabama…now, maybe you see why I’m so obsessed with getting “home.” :) I am also obsessed with Mumford & Sons, and I’m totally regretting not getting tix to the Knoxville show. I also really want to get on the Mad Men train. Have you seen amc’s mad men yourself feature on their website. It’s pretty fun! Hope y’all are well!

Morgan Trinker - @Elisa: I hope someday you can once again live in the Promised Land. :) We definitely love it here so far, and it’s so nice to feel like we’re “home.” And I have done the Mad Men Yourself thing… it’s so cute!

@Ashley: Comfort foods, YES. And I just looked at the Hangover soundtrack song list, and it definitely looks like good pump-you-up music! Oh my gosh, I LOVE Ed Helms’s song. :)

melodie - Ok, so Im pretty sure that if I knew you…in foreals life and not, I stalk your blog life…we would be besties…just sayin’

Morgan Trinker - Melodie, I think we totally would. :)

Nathan + Camille // A Sunny, Cheerful Salt Lake City Wedding

Whenever I talk about my latest weddings and projects with friends and family, and I mention Camille’s name, without fail the response will be “Oh, that ADORABLE girl?!” ‘Cause yeah. They remember her bridals and her and Nathan’s engagement session, and that’s just how adorable she is. :) Well, and Nathan too, but I’m thinking adorable might not be an appropriate term to use for a guy, so….. handsome? Devilishly good-looking and debonaire?

Well, anyway, you get the point. Bottom line is, these two are cute as can be, both in terms of looks and in terms of their relationship. They’re fun, have a great sense of style and excellent taste in music, and they’re super sweet all around. So the fun, colorful vibe to their wedding was perfect. The color scheme of yellow and green, the backdrop of Cactus & Tropicals, the fantastic variety of indie love songs (half of which I played at my own wedding- “First Day of My Life” was our first dance, what what!), the touching speeches made by their friends and family…. it was all so personal. Thank you all so much for letting me be a part of it… and thank you Mrs. Jolina for trusting me to shoot my first LDS wedding. I hope I didn’t disappoint! :) And special thanks to Mike & Sam, for being the best second shooters/friends/moral supporters a girl could ask for. You rocked it!

Fan-freakin’-tastic.

I’m kind of in love with this shot Mike grabbed of Camille as I was going through family formals.

I loved this. :)

Seriously, this kid wins Best Ringbearer Ever award. He took his job so seriously, and did an amazing job.

One of my faves. I love how Nathan delicately sticks the cake in her mouth, while Camille straight up whacks him across the face in return. Ha!


If there is one thing Camille knows how to do, it’s make awesome faces. Behold:

Nathan’s family is definitely in touch with their emotions, which I thought was so cute. Nathan and his mom laughed and cried the whole way through their dance. :)

Mike was playing around with long exposures and light painting during the dancing. I love this one he grabbed!

Off to Disneyworld! Hooray!

And speaking of Disneyworld, I was following their Facebook updates while they were on their honeymoon, and Camille participated in this thing called the “American Idol Experience,” where the winner gets to go before the real judges. The video she posted was awesome because it really looked like she was on American Idol…. and her voice? RIDICULOUSLY good. Unfortunately, she got runner-up to a girl who apparently had a lot of family members there to vote for her. :( Keep on trying, Camille!
And lastly but not leastly, the slideshow! I used a smattering of songs that either Nathan and Camille told me were meaningful to them or they played at the wedding or that I just felt like worked. Hope you enjoy! And congratulations, Johnsons!

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Amy - What a fun set! This is a wedding I would have loved to go to. Beautiful, Miz Morgan!

Debbie - I don’t know what it is about this couple - never met them, but I love them! What a lot of love, fun and family. Great pics at Temple Square Morgan! Not your routine shots! I love this shoot. I will have to admit I will miss seeing Temple Square now that you are in B’ham. It is a beautiful place. Congratulations to this lovely couple!

Jolina Evans - Morgan, you did such a fantastic job! I am soooo proud of you! And most of all, I love your very sweet personality and all you did to help make it an enjoyable day for the happy couple. You did a great job in capturing every special moment of their beautiful day and I thank you very much for that. You’re awesome!!

Ashley @ Everyday Inspirations - Morgan, you rock my world. You were even creative with the temple pics and got some from angles I’ve never seen before (and with a LOT of friends who got married in the temple, I figured I’d seen them all).

You’re so talented. Great work! Ash

Kimber - Morgan! Truly gorgeous shots! Beautiful! …and that wedding looked like a blast!

Alex - Morgan!!! I’m loving the new branding!! It’s so you and it’s soooo pretty and professional!! Great work :)

carly - What a beautiful wedding! When we’re in Portland, I hope your awesomeness rubs off on me! Because these are UH-mazing! (OCTOBER! OCTOBER! OCTOBER! OCTOBER! OCTOBER!!!!!!)

