Ryley and Chrystal: Save the Date!

Got to spend an afternoon recently in beautiful St. Augustine with Ryley and Chrystal for their engagement session. I'll be photographing these two as they tie the knot by the beach this coming summer, and I'm so excited that I get to be with them.









Ryley and Chrystal were high school sweethearts, and they've managed to stick together through thick and thin, including Ryley's military career and the challenges of a long distance relationship. Even though I am just getting to know them, I can tell how very much in love they are. I married my high school sweetheart too, so anytime I meet a couple like them, it makes me so happy.









We spent a great afternoon in the Oldest City, and these two are troopers--it was an awful lot of walking, distance, and dodging tourists and school groups as we worked, and they looked beautiful and relaxed from the start to the finish of their session.









We're counting the days until Ryley and Chrystal say I do! Getting to photograph the wedding of a couple as cool, funny, kind, and gorgeous as these two is going to be a delight and an honor.

Congrats, Chrystal and Ryley...thank you for putting your trust in me to capture your engagement portraits and your wedding day!

Danielle and Luke: a Most Magical Save the Date Session!

Luke and Danielle first met when they were both team members working on the Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey attraction at Universal Orlando. Fast forward to today, when they're happily engaged and busy planning for their 2019 wedding! It always tickles my fancy when I find a couple who met and fell in love while working in the theme parks; I don't know why, but it warms my heart when I hear stories like theirs, and when Danielle contacted me and asked if we could shoot their engagement portraits in the Wizarding World, I gave her an enthusiastic YES! So, last week, we went back to Hogwarts, hitting a few of Danielle and Luke's favorite spots in and around castle and the Hogsmeade high street, and we made some save the date session magic.






Danielle brought her wand along for the day, and I couldn't resist the chance to take a cool shot of her beautiful ring with the wand and her Alex and Ani "Always" bangle bracelet. Ring shots are always tricky, but I love how this one came out!


After a few more stops and a quick wardrobe change, we headed over to Universal Studios for a couple photos in some of their other favorite places around the resort.




I'm loving how the first set from Luke and Danielle's portraits came out and can't wait to show off the rest. To the happy couple, thank you for allowing me to help you with such a fun and magical session! Congrats and love to you both!

Emerging from Hibernation

Okay, so, the title of this blog isn't totally accurate. I've definitely not been hibernating--I wish, because then maybe I would have caught up on sleep. But alas, winter was still crazy busy, and as is apparently my yearly tradition, I neglected keeping fresh entries going here for the blog. Sigh. At least I'm consistent.





Hi! Happy Spring, y'all! Life is rolling merrily along and no matter how much I think January and February will be "quieter" months, I'm always wrong. (It's not a bad thing and I'm of course not complaining.)





Now, the weather is warming up and the busy spring season is getting ready to start in earnest. We are ready to go and have a ton of stuff on deck for the spring and summer. We're about to kick off our first contest of 2017, gearing up for all our spring weddings, maternity, newborns, and family sessions, and organizing our first open water mermaid sessions, which I'm incredibly excited (and a little nervous) for.





We hope you're having a good spring so far and can't wait to see everyone's smiling faces for your sessions and events. For now, enjoy some of our favorite images from the past couple of months!

Brandon and Amanda: Save the Date

On a windy, blustery day out at Daytona Beach, Brandon and Amanda (and their adorable dog Zoe) met up with me for a super fun, very silly, incredibly sweet engagement session. These two are clearly in love, never take themselves too seriously, and obviously are completely perfect for each other. We had planned to head over to Ponce Inlet but the weather was being persnickety, so we stuck close to home instead, and we had a blast!

When we encountered a playground during the session, Amanda and Brandon couldn't resist the chance to monkey around.

These two are huge football fans, and before donning the jerseys of their favorite teams, they decided to put on each other's jerseys for a funny photo. Check out that cringe action!

Team pride took a silly jog to the left as Brandon decided he wasn't satisfied with simply holding up his terrible towel...instead, he chose to take some epic victory laps around the park behind Amanda, leaving her laughing and shaking her head.

After playing outside for a bit, we headed back to Amanda's parents' adorable beach house for some portraits with Zoe, their dog, who was a trooper and gave us plenty of sweet doggy smiles. She was so patient as she wore her cute little sign; it's a practice run for the wedding next spring, when Zoe will walk down the aisle to announce Amanda's arrival before she walks down the aisle to Brandon.

Amanda's engagement ring is a gorgeous sapphire; Brandon proposed after a night of theater at the Athens Theater in Deland.

We spent some time goofing around in the lovely tropical backyard,

More team pride!

And more shenanigans!

It's clear to see that Brandon and Amanda are a fun-loving pair of people who are so well suited for each other We're sure their wedding next spring is going to a gorgeous day full of lots of laughter and probably a handful of practical jokes...they're getting married on April Fool's Day, after all.

Congrats and love to this awesome couple...we can't wait for your wedding!

Allen and Rachel

Spent an afternoon out at Walt Disney World recently with the adorable Allen and Rachel, who are getting married this March in Ocala.

Allen proposed to Rachel at the All Star Music Resort at Disney, so it felt fitting that we head out there to commemorate this with their engagement portraits, starting off right where he asked that very important question. We moved on from there to the Magic Kingdom, where we spent the rest of their session playing in the park, laughing way more than should be allowed, and capturing some great, funny, sweet moments between the two of them.

I am so excited for their spring wedding, and I wanted to share a few of my faves from their engagement session. Spending time with these two made me smile from ear to ear; you can tell that they're so completely perfect for each other. Only 55 days until they say I do...I'm so excited to get to be with them at the wedding to photograph their big day!







Allen proposed to Rachel right here near the Mary Poppins poster under the marquee. So sweet.





Rachel's cute sign that she scored at Cracker Barrel specifically for the engagement session. I love when couples add cool stuff of their own to their sessions.





Rachel "flying" a la Titanic on the front of the Liberty Belle. Allen was so proud...



...but Allen got his revenge moments later when he decided to do an impromptu impression of Ariel in Fantasyland.





I can't wait for the wedding! Congratulations, Allen and Rachel!