Intern week #3

Ok....this is REALLY sad...but I finally am getting around to posting about my last interns from 3 weeks ago....as my new interns have been here for a day now! ha!
Definitely better late than never!! :)
I was SOOO privileged to have Laura Dart and Ana Rebeca Contreras as my last interns! They were both incredibly fun and we had THE best time together...learning photography stuff and business....but even better hanging out, doing photoshoots, and laughing until 3 in the morning!
Ana Rebeca was from Mexico and stayed with us for the 2 weeks....she was so fun to have around and was so easy going and great to talk to! Her dad just so happened to be a pastor too so we had a lot in common being PK's;) I LOVE HER! I KNOW that she'll dominate the Juarez, Mexico photography market! Check out her HOT blog that we worked a long time on! It's sooo her!
Laura Dart and I actually grew up together which is crazy....she contacted me several months ago but I wasn't sure if it was her! I responded back telling her that I knew a Laura Dart when I was little how weird! Well she wrote back saying that she WAS the Laura Dart...but since I was picking out only 7 interns she didn't want me just knowing her to sway my decision! ha! I loved working with an old friend and I'm so excited for her gift! We went down to her awesome place to stay over and did a sweeet shoot along Lake Michigan! I know her business is going to be incredible as she's just such a FUN and creative person! I love that she lives around here so that we can hang out all the time now! Check out her awesome blog here!!
Check out our shoot from in and around Laura's house!! Back to the 4th intern week! I promise to post more about these two faster than the last two! ha!!

My perfect memories.

Wow....I'm pretty sure this is close to the longest I've gone without doing a post! But I DO have wonderful excuses why which I'll post about here!
The past two weeks have been birthday central with tons of birthday parties between me and some friends, my sister, me...my sister and my family, me and my cousin, and me and my other cousin, cousins and friends!! HA! So pretty much a total of 5 birthday celebrations and a bunch of little ones mixed into that! I feel HIGHLY loved!
I started off my birthday with watching the sunrise which is my absolute favorite thing to do ever....then going back to sleep, hanging out with the family and then meeting up with my best friend for smoothies and bike shopping! That night my friend Beth threw me a little party with a couple of my close friends at Kona Grill which OF COURSE has Sushi!! I don't remember having that much fun in a looong time! :) A little bit later my whole family went out for Olivia and my birthday's to Macaroni grill where the waitress sang to us "Happy Birthday"...in Italian! It was so impressive! I want to learn!;)....AND I got Tiramisu in a Martini glass..what could get better than that!
A couple days later on the 17th my sister Oli turned the big 5! I can't believe it...but she is such a big girl now it's crazy! We celebrated by hanging out with our cousins, eating funfetti cupcakes, and going to the fair! My cousin Lauren and I are known to do INSANE things when we get together and this time when we passed by the fake tattoo stand at the fair we just couldn't resist! Then that night we headed out to see The Dark Knight....which of course was the last post;) My beautiful cousin Jessie came in town for a visit from Kansas City! I love her so much and even though she is the oldest of the Barlow Cousin Clan...which is really not that old;)....but acts like a teenager so we had SOO much fun together! Going downtown Chicago, eating Thai food, sleeping on the beach, and buying wedding magazines to each pick out our favorite things! Such a girly day! I love her so so much!
On Saturday I went on a crazy shopping spree for MYSELF buying furniture for my second office which is waaay upstairs in our attic...everything is WHITE and it was hard finding just the right things but I finally found it after going to every furniture store under the sun! West Elm is AMAZING! I love it! I'll maybe post pics of that sometime soon:)
Lastly this past Wednesday my cousin Lauren and I had our joint birthday party together at the Ravinia in Chicago! It is a huge outdoor amphitheater that has a huge lawn behind it and you bring blankets and picnic stuff....sit under the stars and listen to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra perform! It is HEAVEN!
The girls went allll out too with Brie cheese, fruit, meats, sparkling Lemonade, and of course my favorite Funfetti Cupcakes! This was pretty much the most perfect birthday EVER!
Thank you alll for everything! I LOVE YOU!
Here is a slideshow with my new favorite song by Family Force 5! Amazing! Check it out!


PS. Please no screencapping:)

From the Joker to a Pig....

I have had some of THE most incredible days the past week! I will post more about that tomorrow as it's been a complete non-stop birthday week! I never knew birthdays could be THIS fun! :)
Anyways....I always love to post about new movies that I see....and we are on a little movie role tonight!
Earllly this morning we got back from going to the opening show for The Dark Knight! That was the first time I had been to a midnight showing and I want to go to all of them now because it's just so much fun and makes the movie 10 times more fun when the audience is all sooooo excited and claps and cheers at different parts! That's the way it should be! :)
I went to the movie slightly scared that I was going to be totally freaked out because everyone was talking about how scarry the Joker would be!
It actually turned out to be SUCH an incredible movie and Heath Ledger played the Joker so incredibly well I was blown away! It was one of the most intense movies I've ever watched but so wonderfully done and I was on the edge of my seat the whole time!
I highly recommend it if you can handle scary looking people! :) But Christian Bale makes up for it in the beautiful people area to balance that out;) GO SEE IT!!!! I loved it even more because the whole thing was shot in my awesome city, Chicago, so I recognized everything! So fun!
Now we are going from popcorn and pizza to salmon pate and shrimp cocktail and watching one of my all time favorite movies Penelope! It is an incredible movie about a girl with a pig nose and yet has such a wonderful message! Loving who YOU are:)
I hope you all are doing wonderful and enjoying this beautiful summer! :)

Just a number? Not so much!

