We drove through the beautiful mountains of southern Ohio until we reached the little town of Marietta. We had an hour to kill before starting our day so we decided to poke around and look for inspiring places to shoot. We found ourselves driving up steep roads to see what was at the top. One road in particular was incredibly steep. Like the kind of steep where you thank the good Lord above you don’t have to drive on it in the icy winter. The anticipation was exceeding its peek when I looked over to Jared and said “I bet this will be amazing up here!!!!”Climbing….climbing….Ohhhhh….there is trash, EVERY WHERE. Scrap metal EVERY WHERE! We turned to each other and let out the biggest laughs. Super amazing we giggled with one another sarcastically. We quickly turned around and headed back down the hill.

Then we found Marietta College. It was a whole new world (as I bust out in Aladdin’s A Whole new World theme song….) like literally…it was gorgeous!! Beautiful mature trees, manicured lawns and perfect landscape. It was a beautiful place to shoot.

We headed to the church to start the festivities. I found the gorgeous bride and her fabulous gals and Jared headed off to meet the boys. The timeline of the day was simple, easy and fun and very little stress. Jennifer was the calmest bride I had ever seen!! She was excited and joyful to be marrying her best friend…..Scott…..

Vendor Love

Wedding Planner: Pam Shirley with Alethas Flowers
Flowers: Same as above
Cake: Village Cakery
DJ: DJ Darby
Church: Christ United Methodist
Reception: The Grand Pointe
Invitations: Paper Love

I hear the bride’s voice. She’s awake!

I rush inside from the deck to see her sitting at the kitchen bar, already beautifully dressed in her button down shirt and khaki shorts, taking care of her last minute details. I squeal at the sight of her and we exchange hugs and share our excitement for the day.

I asked her what she was most excited about for the day and her response was no surprise. She rested her head in the palm of her hand and began envisioning the layout of the day. It took a few seconds before she replied but she excitedly told me she was most looking forward to  after the ceremony. Her and Jesse are married, we’re in the gardens and we’re having fun with photos and relaxing.

Side note: when asking a bride what shes most excited about for the day and she replies in some way about photos, it makes ME excited.

The girls left to go get their hair done and I stayed behind to capture lots of detail shots.

Church: Lebanon Chapel at Arilie Gardens
Reception: 128 South
Shoes:Ivanka Trump  
Wedding Planner: A Shindig Southern Event Planning
Suits: J.Crew
Dresses: Ann Taylor
Flowers: Fiore Florist 
Socks: Happy Socks

Jesse’s gift were books that were of interest to each Groomsmen:

But there was a secret inside the books….

Seeing Dad for the first time:

The Bridesmaids gifts were handmade hair pieces off Etsy:

Back over to the men:

They were out playing Kubb:

Ceremony time! Jesse and Joanna got married in a back garden chapel at the Airlie Gardens in Wilmington:

It was raining on the wedding day so Joanna hid out in a tucked away building:

To Be Continued…..

We got in late. The air was thick and muggy. I took a deep breath and filled my lungs with the sweet Carolina air. I smacked my lips. Salty. The fragrance brought back a rush of childhood memories of playing on the beach with my little sister. Did I say playing? What I meant to say was Hannah chasing me around the beach with some kind of squid, baby shark or slippery ocean creature in hand. I giggled lightly to myself and blinked away the memory becoming conscience of the wonderful men in our family unloading our super stuffed car. We all exchanged hugs and kisses, filled our arms with luggage and headed into the house.

Wow. What a gorgeous home.

We found our surfer themed room and unloaded from the long day’s drive. After we were able to settle down and snuggle up I was ready to be wrapped up into Jared’s arms. Snoooooze.

I woke up to Jareds hands rocking my shoulders back and forth….”You ready to get up now??”…..huh, that is definitely not the normal way of waking up.

