Tuesday, May 31, 2011

{It's getting Hot, Hot, HOT!}

I know that during the winter, I begged for warmer weather. Well mother nature has answered my calls, and it is beyond warm!  I guess the saying "be careful what you ask for" rings true.  Even though it is about 90 degrees today, I still love warm weather. I love the sun, the fact that there seems to be a plethora of outside activities going on, and of course the pool.  To be honest, 90 degrees is a bit excessive for me, I am happy with weather that's in the 70's.  If I could live in a place where it was 70 degrees all year round, I would be pretty ecstatic.  My husband says that Hawaii is like that, with a nice constant breeze. But alas, I have never been to Hawaii.

With the weather being warmer, and my disdain for cooking in a hot kitchen or even eating hot food, I have found a new favorite cool down snack. FROZEN SPRITE! I don't know why, but I am in love with it. I was never a big soda drinker before, but I love Sprite frozen.  And the good thing, Sprite has no caffeine!

So being that we have passed Memorial Day, many will say wedding season is in full bloom.  This is probably the warmest wedding season that I have encountered. The weather now feels like the weather of weddings I have shot last August.  It is so important to remember to stay hydrated, and not to be out in the sun too long.  I am thankful *knock on wood* that I have not had a wedding where someone has passed out due to heat exhaustion, but this weather definitely seems like the type to bring it on.

June and July will be very busy months for me. Besides my two baby showers (YAY!), I am booked for weddings the following weekends: 6/11, 6/18, 6/25, 7/10, and 7/16 before I take a break and have my maternity leave.  But in between those, I will still be scheduling portrait sessions!  Chalk it up to my pregnancy, but I am so in love with photographing babies and kids right about now!

Enjoy your day, and till next time!
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Sunday, May 29, 2011

{Memorial Day Giveaway: Emici Bridal}

I have some great news! I have always loved the products from Emici Bridal, and was glad when she sent me a sample to use for one of my bridal shoots. Well..she is having a memorial day giveaway! One lucky bride will win this gorgeous satin ring pillow! Contest ends tomorrow, so don't hesitate to enter! To enter, head on over the Emici Bridal-Memorial Day Giveaway Post

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Saturday, May 28, 2011

{Happy Memorial Day Weekend!}

For most, the start of Memorial Day Weekend is the kick off to summer.  I love summer.  The days are longer, the weather is warmer, and it just seems like there is more fun to be had.  Of course one of my favorite events happens during the summer, the Renaissance Fair!  So for this weekend, there will be many people gathering with family and friends, lighting up the grill and having a good time. I must admit, I love a good bbq!  I hope everyone has a safe, happy, and fun Memorial Day!  Remember to stay cool and hydrated!
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Monday, May 23, 2011

{Steampunk Worlds Fair 2011}

As before, it was amazing.  We had so much fun, and I am definitely bummed that it is over.  If you don't know what steampunk is, think Victorian times meets the future and everything is powered by steam.  It's pretty awesome.  Basically give me a reason to dress up in a costume from another time period, I will do it! Hence why I love renaissance faires and the 50's so much.  For some odd reason, I am more comfortable in clothing from other time periods than modern times. I don't know why, it just seems that long ago clothing was so much more detailed and intricate and just inspiring.

So this year was filled with fun. I was able to see friends that I haven't seen since last year, make new friends, listen and dance to great music, and just have fun.  I was interviewed by Mo Rocca, not too sure if it will be aired though! But it would be epic if it did.  I took lots of pictures and had a great time.  If you want to check them out, you can head on over to the Facebook Album-Steampunk Worlds Fair 2011.

Keep in mind that I took my "beater" camera and wasn't in photographer mode.  My "eye" was not on during the weekend.  I also have to share this picture of my husband and I! We have no good pictures of us since being pregnant, and a good friend snapped this of us:



I think I look pretty good for being 28 weeks pregnant!  And here is a picture of us from last year!



I now realize that I have more photos of myself, and my husband and I together in costume and garb than I do in regular clothes. I don't know if that is a good or a bad thing!  All I know is that this baby will be in lots of costumes as soon as she arrives.

