Asheville 2009

A couple of weeks ago Geoff and I took a couple of days away for ourselves to celebrate his birthday and our 2 year anniversary. Destination = Asheville, NC. Neither of us had been before, so we were super excited to roam around a new place. And that's basically all we did - walk around downtown, swim in our hotel pool, and eat a lot of great food.

Oh, and did I mention we happened upon a random carnival our first night there while searching for Ingles?

One of my favorite spots downtown was the "private alley". This trip reminded how much I really do love wandering and taking pictures just for fun.

Can hardly wait for our next trip!

Savannah Bound

I always really enjoy going back to visit places that were special to my life at some point. Savannah, GA is no exception.

As I've mentioned on here before, Savannah is where I spent the best summer of my life - and coincidentally, is the summer that I met Geoff. Sometimes I wish we could move to Savannah - but then I suppose the excitement of being there would fade away. Everything about it just makes me feel happy inside - the spanish moss dripping from the massive trees, gorgeous squares on what seems like every corner, pralines (and many other things) from The Savannah Candy Kitchen, world's BEST pizza at Vinnie's, performers on River Street, great shopping on Broughton...I could go on and on.

Anyway - this weekend Geoff is going to a motion graphics conference there - and I get to come with! It's going to be great - perhaps I'll bring my camera and play tourist.....we'll see.

Here's a shot of a coffee house in a small town of another special place to me - Macomb, IL (where I went to grad school). I actually grabbed this one with my old (and now retired) point and shoot that would work when it felt like it.....while holding it out of the car window. Don't judge me.

:)

Don't forget! Check the blog tomorrow - Friday - at 9am to find out the winner of the Eye Candy Photo Challenge...and trust me...you're going to want to check!

Much Needed

June 15th, 2004. I had been in the car by myself for 14 hours. 14 hours is a really big deal considering I used to be out-of-my-mind-crazy-talking-to-myself at the four hour mark when driving from my southern California college to my northern California hometown. Despite the amount of boring alone time, the trip wasn’t TOO bad. I killed time talking to friends and family on my cell phone and stopped for frequent snickers/butterfinger blizzard treats at the Dairy Queen. Actually, one of those blizzards ended up on my passenger side sun visor when it splashed up after hitting a pothole in the road…and ashamedly, I never cleaned it off…so, I am reminded of that trip anytime I look up to the right in my car.

Back to the point.

FINALLY, after what seemed like two very long eternities, I pulled into the city I would be calling home for the next three months of my life. Being in this new city wasn’t part of my initial plan. I had desperately wanted my summer internship to be at a school with a large southern football team. But somehow…for some reason….I ended up at my 2nd choice…..an art school.

As I-16 ended straight into Savannah, Georgia, I had not one clue that the people I would meet there (especially ONE person in particular) would change my life forever.

…………………………………….

I love being in Savannah. Every time we are back for visit, I am put back in the moment of that summer – and it just makes me feel SO happy inside. I was glad to be able to spend a weekend there with our friends – Jon, Lauren, David and Lara. Our primary purpose in being there was to shoot Jon and Lauren’s engagement pictures, (which by the by, are ADORABLE) but a lot of our time was spent eating, drinking coffee and laughing. For now, here’s a bunch of shots from our weekend….us being us. ☺

The girls.

The guys.

We had some time to kill while Jon and Lauren switched outfits in between in shoot - so I made Geoff model while I played with my 50mm lens. And I'm sorry, but how flipping hot is my husband???? Ummmmm....yeah.

I handed over the camera to Jon to take a few of Geoff and I - we have hardly any pictures of us together!

LOVE this.

Mini Vacay.

We're excited.

This morning we dropped off our precious Ellen at overnight doggy daycare and skipped town to head to Savannah, Georgia to get some R&R, as well as attend a wedding tomorrow evening. Geoff and I met in Savannah, so this place is special to me. As we drove in, I had a moment and realized that it was in this city that my life changed in so many wonderful ways. :)

Right now we're waiting for Geoff's parents to meet us at our hotel so we can hit up some pizza and beer - to kill some time we busted out Photobooth and had some fun. If only we had Ellen to join in our fun. :)

I thought we were done playing and went to the bathroom - I came back out to find Geoff in front of the computer laughing at himself. I think he was having a bit too much fun.

We'll be back soon, Ellen - we promise! :)

3 Couples. 3 Cities. 3 Days.

DANG, it was a crazy weekend! It's pretty late and I'm super tired, but couldn't resist blogging quickly to give a recap of our weekend of travels and shooting.

It all started with 4th of July Friday - we shot the wedding of Seth and Stephanie up in Mooresville - they are both as sweet as can be....it was a great wedding (even though we got bit of rain). Here is the newly married couple!

On Saturday we got up and drove to Marietta, Georgia and met up with Erika and Brad - who are getting married in August - for their engagement pictures on the square. How cute are they?!

