Diane & Bart’s wedding was fantastic. They are such an incredible couple, it was really just an amazing wedding and I can’t thank them enough for everything. Their wedding can be see (on page 30) in the Spring/Summer 2009 issue of The Knot North Carolina (which just came out a few days ago). Here’s the cover & article …
I can’t believe tomorrow is New Year’s Even and so ends 2008. It has been such an amazing year for me. I began 2008 signing the lease on my studio (which granted took way longer to get into than I anticipated). I love having it now and realize I’ve already outgrown my space.
To all 23 of my wedding couples – I had so much fun being with all of you. It was my extreme pleasure to photograph each and every one of you and I thank you all for trusting me with your most important day from the very bottom of my heart.
To my fabulous portrait clients – you are all fantastic and you know it. All of you made me smile and warm my heart. You all allowed me to connect with you in ways that I can’t connect with others and for that, I thank you.
To my commerical clients – you guys are awesome and I look forward to a fabulous 2009.
To my fantastic friends (you know who you are) – you guys ROCK! I love you all. You pick me up when I fall and give me the push to keep going forward, even when I want to bury my head or just crawl into bed.
And most importantly…my unbelievable family. Ah, I don’t even know what to say about you guys. You put up with so much from me and continue to take more and yet always give hugs & kisses & smiles. You guys continue to push & encourage me and I know you are there for me when no one else is. You guys are really the best….and I love you more than words can say.
So to everyone, happy new year…and quite simply….thank you! 
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For those attending the bridal show this weekend (and I’ll be there) and for those who I’ve recently met…there are only 9 remaining openings left for my 2009 wedding season! Thank you so much…
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I ended the year with the most amazing family this morning. They were a set of 4 sibilings and so much fun to be around. I made them hug and jump and generally walk a bunch of UNC (also trying to stay warm as it was a bit chilly than we all expected). They were all incredible and great sports about everything! Thanks so much you guys!
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If you are actively reading my blog tonight – or over the next few days, and it looks a bit bizarre, don’t worry. I’m in the process of getting the brand new blog ready. But I have to make the new blog “active” while I’m editing. So you’ll be seeing some “weirdness” every once in a while during the editing process….just wanted to let you know
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On December 20 I closed out my 2008 wedding year with a truly beautiful wedding with Shannon and Scott. Their wedding was absolutely wonderful with all the colors of the holiday season. We traveled to First Baptist Church of Southern Pines for the ceremony where we met everyone for getting ready and then the reception at the beautiful Little River Golf & Resort in Pinehurst. While it rained the entire day, we were fortunate to get a small break before the ceremony to sneak in some outdoor group shots.
As always, we begin with the beautiful dress and shoes, and Shannon and her bridesmaids getting ready…
I really like this one, I actually have several from this series. One of Scott’s groomsman gave Shannon a card from Scott and asked everyone to leave (including me). I cracked the door open just enough so I could see her…
And yes everyone…Elvis was there as well! (A good friend of Shannon’s)
So I really love this image above and the next image. It’s the last dance. The DJ completely cleared the room to get everyone ready for the exit. It was just Shannon, Scott, the DJ, myself and my amazing assistant Stacy. I’ve never had a DJ do that before and really it was so incredible just to be in a room with so little people…it was so, so nice…
A very big thank you to one of Scott’s groomsman who saw me trying to precariously balance my umbrella and camera and came to my rescue and hold my umbrella so I could get this awesome exit shot. Thanks so much! I love that I got the smoke, sparklers and bubbles (I’ll never get that again)! And a huge thank you to my dear friend and incredible photographer, Stacy for getting incredibly soaked and 2nd shooting with me. You are amazing…
Shannon & Scott, I wish you so much happiness as you start your lives together. It is so obvious you guys are blissfully in love with each other…it warms my heart to see you together!
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Three days before Christmas I was very fortunate to photograph one of my favorite families again. They wanted to do a “day in the life” session and I loved the idea! I arrived at 9am, mom opened the door and said “start shooting”. The kids were still eating breakfast, everyone was in their jammies, it was great. It was just something different and fun. Towards the end we switched into formal dress-y looks for a few quick shots in front of the Christmas tree.
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If you liked my blog & my website before….just wait. It’s ALL changing….I’m totally excited about this. I’m furiously working to get it done ASAP between wrapping up everything for the holidays and getting ready for the January bridal show.
(But I’m super excited)
Stay tuned……..
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On Sunday, I was very fortunate to get together with Michelle and Mark for a very special couple session. They are an incredibly sweet couple…I can’t even describe how kind and loving they are towards each other and how cute they are as well!! The best part too was that we were at the amazing Washington Duke Inn, a great respite from the bittery chilly afternoon.
I loooove this image! Yes, way more photoshopping than I ever do, but I love it!
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This morning I had an awesome time with the most adorable 6 month old and 2 1/2 year old boys. Toddlers can be a tough age, but generally you just have to find what makes them tick and it all works out beautifully. But babies, oh I just love the 6-9 month age – to me, that’s golden. They are squishy and happy and engaging. And I even got to hold him for a while which was tons of fun for me.
I absolutely love this shot…I couldn’t decide B&W or color, they both look incredible.
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I just received another huge canvas for one of my bride’s today from Simply Canvas. I can’t say enough good things about them. Everything about their service & their canvases is top notch. And it’s the only thing on my studio walls.
