Cake and other sweet things.

Yesterday, we got back from a SERIOUSLY seriously unreal couple of days in Joliet for a wedding that I was looking forward to since last year! I'll post more about that tomorrow.... but tonight here is just a little sample of how hilarious the time was!
We got back from the wedding around 12:30am and started getting our PJ's on but then decided to hang out with my friend Josh Smith and his guys..... instead of wearing normal clothes...you can see in the slideshow what we decided to wear. We were only going to go down to the hotel lobby for 10 minutes max...but that 10 minutes definitely turned into an hour and a half of eating cake that, Marlene, the bride sent us home with(it accidently got dropped on the way home so we decided to make the best of it and feed it to each other!)....after awhile she even joined in with us to hang out!! I LOVED this weekend and the people. I definitely can't believe this is my job! Oh...and also we WERE NOT drunk here....just waaaay slap happy from shooting for 10 hours and the fact that it was 2am in the morning!
Also, the song we choose for this we thought was brilliant since it is WAY overplayed and now quite cheesy;)
This if you were wondering is why the internships are SO fun!

Also, here is a monotone video to balance out the last show to explain the exhaustion afterwards;)

I love you all!!! Time for bed before a FUN day tomorrow and end of internship camp out tomorrow night!! Can't wait!!

Shannon & Mike ::: Wedding

Only a couple hours before shooting my next wedding...I figured it is time to post the slideshow from my wedding on Saturday! haha! Last weekend was Shannon and Mike's gorgeous wedding! It seriously couldn't have been a more perfect day! The wedding was at the HUGE Calvary Church in Naperville and the reception nearby at a beautiful golf club!
Shooting everyone afterwards was one of the most fun times! I felt like I was on a fashion shoot! And the group was up for anything! I am so excited for Shannon and Mike and couldn't be more honored to be a part of their beautiful day! To see more about how amazing and HOT Shannon and Mike are check out their engagement shoot a couple posts below!
I love you guys!!!
Check out the slideshow!!!!

Sorry I'm not posting actual pictures in this post as I don't have my regular computer with me right now!
I love you all!! I'm hoping to sleep for the next 12 hours!! ha! :)

OUCH.....and screaming bloody murder.

Sooooo, this morning I was SO proud of myself! My intern Laura and I headed out to run a couple miles around my favorite lake near us! I was getting into a nice pace and rounded a corner near all these trees when all of a sudden a saw this crazy black thing dart right out of the corner of my eye and then all of a sudden flew RIGHT onto my head pulled my hair and flew away!!! I was screaming so loud Laura who was up ahead thought I fell into the lake or something! I was SO freaked out that a huge bird just land on my head and I could feel the feet on my head and everything! Ahh!! As I was finishing the run everytime I would run past that area I would run with my hands on top of my head.
Finally when I got home I was just figuring that the crazy bird flew into my hair because maybe my hair looked like a birds nest or something! ha!
After telling my dad though...he started laughing because apparently JUST last night in the national news on Drudge Report there was a warning to Chicagoans to watch out for male blackbirds who are protecting their domain! And that they were attacking people who got near the nest! Apparently mostly bikers...but I guess I was running fast enough that it was the speed of a bike;) HA! SO random....
I hope you are all doing amazing!! The internship is going AMAZING and as always I LOVE my new interns!! We have a lot of hilarious pics to post...coming up soon!

Shannon & Mike ::: Engagement

Last Christmastime, I was at party for a group that I've been a part of since I was probably 14 called The Fellowship....basically just a get together that we would have about once a month for about 10 of us(homeschoolers) to hang out! It was so much fun and now that we are all older and in school, jobs, and getting married it's more like a once or twice a year occasion!
Shortly after I joined the group another girl Shannon joined and was a wonderful addition to the group... so fun, SUPER smart, and a wonderful friend! After awhile though she moved down to Florida with her family for a contract job that her dad had down there....that was only supposed to last a couple months....after more than a couple month we figured she just decided to move down there or something! Well....apparently the job lasted longer than expected, which was perfect for Mike.....Shannon's math tutor....who after hitting it off during the training then they started dating and are now engaged! On that night last December, Shannon and I were talking for awhile and finally I noticed a nice sized rock on her finger and TOTALLY freaked out!! I'm so super excited for her!!! Her and Mike are more than incredibly perfect for each other and I know they will have little kids that are little Einsteins right when they are born ! I can't wait for their wedding on Saturday!!! Yay!!




Soooo the next internship started today....and it's been THE perfect day! So laid back and relaxing...I think I always say that at the beginning of an internship...I guess I shouldn't speak until next week! ha!! Love you all!

