And now, for July…  July was a big month for me – and for the twelve new brides and grooms that invited me to photograph their weddings!

Cari and Guy were married on July 3rd in the huge backyard at Cari’s family’s home.

It was a beautiful evening with some of the most amazing floral arrangements I have ever seen.  If you take a peek at the first page of their online proof album, you’ll see pictures of these two huge flower balls sitting atop glass pedestals.  Never seen anything like them.  Then there were the artfully arranged centerpieces and the colorful accent pieces at the ceremony site…  I think Cari told me that Lazy Daisy in Yorktown did the floral work.  Cari and Guy also had a very unique cake – three tiers of delicious cheesecakes and cake.  But my favorite thing about their wedding is that I got to create a photobook for Cari’s mom!  I am going to toot my own horn here and say that I feel that it’s the best one I’ve made yet, but…  You can be the judge.  Take a look at their book online here!
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Shannon and Wes, my next bride and groom, were married on the 4th of July.

Their wedding was steeped in tradition!  Shannon and Wes’ ceremony was held in a church that hadn’t been used since the 1970’s.  The church sits on property that was donated in the 1800’s by Wes’ four-times great-grandfather to the Harlan Cemetery.  I understand that Shannon, along with several friends and family members, spent a lot of time cleaning the church and getting it ready for the big day.  Although it was a rainy day, tons of people packed into the church to celebrate with the bride and groom.  Afterwards, we drove just down the road to Wes’ family’s farm for the reception, held in the big barn on the property.  I loved their choice of a first dance song: “Where the Green Grass Grows” by Tim McGraw.  The decor included classic tractors and an antique beet truck.  Centerpieces were candles in glass mason jars, and Shannon used her favors as decorations too – small trees from the Arbor Day Foundation decorated with a little ribbon.  It was all rustic, but very classy and very true to Shannon and Wes’ style.  When I complimented Shannon on how beautiful everything was, she confided that she’d had a $2700 budget, but had pulled everything off for $1600!  I told her that she should go into event planning!
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My next wedding was the marriage of Matt and Lacey on July11th.

They chose to get married in an intimate ceremony with a small group of family and friends in the gazebo at Falls Park in Pendleton.  Where Shannon and Wes’ wedding day had been rainy, Matt and Lacey had a DELUGE!  We sheltered underneath the gazebo while Matt and Lacey exchanged their vows and rings, kissed, and shared their first dance.  Their reception was held at Garfield’s in the Mounds Mall.  Everyone gathered there to watch Matt and Lacey cut their cake and then joined them for dinner.  I loved Lacey’s dress, a simple ivory lace A-line with an empire waist.
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Suzanne and Armand were married on July 18th.

I’d done their engagement pictures (and blogged about it as well) back in early June.  It’s nice to know the people who I’ll be working with.  Not necessary, but nice.  Again, I had a great time photographing this couple and I hope they enjoyed it too!  Suzanne and Armand held their ceremony at the True Vine Church, and their reception at the Carolina Room in Muncie.  The Carolina Room is a nice venue inside, with a good setup for a large number of guests.  What stands out the most for me about Suzanne and Armand’s wedding, in fact, is their guests.  Often I get comments and compliments from the guests at weddings, but Suzanne and Armand’s guests were genuinely appreciative of the work that I did with them.  They were a friendly and caring bunch of people, to me as well as among themselves.  It was a pleasure to be surrounded by people who were truly happy to see and visit with each other.
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My final July wedding, on the 25th, was the marriage of Keri and Matt.

Keri and Matt were married at the Wesley Free Methodist Church, where Keri’s family attends.  I have photographed a few weddings here and I love the architecture.  It’s an impressive chapel.  I kind of knew Keri going into the wedding – Mark used to work with Keri’s dad, and I took Keri’s brother’s senior pictures a few years ago.  Keri was a little nervous when we started out, but just about everyone is…  It’s weird to think that you’ve hired someone to follow you around and take your picture all day!  She and Matt had a beautiful wedding, including a slide show during their ceremony.  The reception was held at the Military Armor Museum in Anderson.  I’ve also photographed a few weddings there and I really like it as a venue.  Although the outside doesn’t look like much, the inside is nicely updated.  The staff is friendly, the facilities are good, and the parking is right there so that you don’t have to walk blocks through bad weather.  The only thing that drives me nuts is that *everyone* places their cake right in front of a huge mirror on the wall.  Makes it a little trickier when getting pictures of the cake and the cake cutting!
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And those were my July weddings!  I did have a portrait session in July, but I’ll throw it in with my August post.  I don’t think they’ll mind!