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First, a huge thank you to everyone for their patience while I finally updated my blog (it is finally finished as of tonight (yay!)). I have a few sessions this week and then it’s a lot of holiday orders for me, one more wedding to close out my year and then I’ll have a few “year in review” posts. I’ve got some very cool ideas though for the January bridal show for those going.
So our Thanksgiving – this year we went to San Francisco. A very (I mean very) last minute decision. We had planned to go to NYC and do the very touristy things: the parade, Radio City music hall, etc. But the weather was looking cruddy so we decided to cancel the entire trip and we started looking at alternatives (this was the Sunday before Thanksgiving). We had been really wanting to go back to SF for a while, it’s just expensive when you have to buy 4 tickets. Well we found an insanely cheap fair on Continental, so we booked it. We still had to sell our Radio City tickets and fortunately we were able to make everything work out.
We arrived to pouring rain, but it wasn’t cold so that was good. We went straight to In-N-Out Burger. If you aren’t familiar or haven’t had it, oh so yummy! Even the girls ate burgers (and they never do). We then visited our old neighbors who have since moved back to the Bay Area and it was great seeing them for a while, after that, we ventured in to the city and to our hotel (we decided this time to stay in the city of SF instead of the peninsula or suburbs).
Thanksgiving morning we woke up and drove down to Monterey. We hadn’t been to the aquarium in years and they’ve made major changes. It’s truly amazing now and we could have easily spent the day there. 
After a yummy lunch we headed up the coast, always a gorgeous drive and stopped at some of our favorite beaches.
Sadly, during Thanksgiving dinner, our adorable Sydney got really sick which is never fun when you are in a hotel, she was even running a high enough fever for us to call our doctor back here. But on Friday morning, Steve decided to stay at the hotel with Sydney as she was still looking & feeling horrible and Madi and I went shopping in the city. We didn’t have any crazy crowds at all, we just had a blast going to all our favorite stores.
Fortunately, by the time we got back, Sydney was doing a bit better so we decided to head down to Fisherman’s Wharf and let the girls see the sea lions, grab some lunch and get some souvenirs. Afterwards we went over to the Golden Gate bridge (as what visit to San Francisco is complete without a visit to the bridge). It was a super foggy day and the sun was just starting to peak through but I still really love the images I took that day.
Grab shot out of the car (while I’m driving)…just a few blocks from where I used to work…
And sadly, one of my last shots of the trip and one of my very favorites. I really think I’m going to make this into a canvas. I love everything about it. Sadly, my heart is still in San Francisco again. I loved everything about being there and it was difficult coming back. While I know that this is home for us and this is the right place for us right now, San Francisco played such a huge part of my life for four years and really had a huge impact on the person I am today.
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Yes you know by now I’m a shoe freak. I LOVE shoes, I really do. They make me happy. It’s a simple thing really when you think about it. So when my in-laws got me a gift certificate to zappos.com I was about beside myself with glee (yes I realize that is pushing it but really I was seriously happy). I decided I wanted to get some funky new shoes for our family session (see the next post) and it was perfect because I had my zappos gift card. I had never ordered from them before and was a bit skeptical but had heard they had great customer service, etc.
So shopping I went. I decided I wanted red or probably blue, maybe turquoise. The cool thing about zappos is you can really narrow down your search on-line which is N-I-C-E. I quickly was able to narrow it down to about 3 pairs of red and 1 pair of turquoise, then I started reading reviews and got it down to 1 red, 1 turquoise. I then emailed my sister in Chicago and 2 other friends (yes to the guys who are reading, I really did do all this over one pair of shoes) and the overwhelming vote was red!
The shoes arrived in ONE day because they upgraded my shipping (woo hoo) and when I opened the box I actually gasped. I loved the packaging (I’m a nut about packaging so that’s important to me). Inside was the cutest hot pink & black stripe box ever, I opened it up further and inside were my adorable red shoes and they even came with their own hot pink storage bag! (Again to the guys, feel free to skip this post – just scroll right past all of this). I showed the girls and they even gasped and said how cute they were and even my adoring husband, who _never comments on my shoes_ _ever_ thought they were especially cool.
I realize the photos don’t do them justice, but take my word for it, they are cool. I want to order them in purple now They start out very dark (almost black) in the front and fade to a very fire engine red in the back. But, they are not particularly comfortable (but I really love them).
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So the last time we did “real” family pictures was when I was pregnant with Sydney and Madi was 18 months old. Madi is now rapidly closing is on 4 1/2 and Sydney is almost 2 1/2 – so we are LONG overdue (which is really rather sad and pathetic given the amazing photographers I know and am very good friends with).
We all finally caved and decided to do a family session with my fantastic friend and very talented photographer, Penny Noell. I think we sqeezed in one of the few last semi-decent afternoons because since then it has been horribly cold and wet (actually this was just the Sunday before Thanksgiving). Our session was at Golden Belt where Penny and I both have our studios and it is my new favorite place for urban sessions – so if anyone is interested in a much more modern approach for their family or engagement portraits, we are definitely shooting there!
So…just one for you….and thank you again to Penny!
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I absolutely love this family. This is the second year in a row I’m photographing them and this time, they’ve got another addition soon to be arriving. I can’t wait to find out whether they’ll be blessed with two girls or a little baby boy. Either way, this new little one is coming into one incredible family.
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