Raquel & Omar {Maternity}

Raquel & Omar just celebrated their FIRST wedding anniversary this past April, and by the end of this year they will be having their FIRST child! A baby boy!

We met at the Columbus Museum, one of my new favorite places to do photo sessions, and Raquel was a champ! I had her hiking up trails and sitting & standing. We took a few minor breaks along the way. I have to say, Raquel is just beautiful! Pregnancy truly looks great on her!

I also have to add this is going to be one lucky baby boy. I got to see the baby room, and WOW. Hand painted murals of animals and beautiful furniture! Raquel & Omar have gone all out!

I can't wait for the baby shower & I definitely can't wait to meet the baby!

Click HERE for slideshow.

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Introducing....I Do Wedding Magazine

Sorry for the lack of blogs lately! I know they went from daily to sporadic. In my downtime from wedding season I have been super busy working on a new business. I am starting a wedding magazine!

It's called "I Do Wedding Magazine" and it will be distributed quarterly throughout 8 cities. Columbus, Fort Benning, Cusseta, LaGrange, Pine Mountain, Phenix City, Opelika, & Auburn.

I am SO excited about this new business! I have met so many wonderful vendors from these various areas and by creating this magazine I know it will help brides & vendors alike!

So if you know of anyone that might want to advertise their services, send them my way! I am looking for vendors from all areas. That includes photographers, videographers, florists, djs, bands, caterers, hair & make-up artisits, nail salons, spas, hotels, travel, coordinators, transportation, cakes, dress shops...you name it!

Click HERE to see the website.

I'm hoping to have the premier issues on stands by January 1st!

Snyder Family {Operation:Love Reunited}

I am sooo honored to have photographed the Snyder family for Operation: Love Reunited. This is an organization of photographers that offer FREE family portrait sessions to military families either pre-deployment or upon their return.

The session has to be military themed, so of course military uniforms, dogtags, etc! I absolutely love it!

I will let the slideshow speak for itself.

The song is PERFECT and describes how I feel about the military.

Click HERE for the slideshow.

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Sweet 16...the Sequel

Well I am officially 32...or as I like to say, "sweet 16...the sequel." My party was great and I had a wonderful birthday week. Keith got me some gorgeous diamond hoop earrings and the fam gave me cash which is always great. I think I am going to put a nice watch on lay-a-way with the money I got, so it's like they bought it for me (or contributed at least).

I also got some great gifts from friends as well...I am really blessed with such great family & friends! And I appreciate all the love this week!

Iris, of Funky Monkey Cakes really outdid herself. I gave her a vision of the cake I wanted and she delivered. It was SOOO beautiful! I got the sweet 16 candles from Party City and the pink & glitter are so me!

In other news, Monday I went to Atlanta for the WPPI Roadshow. I drove up Sunday & stayed the night with Emma. As you all know...Monday happened to be the WORST day to be in Atlanta. It should have taken us 15 minutes to get the Crowne Plaza from Emma's house, and it took one hour & 15 minutes.

However...when we finally got there, there were 4 fabulous seminars. We learned so much and met some great photographers.

OMW back to Columbus (which normally takes 1.5 hours)...I got caught in the worst part of the storm. It took me 4 hours to get home! I had to pull over a couple times, and one time I sat in a gas station parking lot for one hour! It was THAT bad! *whew* I was so relieved to make it back in one piece!

Anywho....coming soon: Synder Family Portraits and the Aponte's maternity session. This weekend I will be shooting Amber & Bobby's wedding and Greg & Jamie's engagement session!

Hernandez Family {Portraits}

Joann & I have been best friends since 10th grade...so it was so fun to FINALLY do their family portraits. She has the sweetest family and shooting at Piedmont Park was awesome!

Click HERE for the slideshow.

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Tasha {Retro Bridal}

Where do I begin? I am so smitten with Tasha! She is sooo much fun and we had a blast with her Retro Bridal Session! She was originally supposed to do a Trash The Dress...but after thinking about it, she decided to go with a Retro Bridal Session instead!

I LOVE how the images came out!

I got to play with some fun editing techniques to try and make them look old. Tasha threw an apron on over her wedding dress and we went to work with the Housewife images. And then towards the end we did some more causal images with her Chucks on and and relaxing with coffee and on the couch. And her lovely daughter particpated and did a fabulous job! :)

I really had SO much fun with these!!

Here are a few of my favs...

Click HERE for the Slideshow.

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Oliver Family {Portraits}

People who have pets understand that they DO become a part of your family. When the Oliver family contacted me it was important to have their two furry family members in the photos. The main reason being is that their dogs are older and they wanted to be sure they had at least one family portrait to cherish. As well as the fact that they had a new edition to the family recently and one who will be leaving for college or the military in a few years...so they wanted to make sure they had all "4" children in a photo.

That's the importance of photography. Capturing those special moments so you will never forget.

Another Year Older

So I am in the process of planning my next birthday! It's quickly creeping up (September 23rd). The theme will be "Sweet 16...the Sequel"!

So you know how old I am now! LOL!

Iris of Funky Monkey Cakes is will be designing my cake & I can't wait to see it!!

Who wants Chocolate?

Is it just me, or isn't chocolate just the best dessert! Whether it's chocolate cake,a chocolate shake, or chocolate candy bar. YUM!

I think it's pretty safe to say Chocolate is something just about everyone loves. So why not incorporate chocolate into your wedding? How...you ask?

