Matt and Mandy

Is there anything more fun than shooting a wedding?

Yes! When you get to shoot the wedding of someone you've known your entire life! The fun part about weddings is that you are privileged to see every single emotion that the couple and their families are experiencing that day. When it's someone you know, it brings an emotional element to the table for me as well.

So, when my sister Kim's friend Mandy (did you follow that??) emailed me and asked if I would capture her wedding day, I was both honored and humbled. She's a girl after my own heart...as her wedding's the day after Thanksgiving. I LOVE winter holiday weddings...the lights, the calendars, the music, the festive spirit. I'm as excited as my sister is for Mandy and Matt's wedding! :)

Anyway, over Labor Day weekend, I got to finally meet Mandy's husband-to-be. We met up for their engagement session, and Matt didn't disappoint! He's handsome, witty, and oh, did I say witty? He had me laughing with his jokes and smiling at his sweetness towards Mandy.

Matt and Mandy, CONGRATULATIONS!!! I'm honored and excited to be a part of your big day!

Kelly

I honestly think that every husband and wife should look back at their engagement as a time of excitement, and romance. Yes, we get the 'formal-picture-for-the-newspaper' at the engagement session...but most of the images I want are sweet moments like this.

Matt is an accountant...right now. He did tell Mandy and I that in a former life he was a model. This picture was taken the moment he told Mandy that he had been an underwear model to be exact. Evidently, it was a surprise to her!

Hello pretty lighting.

Mandy told me she wasn't photogenic at all. Mandy, you're SO wrong.

Handsome...and ornery....devil.

Matt using some of his underwear modeling moves. :)

And then doing what he does, making Mandy laugh and enjoy herself.

Matt and Mandy....you're beautiful.

Kelly

Brett and Krista

Brett and Krista,

Thank you so much for allowing me to be a part of your big day. Everything was beautiful...the ceremony, the details...and of course, you as a couple.

Below are a few of my absolute favorites from your day!

Click here to see a slideshow for the rest of the images from Brett and Krista's wedding.

Krista was insisten that she wanted the traditional bride and groom picture in front of the church altar, which is absolutely fine; however, once I arrived at the church, I understood why it was so important. Both of Krista's grandparents and her parents had been married in the church. And, she gave honor to these examples of marriage and faith by displaying their wedding dresses and pictures in the church vestibule.

My assistant for the day, Deanna, got this...and it brought a tear to my eye. Krista will treasure this someday.

A beautiful bride....

....with the most amazing eyes....which Brett told me was his favorite feature of Krista's.

Grandma was proud.

Joy and laughter on both sides of the family.

...and by the bride and groom.

But not everyone got the joke. :)

This talented gentleman sang at the weddings of both Krista's grandparents and her parents. I cry at every wedding...and his rendition of "The Lord's Prayer" got me.

Hello, Handsome!

Krista, beautful as always.

Thanks for checking in!

My Beautiful Nieces...and my sister and BIL!!!!

Every year my older sister, Karen, and I have a horrible habit of trying to get their family pictures done in 5 minutes before a family dinner or something....and it never works out very well. So, this year, we made a concerted effort to schedule a REAL family portrait session.

I love, love, love their girls...they were the first grandkids and great-grandkids in our family, and I'm not sure there were three girls ever so loved!

Colby's First Tractor Pull

A few weeks ago, I took Colby to her first tractor pull....

It was also a special night because she publically debuted her hair in barrettes. Coincidence? I think not.

She happily sported her "Nasty Stuff" t-shirt....btw, that's the name of her daddy's tractor.

A face of excitement....maybe for the tractor pull...maybe for the Kubota Mule she was standing on...maybe for the pen her mom let her play with for the evening. Who knows.

This is Woody....a friend of the family's. Colby loves Woody. Since she was a baby, Woody would be at the shop and would hold Colby while her grammy took care of customers. Woody wants to borrow Colby to pick up chicks at the fair. Hold her? Yes. Borrow her to pick up cotton candy s&%ts? I think not.

Colby was enthralled with the smoke.

There's her daddy.

Colby with Grampy checking out how far Daddy made it.

Thanks for checking in!

With "Friends" Like These...

It's that time of year again.

All summer I've been thinking about getting the running shoes out and starting up again. In another life, I used to run a lot. I even ran half of the Chicago marathon once with a good friend. But, after losing a toenail (literally), I swore I would never do that again, and besides, it's like another friend pointed out to me, "You don't see people smiling when they cross the finish line of a marathon...their faces are faces of pain."

So, the other day, when I got a Facebook invite to the Strasburg 5k on October
16th from a 'friend', I thought to myself, "Arghhh...what a horrible reminder of what I've NOT accomplished this year." So, I'm thinking that this 'friend' isn't really a very good friend. She's perhaps more like my 'friends' that send me birthday cards every year. They think they're being such great friends, but really all they're doing is reminding me that I didn't send them a birthday card. And, then it makes me feel really bad...on my birthday of all days. If they were REAL friends, they wouldn't acknowledge my birthday, right?!! So, right now I'm sitting here at my computer and trying to figure out what I've done to wrong this
5k 'friend' that she would want to get revenge on me by reminding me what a fitness loser I've been this year and how I haven't met my goals at all. I had great intentions...I downloaded all my favorite running songs onto my i-pod....I asked and received a new treadmill for Christmas. Sadly, though, my 18 month daughter has gotten more exercise from it than I have...she likes to step up and down, up and down, up and down on it while I'm folding laundry or typing on the computer. Hmmmm....now, not only has this 'friend' made me acknowledge my lack of exercise, but now I'm feeling like a horrible mom as well!

So, because this 'friend' has guilted me into this via a Facebook invite (she's really subtle in her revenge for my unknown wrongdoings), I got out the running shoes this week, charged up the ipod, and hit the road Monday night. I ran a mile....Don Telgmann passed me on the tractor twice...so, he can attest that I was out running. On Tuesday and Wednesday I couldn't walk from the pain. So, I had the thought that perhaps I needed to start a little slower and run in intervals. So, I tore out the below out of one of my fitness magazines (because, like most non-exercisers, I have all the gear, magazines, junk, etc....just not the ambition evidently). I'm going to attempt to follow it....just in time to run that Strasburg 5K. Maybe I'll blog about it occasionally...if it's going well, of course.

In any case, if anyone's looking for a running partner, let me know...another 'friend' was my running partner from last year, and she was so desperate to get out of training with me for this year's 5k that she got pregnant.

With 'friends' like these, who needs enemies?!!! ;)

Matt and Sarah

The neatest thing about photographing weddings is that, although there so many common threads...like the prayer, the music, the ceremony's words...at each wedding, there are SO many details and traditions specific to the bride and groom and their families that make each wedding so different!

I have SO much to say about Matt and Sarah's wedding. I have about 30 images picked out to post and show everybody!!!...however, I know Matt and Sarah are anxious to see their images; so, I took a few seconds tonight to upload just a few of my favorites...and the slideshow of my 191 favorites!...yep, 191...I'm so subtle, aren't I?

I promise over the weekend I'll post a much longer post with comments and explanations on some of the beautiful traditions I was so privileged to witness and be a part of on their wedding day!

Click here to see Matt and Sarah's wedding slideshow.