Sharing My Shows

This weekend was amazing!!!  I had such a wonderful time at the Georgia Bridal Show!  This was my second show I participated in.   Last year was a learning experience for sure, so this year I “amped” my booth up a bit.  I was happy to have booked a few weddings last year from my booth- this year I hope I am able to book a few more.

I made a lot of changes to how I had my booth last year to now.  A fellow photographer I met last year at the show saw me again this year and told me “how great my booth looked.”  Well mine was very minimal compared to his, but I appreciated the compliment; because I worked hard on the changes I made.  I hope that at my next show, I’ll be able to add even more- I already have some super fun ideas!

Below are pictures from my 2011 show and then my 2012 show! See the difference?

2011

2012

Me at my booth after a long day of meeting with brides.  All smiles!

Showing Off for My Show

So I am pretty much ready for my show!  I have few minor details I have to work through, but other than that, I am done.  I cannot wait for next Sunday and the opportunity to meet potential brides!  I am so thankful for the help I will be receiving from my wonderful husband (to help me set up) and two of my amazing brides who will help me out as well!

Wanna see some of the stuff I will have for my booth?  I will for sure be taking pictures and posting them after the show.

This is all of the pictures and stuff I will be using at my show.    There were so many more that I wanted to blow up and print.  Good thing I will have my computer there scrolling through pictures I could not print and want to share!

Lindsay and Kyle’s picture is the large canvas I blew up.  LOVE it! 

I am so excited about this idea I came up with to display more of my pictures!  These are a combination of new ones from 2011 and older ones from 2009 and 2010.  This took forever to set up with the hooks I had to place on the back of each picture- and I have to take it apart to transport and put back together at the show!

I made these postcards last year for my bridal show and had enough left over for this year’s show.  I am excited to send these along with the brides after they visit my booth!

Prepping for my Bridal Show

I am so thrilled for the opportunity to participate in my second bridal show coming up in just a few weeks on January 22 at the Cobb Galleria Center.  I participated with the Georgia Bridal Show last year, but attended at the Gwinnett Civic Center.  I am excited to be able to stay a little closer to home this year at the Cobb Galleria.  Come by and visit me if you don’t have anything going on!  It’s $10 to get in.  I’ll be there from 12-5pm.

I have had my friends and Facebook followers voting all day on what pictures I should print off for my show.  I will be doing a few “top winners” on canvas prints and others on cork-board prints.  Check out the pictures here and vote on Facebook to help me choose what pictures to use!

I am also really excited for some of the new stuff I got today for my booth.  It’s gonna be a BIG step up from last year’s booth.  I booked a few weddings last year from the show and hope to be able to do the same again this year.

For now, my living room has kind of exploded with my stuff for the show.  Some of it’s from last year, but much of this is new stuff.  I cannot wait to order my prints from 2011 for the show!

Last year, I had to beg, borrow, and steal (okay, not steal) these for my show.  I went to Hobby Lobby today and got these half off.  I love Hobby Lobby! 

My “good works” book I used last year.  My 2009-2010 brides left me some great love last year to talk about how much they loved my work.

Just a fun added touch.   In the larger one, I’ll probably put some of my post cards for potential clients to take.

I am excited about this area rug that I purchased for the booth.  It’ll add to the personal feel of the booth as opposed to having that concrete floor to look at.

I am excited about this tri-panel that I purchased.  I put a few pictures on it to show how I plan on using it at the show.  You can get the “picture” of how it will look with all of my soon-to-be printed pictures from 2011.  SOOOOOO excited!!!!! 

Here’s to 2011

Well, last day of the year and it’s time to recap the 2011 year.  This year was the most incredible for Making Memories Photography.  I can only thank God for all of the success for my business.

I also have to say a BIG thank you to everyone who has supported me over the years by following my Facebook, blog, website, and using me for your photography needs.  You have no idea how much your kind words about my pictures and work mean to me.  Without your support, my business would be nothing.

Top 5 Major highlights of the year:

1. I took portrait shots for an author (for the biography portion) of a fiction book that will be coming out in 2012.
2. I shot my first destination beach wedding (I’d LOVE to do it again if anyone out there has a beach wedding!!)
3. I did pictures for an up and coming Christian artist.  The pictures I took were used for her album cover as well as for promotional advertising for her music.
4.  I participated in my first bridal show last January (and will be attending another one this up and coming January at the Cobb Galleria on January 22)
5. 2011 has been the biggest year thus far for my business with 10 weddings and countless other sessions!!!