Well I just got back laaate last night from our camping adventure! First we headed out for 3 days for a camp out for my girls group from church! It turned out wonderful....despite the torrential rain both nights! It was such a fun, sun burned, emotional, crazy filled time! I guess the girls want to do this like 4 times a year now because we had so much fun! It actually turned out to be so jam packed that I didn't take any pictures....maybe because I didn't bring my camera....but I don't know!;)
After that trip we headed straight to my cousins for a mini camp out there and started it with a nice little 14 mile bike ride along the Fox river! Glorious! I have determined that I will LIVE outside someday....lol!
Anyways....onto the actual topic of the post.....21.
Yep. That is how old I will be in a little over an hour. I reallllly don't know what I think about it all! It is strangely weird, scary yet thrilling at the same time! I know it is a new season in my life that I am no longer a child whatsoever....according to the state that is;) But according to me.....I will always be a kid! I want to always see the best in life, to have fun in whatever situation, and to have not a care in the world! I feel like I grew up pretty quick being the oldest of 7, starting my own business at 17, and graduating early....but being an adult is pretty much just like it was for me being a child yet with all the capabilities to be able to reach the dreams that I had back then!! It's amazing!! I am so excited for this next phase it feels like a huge orchestra behind a curtain about the break open! YEAH!
I love you all!! Thank you for allll of your encouragement in watching me grow up the past years! :)
Here's to being a kid forever!

Joy & Jamie ::: Wedding

Ahhhh the wonderfulness(is that a word?) of shooting another photographers wedding! It was a complete dream come true! After being a photographer for a few years you start to learn the tricks of weddings and EXACTLY what you want and don't want for your own wedding! This was no exception for Joy! The day went off perfectly with so many incredible details that only a seasoned wedding vendor could pull off! Everything from the hotel room that we shot in to the time of day everything was planned and the amazing amount of time dedicated just for photography spoke Joy just as much as all the hot pink details throughout the wedding! It was incredible! The whole wedding was at Jamie's grandparents incredible house that I would buy in an instant....just picture Anthropologie in a California style house! Ah! I love it! :)
I am so so excited for Joy and Jamie! I couldn't get over how excited they were and am so excited for their future life together!! Have fun in Santa Barbara you two!! :)
Here are some pics....and the slideshow of course!







I'm heading out in about 5 hours for a 3 day and 1 day camping trips.... in a row!! Can't wait! I hope I'll have a tiny bit of internet though! Who knows! I love you all!

HAPPY 4TH of JULY! Yay!

I hope you all had a loud, fun, food filled, laughing, bright sunny, patriotic, crazy day!! I sure did! :)
I just got back and the fun of the last two month hasn't stopped as I just picked up my incredible friend Amy Conner from the airport this morning! She flew in from Nashville to shoot a wedding with me tomorrow and got the fulllllll effect of Barlowness coming to our huge 4th of July party! It was such a blast and it wouldn't be complete without an INSANE photoshoot with my cousin Lauren and I....but I will spare you most of the photos for this one:) I'm so excited that Amy is here! I met her back in the fall in Nashville and then met up with her last time I was in Nashville and we hung out for like 3 days straight! She is totally a kindred spirit and I love it! I'll post more about our adventures soon! :)

Ps...I do not know WHAT happened to my hair in these shots....obviously I had a run in with a socket or something!! lol!

Marlene & Jeremy ::: Wedding

YAY!!! This wedding I knew was going to be one of the highlights of my year! Ever since I met and did Marlene and Jeremy's engagement shoot last year I was counting down the days! I knew it was going to be amazing just by the length of the 5 or 6 hour engagement session! ha! We just kept hanging out and did the same thing for the wedding too! Marlene was so incredible and even got us a hotel room for two nights so that we could come and party with them! I love it!
The wedding day I am pretty much still in awe about! It was incredible, hilarious, emotional, rainy, sunny, and everything else wonderful in between!
There were several miracles wrapped into the day also which always adds a nice touch to everything! From it being forcasted for big storms and the sun coming out right before the ceremony to Marlene saying while it was about to rain and things were looking a little grim that she was still waiting for God to whisper something to her and all of a sudden on the radio Alicia Keys belts out, "Everything's going to be alright!" Amazing! :)
These two totally deserved it too! They are some of the most generous and down to earth people and yet SOOO funny! I think we were laughing close to the whole time!
I think one of the sweetest parts of the night was when Jeremy's sister got up to do the toast and was talking about how they were just waiting and waiting for Jeremy to get married and were telling him to ease up on his expectations but he wouldn't and finally found Marlene who is absolutely perfect for him! I am so excited about their new future together!! I love you both sooo much!! :)






Here is the slideshow!! The wedding was all at the GORGEOUS Patrick Haley Mansion in Joliet! Check it out!