I spent half of June in Delaware for a class & while I was there I drove down to the Capital for some good old fashioned sight-seeing.  I hadn’t been to DC since junior high (except when I was in my college band and marched in the 1997 inaugural parade for President Clinton). I spent almost a full day in the National Mall and another day at Arlington Cemetery.  A short walk from there is Marine Corp Memorial (Iwo Jima statue).  By the way, if you’re in the area, I highly recommend the DC by Foot walking tour. It’s free but your tour guide will surely earn a gracious tip.

On Jun 22 at the Hilton Atlanta, I photographed the wedding of a very special couple, Shannon & Jaron, who had to change their date at the last minute due to an illness that caused one of them to be hospitalized.  It was truly a blessing to see a full recovery and watch them be married a month after their original date. Although the wedding was not as extravagant as originally planned, the love and happiness was overwhelming.  The change in plans did allow us time to take the couple out to Piedmont Park for portraits in the rain!

I recently photographed a wedding with friend and fellow photographer, Virginia Hall of Moment by Moment.  It was at one of my favorite venues, the Emory Conference Center, which has a beautiful outdoor lawn for a ceremony.  The bride wore a colorful, lavendar & blue wedding gown and her mom quilted a beautiful chuppah with a wedding couple embroidered underneath it.  I loved their simple, yet elegant centerpieces - alternating orchards (my favorite) and hydrangeas in decorative clay pots. As always, a few of my favorite photos…

Taryn and Matt had a beautiful wedding ceremony at St Luke’s Presbyterian Church in Dunwoody with the reception following at the Pavillion at East Cobb.  No detail was overlooked. There was georgeous display of flowers, favors and a candy bar, sure to please the kid in everyone (or at least me).  The band, Moxie, kept the crowd on the dance floor.  Aside from the great wedding photography they’ll get,  Mike Henry from Wedding Storytellers is sure to produce a fantastic wedding video.  Below are some highlights from the day.

I blogged Yolanda & Trey’s funky Little Five Points engagement portraits a few months ago. Well they were married in a beautiful wedding ceremony in Savannah’s historic Chatham Square.  It was a beautiful day for an outdoor wedding.  Their reception was held just a few blocks away at Savannah Station.  This was a really fun wedding and hard to narrow down my favorite 15 photos.  I loved how the girls were jamming to old skool hip hop like Doug E Fresh while getting ready. (BTW, Mighty 808 is a great online radio for that kind of music).  And it was great how the guys spontaneously started singing the My Girl, complete with Temptations choreography during their portraits.  

My husband accompanied me and we celebrated our 8 year wedding anniversary in Savannah and Daufuskie Island. I’ll post more about that later.

I just wanted to share my annual birthday decor - a button I received from the my elementary school in the 5th grade.  All the kids got them but I’m pretty sure I’m the only one who stills wears it.

A funny thing happens when a wedding photographer walks into a room with a camera and points it at someone…they transition into someone else! Not literally, of course, but many brides and grooms do tend to have the notion that wedding images should look a certain way. Because of that, they attempt to re-create the poses, expressions, settings, etc. that they’ve seen in other’s wedding images. That’s a huge mistake because doing so is unnatural, which will make your wedding images look unnatural. You don’t want that, do you? Then take a minute to think look over these tips for making sure that you look like yourselves, and not an awkward version of yourselves, on your wedding day:

Show & Tell – For most couples, wedding photography is the third most important part of the wedding planning—right behind the wedding attire and the sites for the ceremony / reception. And just like the attire and locations, brides and grooms always prefer specific types of wedding images because they’ve seen images that they liked. That’s fine. Tell your photographer the type of mood or feeling that you want your wedding images to convey based on what you’ve seen; show examples if you have them. BUT, do keep in mind that the photographer cannot (and should not) promise to literally re-create what you show or tell them. Every wedding is unique so doing so would not be feasible.

Relax – On your wedding day, focus on enjoying the event and those who’ve come to celebrate with you. That means you’ll have to relax and forget that the photographer is even there. Don’t worry about sitting “just right,” making sure the backdrop is perfect, or keeping a plastic smile on your face. Just be yourself…and let the wedding photographer do the rest.

Trust – The final key to making sure you get phenomenal wedding images is to trust your wedding photographer. Remember: You chose him or her for a reason. You know what kind of work he or she does and you’ve communicated what you want. That means that by the wedding day, your job is done. Trust that your wedding photographer will keep all that you’ve requested in mind as he or she shoots your wedding. They’ll certainly attempt to capture the types of images that you want but will definitely get many more that you couldn’t have imagined.

Wedding images should never be identical to what you’ve seen. Otherwise, you’d essentially be re-creating someone else’s wedding! Your wedding images should capture your wedding in motion, your experiences. If you keep that in mind, promise to be yourself, and trust in your photographer, you’ll end up with images that truly represent you and your entire wedding day beautifully.

I met Susan and Murry at historic Roswell Square last weekend for their engagement portrait session.  We also headed down the hill to take a few shots at the nearby bridge at Roswell Mill.  It’s a very popular spot and we ran into several nature photographers & even another wedding couple from Ivy Hall.  Susan & Murry are a really nice couple and very photogenic.  Here are few of my favorite photos from the shoot.

I had a great time last weekend hanging out in L5P with Yolanda and Trey for their engagement portraits.  Old school music, vintage clothes and sandwiches are favorites for this couple.  Here are a few portraits from their session, including one from my new favorite portrait spot.

Mar 14 and 15 will be remembered as a day of destruction for most Atlantans with tornados and thunderstorms. But everything was perfect for Tasha and Barry who were married in Marietta on Mar 15.  Wedding coordinator and florist Brenda Wright of Flowers of Blessings made sure they had a beautiful wedding that went off without a hitch. All the guests were entertained as DJ “E” The Music Master opened the dance floor to New Edition, Tasha’s favorite group.