It’s always so hard for a photographer to choose favorite images to post on a blog from a session- it’s even harder to narrow down those sessions to only one or two pictures!  I went through my sessions this year and attempted to pick my favorites from each; but this was a hard task.  Sometimes there were so many great ones it was hard to just pick one or two, so I know many of my favorites will be left out of my 2011 recap, but if I did as many images as I wanted, you all would be here reading my post until the end of 2012!  (Okay, maybe not that long, but you get my drift.)

Enjoy and please feel free to leave me some blog love.  I always enjoy hearing from you!  Hope your 2011 was amazing and that your 2012 is even better!  God bless!

I started the year out with a great start in taking pictures for a fellow teacher friend of mine, Andrea Vode. I met with the Vode family in early January to take family and pregnancy pictures of Andrea.  This is little Paige who was very excited to meet her little brother, Cooper, in just a month.

The first time I met Keri and Mike was at their E-session in early February.  It was a damp and dreary day when we started pictures, but the sun came out for a beautiful setting at the Old Paper Mill in Marietta.  This was such a funny session- because it had rained earlier in the day, the ground was super wet and muddy and low-and-behold, I slipped right in the mud holding both of my cameras!  Luckily I was skilled enough to land on my butt and keep my cameras dry; but whew was I MESSY after that!

I met with Chandler later in February to take some fun portrait pictures up in Alpharetta!  This was a second attempt at some “senior” pictures.

I met back up with the adorable Vode family in early March, a few weeks after adorable Cooper was born.  See, you can tell how excited Paige was to have a little brother!  This sweet picture just melts my heart!

After attending Camp Twitch and Shout’s Denim and Pearls event in February, I fell in love with the King Plow Arts Center in downtown.  I had to use this location again for an engagement session, so when Kristen and Brad said they were up for anything, I suggested here as one of the spots.  I just love this picture!

Megan graduated in the spring from UGA (go Dawgs!)  We met just a few weeks before graduation to take some super fun “senior” pictures.  Megan is now a super awesome kindergarten teacher in Savannah.  I know her kids are lucky to have her as a teacher!

The adorable May family met with me to take pictures in April this year.  Riley is such an adorable little girl.  I hope that we can get together again this year for another set of fun pictures!

Ben and Brittany are good friends of mine from my small group at my church.  They wanted a fun “day after/trash the dress” photo session in their wedding attire- more casual though.  We had such a fun time at Georgia Tech taking pictures.  This was my absolute favorite of the day and one of my favorites of 2011!

I met with the Transit small group from Northpoint Community Church this spring.  They had been together since the 6th grade as a small group and this was their last year.  Natalie, their small group leader and fellow teacher, wanted to do something fun and special for them to celebrate their years together.  This was such a fun session!

Amanda met me at the bridal show I participated in last year.  She booked me for her October wedding and we met in May to take engagement pictures.  We went to downtown to Woodruff Park and Centennial Olympic Park.  What a fun morning of pics!

Despite having 10 weddings this year, Leia and Berkeley’s end-of-May wedding was the first one of the year for me!  This was a very special wedding to me, because Leia has been a good friend of mine since we met in the 8th grade.  They got married at the beautiful Carl House in Auburn, GA.  I’d love to go back and take pictures there.

Cynthia and Eric met with me in late May for a fun “day after/trash the dress” wedding session.  We met in the cute down of Senoia; and I just LOVE how they incorporated her fathers’ restored car from 1928!  It was so great for the pictures!

Ashley and Brett’s engagement session in June was my favorite of the year.  This was such a fun and unique experience getting to take pictures at Turner Field.  I was thrilled when Ashley loved the idea per my suggestion.  I could repost the entire session, I loved it that much.  If you somehow missed out of these amazing pictures, check the rest out here.

Hania and Alan’s wedding was very dear to my heart- and this picture just makes me think of a fairy tale land with how beautiful it is. I met this wonderful couple in September 2010 for their engagement session, and I have become fast friends with this couple.  I have loved getting to know them over the past year and a half!  I love it when my clients become my friends!  So much fun!