Joy & Jamie ::: Engagement

The day before my friend Beth's wedding I did a SWEET photoshoot for another photographer Joy Jensen! So two days in a row I got to shoot other photographers! It is such an honor to be asked to shoot another photographers wedding because they KNOW what they are looking for! It's pretty exciting yet nerve wracking at the same time! :) I met Joy a couple years back out in California for a conference we were both at and then saw each other in the airport on the way back! We were about to be able to sit next to each other but last minute they were overbooked so I stayed behind....we were able to get together after that for lunch one day and totally hit it off! I'm so incredibly proud of Joy and what she has accomplished in her business! She's an amazing photographer so check out her work! Enter: Jamie. Joy emailed me a couple months ago letting me know she had just gotten engaged to Jamie, a fellow photographer that she used to work for had been trying to match up her nephew with Joy and finally everything just clicked with lots and lots of planes being delayed or canceled so they HAD to spend time together! I love it!! Even God was trying to get them together! haha! :) They are so perfect for each other and I'm SUPER excited for their life together!
Their shoot was on a gorgeous Saturday morning, just walking alllll around Chicago. And I swear I could shoot all around Chicago for 50 years and still never shoot in the same place! ha! Not that I'm ever going to do that! :) I seriously can't wait for their wedding at the beginning of July! Check out their adorable pics!

My translator.

The last night of the internship we were all pretty slap happy and depite the fact that I had to wake up at 4:30am in the morning we still stayed up until about 1:30am and litterally finished the last wrap up session of the internship at 1 in the morning! Yes, crazy I know....but that's just how I roll! :)
Anyways, in our slaphappiness we made about 158 videos(give or take a few) of ourselves talking to each other, doing news broadcasts, and telling inside jokes...none of which made the final cut for the blog....unless you wanted to watch it while trying to drift off to sleep! Here is the first one that pretty much summed up the night. This is Danette interpreting how I talk.

Yay! I am finally really getting caught up with work! It's wonderful and I think I'm pretty much getting 1 week of work done in one day! I'm excited!

Recap of life in general over the past two weeks.

I'm sorry everyone! I keep promising that I am going to post about my interns from the past two weeks and we keep having WAY too much fun that we are LIVING instead of blogging...rather I am living rather than blogging....since getting Cassie and Danette into blogging they have been WAY better than me! And I'm SUPER exited about their new blogs that we worked on last week!
We have had a nonstop, fun, relaxing, sleepless, sleeping in, foodfest, photography filled, laughing our heads off time!
Danette and Cassie are SO much fun! And I don't want them to leave! Not meeting the interns before hand is a little interesting to start off with and then jumping in living together for two straight weeks we BETTER get along well! Besides the few wedgies that were given I think everything turned out amazing! LOL!These two are incredible photographers and I'm so proud of what they've accomplished even in the past two weeks!
We've laughed, we've cryed, we've hugged, we've smacked, we've woken up at insane times, and gone to bed at even more insane times....but all in all I have two amazing new friends that I hope I'll be able to share life with more....beyond these last two weeks!Check both of their HOT new blogs - CASSIE - DANETTE - that they've been working on! I'm sooo proud of them....here are some pictures from the past two weeks of fun(that they by the way took! I told them that the reason I have interns is to document my life...lol!)! We went to Chicago about 3 times, the zoo, a wedding, the Four seasons hotel, Sushi(complete with a VERY early birthday cake for me), the Naverville riverwalk, the Hancock building, the Trump buiding, the Sears tower, Millenium Park(where we listened to the Chicago Childrens Choir AND saw the famous David Beckstead doing a photoshoot for a workshop he was running!), went to the famous Giordano's. And that was just in a day and a half! The rest of the two weeks have been just as equally amazing! I love you all! Next interns are heading in on Wednesday and Thursday! Yay!
Here is a little sequence to describe Cassie's vs. Danette's impression of Sushi! And btw...Danette is not sticking Sushi in her mouth but a big glop of WASABI! Ahh!!

Misty & Kourtney ::: Engagement

I shot Misty and Kourtney's engagement shoot a couple weeks ago and am finally getting caught up to post it! Yay! This was the first time I had met them and I seriously loved them from the start! We did the shoot at Navy Pier and even though I've shot there many times it's so huge that we were able to shoot at completely different spots than I had shot at before which is the bonus of living in a big city! They decided to head to the BIG ferris wheel that I had never been on but always wanted to! Of course a more than perfect Saturday afternoon in a ferris wheel and then walking along the beach couldn't have turned out better! I was squeeling pretty much the whole time in how they were working the camera! They totally could be models and I loved how Kourtney had it down and was art directing the shoot! I should probably hire him! haha! Anyways....I'm so excited for these two and loved being able to shoot their incredible love for each other!
Here are the pics and slideshow!

Maureen & Matt's Wedding!