I slowly rolled over, rubbed my eyes, supported my upper body with my left forearm and peeled back the blinds. My eyes must have gotten as big as watermelons! I saw vibrant pinks, purples, blues and yellows shining from behind the sun rising over the boundless Atlantic Ocean. I hopped out of bed like a bolt of lightening, grabbed my camera and headed out barefoot into the chilly sand. Jared followed close behind with our cups of coffee.

Beautiful experience. In that moment of watching the sunrise holding my coffee in one hand my hubby in the other I began to recognize and appreciate the simplicity of our lives. Peaceful.

(Taken with the iPhone)

I’m thrilled to announce the winner of the Chocolaterie giveaway!! When I received Jeanna’s entry I about balled my eyes out. I loved all of the entries but what it really came down to was who really captivated me with their description. For me, just recently losing my Grandfather to cancer, this really hit home. I’m very fresh in the feelings of losing that special part of my life. While reading her story and looking at the image I really feel a calm and peaceful spirit. I smile, I cry, I laugh. The image resembles such a soothing and tranquil life. Simple.

I love the color of the deep blue sky paired with deep green grass. I feel the cool fall day. I even smell the aroma of living in the country. Everything about this image and story was just a solid hit home.

CONGRATS JEANNA!!!!! You’ll be contacted to make arrangements on getting your box of chocolates. Maybe you’ll even want to share one with me??? HUH!???

The picture was taken this past October in very rural Wisconsin. I call it Grandma’s View.  My grandmother passed away last October and being from the country, she was buried in one of those small cemeteries in the middle of no where. The day after her funeral I went back out to spend some time with my grandma alone – away from my very large family.  Her cemetery sat on the corner of two roads and was surrounded by a dairy farm. I thought this was such a great location for my grandma to rest because she had been a dairy farmer all her life.  As I looked at my grandma’s headstone, I just turned to the left and saw the view depicted in the picture. A beautiful fall tree and an old outhouse or chicken coop (not sure what it is). Of course that day was filled with a beautiful blue sky. I couldn’t help but capture the image that reminded me of how beautiful my grandmother was – inside and out. I have since had the picture blown up on canvas and it hangs at the top of my stairs.  Everyday, my grandmother and I get to share the same view.

Then we headed outside for a few! Being that it was dark out we had to use off camera lighting. We also used off camera for Ryan and Holly’s wedding!

I just adore this one!

Ending on my favorite from the night. This was super sweet and super intimate! )

Danielle and Edd were so laid back. They had budgeted 3 hours for photography and it rained for about 75% of that time. We we able to capture a lot of fun portraits but all in all had fun hanging with the bridal party! Which brings me to another favorite moment of their wedding. Danielle and Edd’s brothers push-up competition. Yes, in her dress. And yes, she won.

Erin and Jesse live about 2 hours away so personal contact with them was just not as frequent as I would have loved for it to been. But there was a particular time this past winter where Erin had broke her foot and was now in the care of Mom and Pop (who like 5 minutes from me). I was invited over by Erin one night to just chit chat about wedding stuff and to hang. She showed me her scrapbooks and told me all the juicy details that have been going on in their lives. Jesse was finishing his residency in Dayton and was not able to spend quality girly time with us

Erin’s wedding day was super special to me. Her excitement to marry the man of her dreams was just over flowing from her face!! Jesse, like most grooms, was a little nervous but for the most part pretty calm. Erin’s Dad on the other hand lost it before the ceremony which caused ME to lose it while I was trying to shoot! The images below speak for themselves… Love you guys!!

Jared actually had his own wedding to shoot this day as well. He was off with Heather and Alex (blog post soon to come). Trevor Loken was my second shooter for the day and he did a great job. Check out his website!

Dress : Alan Ray Bridal

Flowers by Cuas of Columbus 

Love this moment! Ceremony was held at Maple Grove United Methodist

We started shooting around The Worthington Inn

Worthington Hills Country Club is one of my favorite places to shoot a reception.

Ceremony and Reception took place at the Scioto Reserve Country Club. And big props to Nina Banks with Nina Marie Weddings for coordinating the event!