While this is not a picture of Lindsay and Kyle on their wedding day, this was by far my favorite picture of their Fort Walton beach wedding weekend.  This picture came from their “trash-the-dress” session the next morning.  We had a TON of fun laying in the sand, getting in the ocean, and playing around in the pool.  What a fun picture to take away from their wedding!

Rebecca and Michael had so many amazing pictures that I had a hard time picking my favorite.  I had a set of three or four I wanted to post here, but I narrowed it down to this one. I love the water fall and the trees in this beautiful picture.

Maddie was so cute at her one year old pictures with her family in Acworth!

Beautiful setting on the Savannah River for Kristen and Brad’s wedding in Augusta.  I’d love to go back and take pictures at this location again!

Cute Frusthick twins!  Max and and Noah were the sweetest little boys!

Keri and Mike’s wedding was so much fun and had so many pictures to choose from as well.  Like Rebecca and Michael’s wedding, I probably could have chosen another 4 or 5 to represent their wedding.  I just love this picture at the Emory Conference Center!

Super sweet picture of William holding hands with his daddy!

Ashley and Brett’s beautiful lake-side wedding ceremony.  They got married down in Jackson, GA at Ashley’s parents lake place.  What a gorgeous location for a wedding!

From Carisa Turner’s photo shoot.  She is the up-and-coming Christian artist I mentioned in my highlights of 2011. You can check out her website here.  I am so excited to see what God does through this woman and her lyrics.

I’ve always wanted to incorporate balloons into a photo session, so these were perfect for Danielle and Mike’s fun E-session!  Too bad they blew away before we really got the chance to use them in the pictures; but I had fun getting to use them briefly in the pictures! Cannot wait until their February 2012 wedding- my first of 2012! 

In early October, I had the chance to be apart of Taryn and Eddie’s vow renewal ceremony.  Taryn was a friend from back in middle and high school, so it was fun to get to see her again and be apart of such a sweet memory for this family!

Megan again!  Shortly after I did Megan’s UGA senior pictures, she got engaged to Kevin!  They traveled up to NYC for a set of engagement pictures, but also wanted a set closer to home (and not raining like it was in NYC); so I was excited when I thought of a pumpkin patch E-session.  This was such a fun morning with so many creative spots for me to play with at Uncle Bob’s Pumpkin Patch in Newnan!

Jenny Lee and Brett got married the afternoon that I did Megan and Kevin’s engagement pictures.  This was a fun filled day of pictures for me.  Jenny Lee and Brett’s wedding was one of my favorite venues of 2011.  It was at the Columbus Botanical Gardens and such a beautiful and unique location.  I would love the opportunity to shoot there again!  I went a little crazy on the detail shots for this wedding!  I couldn’t help it- they had TONS of  cute little touches to their wedding!

I love the Thaxton family!  Jennifer “Rosie” has been a dear friend of mine from back in the day when she was my Disciple Now leader in high school.  Both going to Berry, but never at the same time, we still kept in touch over the years.  Avery, their daughter, is one of the cutest little girls I’ve ever met- and that says a lot if you know how obsessed I am with my nieces.

At the end of October, Amanda and Keith were my last wedding of 2011.  Their Polo Country Club wedding in Cumming was my first golf club wedding.  Not sure where we could walk to take pictures, we ended up in the way of some of the golfers and got yelled at a little bit… oops!  Haha.  What a fun day and a beautiful location for a wedding!

This is one of my all time favorite places to take pictures at Berry College.  Having gone there four different times for sessions this fall, I made use of this gorgeous location over and over again.  This one from Julie and Travis’ E-session caught my eye and I had to post it as my favorite from their session.  Looking forward to their wedding in June!

Perfect weekend in 2011 for these colors?  The last weekend in October.  This was one of my favorites for sure from Melanie and Kyle’s E-session.  I LOVE these bright red and orange colors in this picture.  I am a little biased seeing as I got married in the fall with similar colors in my wedding pictures; but hey, you can’t argue with beautiful fall leaves!

Pamela and Rickey’s E-session at Berry was so much fun as well.  They were my last session at Berry for the year.  I had such an amazing time getting to know this wonderful couple.  I cannot wait for their March wedding!

The Beanblossom family and their story warms my heart when I think of them.  Melissa and Ashley adopted their two sons this year.  What an amazing expansion to their family!

