Here are some random Thursday thoughts: 

 - We've been working hard on albums all winter and are so excited to see them in person!! We're also ordering several new sample albums so that's pretty exciting too :) 

 - We have an intern! Her name is Hanna and she's super sweet! We're sooooo lucky to have her! 

- I've got a really exciting secret experimental photoshoot this weekend and that's all I'm going to say on the blog. Ladies, I'll tell ya all about it in person!!

- We did our first engagement shoot of 2010 yesterday in the cold. Lisa & Nathan were total troopers. They were so cute & energetic we had no problems making fun pictures despite the freezing temps. 

- I have a new obsession, it's Jazzercise. Yep... it's awesome. 

- Dan and I are getting really excited about all of the engagement shoots we have lined up for March & April. If you are one of these people we would love, love, love for you to be thinking of cute fun ideas that match your style as a couple, so we can talk about it and get you the cutest pics ever. Here are some places to get ideas: Green Wedding Shoes, Style me Pretty, Once Wed to name a few. Type in engagements or select engagements under categories.

- This year I would like to do engagement shoots in the following locations: a sunflower field, at a fair, at a farmer's market, something with big, gigantic balloons, something with a canoe... and that's just off the top of my head. Let's do some different, fun things this year! 

Sooooo excited about 2010!!!!!

Last weekend we went to Mooresville, NC to an engagement party for our friends Michelle & Christopher. Michelle is part of my NC friend group that I'm always talking about. If you're a regular reader of our blog you've probably seen photo shoots with most of my girls :) 

Here's Erin, me, Lindsey, Jenna, Michelle, Tyler, & Ashley. Emily missed the pic :(

It was a Mardi Gras themed party :) and I was super excited because this is the first dress up event I've been to with these girls in forever and not also been a vendor!

Since it's winter, which is our slower time, I thought I'd post a few pics from our life. All of the pics in this post are from our farm, where Dan and I live. They were all taken in two days --- one early afternoon and one late afternoon. The horses are my familys and our next door neighbor. The two dogs are my sisters, their names are Max & Bernie. She brings them out to the farm to run around. Her dog Max is crazy and really needs it... It'll be pretty obvious which one is Max :). Two barn cats are Khaki and Stumpy. I'm in love with Khaki. My mom is going to love this post and say, "I'm going to need a copy of all of those..." That's just my prediction.

Notes: Everything in this set was done with a couple new tools we've gotten this winter. We used the Lens Baby and processed only with TRA's new Lightroom presets.

Enjoy!

A few more with the Instax --- so fun! Pony on the left is my favorite and Gracie on the right is Dan's favorite horse. 

To celebrate, here's a sweet, sweet wedding where Dan and I totally got our wish -- that there would be a little snow on the ground for Katie & Jeremiah's wedding. The snow was perfect, a light dusting - just enough to help make pictures, but not keep anyone from having fun. I really liked how you could see some of the ground peeking through the snow. Katie, Jeremiah and their whole wedding party were total troopers since the high that day was only 18! Yeah, yikes! That's pretty cold for a wedding in Tennessee, but everyone seriously had a blast! 

Katie & Jeremiah got married at Cedar Springs and had their reception at Hunter Valley Farm. We did all of their pics before the ceremony at HVF, then headed over to Cedar Springs just before the ceremony. This was perfect because we had a great backdrop for all of the really important shots and had everything done by the time it got dark, which was right after the ceremony. Great planning!  

Enjoy!!

The handsome groom!

Katie was so wonderful to work with.  She was all smiles all day.

Almost completely frozen!

My FAVORITES!! Katie looks like a snow princess!

My favorite!!  Yes, they were cold, but don't feel too bad - they flew to Jamaica the next day for a romantic honeymoon in the sun!

love

love

love!

awwww....

A sweet ceremony

Going into the reception

A few reception shots! The end!! Thank you Katie & Jeremiah!!

If you don't know that much about our guestbooks, they are a GREAT thing to do with your engagement photos -- I mean seriously what else are you going to do with all those cute photos of yourself!? So here's the deal, we layout all of your favorites and leave a good amount of white space because that's where the guests sign. We can make lines so that they just sign their name OR we can leave it blank so that they can write a message. It's totally up to you. Email us if you are interested in making a guestbook with your engagement photos and would like more info!

