Extreme Fakeover!

Well...I just found out what I would do if I wasn't doing photography!! NOOO don't worry I'm definitely not thinking of quitting photography..but I AM pretty proud of myself in my newfound talent of being a stylist! LOL! I guess it just comes from playing dress up and doing makeup when I was little! One of the things I used to want to be when I was little was a movie director because I would always put on plays and get everyone dressed up and even make their costumes so that experience came in handy today when Natalie had hero day at school and had to dress up like one of her hero's! I suggested Jackie Kennedy because she is SOOO much fun to dress up like and just so all around cool! So here is the transformation that we worked this morning!!! I think she pretty much looks exactly like Jackie!! And no that's not a wig!! I'm just good like that!;) HAHA!

Nashville Wedding!

On Saturday I shot a beautiful wedding in Nashville with the awesome Krystal Mann! I met Krystal back in July when we both shot a wedding down in Nashville with DJ and we've stayed in touch since! She invited me to shoot this wedding with her and I'm so glad I was able to go!! :)

The couple Che Che and Michael were wonderful and you could tell so sincerely in love! I loved how Michael really looked after Che Che throughout the whole day! The wedding was at this awesome chapel at Vanderbilt University and then the reception was at the super cool Belle Mead Plantation! The day was a perfect fall day and couldn't be more gorgeous! Here is the slide show of their day!!

Things are going great around here!! I dove right back in today with my 5:30AMness so that I can start hacking away at all my projects so don't worry if I haven't responded to things I am still alive!! haha!

My sad neglected blog...

I'm sorry I have ignored you for so long! LOL!
I just got back yesterday from the longest trip I have been on! A total of 16 days! But let me tell you I needed it! I got so refreshed, have new ideas, connections, and friends that it made for the perfect trip! I went to LA, Santa Barbara, Beverly Hills, Franklin, Nashville and back to Franklin!

Being in Tennessee was so much fun because like I said before it's like my second home! I shot a beautiful wedding on Saturday which I'll post about tomorrow, and was able hang out with some of my best friends and family so it was just perfect!
Right now I'm sitting in front of my desk FULL of unopened mail and 100s of emails and to do's to respond to so I'm a little scatterbrained but I'm SO glad to be back home! To see my family was one of the best parts of the whole trip! I really love them so much and even though my sister JuliAnna woke me up this morning at 5am it's still so good to be back!:) I love you all!!

Growing up and growing pains...

The past month has just been out of this world insane but incredible at the same time...of course that makes sense at 1 in the morning when I'm writing this! lol! Anyways I have in the past couple weeks REALLY been having to grow up which is always hard because I want to be like Peter Pan and never grow up...especially since I still feel like I'm 12! hehe! Making giant decisions on my own and having to figure things out by myself is weird.
I feel like I always jump back and forth never being able to make up my mind...like for instance..today I went to look at houses and had a meeting with a mortgage broker having to act older than I am but then tonight am sitting in a college dorm with my best friend Sarah and her friends playing the wii, watching Highschool Musical, listening to Hanson and just vegging till all hours of the night! I just don't know how I feel about this! I guess I will just come to a comfortable adult version of the kid that I still am??
Totally just rambling tonight but some interesting things that I've been thinking about! I think I've come to the decision though that I will still never really grow up no matter how old I get or the things I have to do!! :)

My second home!

I'm sitting on a bathroom floor right now in a big warehouse watching my cousin get her haircut...my cousins are heading out tonight for their tour with Toby Mac which is sooo exciting so they are all getting ready and of course it's perfect timing that I'm down here at the same time! I have to soak up all the time I can get with them! :)
I'm finally getting caught up with everything and downloading all my emails since Friday so I have ALOT to get caught up on! Ahh!
Santa Barbara was just simply amazing!! It was the perfect little vacation and DJ was apologizing for it being so crazy with construction being done at his house but coming from a family of 9 that was NOTHING! hehehe! We went swimming on Saturday and he dared me to jump off the balcony above the pool so not to be a wimp...I tried it and I was SOOOO freaked out but I did it and am so proud of myself now! :)
On Sunday my friend Bob Davis and I headed back down to LA to shoot the Fox Network Emmy after party in Beverly Hills! Bob invited me to come and shoot and of course I couldn't turn that down! It was an incredible experience, with Mindy Weiss(the coordinator for Eva Longoria's wedding) planning the event, Wolfgang Puck creating the food, and TONS of stars to shoot it was a photographers dream! Here's a shot of me with the famous shootsac!! :)
Well more fun to come I'll try to update more often! If I can just find some wireless!

No internet...

It is WONDERFUL not having internet sometimes! You can really just take a step back and live the real life! I still don't have internet on my computer because I'm in Nashville staying at my grandparents house but will try to find some this afternoon so I can post about the amazing past couple days! I love you all!!

Calm in the middle of the storm...

Ahh...Oh man! I'm in Santa Barbara right now sitting on a hammock overlooking the city and the ocean! It's TOTALLY heaven! I'm at my friend DJ's house for a couple days and he just bought this incredible house up on the mountain! It's unreal! We've just been chilling all day which is completely what I needed! I've been pushing it way too hard the past month and still have more to come so this nice mini vacation in the middle is perfect!! My friend Bob Davis is also staying here and he is an incredible photographer in Chicago too! We're all heading out tonight to meet some friends for dinner which should be wonderful because I alot of my friend live here!!
I'm sorry if I haven't responded to emails or phone calls I've been trying to get caught up today!! :)
I love you all!!
PS..Partnercon was AMAZING!! I had such an incredible time and learned so much! It was MUCH needed and at the perfect time too!!
Pss..My friend Nathan Holritz took the picture above last week when he was here!