Kendall is a great photographer friend of mine.  I loved the opportunity to take pictures for her and her family in November.  What a cute family! 

Laura and Jaime were such a fun couple to take pictures for.  I absolutely loved this couple.  I am unable to do their wedding, but I was very blessed to have gotten to take pictures for this very sweet couple!

Elizabeth rocked it out in her senior picture session.  We had a lot of fun on a rainy December morning taking pictures.

Catching Up in 2011

I still haven’t posted a handful of sessions from late October and November!  What is wrong with me?!  How do I let the time get by without posting these pictures on my blog?  My goal for next year is to have previews or full posts up within two-three weeks of the session.  I’m great about posting them on my Facebook page, but always leave my poor blog to get the posts much later.  Let’s see how well I do in 2012 with this!

Here are some of the pictures from Amanda and Keith’s wedding!

Always my favorite when couples stuff each others faces

Wow- I cannot get over how awesome this picture is.  How amazing it is that Amanda’s grandmother is looking right at the camera in this shot!?

I met Laura and Jaime the day before Thanksgiving for their super fun Stone Mountain E-session. I couldn’t stop posting on my Facebook, so check them out there as well- I have WAY more on my page!  We had such a fun morning take pictures first at Laura’s house and then traveling to Stone Mountain.

How cute!

Blingin’ In the New Year

Okay, so I have to admit how excited I was when I came up with the title to this blog post.  2011 has been an amazing year for my business and me.  I honestly don’t know where the time has gone; and I’m pretty sure if you look back to this time last year, somewhere I said the same thing!  Haha.

One of the things I pride myself on is the fact that I think I come up with pretty creative detail shots.  One of my favorite things from an engagement session or wedding is to take the ring(s) and come up with creative shots with them.  It’s normally one of the very first things I do when I show up for a wedding- sometimes I miss out on ring shots at weddings, but I try to make sure to get a shot of them before the ceremony so that the couple gets a cool and unique shot of their rings.

I also just love seeing the variety of rings that couples have for each other.  Ashley and Keri most definitely had the most unique rings of 2011.

I had a lot of fun taking pictures of the many different rings throughout the 2011 season.  I cannot wait to see what kinds of rings my clients have in 2012!  Have fun blingin’ in the New Year with this post!

I’m already kind of cheating with this one, because it is the engagement ring of Leia’s.  I did their E-session last fall in 2010.  BUT I did their wedding this year, so I can kind of count this one.  I am including this b/c I didn’t do a “blingin’ in the new year” post last year and I absolutely LOVED this picture.

Keri’s SUPER cool engagement ring. 

I didn’t even know that Kristen liked ivy until I had taken this shot.  Turned out perfect I guess! 

I found this way cool Master lock at the location Leia was getting her hair done for her wedding and thought it would make for a super cool shot.
Can you find the rings in this picture?  I normally make them the key focus, but thought this was a cool whatever-it-was to take the pictures on it.Very simple shot of Lindsay and Kyle’s wedding rings on their wedding program, but the clarity of their rings and how they were laid out made this picture one of my 2011 favorite bling shots.Sometimes I have the hubbies hold the rings in their hands.  I love the symbolism it holds for their marriage.  Michael is showing off the amazing detail of Rebecca’s engagement ring.  Love the hearts in her ring.If you follow my work regularly, you can already tell which session this one was from!  Ashley’s blue sapphire engagement ring matched perfectly with all of the blue at Turner Field! (along with Brett’s Braves bracelet.)Keri and Mike’s wedding bands.  I love how Keri’s wedding band interlocked with her engagement ring.
Ashley and Brett’s wedding bands in her beautiful flowers In the fall, I especially like to pick up random leaves and take ring pictures with them.  Most of the time, these end up with E-sessions.Megan and Kevin’s pumpkin patch E-session!  Loved this shot.  Had a hard time finding a pumpkin small enough because of her tiny fingers  (I think she said she wears a 3.75?)Love the sunflowers from Jenny-Lee and Brett’s wedding!

Can anyone tell where the rings are?

From Melanie and Kyle’s Berry fall E-session.  Can’t wait to play with that ring next fall at their wedding in Frost Chapel!Pretty ring from Pamela and Rickey’s E-sessionPlaying with those leaves again The pro shop at the Polo Country Club for Amanda and Keith’s wedding thought it an odd request to borrow a golf ball with the logo on it, but when I came back and showed them this picture on my camera, they understood…

Random rusted jar in the back of Laura’s yard- yes please for a cool shot!