Enjoy! 

This wedding is one of our favorite weddings of the whole year -- it was also the last wedding we shot in 2009. We left for Jamaica the day after this wedding, so it was a wild, but a great way to end 2009. 

One of the funniest things was that we saw Mary & Dave in the airport at 6 am the next morning as they were leaving for their honeymoon AND they were on our return flight coming home!

Anyway, Mary & Dave got married at beautiful venue, Whitestone Inn in Kingston, TN. Even though it was barely 20 degrees that day, it was still a great day and a great place to shoot. And, while a 20 degree day could be a challenge, Mary & Dave were total troopers --- and so was their wedding party. Thanks guys!! We had a great time with all of you!!

Ok, lots of pictures to get to.  We normally start off with the ladies but I thought we'd switch it up a bit. Here is Dave getting ready, which probably took all of 3 minutes... Guys don't know how easy they have it!

Lately I've been thinking a lot about the camera's ability to capture emotion in a way that no other medium can. The camera has the power to freeze time and emotion, no matter how fleeting. And sometimes the viewer is able to feel something too. That's what first attracted me to the art of photography and is what continues to inspire the work we do today.  I feel so blessed to have this opportunity, to witness insanely beautiful and personal moments.

It was a special honor to get to work with this next couple, Brigitte and Travis.  Their story is one of a couple that knows the value every moment together.  When we first met with Brigitte and her mom Jill, they said this wedding would also be a celebration of Brigitte's survival.  Not only are both Brigitte and Travis in the Marines, but Brigitte is also a recent cancer survivor - emphasis on survivor because in addition to being one of the nicest, most full-of-life people you'll ever meet, Brigitte is definitely one tough marine! 

I just can't say enough what an honor it was to work with Brigitte and Travis.  And their families were also so wonderful and it was such a beautiful celebration. To me, this is what photography is truly made for, capturing the beautiful moments people share.  

So, here are a few of those moments! Enjoy!

That's Brigitte's sister and mom helping with the dress.

My fav of the day!! I can feel their emotions here! 

Isn't she gorgeous?!

Travis

If you've been following us for a while you might remember Megan & Roan's engagement photos, which I believe were the first of many engagement sessions done at our farm. OR, Megan is one of four sisters, we did Amanda's wedding in 2008. 

Megan & Roan's wedding took place in Newland, NC and here are just a few of our favorite images!

AND, da,da,da ----- it's suppose to snow on Thursday!!!!! And if it does, I don't think it's going to be warm enough to melt off the grass before then! I know it's kind of like putting all of your eggs in one basket to say it's going to really snow here, and please don't take this as I want her wedding to get snowed out and I really will feel sorry if she's cold but I mean this. could be. a true. winter wedding!! With real winter wedding pictures!! I'm totally stoked!!!!! 

Hands down favorite :)

We did these at our farm....

A little montage! -- Top left is pretty, maybe my second fave...

Mmmmm, love this too :)

 The End!!

Oh, PS to all of our clients -- The holiday deadline is tomorrow, December 10. That means if you want anything - prints or files, it must be submitted by the end of tomorrow so we can make sure you get it by Christmas! Thanks!

Enjoy!

So after we got back from Kerri & Blake's wedding in Cashiers, NC it was pretty much full-on Fall color in the mountains of East Tennessee. Here is an engagement session that's been on the blogging que for some time that proves just that. Meet the infamous Nicole and Chris. They are 'infamous' to us because we just met them in person for the first time at their engagement session since they both live in Florida. But lucky for us Nicole and Chris are coming back next year to get hitched in their favorite spot --- The Great Smoky Mountains! Nicole and Chris are super nice and a delight to be around --- we couldn't be more thrilled about working with them! 

Some of my high school girlfriends will love the location choice for their shoot -- we went up to Look Rock off of the Foothills Parkway in Townsend. They'll love it because we used to go up there all the time when we were in high school! We'd hike up there in the pitch dark, with no flashlights --- we were crazy!! We used to just go up there and look at the stars and talk --- we were real outdoorsy like that.... But no one should do that now, it's probably not safe. Seriously. 

Anyways..... a few of our faves! Enjoy!!

 You can check out the full feature here.