LIZ AND RAF GOT MARRIED!

Liz and Rafael were married last Saturday on one of the most gorgeous fall days, evah. The air was crisp and clean, and Liz and Raf were so relaxed. They were surrounded by the people they love as they pledged their commitment to each other, and it was an honor to be a part of such a wonderful day! Liz and Raf are so real and genuine, and their quiet gestures toward each other speak volumes of the respect, support, and understanding that seems to define their relationship. They are great people and I'm so happy to have met them and document their wedding day. Liz and Raf, thank you so much for the opportunity and I wish you a lifetime of happiness together! :-) 

We started off with a few of Raf getting ready...

The relaxed groom....

This is Raf and his brother/best man, Danny. 

I spy....

I will have you know, we took great care to assure that Liz's dress did NOT get dirty during these shots :-)

The gorgeous bride...

Liz photographs so beautifully.

This is inside of Liz and Raf's house... they live in a gorgeous Victorian house with a great staircase! :-)

The amazing flowers... I LOVED the colors she picked.

 Liz and Raf had a sunset ceremony, so chose to see each other first so we'd still have some light for their portraits... I adore their reactions. 

She is seriously always smiling and laughing... I love it.

Ummm, yes... that's a Model-T...

 This is their driver, and very helpful gentleman! :-)

The rings.

I'm not gonna lie... I love this photo... something about the anticipation here really makes me smile. :-)

See... always laughing...

Liz and Raf incorporated a handfasting ritual into their ceremony.

Some of the details....

They chose to do pies instead of cake ( I LOVE pie), and they looked soooo good ( I REALLY LOVE pie ), I totally wanted to stash one in the car for later... but I didn't. ( Have I told you how much I love pie? )

Liz and Raf had green and orange lanterns, and green uplighting... it was very groovy. 

 This handsome gentleman is Liz's father. Not only is he Liz's father, but he's also famous. He was in the  movie, The French Connection. He was the waiter that served Gene Hackman. I know it's a great movie, but believe it or not I haven't seen it. But I promised him I would watch it, so I will order it from Netflix asap. And if you haven't seen it, I strongly suggest you do. ;-)

I just think this picture of Raf's brother and his girlfriend is cute. 

A little bit of dancing never hurt anyone...

Liz and Raf, I hope you have an AMAZING, LONG, and HAPPY life together! 

GROWING UP

An Un-BEAR-ably good time ;-)

Saturday we took a beautiful drive up to Clark's Trading Post on an even more beautiful day. If you've never been to Clark's, you're not missing much. LOL. Sorry, it was cute, the kids had a good time overall, and it was an enjoyable day with the in-laws, but the place is nothing to write home about. Their claim to fame is their trained bears... a few bears that they've kept in captivity for decades so they can train them to slam dunk basketballs, sit on a swing, stand on barrels, get the mail, and unhygienically share ice cream cones with their trainers. And then they put the "It's so important to learn about bears and respect them and protect them" spin on it so it doesn't look like they're just out to make a lot of money off selling tickets to see the bears. I apologize if I offend anyone, if there's really anybody other than my mother that reads this, but that is just my opinion and how I saw it. The kids got bored after about 10 minutes of the show and we headed off to do something else, which was good because all I could really focus on was how sad it was that the bears will never know their true home. I'm no animal activist or anything, but something just doesn't feel right about dressing a bear up and showing him off like he's a chihuahua in a purse. Sorry :-( Anyway, here are some photos I took yesterday of the kids... like I said, they had a good time just running around with each other and we had a great time being able to catch up with family. Something that we don't often get to do. Plus, the bumper boats were pretty cool.

TOO COOL FOR SCHOOL.

My son is too cool. I don't know when this happened, but I don't think I like it very much :-( Yesterday was his first day of 4th grade, and like all proud moms, I brought my camera along to snap some photos of my growing child. I tried not once, not twice, but three times on the playground, waiting for the bell to ring, to get him to cooperate for the mini photo session but instead got, "Mom, come on, seriously? I'm in fourth grade now. Mom, you're embarrassing. Put. The. Camera. Away!"...Alongside grumbles, hands in front of the face, and turning his back toward me. Insert sad, crying face here. But like a good mom, I sacrificed getting the good shot for the sake of my son's humility. This required a little compromise on his part though, because you see, I always win somehow ;-) So you bet your butt I made him promise he was going to cooperate when he got home from school. The first day of school was over, he was home playing in the yard with his friends, and it was an hour before I remembered! Bogus! I didn't take his pictures!!! Soooooo, I took what I could get.... even if that meant his hair resembled a mop from an hour of jumping on the trampoline, shirt was wet after a water fight with his best friend, and his refusal to not be a complete goofball (remember, he's in front of his friends). It'll do. So, disheveled, goofy, and featured alongside his best friend... here are my masterpieces..... LOL.

Goodbye Summer, Hello Fall! Oh yeah, and haircuts!

Happy Labor Day, everyone! Today was a great, relaxing day. My son goes back to school tomorrow so we were all trying to enjoy the last official (in my eyes) day of summer. I feel a little relieved, to tell you the truth, that the summer is over and the fall is on it's way. Aside from the fact that I ADORE everything about the fall itself (think warm apple pie a la mode, vibrant foliage, football, brisk nights, roasting marshmallows in the fire pit in our yard, apple picking, cider donuts, Halloween, cute clothes and shoes, and Thanksgiving), I'm just really content to see the summer go. It's a little bittersweet as this ENTIRE summer revolved around our wedding and everything that had to do with the wedding. Mostly the planning. AND. OH. THE. PLANNING. It was crazy stressful, hot, hectic, and went by in a flash, but this summer has also been beautiful, fulfilling, rewarding, emotional, and full of love, fun, family, and friends. I couldn't have asked for a better summer, but now it's time to put it to bed and wake up to a new season. A much less sticky season ;-) Anywho, today my aunt was gracious enough to have the family over for a Labor Day/End of the Summer BBQ. Here are some photos from today :-)

And seeing these photos just reminded me that I was supposed to remind myself to get my kids haircuts. ;-) Happy Labor Day!

And all is right with the world again...

Sometimes, there's just too much frustration, bad news, stress, work, doubt, and hate in the world. In our own lives. Sometimes, we need a break. Sometimes, our hearts need uplifting. And sometimes, we just need to see something like this to put a smile on our faces again. :-) What a beautiful moment.

Cookies and Sookie

I've been learning A TON lately. Between courses, workshops, google searches, talking to people, reading, and practicing, the amount of knowledge I'm absorbing is comparable to dipping an Oreo Cookie in a glass of milk. You dip it a few times, it soaks the milk up, and it's delicious. But before you know it, most of the milk is gone and you're left with a small piece of a soggy, poor excuse for a cookie. Well, I feel like that's what is left of my brain right now.... only the glass of milk is bottomless. There are gallons and gallons of milk to soak up but only a soggy fragment of what used to be a cookie. But, this is good! I'm learning so much, and I'm so happy to take my business to the next level... I will be launching a new website soon and I CAN'T WAIT! Good things are on the way and I am ready! :-) But right now, my brain is so dead I need some mindless entertainment....  I'm ready to watch me some Season 1 of True Blood... Brian and I missed most of the first season but recently subscribed to Netflix and got the DVD in the mail today... I've been waiting for this all day. I never understood the big hype surrounding Netflix but now I do because it's AWESOME! Season 1 isn't On Demand and I'm excited that I finally found it somewhere because I can't get me enough of Sookie, Bill, and Eric.... So off I go! Goodnight all! :-)

Liv, Little Lady

My daughter is growing up. Kids do that I suppose, but really, today I was just taken back by how much she's grown up. We have started potty training, she's saying please and thank you without being reminded, she takes her food to her table and sits down while eating, puts her dishes away in the sink when she's done, washes her hands, puts on her shoes, brushes her teeth, says 'I love you' before bed, and is forming her words more clearly by the minute. I'm left wondering when the heck all of this happened!? She is a beautiful, happy, determined, smart, and loving little girl, and I tell her at least 5 times a day how proud she makes me. Today I realized that I didn't have any photos to document how she is in this moment in time, the real her, right now. I took my camera out this afternoon as we headed out after nap for our usual playtime.... and even though she wasn't in the smiliest of moods this afternoon, I'm happy with what I got because THIS is my Olivia. My Liv. The nickname, Liv, is so appropriate for her because that's what this little lady does... she lives. She has so much beauty, energy, and life inside her already, and the world better be ready for this one. When she's ready, she's going to be a force to be reckoned with! 

I love you, my little Liv!!! <3

I'm going to google gaggle.

So, tonight, Brian and I were debating what to have for dinner and couldn't really decide or agree on anything. We went through the list of usuals (which needs some serious updating, FYI, so please feel free to leave some yummy recipes) and nothing was really grabbing us. We finally lacklusterly decided on burgers... it was quick and we figured the kids would be happy with our decision. I brought my daughter inside to get some juice as Brian cooked on the grill, and then heard him call for me a couple minutes later........ "Hurry up! Come outside! There's a gaggle of turkeys in our yard!" To which I replied, "A google of WHAT?" Apparently, there were a bunch of wild turkeys running around in my yard... more specifically, a mama and her 5 babies that aren't so small anymore. These turkeys are well-known and have been making their rounds around town, visiting each home along the way as if they're campaigning for something. Anywho, I went outside to take some pictures, and my camera (or my crazy dog) must have scared them off because they all started to jump the fence! Well one of the babies jumped the wrong way and hopped/flew right into the tree in our front yard. I turned and intently watched the mama turkey's reaction, as I would have been annoyed if I were her. She circled around the tree a couple of times, went and chatted with the rest of her babies, walked to the street and I kid you not, got a running start and tossed her old, heavy body into the air and just barely made the lowest branch, which reminds me of the camp song, "The other day... I met a bear.... a great big bear.... a way up there...."Anyway, back to the story.... so, the mama turkey is now lodged in between a hundred branches and looks thoroughly annoyed. The baby didn't move, to his credit, he was scared and I started to feel really bad that I even contemplated Brian's suggestion of a turkey dinner instead of burgers (kidding). I watched the baby beg for help and the mama put her foot, uhhh, claw down, and demand her baby learn a lesson from all of this. I don't think she was planning on teaching this lesson to all 5 of her babies, but that's what it was looking like was going to happen as I watched each and every single baby, one by one, fly up into the tree, blindly, because that's where their mama was. By this time, the mama turkey was fed up and started to ignore the babies and totally started giving herself a bath and biting her nails, and who can blame her? I hung around for awhile to get some pictures, and then caught the eye of the head-of-household turkey and I swear we had a woman to woman moment. It was as if in that brief second that we held our gaze, I could hear her gobbling, "Listen lady, these kids aren't coming down until you're gone... I have things to do, you can relate... do a sister a favor and hit the road!" And so I left. I came inside, and started thinking about the word 'gaggle'. Gaggle? I wasn't so sure a bunch of turkeys was referred to as a gaggle, so I googled gaggle. The Webster Dictionary says that a gaggle is used to refer to a flock of geese, specifically when not in flight. Hmmm.... these were not geese, and they actually had been in flight. I read on to see where Brian may have confused the definition of the word and read a second definition....  a group, aggregation, or cluster lacking organization gaggle of reporters and photographers>.... LOL. Oh lovely! It was actually me and my peers that are referred to as a gaggle. Perfect! LOL.

The baby calling her mama... And it was a happy ending, FYI... they all are safely out of the tree! :-) 

What is "It"?