BOWTIES? Heck to the YEAH!

Rev Cindy conducted a BEAUTIFUL ceremony!

This was shot with our new 100mm f/2.8L macro. IN LOVE!

I’m thankful for many things. One in particular sticks out though. I’m incredibly thankful for my loving husband. With both of us home all day working photography we often get asked how we do it. Jared and I have been together every single day for the past 7 years. Well, except for that time my parents forced me on a family vacation. I was gone for 10 days. 10 agonizing days without the love of my life. We fit together perfectly. Paired like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, like a dog and his bone, like toothpaste and a tooth brush. We were made for each other. Hardly ever are we disagreeing or fighting. Jared knows my love language and I know his. We are far from a perfect marriage though. I bug him with leaving coffee cups in the office and he bugs me with farting under the covers. But we’re both willing to fight for each other and fight for love.

Late last night after the credits to our movie began to role, Flo Rida’s “Spin me right round” came on. Naturally we both started dancing to the beats. If anyone was watching us it looked more like we were having seisures. Jared reached out for my hand and asked me to dance with him. Right there in the living room. I hesitated at first with the thought someone could tooootallly be watching us right now!But let it pass. He spun me round and round, dipped me and held me close. Right at the moment, filled with fun and excitement we let it all out. We let every bad moment fly out the window with our twists and jumps. We danced together and danced like no one was watching. I hope SOMEONE saw us and saw just how much fun and love Jared and I can express with one another. And we don’t care. We’re just a bunch of goofballs and we don’t care. We’re not afraid to have fun and we’re not afraid of what people will think. But that love and playfulness will keep our marriage strong. Even in the times that stink.

Photo Credit : Karla Banks

A Bob and Dawn Davis inspired piece:

Weeding out the bad and ugly. Life is like a garden. We have  beautiful clean dirt to mold into any form that we wish for it to become. Whether we choose for it to be a simple clean design or an extravagant masterpiece that will turn numerous heads as they drive by. Only we can mold and work to develop our design. But weeding out the bad and ugly. When we have finished our design, the flowers are beautiful, healthy and look so wonderful and all we can see and focus on are the weeds that are growing and sprouting out below. We then hyper focus on the ugly weeds which make them stand out even more! But life is so similar in the fact that we WILL have weeds to dig up and out of our garden. But, we need to stay focused on the beauty that is above the weeds or else we’ll miss the wonderful essence of what our garden is truly about.

I dug up some weeds yesterday, threw them in the garbage and shut the lid. Today I will only be focusing on the beauty of what my life has become and the blessing the Lord has given to me.

Thank you to Jen from Bella Laccio Bridal for making my afternoon turn completely around. Another big thanks to Stephanie with Novia Distinctive photography for making me the most wonderful healthy cookies ever! These two women are so beautiful inside and out.

Although I cringe in the blistering cold I have to say that this will make for more awesome skiing and snowboarding today. Jared is going to try and teach me how to ‘board today. Yes, I am a ski snob and proud of it! I’m also very excited for this week because I have 4 awesome dates this week with 4 awesome photographers!! They are bright and shining stars!

Over the week Ive shot at 2 different venues to help them get up and on their feet, built a giant 10 foot snowman, landed my first jump on skis (got 12 inches off the ground)….don’t laugh….ate more chocolate and carbs than I ever have in my life, found out I’m living with a mouse *blehhkk*, watched Jared work on the new upcoming gallery room, and pretty much relaxed!! The great thing about winter is it gives us photographers a chance to re -charge our built in batteries for the new upcoming season. Jared and I have been dabbling into some new shooting that I’m super excite about and want to get the ball rolling….like NOW!!! More to come on that super soon!

For now, here are some images to cure your curious eye!

OH! and here is a picture with me and our snowman!

Oh, hi!! You wanted a photoshoot of muah? Why, of course!!

Cant forget about Jared!!