Saturday's wedding we headed downtown Chicago for a incredible wedding! It was for Maureen and Matt who are two of the most adventurous and down to earth people I know! When I met for their client meeting months ago we seriously sat and talked for like 2 hours about life, travel, and their incredible wedding! They are some of the most well versed people I know when it comes to seeing the world! They've traveled basically around the world in the 9 years that they've been together including my most wanted to visit place, Australia and New Zealand....not only visited but lived there for several months just to have fun! While I'm typing this they are on their honeymoon in Europe and Africa! That is the way to live!
There wedding turned out wonderful and was held at a huge church in Chicago that they last minute found after there first church almost burned down! There reception was at one of the coolest places called Galleria Marchetti! The awesome part was that it was pouring during the ceremony and then during pictures it stopped and then started up right after we were done shooting....and then found out(from Danette's mom in New Mexico!) after the wedding that there was actually a tornado pretty close to us! Yikes! But thankfully God kept us safe!
Maureen and Matt's reception was one of the most personal, musical, and family oriented receptions I've been at! There were tons of fun toasts and even my favorite Irish Dancing!! At the end of the night we totally felt like part of the family that we just hung out and danced! It was perfect! Overall the wedding said "Maureen and Matt" so wonderfully!! I loved it!
Here are the pics!

The cure for the procrastinating blogger.

Hey you all!! Here is a (cheesy) video to explain everything that has been going on! We just shot a SUPER cool wedding yesterday that I'll be posting about tomorrow! I just found out that we were shooting and everything while insane tornados were swirling all over the place just south of us in Chicago! Crazy!

(sidenote: I just realized I was actually supposed to be babysitting Jules and I totally left her on the table eating string chesse...what a great responsible sister I am! lol!)
I absolutely LOVE my two new interns! Danette and Cassie! They are so super sweet and HILARIOUS! Although....who of my interns aren't?? I'm always blessed with the best people to work with!! :) I'll be posting more in depth about them soon...once we get their blogs up and running!

Here is a shot of the three of us at the zoo the other day! So fun!
**On the lookout right now for more tornados....I wish I had a dog named Toto! :)**

Proud....and getting VERY old...

Well it was bound to happen....I am now not the only child in my family cross over the finish line of high school! My brother, Andrew, just last week graduated from high school! I'm so very proud of him....while starting to feel really old all of a sudden! This is pretty weird! He was home schooled his whole life like I was....but somehow had the magic touch and my parents sent him and my sister to a SUPER private school for his last year! (I begged my parents all 3 years of highschool to go to "regular" school...to no avail[but I consider myself VERY lucky now seeing all the homework he had to go through!!])
Anyways, Andrew was part of the first graduating class of the school ever! So there was a HUGE group of 5. lol! I'm sure it worked out nice in the training aspect during the year being focused more on than just one in 500 students! :)
I definitely started getting teary eyed a couple times during the graduation....and at the end....I looked UP to Andrew and said, "Congratulations on becoming a big boy now!" It's weird being a little but big sister!
Here are some pics from the night!




We did a fun shoot a couple weeks ago with Andrew that I'll post about soon!:) Congratulations Andrew!! I'm so proud of you and CAN'T WAIT to see what God has planned for your BRIGHT future! :)

I love you all!!! The interns and I are having SUCH a blast! I'll post about it soon! Hopefully I'll get caught up SOMETIME soon!

Perfect.

This must have been the weekend to shoot photographers! On Saturday, I shot an engagement session for one of my photographer friends from around the area....then yesterday shot my darling friend Beth's wedding!
Beth and I met years ago in highschool when we went to a youth event together...we met very briefly but reconnected while being bridesmaids and planning my best friends Joy's wedding! We met to talk over wedding plans at first but after the wedding didn't want to stop hanging out! So we met every couple weeks for dinner and to catch up with life....then I heard about her upcoming wedding and offered to shoot it! A couple weeks later...she made the big decision to dive into her passion....photography and join in as an intern! She was such a wonderful add on to the "SAP" crew and I miss having her as an intern as she is now training up her own and has a successful photography business! I'm SO incredibly proud of her and blessed by her encouraging friendship and deep talks:)
Beth is probably one of the most exuberant personality filled people I know! We are always laughing or sharing heart to heart! So of course with that....in steps Nick who is so grounded and even keeled which together make the perfect match!
The wedding was incredible and spoke Beth's personality SO much with vibrant color everywhere including her pink shoes! I loved it!! It couldn't have said her better!
Everything took place at the Hotel Baker in St. Charles which is right on a gorgeous river and the weather couldn't have been better! So all around it was a perfect day with a perfect couple with a beautiful future together!!!
I love you both soooo much!

I don't think I've ever seen a more striking bride! Beth was glowing...plus wearing the most perfect simple formfitting dress really helped the effect! And her mom wore the BEST mother of the bride dress ever...in yellow of course!

I always love the kiss RIGHT after the ceremony and they've walked out! So precious! Nick looks pretty awesome too!

I love when the bridal party and family gathers around and prays right before the ceremony...makes for some emotional times.....even for the photographer;)
Beth couldn't stop smiling during the ceremony! I love it!

These are all pretty self explanatory in how gorgeous they are!
And here is the slideshow from the day!!! Check it out! This song is my new FAVORITE song and I've been saving it for a special slideshow for it to go with! So this one of course was chosen;)

Also, check out Morgan Matters and Steve Chellappa's blogs for more pictures!! They were so fun to shoot with! :)