With Steampunk Worlds Fair now over, our next big fun focus is the renaissance fair! I am very excited to go this year, but our appearance depends on the arrival of our little miss. She is due August 18.  So we will see about her timing and when she is at least 4 weeks old to take her out...in her custom built renaissance stroller. That's right, we are going hardcore and making her a renaissance stroller.  See, when I go to renaissance fairs, I am in full costume and character, there is no way I can let my baby be in a normal or mundane stroller!!!  Some say I am a bit extreme, I just love the creativity of it all and having fun.
I hope you all have had a great weekend!!!  Enjoy the rest of the week and stay cool in this weather! Till next time!
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Tuesday, May 17, 2011

{Wedding: Samantha and Curtis}

On Mother's Day, I headed down to Pasadena, Maryland to photograph the wedding of Samantha and Curtis. An amazing cute and cheerful couple,  they were such a blast to shoot, and have HUGE personalities.  Their wedding was a lot of fun, but what I loved the most, was their cake. Their cake topper consisted of two penguins with a rock, and if you have watched the movie "Happy Feet", when a penguin gives a rock to another penguin, it means they want to be together for life. I thought that was such a cute and personal aspect.  Here are a few previews from their wedding. Enjoy!



















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Thursday, May 12, 2011

{Engagement Session: Heather & Oscar}

This engagement session I love!  First let me give you a bit of background on how the events of the day unfolded.  Heather contacted me to do her engagement session since she and Oscar are heading to Tennessee to for their destination wedding.  It turns out Heather was referred to me by her friend Lisa, whom is a friend of my husband, and he has known her since they were kids.  Then to top it off, Heather is also the friend of the aunt of my friend Sarah, whose wedding I did last summer.  So yes, Delaware is small, but word of mouth is awesome!

Anywho, Heather picked Valley Garden Park for her engagement session, because that is where her mother was married. It is an absolutely gorgeous location.  It is full of lush green grass, and a creek running through the middle of it.  Getting down to the valley was the easy part, the coming back up part was difficult! Yes, we shared some laughs (actually they were "breaks") along the way up.  The "best" thing about the location? It rained the day before. So although the day we shot, Saturday May 7 was gorgeous, the grass was soggy and there were bugs everywhere.  Heathers feet were covered in mud after we walked through a patch of land where the drainage pipe was, I dropped my lens into the mud (thankfully it was on it's side and is all clean now), and did I mention the bugs.  But through it all, we trooped through! Which is why I love my clients, and I love that they trust me to gain control of the situation and get shots that they will love.

Oh, I haven't even mentioned the other people that were there that decided to personally take it upon themselves to make use of our picnic set up while we were 30 feet away.  Yes, it was a very interesting day.  So enough of me blabbing, here are their pictures!









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Sunday, May 8, 2011

{Happy Mothers Day}

Happy Mothers Day!  Today is the day where we wish all mothers, caregivers, aunties, grandmothers, teachers, pet mothers and all a great mothers day.  Although you really shouldn't wait till one day of the year to say it! Today is my technical first mothers day. At 26 weeks pregnant, my little girl may not be born yet, but hey, i'm doing the carrying!  So for me, it is soon to be mothers day.  The weather is gorgeous!  Get outside and enjoy it! As for me, I have a wedding to shoot, which I have to start getting ready for.  I just wanted to wish all of you amazing women a happy mothers day!
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Friday, May 6, 2011

{When you knew you were in Love...}

I always try to get to know everything I can about my clients before their wedding day.  This not only forges a great relationship between them and myself, but it lets me photograph their day on a deeper level since I know their story.  I admit it, I am a romance junkie.  Now I don't take it as far as reading romance novels and watching nothing but romantic comedy's.  I love real love.  That real, unrequited, heart stopping feeling that you get when the person you love walks into the room.  That flutter in your stomach when they touch your hand.  The twinkle in your eye and the smile on your face when they do something as simple as putting their arm around you.  That is the kind of love I love being around.

So it is always important for me to know how my clients first fell in love.  Every story is unique and amazing.  I've done weddings for couples who fell in love in the early days of high school, and couples who fell in love even though at first they thought they weren't compatible as a couple.  It truly is amazing how the power of love can make things change.

When I first met my husband, I of course didn't think this was the man I was going to marry and spend the rest of my life with.  In fact, when I first met him, the very first day, I thought he was...for lack of a better term...weird.  He actually said something to me that was a bit off putting considering this was the first time I ever saw him in my life, and I basically flipped out. Not once did I think that "Hey, this is the man for me!".  But as time went on, and the more time I spent with him, the more I enjoyed his company.  Now don't get me wrong, he was still weird (and that weirdness has never gone away, but it is one of the reasons why I do love him), but he sort of grew on me.  In a short time, I came to find myself looking forwards to the days that I would see him.  The only times I did see him though was at work, since that is where we met.  He made my days at work not only bearable but enjoyable.

