blogging is so much fun because i get to introduce you to all my other clients…i’m quite sure that if you were to meet, you would all fall in love with each other like i have with you!  and when we collectively decided that we should all move to a private island so we could see each other all the time and live the most wonderful life , we’d gratefully have a wonderful teacher like maegan to make sure our children were well-educated :)  (see the things i dream about!)

it’s so fun to recall this wedding day – maegan and trent ooze love so you walk away after having spent a few moments beside them with the biggest smile on your face.  and thankfully, this is a family that ‘felt’ every bit of what was happening…there were happy tears everywhere. 

wedding notes:
ceremony: central christian
reception: marriott
cake: judy myers
planning: great expectations (my first wedding with them and i loved it)
flowers: crist creona  859.252.6833

image notes:
1- bee-u-ti-full maegan
2- i love alleys
3 – aren’t these hydrangeas great?
4 – maegan’s stunning sister was speaking to the sweet flowergirls and peeked up for a second right before they walked down the aisle
5 – the whole day had been amazing but here is *the* moment that had the whole crowd in tears (everyone was searching their too-cute clutches for a kleenex).  maegan went to a recording studio to prepare this song for her dad and introduced it by expressing the magnitude of his effect on her life.  it was SO heartfelt, SO genuine and also SO well done.
6 – dad, who i have no doubt was the happiest man in the entire world  for these 3 minutes

-m-

isn’t this family absolutely darling?  cassidy, our production manager, was looking over the files and said "they look like the *nicest* people" – and they really are.  loved spending the morning with them and happy that they’ll have new photos on their walls.  i’m realizing that often there’s the thought to get a big photo of your family and update it every other year but where do those older photos go?  my hope for my clients is to amend that thought so that instead of a gargantuan image above the mantle you’ll think of building a gallery of images that grows throughout the years.  all similarly framed and lined gallery style. (i think this section on pottery barn’s site is great for coming up with an arrangement for your memory wall) so that’s the goal for 2008 – to start *your* collection of artful images of you and your family.  we can start with 4 or 8 and just build a few more on each year. 

oh, and this brings me to another thought…several months ago, i was sitting on a plane across the aisle from another photographer and as we talked a bit, he mentioned that people will use a variety of photographers to get a variety of looks.  I relayed that I knew a family that had gone to him for a number of years but he said that was
the exception.*

to be honest, my heart dropped…this photographer is several years older than me, so perhaps he know s something i don’t?   of course, moves across the country require you to find a new set of professionals (doctors, dentists, etc) but if you’re settled in a particular area, i think the search for a photographer whose vision is aligned with how you’d like your family to be recorded is key and worthwhile.  do lots of research upfront.  then, year after year, you have someone who has a connection with your children (which is key in getting photos during certain times in a child’s life like 2 – 3 when they likely won’t feel as comfortable with someone new).  so, just a thought…find someone you love and stick with them…it will be so much easier on you and then you’ll have a cohesive set of images for building that memory wall, too.  okay, off the photo soapbox :)  -m-

*i’m grateful that it’s definitely the opposite with mmp! 

i have been delighted by liz from the first moment i met her as a bridesmaid at a wedding so it was a sweet surprise to hear from her about *her* wedding – long on thoughtfulness about making the wedding about what was meaningful to them and short on fuss.  so it was an even bigger compliment that the time for photographs with the two of them was laidback and leisurely – in fact it was just the three of us, others headed off to the celebration and we traveled to ashland, the henry clay estate.   and remember that short wedding dress i’d been pining to photograph? well here was my first :)   -m-

in all the world,
there is no heart
for me like yours.
in all the world,
there is no love for
you like mine.  [maya angelou]

i love stamps…it’s like a little piece of art in the top corner of a letter so i’m always
excited when new fun ones come along.  won’t the ‘celebrate‘ one be perfect for the invites to your next bash?  (i typically buy on-line…it’s a $1 for delivery but it saves an errand to the post office to find that they might not even have it in stock) -m-

p.s. brides, hunting for ties in a particular color?  take a look at solidcolorneckties.com

i’ve got to get you caught up on some of the fun that’s been happening around here…so, here’s a session with a great family i’ve know for the past few years.  mom and dad are so cute (in fact, a couple years ago, jason and i went to a movie and these two were on a date several rows ahead of us with their arms around each other in such a sweet way i couldn’t bear to interrupt to say hello) but this is the shot that makes me wish for a sister growing up.  i’m sure we would have had our disagreements about clothes borrowed without permission but it’s so sweet to see what a deep friendship resides, too.  -m-

p.s. oh, and fortunately adulthood has brought two great sister-in-laws my way :)

family is the last and greatest discovery…it is our last miracle. [james mcbride]