Archive for April, 2009

The Fan Family

April 11, 2009

I met up today with my awesome friends Vic and Candi to do some family photos for Easter. Aren’t they a beautiful family?

Vic and Candi are such a smoking hot couple, so we will hopefully be doing a couples shoot in the near future! It’s going to be a steamy shoot, for sure!

Happy Easter everyone! : )

When I first met Amanda and we started talking about her engagement photos, I knew that it had to be something fun and very colorful. She loved the photos I had of Lyndsey & Todd’s wedding where we crashed a convenience store and used it as our backdrop, so I knew that their engagement photos had to be unique. When we nailed down a date for the e-session, Amanda suggested the fair and it was instantly like… YES! It had to be at the fair!

We started off at the old historic Florida exhibits with old farm equipment and historic homes and buildings… night and day from the florescent colors and bright lights of the other attractions at the fair. It was a nice contrast and almost like having two separate photo shoots! I wish every location I shot at was like that!

As we walked around the fair we ran into Kaci & Dusty, whose wedding I shot at Club Continental last fall. They actually referred Amanda & Chris to me and it was so nice to see them again!

I think Amanda & Chris have set a new precedent. It’s going to be hard to top an engagement shoot at the fair! We had so much fun, and I can’t believe they got me up on a ferris wheel! Now THAT is trust!

Thank you guys for a great time, and after yesterday I’m even more excited about your wedding this May! You two were such a blast to be around!

While I was shooting Kara & Shaun’s wedding in Green Cove & Orange Park (see previous post), my hubby Matt was out shooting his first wedding solo. We had a little friendly competition over who had the cooler bride (think Bride Wars… I told him if I were his wedding I’d sleep with one eye open… lol). In all honesty, while I was super-psyched about Kara’s wedding with the pink shoes, candy buffet, and pink, white and black yumminess, I was a *little* jealous about Matt shooting a luau themed wedding. So we teased each other about how much fun we would each have shooting separately. He ended up having Annabelle, a photography student at FCCJ, second shoot for him, so I think he had fun without me! As Matt packed for his trip to Seattle, I flipped through his camera to see the shots he got and their story came to life. He then sat on the bed and I snuggled with him as he told me all the fun things that happened at the wedding. He really enjoyed being part of their day and talked about how deeply Stephanie & Doug loved each other.

Last night around 2am I got an IM from Stephanie on Facebook, and we started chatting for a while. She was so cute as she kept saying husband and realizing whoa… I’m married! I can’t wait to meet her in person!

But I know she is waiting anxiously to see photos, so without any further delay…

When Kara told me she was going to have a candy buffet and pink shoes, I knew this was going to be a unique and fun wedding to shoot! Kara & Shaun are such an outgoing and awesome couple. Their ceremony was very heartfelt, and they took a lot of time to show their gratitude to their friends and family who gathered on this beautiful April day at Spring Park in Green Cove Springs to witness their vows to one another. The reception was lively, but it was also very sentimental. A slideshow showing the cute couple from childhood to their college years to the present was so touching. It the father/daughter and mother/son dances that were really moving. It’s very hard to take photos when your eyes are filled with tears!

It was hard to choose shots to share in the blog because it was such a beautiful wedding and the reception was very entertaining. Here’s a few special ones I thought stood out among the others:

Kara’s gorgeous dress by Maggie Sottero – This shot was taken in the sitting room at the Orange Park Woman’s Club, where the girls got ready. The delicate lace curtains were the perfect complement to this beautiful imperial style gown.


The bride waiting anxiously in the late afternoon sunshine. It was the perfect spring day and I just loved how the light gently outlined her veil and dress!

The flower girl making sure that every last petal had been placed on the aisle. She was so amused and it warmed our hearts to watch her face beam with laughter.

Father and daughter just moments before she becomes a married woman. Such a sweet and tender moment.

A quiet moment for the newlyweds after all the guests had left the ceremony site. I love the look on Shaun’s face, and Kara is looking back at him so adoringly. They are just too cute!

The colorful candy buffet just begged to be used for ring shots! Love and chocolate are life’s sweetest gifts!

A collage of the decor. I think it’s safe to say that Kara and I have very similar tastes! : )

I will hopefully have the rest of the photos done by the time they return from their amazing honeymoon in Hawaii!! Sigh…

Congrats Kara & Shaun! Being your wedding photographer felt more like being an old college friend, even if I’m not a UF alum. You truly are a special couple and I wish you both much happiness through your years together! : )

Okay, Matt and I FINALLY watched Twilight because we were so curious to see what the hype was about. People are obsessed with this movie, so we were worried we might be missing out on the movie of the year or something.

We had to laugh through most of it because it was just silly. No one else realized that the Cullens family were vampires? Really? The whole story was just ridiculous to us.

Yet we couldn’t turn it off! And the next night we wanted to watch it again! I really can’t figure it out! I think it was from the frustration of the whole movie. Just turn her into a vampire so you can be together forever! The end! I do have to admit I liked it and would watch it again.

I can’t resist one more stab at Twilight, though. Edward’s intense look throughout the movie conjured thoughts of Zoolander. Come on, Edward… we all know it’s the same look! Blue Steel? Ferrari? Le Tigra? They’re the same face! Doesn’t anybody notice this? I feel like I’m taking crazy pills!

What do you all think?

Few people know that I met my hubby on April Fool’s Day in 2005! I was at an American Cancer Society event at my college campus and I knew he lived close by. We had talked on the phone and emailed each other back and forth for a couple months, but I honestly wasn’t interested in him beyond friendship. Well, clearly the joke was on me!

When I first saw him, everything changed. Not only was he totally HOT, but he impressed me when he put on a wig and picked up the head it was on and acted like Hamlet. From that moment, I realized this guy would do just about anything to put a smile on my face (and he was pretty witty, too). Looks, brains, and a sense of humor? Yeah, I pretty much decided that night that I wanted to marry him!

Here are a couple pictures of us way back then! The first two are from April 1, 2005 and the third one is from my graduation in May 2005.


Four years later, we ARE married and he still makes me laugh (even when I’m crying as we watch a sad movie about a dog). : )

Thank you for four wonderful of years of laughter, and I look forward to many more!

I leave you all with a video from Rufus Wainwright called “April Fools.” I love Rufus and this song and just thought it would be a fun thing to share with you today. I hope that you all didn’t fall for any pranks! Don’t forget to stop the music on the playlist at the bottom of the blog before playing the video. : )