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blake and maggie: july 25, 2009

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Blake and Maggie…wow. I don’t even know where to start with these two and this amazing wedding. Everything about it was simply gorgeous. First of all, it was all coordinated by the amazing Weddings by Jill. Anyone who knows Jill or has seen her work knows that anything she does is going to be a-mazing. I had great expectations and I was still blown away by her creativity and gorgeous work.

Maggie and Blake are one of our favorite couples ever. Maggie is beautiful, sweet, kind, and oh so full of style. When she is with Blake, she cannot stop smiling (and not just because he’s really funny). I think their first look is probably our favorite of all time. I mean, really, you cannot manufacture that kind of emotion, people. Every time I look at the pictures of them seeing each other for the first time, I relive how incredible it was to actually be there for such a real and gigantic moment. Once again…best job ever.

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Maggie got ready at her parents’ home and then we headed over to the church for the rest of the pictures. They were married at the beautiful Mountain Brook Baptist Church with a reception following at the Birmingham classic, The Club. I was really speechless when I saw the ribbon creation hanging from the ceiling of the ballroom. The reception was one of the most fun we’ve ever been a part of–highlighted by Maggie’s mom and dad doing “the swim” on the stage with the band! To see the slideshow of the entire day, click here.

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mike and lisa marie: june 13, 2009

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We really have the best job ever. As I look through these pictures, I feel like I am going to sound like a broken record because really all I want to tell you about is how great that Lisa Marie and Michael are. We booked this wedding without meeting them before so though we had met at their engagement shoot, we didn’t know any of their families or friends. One thing we did know is that Lisa Marie’s dad had to have heart surgery just a few days before their wedding and everyone was very worried that he wouldn’t be able to be there for the wedding day. Thankfully, he was able to be there to walk his little girl down the aisle. As I am writing this, I decided to share what I wrote to Lisa when I sent her the link to her wedding pictures…I think it describes it best.

“Lisa Marie,
I just watched your wedding slideshow and cried through the whole thing! It is such a gift to get to walk into people’s lives that we don’t even know and be there to capture some of the most important moments of their lives. Your wedding was beautiful from start to finish and what stood out the most to us was your hearts for each other and for those that you love. Thank you so much for the privilege of being there to photograph it! I hope you and Mike will love the pictures and treasure them for years to come. I am so excited to show them to you.”
Here is the link to their slideshow.

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david & brooke 8mm

a little over a year ago erin and i sat down with our friend greg to talk about commercial photography.  about 5 minutes into it we were talking about 40 year old camera’s and weddings.   go figure.

around that time our former assistant (we miss you lindsey) was in the process of planning her wedding and we (np) were looking for new ways to expand what we offer in our wedding packages.  lindsey had seen 8mm being done (mostly out west) but thought it was insanely expensive yet incredibly cool.  we agreed with both.  so we decided to figure out how to do it on a budget.  i don’t remember (greg leave a comment if you do) what came first, the camera or the idea but anyway greg just fit the bill.  he was willing, just naive enough to give it a shot, and had enough money in the bank to keep buying camera’s.  seriously though greg has done an amazing job figuring this thing out over the course of the year.  he shot a handful of our weddings this last year and ended up booking lindsey’s as well.  this year he’s truly left the nest and flying on his own.  i mean he went to the bridal show!  and it worked!  what?  just kidding… never been.  anyway, we are so happy to show some footage from one of our summer weddings.  check out greg’s site for more info On The Side Films.

*for those of you booking weddings and interested in this option:  this is something we offer however it is not listed in our a la carte pricing.  contact us for more info.  we work with greg to incorporate our images into the DVD as you’ll see below.  it’s a great combo of old and new!

**i’m sure if i were more tech savvy i could have found a way to make this load faster….but i’m not. so my advice is to go get some coffee and give it 5 minutes.  it’s pretty long but worth the wait i promise.

david and brooke: july 18, 2009

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We love to capture real, authentic emotion in our pictures. Sometime this is easier than others. Meet David and Brooke. Their entire wedding day was filled with so much laughter and joy that you couldn’t help but be all swept up in the happiness of it all. When Brooke told me that they wanted to do their wedding pictures on the land of some family friends, I was so excited. We knew Brooke and David a little bit through other photo shoots and other weddings that they had been in with us and we were so honored that they chose us to be their wedding photographers. When we left their wedding, Corey and I both felt like we knew them so much better. From the farm to the flowers to the breakfast menu at the reception, everything about Brooke and David’s day was so perfectly them. Exactly the way that it should be.

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portico gowns

so you know you’re behind on your blog when it takes you 30 minutes just to go through your spam box! we are doing our best around here to catch up and get ready for the new year.

usually around mid december we’re set to cruise into the holidays.  orders wrapping up.  weddings weeks away.  colleges on break.  this year, though very unexpected, i (corey) was asked to do a couple shoots for portico magazine.  i’ve always admired the work of portico and it’s been one of my quiet career goals.  i certainly wasn’t expecting it at this point but was thrilled to be asked to do the feature and another story (more on that later) for the bridal publication that is on the stands now (go pick one up!).

we shot all day at the tutwiler in pretty much every setting we could find.  the work that goes into these  shoots is so impressive.  kerri bunn did hair and makeup and sara walker was the stylist.  they are very talented and deserve the majority of credit for the success of this shoot.  though my favorites were not all able to make it into print, as the editor of this blog i present them to you.

one thing i love about shooting such a wide range of stuff is seeing how things overlap.  the first model here was actually in a wedding we shot in august.