Then, I went out of state to college.  The first semester I had so much going on that we didn't really keep in touch.  But he never left my mind.  When I came back home for spring break, I found myself at my old job which he was still working at, standing behind a display and giggling like a school girl.  For some reason, I couldn't bring myself to go over and talk to him.  He finally saw me, came up to me and we talked a bit.  I left, of course not knowing that I was falling in love.  I mean really, who expects to know the exact time they fall in love?

I went back to college, but during this semester we talked every day and every night.  Before I went to class we would chat really quickly on the computer.  At night, when he came home from work, he would call me and we would talk into the wee hours of the morning.  Good thing I didn't have early classes!  All the while, I kept telling myself that he was an awesome friend, but there was no way I was falling in love.

When I came back and transferred to a college closer to home, that is when things picked up.  We never really had a first date, because we never really asked one or the other out.  We went out to eat, to karaoke, to the park and such and just had fun.  I realized I was in love with him when one night he was driving me back home, and I realized that I did not want to leave him.  At that moment there was nothing more that I wanted in the world than to spend every waking moment with him.  Sounds like a sappy romance novel I know, but it was true!  I was so taken aback that I didn't tell him. Not because I didn't want him to know, but because of fear of the unknown.  How was I to know if he felt the same way?  And that is when I knew that I was in love with him.  The type of love that consumes your entire being.  Where every minute away from him was torture, and I would count down them days, the minutes to when I was able to see him again.

Thankfully, I didn't have to tell him.  The great thing about my husband is that he is pretty awesome at picking up on peoples feelings.  So one night on the phone we were talking, and he said:

"I think it's cute that you want to say things to me but you hold them in"


Of course I had no idea what he was talking about. So I went about asking him what point he was trying to make.  And just like in a movie, where you know that the characters' entire story line is going to change forever he said:

"The way you want to tell me you love me, but are too afraid to say it"


Now, at this point I proceeded to put the phone on mute, place it on my bed, and jump around and scream like a mad woman.  I was relieved that he knew, and I was thankful that I didn't have to come out and say it.  Of course he told me that he loved me also, and the rest was history.  We have been together now for almost 7 years and married for 2.  The past 7 years have been the most amazing years of my life, and even though we had a rough start where I wanted to punch him repeatedly, I am thankful that I didn't!  For I wouldn't have known him to be such the amazing and wonderful man and husband he is to me today.
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Tuesday, May 3, 2011

{Double Engagement Session Love!}

This post is extra special, because it features not one, but two awesome engagement sessions. That's right folks, you get double the love, double the hugs, double the kisses, and double the engagement rings! Why the double session?  Well, the first session was actually shot a few weeks ago, back in March.  The bride and groom used the images from their engagement session as custom labels for their favors. And what awesome favors they were!  Jones Soda bottles. I didn't even know you can upload custom labels for that!  I love Jones Soda, so many yummy flavors.  So it has been a while, but I am finally glad to share the images from Jenna and Kevin's session. Oh, and of course, a huge congrats to them! They were married this past Saturday-April 30, 2011!  Here are their pictures. Swoon!







Now, the next session I am going to show you is from this weekend with Niya and Richard.  They are getting married in June, and poor Richard tore his ACL playing soccer. So the fella was limping all about.  We decided to go with an easy-going picnic themed shoot so that we didn't have to have him walking around much.  Now, this was an epic picnic. Niya went all out on setting up the food and props. Picnic blanket, picnic basket, chicken, strawberries, grapes, crackers, cheese, humus, apple cider, and more stuff! Plus...a guitar! Yay for guitars!  Here are their photos:













So congrats to both awesome couples!  Till next time :)
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Sunday, May 1, 2011

{Unexpected Surprise!-Maternity shoot mama goes into labor}

On Friday I headed up to New Jersey to do a combination boudoir and maternity shoot for Dorian, who is a friend of mine. Now earlier that day, I was talking with another friend of mine who is a photographer down in Florida about how we would love to photograph a live birth. Well...no sooner had I arrived at Dorian's home, her water broke! Needless to say, there was going to be no maternity session that day, but I was able to capture a few photos of her and her husband getting their things ready to head on over to the hospital. It was very exciting for me as I have never been around a woman in labor before, and with me being pregnant, I am of course more emotional than ever!

Dorian and her husband Kyle welcomed their little girl (they chose to not find out the sex until birth, so it was a surprise!) Shiloh Rhiannon to the world on Saturday, April 30 at 9:59 am. Little Shiloh weighed in at 5lbs and 12.6oz. So a huge congrats to the three of them, and I can't wait to head up there for their newborn session!



















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