Karen Bird - What a fabulous job putting this all together! As I looked at the pictures and listened to the music it brought back the special memories of this wonderful, beautiful occasion, never to be forgotten. Thank you so much and thanks to Camille and Nathan for their sincere love and for the beautiful people they are. Wishing the the very best!

KanzlerFoto - That was such a fun wedding to shoot together! It was an honor to shoot such a cute couple. Cant wait to do more in the future!

Lorraine + Dan // A Wild West Meets Day of the Dead Wedding

This is how I knew that I was meant to photograph Dan and Lorraine’s wedding. When they mailed back their questionnaires that I have all my couples fill out, these are the kinds of things they wrote to describe their style, their personalities, and their likes: Hipster redneck. Old-fashioned weirdness. He Lays in the Reins- Calexico and Iron & Wine. We both wear Vans, Stetson, and secondhand store finds. I love, love, love horses. Everything about horses. Horse poop? Love it. Dan and I both have this thing about the X-Files. The first time I walked into his office and saw his “I Want to Believe” poster above his desk, I clearly recall thinking “He might be the one.”

Oh yeah. It was meant to be. And their wedding did not disappoint. It was a wonderful hodgepodge of Day of the Dead meets Little Women meets Wild, Wild West meets…. awesomeness? There were so many lovely handmade details and personal touches, and to me, having only known them for a short time, it completely represented who they are. These two are some of the most genuine, kind, and down-to-earth people you could meet. I kid you not, shortly after I posted the blog about my dad having a stroke, Lorraine emailed me and said that she cried while reading it and would totally understand if I was unable to shoot their wedding. I just couldn’t get over that…. as a bride, putting the emotional needs of your photographer over your own wedding photographs is pretty unheard of! I of course assured her that I was still more than able and willing to shoot their wedding, but I was nonetheless completely humbled by her thoughtfulness.

What I also love about Lorraine and Dan is that they are so individual, and they kind of do their own thing, but they have complete respect for their roots and for honoring tradition, which I find quite charming. Also, I told Lorraine that, as a couple, they kind of remind me of Jenny Lewis and Jonathon Rice together, and because I am a wee bit obsessed with them, naturally I am inclined to like anyone who reminds me of them. :)

The only downfall of the whole day was that poor Lorraine got sick right after the ceremony. I felt so bad for her, because she ended up having to miss the first half of her own reception! :( Poor girl. But she was such a trooper, and honestly, I don’t think anyone could ever tell by looking at these photos that anything was wrong. She never stopped smiling, regardless of how terrible she must have been feeling on the inside. Major kudos!

And now, onto the photos!

They got married at This is the Place here in Salt Lake City, which is a sort of recreation of an early pioneer town. Super adorable! They had their ceremony at the little white chapel on the grounds, then headed to the old hospital (yes…. hospital!) for the reception. The venue 100% fit their style, and I have to say, if I had gotten married here in Utah, I would have been mighty tempted to do it here.

I just loved all the decor, too. Lorraine did some pretty amazing crafty things on her budget… she and everyone who helped her should be very proud!

Yes, the guy who literally looks like an Amish man…. he totally married them. It was pretty rad.

I love that Lorraine told her bridesmaids to wear a navy dress of their choosing, and that they carried wildflower bouquets and mixed it up with the accessories. Just fantastic. Also, this is actually Lorraine’s second dress, which she changed into for the reception. LOVE. And the boots? LOVE x A BILLION.

Helloooooooo gorgeous.

And of course we had to incorporate the horses on the grounds! This image is just magical to me.

This guy? Totally slimed Dan’s arm while we were shooting. You can tell by the devious look in his eyes. :)


Dan and Lorraine have tons of adorable nieces and nephews.

In lieu of cake, they had a cobbler buffet and a pie table! Nice.

So, I’ll admit that sometimes, when there are lulls in the action at weddings, I like to challenge myself to do something interesting to keep the creative juices flowing. Because I spotted so many awesome shoes at the reception, I decided to do a shoe portrait collage. I love how it turned out!

Best moment of the day? Dan surprised Lorraine by singing Patty Griffin’s “Coming Home to Me” to her. Yes, I was weeping. But so was everyone else!

Now this? THIS is a kiss, people.

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Garit D Heaton - awesome!

Kimber - Love it. The picture of the happy couple with the skeleton is so great!

Lorraine - We’ve been pouring over the pictures day and night since you posted them. they are everything we dreamed and more. thank you for capturing the essence of our day, and being absolutely wonderful to work with!

Jimena Trinker - Hi! I think your pictures are amazing! I’m proud to be a Trinker, above all if talented people like you have that surname too =)

Adam - Probably the best wedding I have been to. Besides my own. Ha!