By getting a chocolate fountain of course! My friend Amanda is the new owner of Chocolate Fountain City, and they service Columbus, Phenix City & surrounding areas!

Chocolate Fountain City can also provide the "dippables" such as strawberries, marshmallows, pretzels, mini cream puffs, rice crispy treats, & more!

You could use this for your cocktail hour, during the recpetion itself, or even for personal parties (they have a smaller fountain for home events if needed)!

Be sure to tell them I sent you!

Visit their website by clicking HERE

or by calling 706.662.5218.

WOW!

I use a program via google called google analytics. I don't check it very often, but I decided to tonight since of course Bridezillas aired again. Well in the last 30 days I've had 1,557 NEW visitors to my blog alone! All those countries in green are where the visitors came from. The US made up 1,487 of the visits (all but 5 states), but it's pretty wild to know that people in the Philippines, Russia, Turkey, South Africa, Singapore, Australia, Germany, Guam, Poland, Spain, Portugal, Malaysia, Italy, Denmark, Saudi Arabia, Ireland, Canada, the UK, & New Zealand have all visited in just the last month!! Just so everyone knows...I will definitely travel! :)

Happy Labor Day!

Connie & family {Portraits}

This is the third time I've had the pleasure of photographing Connie & her family. This time though it was just Connie with her 2 daughters at Flatrock Park. They did 3 wardrobe changes and don't ask me how they managed to climb the rocks of Flatrock Park in their heels...but they did it!

We had so much fun with the shoot and they are all natural models. Each time Connie tried to give me her serious look, her girls made her laugh by cheering her on! It was hilarious!

Here are some of my favs....

Don't they look fierce!!

Click HERE for slideshow.

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Keri and Shane {Engagement}

The first thing I noticed about Keri (besides her gorgeous hair) is her infectious smile. In every image I shot during Keri & Shane's engagement session, one thing that remained constant was her smile.

I am SO happy they suggested the Columbus Museum for their engagement session. Shane is an EXPERT in plants. He knew the technical name of every flower, bush, tree, etc! So it was fitting that we shot their session there. I have a new favorite place to shoot now!!

We started at the front of the museum and walked through the gardens and even to the old Library...there are honestly so many images that I loved from their engagement session that I created about 5 blog boards before I settled on one & figured the slideshow would explain the rest!

I am so excited to shoot their wedding this October. The engagement session just gave me a glimpse into how fun they are and how fun the wedding is going to be!

Here are a FEW of my favs...

Click HERE for slideshow.

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Mya & Haven {After-session}

What's an after-session you ask? Well sometimes weddings don't go as planned...it's a VERY busy day with hair appointments, make-up, bridal party, friends, family, food, & dancing. With everything going on sometimes you can't get all the images you want on your actual wedding day...so an after-session is when the bride & groom get dressed up again AFTER the wedding and we get together again for pictures!

There's nothing wrong with that...in fact, some couples actually opt for this because they are more relaxed since there aren't so many people around, you can get a lot more images since you're not on a time crunch, and best of all since the wedding is over, you're not afraid of getting dirty!

So...Mya & Haven came to Columbus to have me shoot their after-session at the Riverwalk. Mya looked JUST as beautiful & Haven just as handsome, as they did on their wedding day!

Here are some of my favs from their after-session!

Mya's dress is one of the most fabulous wedding dresses I've ever seen!

Click HERE for the slideshow.

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Note...song to the slideshow is by the late Gerald Levert.

OMG that man could write/sing a love song!!!

I am in love with this song!

Tricia & Gary {Wedding}

Can you imagine an Auburn/Karate/Ulta-Dancing themed wedding? Kind of hard to imagine but Tricia & Gary's wedding was just that...and more!

Their wedding & reception was at the lovely Garrett-Bullock House. The weather threatened to rain, but Mother Nature decided to be nice and gave them the wonderful wedding gift of beautiful weather!

Tricia incorporated her alma mater, Auburn University into their color scheme...so there was an array of orange and blue throughout. Fran Papenfuss did an awesome job of creating a custom wedding cake to match the back of Tricia's dress! And Gary's groom cake was a custom black belt cake to pay homage to his profession! And kudos to Designs by Mayumi for creating the PERFECT bouquets! They were so vibrant and simply gorgeous!

I especially loved the horse and carriage that took Tricia & Gary on a ride through downtown Columbus after the ceremony. It gave them a chance to be alone together because when they returned....everyone was ready for some major dancing! Their dj, the Dance Doctor, spun the tunes all night and their guests danced...all night!

My favorite dance of the night was Tricia & her brother's special wedding dance. Can you say hilarious? I just love those out of the ordinary dances. Go Tricia!! This girl has got some moves!

And I have to add...Gary wrote the sweetest song for their first dance! He even pre-recorded it so it was actually Gary singing for Tricia! Awwww! *swooning* lol!

Tricia & Gary, I truly enjoyed being a part of your wedding! You two are blessed to have such awesome family & friends that love you. I wish the best!

LOVE THIS!

Lower right corner...SO FUNNY!! I love these types of shots!

Gary is sooo silly!

Click HERE for slideshow!

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Thanks to Dominica for assisting!

VENDORS

Venue: Garrett-Bullock House

Caterer: Rivermill Event Centre

Cakes: Fran Papenfuss

Florals: Designs By Mayumi

Hair & Make-up: Uli's European Salon

Tuxes: Formal Elegance

Bridesmaid Dresses: Auburn Bridal and Tux

DJ: The Dance Doctor

Videographer: