A beach, a wedding and a fire

Last weekend, I was lucky enough to travel to Orange Beach, AL for Ashley and Blake's wedding.  I had done their engagement photos a couple of months ago and somehow talked them into letting me shoot their wedding too! 
The weather was fantastic with a nice, cool breeze blowing and temps in the upper 80s.  We did have a little scare at one point when a huge fire broke out a few miles away.  The power went out and there were rumors that the main power source was on fire.  Luckily, within about an hour, everything was back to normal with the exception of a huge smoke cloud billowing behind the condominiums.  Made for some interesting photos at times. 
Everyone had fun and Ashley looked AMAZING!  There is nothing like photos on the beach, and she picked the most fabulous colors to accent it all.  Love these guys. ;)
You can find more photos on Facebook, too!

Pure excitement as she gets dressed!

you can see the cloud of smoke behind them.  No it's not from the cigars...

photo booth

this caught her emotion perfectly

The fire in it's full glory as seen from the reception

Beth+Jason

Beth and Jason are so perfect together and I had a great time getting to know them as a couple.  Their families were a ton of fun too.  The day went seamlessly and everyone had a fantastic time!  I finally get to post a few from her bridal session, too, now that their big day is over and they are off hanging out in the sun.  Congratulations to them both!



a shot from the photo booth.  They had FUN!



Tea Time

These girls have soooo much personality, especially Zoey (the readhead.  Imagine that!)  We found a few places around the house to snap a few pictures & I absolutely LOVE Lyla's (the little one) expression in the family shot!

We then stopped for a little while to have a tea party.  Fun times!  The girls hammed it up for me. 

Abi Kate

Meet Abi Kate:  She came into this world January 27th (the day after my own birthday. heehee) through a perfect natural birth.  Yay Mom!  Katie had an incredible experience and I have been blessed to get to know these guys.   She contacted me months ago about doing her maternity photos.  I have to say that she and Tom are one of the most complementary couples I have met.  While he is calm and grounded, she is full of energy and excitement.  Being around them makes you smile.  Abi is going to be one happy kid (though I hear she's got her days and nights a little confused at the moment)! 
Here are a few 'before and after' shots:

Birthday parties

I shot a couple of birthday parties last weekend.  Caraline's 5th birthday and Jacob's 1st.  Here are some highlights from their celebrations. 

Jacob's 1st birthday was at mom and dad's house. Lots of family around to help celebrate. As you can tell by the look on his face, he was a little unsure of the process, it being his very first :) It took him a little while to get into tearing up that cake, but once he did, he really dug in!

Caraline had hers at Faithful Strokes, a painting studio off the square in Murfreesboro.  The instructors took the kids step-by-step through the process of creating these super cute monkey paintings.  Most of the kids had help from mom and dad, but they did a lot of the work themselves.  Pretty cool! 

Baby Cooper (almost) !

Baby Cooper should be arriving shortly. In the midst of moving, mom realized she had to fit in belly photos before he was here! So, here they are, 35 weeks pregnant!
Ole Ted made it into a few pictures. He was dad's bear when he was little and he's remained a part of the family for the little ones to now love on. Love it!

Baby B

Well, she finally made it.  My baby brother's new baby, Beatrice!  She was in no rush and already about a week late, but they brought her into the world, despite her best efforts to remain in mom's belly.  I got a chance to finally photograph her today.  She whined and complained (but in a really cute way that only babies can), relaxing long enough to give us some great shots.  I even got to try out a bunch of my new hats!  I absolutely LOVE all that hair.  Congrats, guys!!!!! 

Even caught her smiling a little...  :)