Some Family Fun

I shot several family/children sessions this summer that I will be sharing with you.  I'm going back to July 5th and sharing this fun family session.  Thanks to my sister in law, Rachel Garrison for this referral.  The family member that set up the session is Rachel's neighbor.  The session took place at Lake Hartwell near Clemson, that is a much closer drive for me than it is for Rachel.  Plus I was able to spend time with my good friend at Lake Keowee on July 4th and then head down to Lake Hartwell on the 5th.  

We'll start with the whole family!

Here are all of the cousins

Here's cute little Leo : )

The night before all the girls had painted each other's nails patriotic - I loved it!

I loved the way we ended this session!  All the cousins jumped off the dock!  I was jealous!  First, I love jumping into lakes and second, I was sweating like crazy and would have loved to jump into the lake with all of my clothes on!

As someone who has a background in cheerleading and was a tumbler, I don't think I was ever brave enough to do backflips off a dock this high up!  I love his cousin's reaction on the dock as well!

P.S.  Don't you love how the family wore a combination of red, white, and blue!  I thought it was awesome!

Congratulations Brandi & Sean!

Last weekend I traveled down to the beautiful Greenville, SC for the beautiful, fun Southern wedding of Brandi and Sean!  I'll share more about Brandi and Sean when I blog their wedding, but for now enjoy her bridal portraits.  It pains me to say this, but her portraits were taken at Furman....if you're not familiar with SC colleges, Wofford (my wonderful alma mater) and Furman are rivals and are about 45 minutes apart.  Enjoy the beautiful Brandi!

And here's the one she chose for her portrait : )

Katie & Brady's Wedding

I love photographing weddings!  I feel like I say this for every wedding post I do, but it's true!  The excitement in the air on the day of wedding is awesome.  The smiles, laughs, happy tears, hugs, toasts, kisses, dancing...it all just gives me the warm fuzzies!  Katie and Brady's wedding was so sweet.  These two are high school sweethearts, and they way they looked at each other was so cute.  Get ready for a long post, I have a lot of details from the day to share with you.

The reception was held at the Morehead Inn in Charlotte, which means that's where Katie and her bridesmaids were getting ready.  

There were so many fun details to shoot around the grounds of the Inn. 

Katie had a reception dress she changed into after the first dance and toasts - isn't it awesome!  I'm glad she changed because she could move around the inn a lot better and it was a HOT day!

Katie's brother walked her down the aisle, and she gave him cufflinks as a gift (in hopes that he can wear these on his wedding day...whenever that happens) - very sweet!

Here are her killer shoes!  How any bride manages to wears high heels all day long is beyond me!  I wish I had feet that let me do this.  These shoes are so fun!  And they were fun to photograph.  On my wedding day, my wedding photographer had to photograph shoes that had mole skin applied to the insoles (I'm not lying about the bad feet!).

I loved the bridesmaid dresses!  

This is Meghan, one of Katie's sisters.  They were awesome.  Her sisters were a huge help on the day of her portrait, and fun to have around.

I've mentioned before that this couple attended both Rachel & Lincoln's wedding and Jacquelyn & Scotty's wedding last summer.  A lot of these groomsmen were either a part of Jacquelyn & Scotty's wedding party or attended.  They are a fun group!  And I was impressed with their willingness to get their picture taken.  We did several group shots as well as shot of each groomsman/usher with Brady!  

I love The Green in downtown Charlotte.  Katie and Brady got married at St. Peter's Catholic Church, which is right beside The Green.  We did the groomsmen pictures here and the after-wedding pictures here as well.  It's a beautiful area!

Traditionally at the Morehead Inn, the bride and groom are always announced into the reception by coming down their grand staircase.  It always makes for a beautiful picture.

They went right into their first dance after being introduced. 

Here's the dress change, it was a GREAT reception dress!  

The mother-son dance always gets me!  I always think of my husband, Sam, when this dance is done. If I'm photographing I can hold back tears, if I'm a guest at a wedding, throw in a glass of wine, and let the tears roll!

One of the guests of the groom surprised them with a horse-drawn carriage ride as their get-away ride!  Very cool!  The tree lined streets of the Myers Park area are gorgeous - thankfully there weren't a lot of cars out, so I could run out into the street for one last picture : )

Congratulations Katie and Brady!