After their shoot we grabbed showers and headed to the fabulous Whitlock Inn to attend the wedding of our friend's Pat and Megan. Let me tell you - as much as we love shooting weddings, it sure was nice to just be a guest for a change. :)

This morning we woke up early enough to get ourselves to Anderson, SC to go to my 2nd favorite church in the world - Newspring. Sorry, but I gotta keep the love for Elevation at #1. :) Seriously, that church is nuts. In 8 short years it has grown from a bible study of 20 people to averages of 8,000 per Sunday. INSANE. If you are reading this blog and are ever in Anderson, you owe it to yourself to AT LEAST hit up this church once. It'll rock your world.

After church we had lunch with my good friend, Maryann. Geoff and I hadn't seen her since her wedding this past March, so it was great to catch up over some bad (but SO good) food from Chili's.

Our final excursion for the weekend was to Greenville, SC. We met up with Julie and Eric for their engagement session downtown. Julie and I went to grad school together - I hadn't seen her since a conference this past November, so again - it was great to catch up and spend some time getting to know her man (who is great, by the way). :) And yeah....LOVE this shot!

So yeah - it was a fun weekend away, but we are thrilled to be minutes from climbing into our bed for the night! I'll have the full blog posts for the couples above soon - so check back...they are worth it!

GOOD NIGHT!

Umm....wow.

Okay, I'm totally blown away right now. A few minutes ago I got the forward below from my friend, Karla. I know it's hard for some to see the significance of the simple note below, but it really rocked me in the best way possible. God amazes me at how impeccable His timing is...this forward was sent to me right when I needed to be reminded of this the most...down to the MINUTE that I needed to hear it.

To: YOU
Date: TODAY
From: GOD
Subject: YOURSELF
Reference: LIFE

This is God. Today I will be handling All of your problems for you. I do Not need your help. So, have a nice day. I love you.

P.S. And, remember...
If life happens to deliver a situation to you that you cannot handle, do Not attempt to resolve it yourself! Kindly put it in the SFGTD (something for God to do) box. I will get to it in MY TIME. All situations will be resolved, but in My time, not yours.

Once the matter is placed into the box, do not hold onto it by worrying about it. Instead, focus on all the wonderful things that are present in your life now.

Now, you have a nice day.
God

God has seen you struggling, God says it's over.


Yeah, a weight has been lifted. :)


So, I know I may seem obsessive about our trip to the Bahamas because I am posting about it FOUR TIMES, but I couldn't help posting about Geoff's first ever boat ride and the cute dolphins we encountered. Mary's dad was kind enough to invite us out for a quick ride after breakfast.

I PRO-MISE this will be the last post and I will move on with my life. :)

You heard me right....Geoff's FIRST boat ride. I guess I took growing up on the Sacramento River for granted!

This is Niall's mom and her friend. They were SO excited about this boat ride...the whole time they were shouting back and forth to each other (again, with an Irish accent) "oh, Noureen! just look at how lovely!"...."oh yes, isn't it just wonderful?!!!". It was THE cutest thing...they were so full of joy.

You can imagine their reaction when we saw this school of dolphins....that began circling our boat!

Stacey and Ted: Married!

A few weeks ago I had an awesome opportunity to second shoot for the fabulous Scarlett Lillian. Scarlett is one of my favorite photographers who I really look up to.....so of course, I really didn't think twice when she asked me if I would be interested in driving the 5 hours it took to get down to Jekyll Island, Georgia. DEFINITELY make it a point to check out what Scarlett got on HER BLOG.

Stacey and Ted were married at the Jekyll Island Club; a beautiful location with PLENTY of gorgeous spots for shooting. The moment Scarlett introduced me to the bride and groom the night before the wedding, I knew it was going to be a great time. These two are so likable - I truly enjoyed being around them for the length of my stay. Ted and his guys were a riot to hang out with and Stacey was as sweet as could be. 

This blog post is semi-out-of-control just because I couldn't narrow it down more than I did. Bear with me.

We started the day with Stacey and her bridesmaids getting ready at the Cherokee cottage.

I must have taken at least 40 shots of her shoes alone - I was obsessed with them. It was really hard for me to not post more than one!

These flowers = gorgeous

I spent most of the "getting ready time" with the guys. As mentioned, they were a lot of fun to be around.

This was Ted's bestman - getting made fun of for something by the other guys....I won't say what.  :) 

Stacey made a beautiful bride, right? Um...yeah.

And Ted doesn't look so bad himself!

Right before the guys headed to the church, we got some shots of the guys. One of the groomsmen was talking all morning about a fountain outside of the cottage that we had to get a picture by. As soon as we got there and the guys stood next to the water spraying out, it became obvious what kind of shot we should get. :) Hilarious.

They also had some fun jumping across the fountain. Thank you, Jesus, for not letting them fall in in their tuxes - I have a feeling Stacey wouldn't have been thrilled to find her groom sopping wet at the end of the aisle. :)

The ceremony was in a tiny little church, but it was the perfect size for their guests.

I grabbed this shot of Stacey and her dad through the pew right before they were about to walk down the aisle.

Post ceremony we stole them for some portraits. Again, I had a hard time not posting more than I did!

The details of the reception were so fun - I loved the color!

I love these shots of them dancing.

The night ended with a sparkler send off.....

And after multiple attempts, I managed to get this fun shot.

Congratulations Stacey and Ted! And thank you, Scarlett for inviting me down to shoot with you - it was a blast for sure!