love this little red head and her parents too.  her mom is my one of my besties from college.  i had such a great time hanging out with their family and playing with madeleine.

madeleine and her monkey.

it was HOT up on the high line in NYC, but it was a great place to meet ami + jay for their loveshoot.  i love their love story.  ami told a friend to find her a nice indian boy to marry and years later that friend did!  she introduced ami and jay and now they are planning a big indian wedding next summer.  sometimes you just have to put your wishes out there and they have a way of coming true.

i remember shooting courtney and jeff’s wedding like it was yesterday.  it seems like it was not that long ago, but now they are celebrating their second kiddo’s first birthday.  happy birthday henry!

who could resist snapping a few shots of henry’s sister sam?  henry looks like the boy version of his big sis.  they are two seriously cute kids!

i love this little family and their americana photoshoot.  mateo celebrated his big 01 this july!

welcome to the world harlem!  a big congrats to carmen, kirk and big brother klei as they welcome their new little man to the world.

this is one of my all time favorite newborn shots!!

mommy getting squished in a family hug….i love it!

just for fun, this last shot is a photo from klei’s newborn shoot 5 years ago.  they look so much alike!

i love shooting bridal portraits!  the only bad part is that you can’t share them until after the wedding.  jenna and jac tied the knot last saturday at CAM in raliegh.  while she and jac are lounging by the pool in mexico recovering from the festivities i thought i would share some of my favorite images of her from her bridal portrait shoot at the raleigh museum of art.

jennifer and ben’s wedding was the perfect combo of sweet, stylish and elegant.  they said “i do” at the gorgeous duke chapel.  makeup for your day did a great job making jen and her girls look fabulous!  i fell in love with jennifer’s lovely vintage feeling dress the moment i saw it!

we had beautiful light after the ceremony for some great portraits with the new mr. and mrs. before we headed to the renaissance hotel for a fab party put together by erin mclean events.

planning:  erin mclean events

ceremony:  duke chapel

recpetion site:  renaissance hotel in north hills

videography:  heart stone films

dj:  joe bunn

cake:  cinda’s creative cakes

flowers:  the english garden

hair and make-up:  makeup for your day

transportation:  carolina livery

this is one of the busiest times of the year for me.  i love my kids, but i will be soooo happy when everyone is back in school next week and we are all back to a normal schedule.  i have 2 weddings to edit, 8 portrait sessions to edit, a commercial shoot to prep for, digital files to ship, albums to ship, print orders to fulfill and about 5 loads of laundry and a messy house to tolerate while trying to juggle a 3 year old and an 8 year old for the next few days.  i have decided that my kids brains will not turn completely to mush if i let them watch two movies in one day and that my house will not instantaneously combust if i do not get to vacuum the golden retriever dust bunnies or to tackle the mountain of laundry for another few days.  : )

let’s just say today was the perfect day to get an email like this:

we photographed liz’s sister, erin’s, wedding a few years ago and have had the opportunity to see their little family grow from two to four when we see their family for portraits each year.   we were thrilled when we found out we were going to get to work with erin’s sister, liz, on her big day!

liz and dave are such a great couple!  they are so sweet with each other.  they said “i do” at in intimate ceremony in erin’s back yard in pinehurst.

Wedding day coordinator: Crystal Blue of Southern Pines
Flowers: Sabrina Andisco   the flowers were amazing!  sabrina is liz’s friend.  what a good skill to have in a friend when you are getting married!
Wedding party flowers:  Crystal Blue
Make-up artist: Heather Anderson  heather is also a family friend.  liz has connections!
Hair: Denise from Beautopia Salon
Cake: Acorn Bakery
Caterer- Sweet Feed
Dress:  Elizabeth Fillmore
Shoes:Aldo
DJ: DGEntertainment 

sister love.

dave and his sister.

the first look.  we love it when we get to do a first look because we have so much more time to create beautiful photos of the bride and groom!  liz and dave were hesitant at first about doing a first look, but due to the late ceremony time they agreed to a first look.  i wanted to share a bit from an email from liz that she sent right after the wedding.  she said, “The best decision we made was doing the pictures first.”  check out the gorgeous shots of this super-cute couple that we were able to get during the first look.

erin + mitch’s little guys.  how cute are they?!

the first dance.

i absolutely love that klei showed up for carmen’s maternity shoot in his pirate costume.  : )  and i love that carmen is the kind of mom that embraces her son’s creativity.

carmen looks absolutely beautiful as she and her sweet family gets ready to welcome another baby to the world!