Oh boy, where do I start? It's obviously been awhile since the last time I've blogged, and to tell you the truth I kind of took a break from all things Photography. Brian and I finally, FINALLY, got married on August 7th and the last month has been a whirlwind of crazy emotion, fun, family, friends, adventure, love,  and returning to reality. Wait... WHAT?! I have to come back from this past month of living at the center of all things with my new husband? I felt like we were the black hole at the center of our solar system, everything and everyone was revolving around us and being hurled toward us.... without the negative side effect of having the black hole (us) suck all the light out of everyone of course. ;-) What I mean though is we had a month of quite literally having everything revolve around us. Everyone wanted a piece of us.... vendors, friends, immediate family, extended family, our kids. We had gifts sent to our house often, people sending cards, parties, cookouts, showers, and pampering. I had more pictures taken of me over the last few months than I have for the previous 29 years of my life. We went on our honeymoon and had the chance to spend some MUCH NEEDED alone time together. We had people we don't even know congratulate us, we got to sleep in, finish a full cup of coffee in the morning, drink wine with dinner, go OUT to dinner, sit by the pool and RELAX instead of having to catch our 20 month old before she dove into the deep end without any swimmies on..... Over the last few months we got lots of presents, got to enjoy the company of friends and family that we don't often get to see, and got to be giddy like little kids and not apologize for it. Brian and I got to experience raw emotion together, and relive beautiful feelings and pledge our lives to one another. We got to put rings on each others hands and cry together and look into the eyes of our best friend and focus on us. We got to begin the rest of our lives together. We have two kids, a house, a dog, demanding jobs, and rarely ever get so much as a date night. We loved being able to not have to think, get up, juggle 5 things at once, and stress. On our honeymoon we were in a so-called bubble of peace and love and we didn't want it to pop. So I ask ya (spoken in the voice of Marisa Tomei in My Cousin Vinny), how does one come back from all of that? How do you re-focus and find ambition instead of wishing you were sitting poolside with your new hubby, sipping pina coladas, alone and in silence? How do you go back to work phones, alerts, potty-training, back to school shopping, cleaning, cold cups of coffee, sibling rivalry, and bad nails and hair? Well, I'll answer my own question. Aside from the fact that Brian and I came home from our honeymoon a day early because we missed our kids soooo much, I also have something new to look forward to. Well, not completely new, but I am super excited to bring my Photography business to the next level and I'm looking forward to putting in lots of hard work, time, and dedication to Wedding Photography. Yes, somehow in this big, long, hard to follow, messy post of a blog, I can somehow relate it to Photography. Wedding Photography more specifically. I've always wanted it, but I've never been so sure and as inspired to succeed at it as I am right now. Thanks are awarded to good timing and good clients, in part, but I also have another Photographer to thank for kind of lighting a fire in my heart and under my tush, for that matter. Her name is Jasmine Star. Maybe you've heard of her. She's currently making a huge name for herself and spreading her knowledge and positive vibe throughout the industry like wildfire, only in a really good way. This past week she embarked on an adventure, a highly informative adventure, and did something no other Photographer has done, that I know of anyway? I'm sending my prayer to the Photography Gods for forgiveness in case I am wrong. Anywho, Jasmine photographed a real live wedding, and it was shown live online, for all the world to see. As in LIVE live, through a website called CreativeLive. Like exposing her talent, enthusiasm, strategies, stories, information, advice, and flaws in front of thousands of people live. Live, on air live. And if there's anyone out there that didn't understand the meaning of live, I'm sure you do now ;-) She also did a few days worth of classroom teaching and a kind of workshop with a few lucky Photographers that won the opportunity to join Jasmine in Seattle for this crazy cool event. I thought about entering the contest, but honestly, I was in the middle of planning my own wedding and I couldn't even fathom thinking about flying out for a week to be so immersed in someone else's right after my own grand event. What I was able to do though is watch it. I watched Jasmine rock it from my the comfort of my own computer. I soaked in her bravery, her strategies, her advice, her experience, and probably most importantly, her will and her spirit. Her spirit is contagious. Jasmine Star went out on a limb, a HUGE 100ft hanging over an alligator infested swamp limb, to share her knowledge with less experienced Photographers like me. Just because she is that kind of person. And I've been inspired to make something of it. I may not be the talented blogger and business-woman that Jasmine is, and I may not yet have reached the level of creativity and genius that Susan Stripling possesses, but I am good, and I love what I do, and my potential is limitless. I hate patting myself on the back like that, but I firmly believe that. I know there's still things to learn, and there will always be something more to learn but, ever since I was about the age my daughter is now, my favorite and most frequently spoken words were "I do". Because I wanted to do "it", whatever "it" was at the time. And I did do it. And if I didn't know how to do it, I learned how to do it. I pushed myself to do it. I expected myself to do it. And even if somewhere along the line I decided I didn't want to do it anymore, I still did it just to prove to myself and everybody else that I could do it. That's not the case with Wedding Photography though... I truly want it, love it, and I will learn and do whatever it takes to get it. And I will continue to do it. (As a side note, my daughter is now saying "I do" as well, and I didn't teach her those words ;-)) So... I have 3 weddings booked for this fall season so far, and next year is going to be better, and I'm hoping I can continue to improve and grow my business and grow as a Photographer. Thank you to Jasmine Star for sharing her knowledge, spirit, bravery, and success. Jasmine talked about starting out with a kind of Jasmine Star cheer squad, well, here's the Nicole Montmarquet cheer squad......

Looking forward to it!