Okay!  I think I can start catching up now!

You all saw my first June wedding with Courtney and Colby.  Man, that was a lot of fun.  I just loved how open they were to trying new things!

My next June wedding was the union of Barbara and Corey:

I’d spent a couple of hours with them when we first got together for our initial wedding meeting (we couldn’t stop talking and laughing about things).  Barbara and Corey held their wedding at Mounds State Park in the Pavilion.  I think that’s a really nice venue if you’re trying to stick to a small budget.  It was a warm day for June, but plenty of the bride and groom’s friends and family turned out to celebrate with them.  One of the neat things that Barbara and Corey had at their reception was a live birch tree to take home and plant.  A small table next to the tree held cards with ribbons that guests could write their wedding wishes on and tie to the tree.  I always like seeing the creative ideas that people come up with to make their weddings unique!  I also got to work with some of my favorite DJs, 500 Lbs. of Sound.  If you’re looking for a DJ, Todd and Shelley do a nice job!

My third June wedding was the marriage of Kara and Jonathan.

Aren’t they cute?!  Their wedding day was super hot, but they had a perfect venue at Minnetrista in Muncie.  They chose the rose garden to be married in, with its beds and beds of roses and lilies, and a gazebo from the 1939 World’s Fair.  Afterward, they held their reception in the Cantina.  if you look through their pictures, you may come across the groom’s cake decorated with bugs.  I was confused too, but it turns out that Jonathan is an insect aficionado and is studying to be an entomologist. Still, I passed on tasting the bug cake   By the way, Isn’t Kara’s bouquet gorgeous?!  The flowers were done by Lasting Impressions Flower Shop in Daleville.  It’s a tiny little place that you might not know was even there if you weren’t looking for it, but their work is terrific!

And those were my three June weddings.  I fully intend to post my July ones before the weekend’s over, but for now I’ve got two hungry little girls clamoring for a snack!

Last Sunday, I met with Suzanne and Armand at Minnetrista to photograph some engagement pictures for them.  Suzanne has done some modeling in the past and knows how to pose, plus she has a great personality.  I loved the interaction between Suzanne and Armand – Suzanne would sass him and Armand would come right back.   This session was a hoot…  Shooting their wedding in July is going to be a trip.

Suzanne: Show your dentures!
Armand: I’ll show you your momma’s dentures!
Suzanne: Armand, that’s NOT nice!  (and to me) My momma doesn’t wear dentures.

My other recent portrait session was with two-week old Sophia H.  Mom, Dad, and Grandma came with her and had their pictures taken too.  Sophia was a little fussy, but with patience, we got some really cute shots that I hope the family will treasure forever.  I didn’t use my peanut crochet this time – this little girl’s already ten pounds! – but I did get to use a wrap (featured here) and a basket, which you can see in her online proofs.

Congratulations, H family, on your beautiful little girl!

Hope you had a good Memorial Day weekend!  We enjoyed ourselves around here.  On Sunday, Mark went to the Indy 500 with the guys and I took a girl trip to Greenwood for some shopping with the girls.  On Monday, we went to the annual Memorial Day picnic at Mark’s parents’ house.  It was a fun and relaxing weekend -  no work and all play.

I do have some pictures to show off from last weekend, though!

First up, last Saturday, was a crazy portrait session with three grandmas and ten kids, eight of whom were under the age of four.  I’ve photographed about half of these kids before, four when they were newborns! We had quite a time getting everyone to sit still and never could get all of them to look at the camera at once, but we did get them all in one picture

On Sunday, I met with Kim and Curt to photograph their engagement session.  We had a gorgeous, cool afternoon for photos at Shadyside Park in Anderson.  Kim and Curt are getting married in September and are using fall colors as their theme, so I made sure to get several images that would coordinate well for display at their wedding too.

And finally, I’ve got pictures of our older daughter, three year old Emily.  We have these fields of amazing yellow weeds growing near our house.  I wanted to do this with her last year, but didn’t get it done before the fields were planted.  This year I found the perfect dress at a garage sale and dragged Emily out one evening last week.  Of course we were swarmed by bugs and she was in a very stubborn mood where she didn’t want to look at me, just flail her arms and beat at the flowers…  But I don’t think that every picture has to have a smile.  I like that I’ve got who she really is here, small and sweet and stubborn.

