Getting Married: Amanda and Derek

It's these two lovely people, that have been distracting me from my blog lately. I've been working furiously at getting 40 of the eleventy-billion beautiful photos of them processed to share!

Do you remember them? Yes, they are the couple that we have so much overlapping history, that their family is almost my family. I have proof, I could post photos, but we'll save that for later. In the meantime, let these photos tell you about their beautiful day, in May, at the lake. (the exact place were were married, by the same minister even :)

Fastest. Bride. Ever!

No really, the girls spent more time tieing their bows than it took for Amanda to get dressed. Step in. zip. DONE. hah.

Amanda and Derek agreed to a "First look". This is where you have a little traditional, mixed with making the day more simple. Before the wedding, we met up, Derek, myself and Amanda came along and "discovered" us on this beautiful little bridge in the middle of the woody area. He turns and surprise, gets to see her dressed for the first time.

It's one of my very favorite moments of the day.

It also gives them a quiet moment together alone, which is probably the last one for the day. We take this opportunity to do a mini shoot of the couple.

Then the guests start to arrive...

Everywhere were awesome peonies in every shade of pink from nearly white, to deep fuchsia. They admitted to everyone they knew in many, many miles, stripping them from their own gardens.

This is Tim, the minister, giving the blessing for dinner.

Meet Frannie

Meet Miss Frannie.

She's a lil' nugget.

FYI, we call a nugget a tiny little mouse poo around these parts. So I guess it's just how you look at it :)

Frannie is also my best friend's littlest one. aka SURPRISE! :) Frannie is VERY GOOD at saying "No" in her cute little mouse voice. At least it's cute the first 327 times.

These pics were Frannie's 2 year photos, and a b-day gift to Stacy (she's a 4th of July baby). It's also a thank you for not letting my cats die while we were on vacation.

As you see, I'm a "come as you are" type of photographer. If they'll sit and smile, then YAY. If they don't, then that's ok too. I want to capture what your kids look like right now, the way they are, not the way we wish they were. ;)

Frannie has the cutest curly hair. I wish I had curly hair. Or straight hair. Nope, I have fuzzy hair.

Fuzzy hair sucks.

We had to resort to some game playing to get Frannie to play along. She's not a fan of the camera.


Where's your ear?

Where's your nose?

Where's your tongue?

Where's your belly button?
Wait. They call it a donut hole.. or something like that. I can't remember!

The verdict is still out on kids. Somedays I love the idea, and some days I run screaming around the room, then I see pics like these and I get over it.

Nervous Jitters

I'm having a nervous as hell day. It's all because of this girl:

Yep, that's Sarah. I shot Sarah and Jack's wedding a couple weeks ago. Their engagement and wedding with smooth as silk and I took a ton of beautiful shots of them. It was easy really.

Seriously. Look at her.

Sarah knows the camera, and she knows what makes a good shot. I think she might have missed her calling as a model. Jack, he's brave and an instigator. I get the feeling that Sarah wants to do things, and it's Jack that presses her onward. They are a good team.

So *yesterday afternoon*, my son says to me "Do you have any couples that you haven't done engagement pictures for yet?" I said, "yes, a couple, why?".

"Because the fair is in town, and that'd be a great place to take pictures.".

OMG.
He was so right.

And why is it that a 14 year old BOY has to tell me this? *smacks self upside head* I'm supposed to come up with this stuff on my own. srsly. Maybe I'll start training him to be my second. Then he'll be famous one day and put me in a good nursing home.

I love you Tanner, please put me in a nice nursing home, where they don't tie you to the bed and take you to the potty at least twice a day. Did I mention I love you?

Anyway, the first person that I thought of, was Sarah. Sarah and Jack's wedding is over, as is the engagements obviously, but I know Sarah is brave, and Sarah has a stunning dress. And Sarah loves photographs. And Sarah knows the camera.

And she's local.
{But that's at the bottom of the list. }

I REALLY want to do a Rock the Dress session. Sometimes referred to as a Trash the Dress session. I try to call it that, but after seeing bride's faces flip out repeatedly, I downplayed it a bit.

A rock the dress is an opportunity to put on your 14 trillion dollar dress AGAIN, go out to where you refused to wear it before the wedding, and have a little fun. Let's trek up and down alleys, or walk through the waterfall at the college, wanna go for a swim at the lake?

no I'm serious.
no really.

It'll be OK I SWEAR!

So anyway, I called Sarah and she was like "Uh - YEAH. duh"

So today we're going to the fair. Which is not a biggie except it's thundering, and rainy, and there'll be 14,000,000 people there. Looking directly at me, waiting for me to bend over and split my pants or break a hip. Heck no, they won't be looking at the chick in the beaded wedding gown, eating cotton candy.

All this has made me nervous all day long. I "lost" my battery charger (I thought on our vacation), in the mad search for it I found my business card case and eye drops that I "lost" around Sarah and Jack's wedding. Cussing to myself, I finally found it on the coffee table, where I don't store such things. Ever. No really. I'm sure that's where someone besides me that lives in this house and takes photos left it. Really.

What if one of those REAL photographers in town sees me. You know, those guys that have been doing this for 90 years, have awesome studios and all that technical skill. ACK. I suddenly have an overwhelming urge to do this with my point and shoot.

So..... if you see me tonight, walking around with a balloon bouquet and a telephoto lens, just smile, wave and get the hell out of my shot. :p

Love ya.

Photographer smackdown - Day 4!

Courtney picked "In the thick of it" today, which was HARD TO DO. I picked this photo, because I had to be in the thick of it, to get this shot. I carefully tippy toed through our second acre of weeds wildflowers. I was so scared I'd step on a snake. LOL.

Courtney might win this challenge all together. I'm going to be gone for a few days - kind of a spur of the moment sort of thing, so I won't be able to post until I get back. Well, I might be able to, but I doubt I'll have time or access.

Don't worry! I'll bring back gifts for everyone. I swears... promises!

Courtney, if you want to continue, I can finish up when I get back, or I can accept my humble defeat. *hangs head*. Let me know!

PS. Planning things at the last minute is exciting, but very stressful!

Photographer smackdown - Day 3

Day 3 of the photographer smackdown with photographer Courtney Paris.

I got to pick the theme for today, which was "This is what Life looks like" One of my favorite sayings. For me, right now, this is what life looks like:

Don't get some idea that I sit next to the pool eating bonbons and reading books all day. In fact, I didn't even get to swim yesterday.. or the day before... wahh. But more as a symbolism of summer, warm air, sunshine, tans, green "grass", flip flops, cold diet coke, books, outdoors, my clothesline, the crops (coming soon!) and my fav, photography.

Be sure to check out Courtney's blog "Ceece.net" (it's only a coincidence her blog name is close to my real name.. but it did get my attention), to see what she comes up with today, and what is our next theme Courtney!?