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birthdays

Today is my birthday. Since I think I’m Facebook friends with about 99% of our blog readers, most of you probably knew that.  It has been a very good day. Flowers from my husband, the gift that I asked for, a strawberry cake, a fire in the fireplace. I am currently having some cheese dip for dinner. I think I have mentioned that for a while now, my mom has been sending me various crafts and things that I made when I was little. I never expect them but they always make me laugh. This week I got a package with a book that was made by my first grade class on my 7th birthday. It was so much fun to read the names and remember so much. I thought some of the pages were worth sharing…

This one is from Andrew, the boy who shared the same birthday as me. For a couple of years, there were actually three of us with the same birthday. For shy, spotlight-avoidance me, it was such a relief to have someone to share the birthday attention. Andrew and I graduated together. I hope he’s had a good birthday today.

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I just noticed today that this one had someone’s mess-up for Andrew’s birthday book on the back of the page.

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I’m sure this was meant to be a compliment. When I read this one, I laughed out loud. Clearly the teacher wrote some suggested phrases on the board for the birthday books–almost every card says “Happy Birthday. I like you.” Only Brandon Robinson felt the need to speak some truth…

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This is my friend, Sam. I am happy to say that we (and now our families) are still friends. They live about 15 minutes away from us. Today he sent me and Andrew (above) a text message saying we were his oldest friends. I think he meant it in the nice way, not in the you’re-really-old way.

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These two, Jenni and Anna, are some of my closest friends in elementary school who I have been able to reconnect with thanks to the wonders of Facebook…

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This one was the boy that I always liked. He was like 2 feet shorter than me (see above). I don’t know why he drew these weird pictures.

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I just liked this one…

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brand new

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Meet sweet baby Wyatt. He was born just a little over a week ago and getting to meet him was one of the highlights of my week. I never get over the miracle of new life and am so thankful to get to photograph this little window of sleepy, cuddly sweetness.

jessye and luke: engagement shoot (also known as the attack of the killer cows)

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Jessye and Luke are probably the nicest people I have ever met. Really. Since the first email that Jessye sent me to inquire about us shooting their wedding next summer, she has been making me feel like maybe I am the coolest person on the planet. She writes me such nice notes that I feel like hanging them up in my workspace so that I can have a daily dose of encouragement. The truth is that I should be writing Jessye and Luke notes telling them how awesome THEY are. They are kind, funny, smart, interesting, adventurous and truly truly the kind of couple you just want to hang out with and have over to your house to play games. (Even though you probably won’t because you know that they are much much smarter than you and would win every time.) There are like a million cool facts that I could write about them but I have narrowed it down to the following list of points…

*Jessye and Luke totally trusted me on shooting at a new location. It’s kind of in the middle of nowhere but it was so worth it! When we met the owner of this property (we called ahead to ask permission), we were told that we could go anywhere and that “the cows wouldn’t bother us.” I’m scared of lots of things but until this point, cows were not one of them. However, as we ventured into the pasture/barn area, I was (not pleasantly) surprised by how bold these particular cows happened to be. The loud bellowing of the ginormous bull as he walked toward us was enough to scare anyone I think. We managed to get into a safe area (aka cow-free zone) but there was a little fence-jumping involved when all was said and done. Totally worth it. Also, I sat in cow poop to get the shots by the silo. Again worth it.

*As mentioned above, Jessye and Luke are super smart. I could have listened for hours as they told me just a little bit about their majors and future career plans. Fittingly, their reception is being held at the Davidson Center at the Huntsville Space and Rocket Museum. The whole party takes place under the gigantic rocket–how cool is that?

* They have one of the sweetest and most sincere relationships that I have witnessed. I had the best afternoon with these two and am so thankful to get to photograph this beautiful couple again on the day they will become husband and wife!

brent & ashley’s wedding

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Brent and Ashley’s wedding was definitely one of our favorites of 2009. Everything about it was beautiful–the couple, the wedding party, the locations, the families. Since this is such a mega-post, I think I’m just going to let the pictures speak for themselves! I do have to note that this top picture is one of my favorites of the year! As always, Corey and I arrive early for weddings so that we can scout out any cool or unique locations. Ashley and Brent had already told us that they were building in extra time for pictures before the reception as well as seeing each other pre-ceremony! As we drove around the area close to the reception, I happened to glance back over my shoulder and spot this old writing on the side of a building. The faded letters actually read “sliced bacon” but the letters b and a were PERFECT for a shot with Brent and Ashley!

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megan: senior pictures

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The first photo I ever took of Megan was in a sweet little yellow dress with a bow in the back. I think she was 9, maybe 10. It was at an engagement party for our friends Josh and Keely. Megan and her younger sister were dressed alike and we were all waiting in the receiving line to greet the couple. I had just purchased my first real camera (it was a Minolta and I bought it at Wal-Mart) and I had no idea how to use it. I am happy to say that I think these photos are much better than that one! I can’t believe that Megan is graduating from high school this year. I was so so so excited to get to photograph her senior pictures. We started out at the Parthenon in Nashville and had the best time wandering around looking for fun places to shoot. Photographing Megan’s senior pictures might have been the closest thing I’ll ever get to photographing an Anthropologie catalog. Isn’t she so beautiful and full of style?