Davenport wedding!!

On Sunday Morgan, Kristen and I shot Dana and Thomas's wedding! They had it at the INCREDIBLE Rockefeller Chapel which probably the most gorgeous church I've seen! And it was HUGE! The reception was at the Sheraton that looked out at the Chicago River and the absolutely perfect day!! But enough about where it was! This wedding was soooo fun! As I've said in a post before I love to dance but am not very good at it! That was definitely not the case at this wedding! At the reception practically everyone was on the dance floor and really cutting it up! I loved it!! They can REALLY move! I loved during the whole day how personal and laid back it was too! Dana and her bridesmaids choreographed a dance for the reception that was so perfect! :)
But all that aside, I loved watching Dana and Thomas together! Of course they're so in love...but they truly are so perfect for each other in every way and balance out each other amazingly! I know they're going to make a huge impact in this world!!
Here is they're slideshow!!! Enjoy!! :)

I'm finally out in LA now and it's been amazing so far!! I love hanging out here! I think I was pushing it too hard though because I kinda got sick this morning...:( I think it was my body telling me to rest for once!! LOL! But thankfully I'm feeling better now and ready to go full force into the next two days conference:) I'm excited! Plus..I'm accomplishing one of my dreamse tonight..I've always wanted to sleep under the stars so my new friend Sara and I are at my friend Shyla's house sleeping out on her deck! It's sooooo perfect! I could TOTALLLY live like this!! :)

The time of my life!!

Wow! These have definitely been THE days! The past week has been absolutely incredible and some of the most amazing times and yet absolutely some of the most emotionally and physically tiring times!
Kristen just finished her last week here and Morgan started her first! We packed probably about a months worth of work into one week!! Yikes! But it was fun!! There are soooo many things that we did and such fun pics from them that I had to do a little week highlight slideshow!
On Tuesday we went to the gym, then shopping, then to a Barlowgirl cd signing! Then on Thursday we all headed downtown to have our Rotic night!...Romantic - the man = Rotic! LOL! It was one of the most amazing nights ever! We ate in style at the top of the Hancock building then did mini photoshoots around the city including a public bathroom!! hahaha! I think we spent about half an hour in there shooting! We can shoot ANYWHERE! On the way back the car overheated so we had to stop for awhile and got sooooo bored at the gas station that we did a fun photoshoot there too! Here is the incredible slidshow of our week;)

I'm about to leave in a couple hours for LA and Nashville and I'll be gone for 2 weeks which I am SOOOOOO excited about!! I really need a vacation so this should be a blast!
PS...I'll post the slideshow from the wedding we shot last night, tonight:)

Numbers, numbers, everywhere!

Today EVERYONE is in!! Morgan Matters, Kristen Snyder, and Brianna Coleman! We worked the whole morning on finances and some tax stuff which was FUN!! LOL! We have only 3 more days of training then I'm heading out for 2 weeks so my mind is spinning with everything that needs to get done but tonight should be nice all of us girls plus my other intern Beth are getting decked out and heading downtown for a fancy dinner and photoshoot! I'm soooo excited! I'm so blessed to be working with these amazing girls who are so incredibly talented! They are going to have the coolest photography businesses ever! I'm so excited to see where they go!!

Erin and John!!

Yesterday, Kristen, Morgan and I shot Erin and John's INCREDIBLE wedding!! We seriously had such a blast! I definitely shot more pictures than I have in a LONG time and in a shorter amount of time too..That's pretty bad! lol! I just couldn't help it though...Erin and John are like models and their bridal party made me laugh so hard I could hardly shoot!! They also threw a super fun reception that we definitely didn't want to leave at the end because it totally reminded me of my families weddings with about 50,000 family members everywhere! Such a blast!!
Check out their slideshow here!

I KNOW it's labor day today and I shouldn't be working but Morgan Matters just started her internship today and it's Kristen's last week so we had to taken advantage of this "labor" day!! :) haha!

My main squeeze..

My dad just posted this AMAZING video on his blog!! Everyone said I would cry but I didn't think I would...well I DID!! It's extremely powerful! Watch it!...plus it has on of my favorites songs by Lifehouse! Incredible! :)



I know some of you aren't Christians and stuff but God has such a huge part in my life that sometimes I just have to say how amazing he is!!!!! :)
I've realized that I can have everything going on and be so extremely busy but if I don't keep Him as my center and main focus everything else doesn't matter and becomes lifeless! He is my source and he seriously amazes me everyday!
He's really been helping me this past week because by now I think I would be dead!! lol! I've had seriously the busiest month of my life and I think I said that in July but August became even more busy and I think September will be even more!! But thankfully I absolutely LOVE what I do and am getting so much fulfillment out of it! This week I have 2 of my interns from out of town and a new possible Sarah Anne Photography worker all coming in so it's going to be FUN but non stop! I'll tell more about all of this exciting stuff after I sleep a little bit! HAHA!!