I had a very fun engagement session yesterday with my friend Julia, and her fiance Dave.  Dave and Julia got engaged early last year, but I wasn’t able to photograph them last fall since I was due with Abby and it’s a 2.5 hour drive for each of us just to meet in the middle.  So we settled for this spring, and we had wonderful, gorgeous weather yesterday after a week of rain.  The three of us spent the entire day in a little town called Plymouth.  I haven’t spent any time yet looking through their photos, but I did want to share this one of two props that Julia brought:

Update:  Dave and Julia’s engagement photos are online, and here’s a handy link if you’d like to check them out!

Want to see what I’ve been up to?

Well, first there were a few Ivy Tech events; one in Bloomington at IU and one in Indianapolis…

Then I had a senior portrait session on a gorgeous day with Marissa.  This is one of my absolute favorites from her session.  Don’t you love her eyes?!

And an engagement at the park…  Jennifer and Tom were great to work with.  Jennifer was a little camera-shy at first, but I think  we’ve got some pictures from their session that they will really treasure.

And then I had a session with Sopia, who is just nine days old here.  I photographed her parents’ wedding a few years ago and I was glad to see them again and meet their little one!

This picture is also proof of how crazy I am for good pictures…  I saw this wrap online and with three hours before Sophia’s session, I sat down and crocheted one for us to use.  It worked like a charm, once we figured out how to get her in there!

This weekend, I had a session with three kids – Landon, who’s three and a half; Jenna, who’s six months; and Austin, who’s just five weeks old.  I’d photographed Landon before, but his sister and cousin are new to me.  I’ll be honest… getting three kids, two of whom don’t take directions, to look in the same general direction and *not cry* isn’t the easiest thing in the world!  Still, we took our time and I think we got some pretty good images.  And what cute kids!

I’ve been photographing Aida since she was a newborn, and it’s been a lot of fun to get to see her as she grows.  She’s become a very busy little person!  She and her mother came in for Aida’s two-year pictures last month and we had a wild time getting her to stand still long enough for me to get a few snaps.  Right before her third (and final) outfit, Aida had a little meltdown.  It looked to me like Collette was getting a bit frazzled, so I suggested that she step out of the room while I worked with Aida.  Sure enough, as soon as Collette was out of the door, Aida stopped fussing, sat up, and let me finish photographing her.  Collette peeked through the window while Aida gave me some of the biggest smiles of our session.  What a goofball! 

Here are a few images of Aida hamming it up for me:

I will be the first person in the world to tell you that I have a great job.  I have the *perfect* job for me.  I do basically the same thing every time I go to work, from loading my gear to setting up my camera to working with people, yet it’s also something new every time.  I meet new people, photograph new faces, try new ideas and work in new locations.  It’s taken me a while to come to terms with myself as a “professional” anything, but here I am as a professional photographer.

I’ve often flippantly told people that one of the best parts about my job is all the wedding cake I get to eat.  And I have eaten some really good cake.  But I’ve also done some other cool stuff.  I’ve photographed the Governor of Indiana.  I’ve photographed the Indiana Secretary of State.  I’ve been on the floor at Conseco Fieldhouse and on the field of the RCA Dome (which was imploded last month).  I’ve done pageants and football.  I’ve spent two solid days photographing wrestling on my knees.  I once photographed a fashion show where the models walked the runway with kitchen faucets and bathroom shower heads.

Still, and I want desperately to be able to say this without sounding cheesy…  The most important part of my job is capturing the memories.  I was telling Mark the other day how I feel about this.  I am one single person, but the product that I create is something that will be looked at twenty-five or fifty years from now, or maybe even longer.  I have family pictures that go back to the 1800’s.  It’s entirely conceiveable that someone will be looking at my work in the middle of the next century.  Someone is going to want a picture of their great-great grandparents’ wedding.  Someone is going to wonder about the styles that were popular when their grandmother was a senior in high school.  Someone is going to laugh at a picture of their dad as a bare-naked baby.

This is the responsibility of my job, and I feel it as an enormous one.  I am taking pictures for people to help them relive how they felt, who they were, what happened.  I take pictures for children who aren’t born yet, to show them how happy their parents were on their wedding day.  I take pictures for the years to come, when someone’s father or grandfather has passed away, so that they can look back and remember.

Isn’t that a great job to have?