Again, with the leaves… I can’t help myself in the fall!

It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

Christmas has thrown up in my living room!  I have spread out all over the floor a ton of Christmas crafts that I have been working on.  My poor husband is so patient with me, because for the past week and a half (and more of December) I have had Christmas decorations and stuff to make decorations all over the floor.  I have done a good job and put it into a neat stack each night, but each day, Christmas seems to have thrown up again in my living room!  I’ll be ready for a larger place (one day) so I can have a room to edit and do my crafts, but for now, I get to do it all in the living room!

I LOVE Christmas and everything about the month of December!  I love celebrating the birth of my Savior.  I love spending time with family and friends.  I love Christmas parties.  I love giving and making gifts.  I have always enjoyed doing crafts (even as a little kid), so this year and last year I made a ton of Christmasy gifts for friends and family.  I have been displaying a lot of this stuff on my personal Facebook page, but I needed to share some of it to my loyal clients who follow me and I don’t know personally!

Merry Christmas everyone!!!!

Last year, I was hardcore about making Christmas ornaments.  I have made a few mini ones so far.  I plan on making plenty more before Christmas.

Wreath I have currently hanging outside of our door at our apartment.

The next three are ones I’ve made for friends and people who have requested to purchase one.  If you are interested in purchasing a wreath, let me know!  I’d love to make one for you!

Thankful Beyond Thankful

2011 has been such a fast year!  I feel like I blinked and it was gone!  I have had an amazing year as a teacher and a photographer.  I thank my God daily for the many blessings He has bestowed on my life, including my amazing and supportive husband, my teaching job, my wonderful church family, and my photography business.

I have a lot to be thankful for this year with my photography business.  Being a “part-time” photographer, I stayed very busy this year with 10 weddings and countless engagement and family sessions.  God is so good to have blessed me and my business.  I know that only through Him could my business have flourished to what it is today and where it will continue to go.

I am already looking forward to an amazing 2012 with a handful of weddings booked already and another couple in the works.  However many I end up with next year, I thank my God for this business and how much He has blessed me with it.

I got two emails today from recent clients just thanking me so much for their pictures and how happy they were with them.  These are the moments as a photographer that I enjoy the most- knowing that I took pictures for someone and their joy came from the talent that my God has given me.

Thank you to my faithful clients and your ever wonderful kind words.  Thank you to my husband for your amazing support in my business.  Thank you to my friends and family for your loyalty over the years in following my work and encouraging me.  Thank you to my God for the talents you have given me and for the success of my business!

Melanie and Kyle are Engaged!

I met with Melanie and Kyle towards the end of October for their Berry engagement session.  They were the fourth set of pictures I’d done at Berry in October and the 5th time I’d been up there in 6 weeks!  WOW!  Talk about some Berry lovin!  (You’ve probably noticed on my blog recently that there are a ton of Berry pictures as well!)

Melanie and Kyle are getting married next fall (my favorite time of the year!) so it’ll be fun to incorporate the fall colors into their Frost Chapel wedding as well!  Congrats to Melanie and Kyle and cannot wait till your wedding next fall.  If 2011 is any indication as to how fast the year will fly by, your wedding will be here before we know it!!

We took a handful of pictures at Oak Hill- the Berry Museum- before we headed over to the campus to take pictures.  This spot was PERFECT for the colors!!!  LOVE IT!

After Oak Hill, we headed to one of my favorite spots on campus!

Berry flip flops!

This is one of my favorite spots up at Frost!  I love the silhouettes that are created with this door and the lighting!

Julie and Travis are Engaged (and super cute together!)

I met with Julie and Travis a few weeks ago to take engagement pictures for them at the beautiful Berry College! Being a beautiful mid-October day, it couldn’t have been a more perfect day with the weather- it was so beautiful! We had a great time re-visiting the campus and showing Travis places he had never been before. I am looking forward to their fun wedding next June in Elijay! Can’t wait!!!

Love all of these pictures from the Old Gate of Opportunity.  One of my favorite places on campus to take pictures and these are some of my favorites from the day!

So fun!  What a great couple!