Congratulations Amy & Howard!

I have never seen a more romantic first dance than Amy and Howard's first dance in the rain.

It was such a beautiful analogy of their life and how I have seen Amy continue to praise God in the storms of her life from the time I first met her when shooting her sister Angie's wedding. After having lost her first husband and father of her little girls in a plane accident two years ago, God orchestrated another accident, Amy twisting her ankle, to take her into Howard's doctor's office where they would meet. They fell head over heels for each other quickly, and I was thrilled to be asked to document their special wedding day. I was truly celebrating from behind my camera of God's faithfulness in bringing Amy a new love and new father for her girls. After her engagement session, she left a comment on my blog that has truly stuck with me ever since:


"I have learned that when pain carves a deep place in your heart, God's love can run deeper. 
I marvel everyday at how Howard is the puzzle piece that fits my past with my future. "

I have especially come to appreciate that quote now having met the love of my life too, and what a beautiful testimony Amy's life leaves in the lives of others.

At the wedding, it was exciting too to meet Angie's new little girl, Anna. Having been with Angie and her husband Adam from the beginning of their love on their wedding day, it so sweet to now take pictures of the little bundle of love in her cute pink frilly dress.

So many great photos from the day, here are my faves and the slideshow below! They had a beautiful wedding at the Prince of Peace Catholic Church in St. Augustine and the reception following at the gorgeous Casa Monica Hotel. Thanks too to Terri Bennett of Destination Planning for helping the show to run smoothly!



I thought this was a sweet shot of Amy's Monique Lhuillier dress next to Howard's high school photo.


Gorgeous Stuart Weitzman shoes!




Amy's daughter, Gabby, helped dress her mom for her big day.














I thought this was the cutest picture ever of Amy's neices! I love how cute they are in the midst of the chaos in getting Amy ready to walk down the aisle.


This is the second cutest picture ever!


Having lost her father along with her first husband in the same accident, Amy's brother, Ryan, walked her down the aisle.




This is Angie's sweet little girl on her daddy's lap!




I love how vibrant this cross is in downtown St. Augustine!


Such juicy colors! Fun fact, all her flowers were organic and included some fresh herbs too.












Despite how shy Howard was in front of the camera, they still pulled off the supermodel look!


I love how their love just pours out of them like teenagers all over again!






The best first dance ever! And yes, I was soaking wet with them capturing these shots in the downpour! The things you do for a killer shot!


Amy's other daughter, Gentry!






They are so cute the way they are always in their own little world.

Frustrations.

So quickly life can go from la te da wonderful to arg frustrating.

Yesterday, I was about to throw my computer out the window.

Yet, I'm learning God always has a purpose in the midst of frustrations.

I had sat down at the computer ready for a long day of catching up on editing. I've been shooting so much in the heat of wedding season, on top of dealing with hard drives crashing (but thankfully I didn't lose anything before I had time to back things up!), and trying to balance all the unexpected things that keep coming up to problem solve in the day in and day out of running a business. With all this said, editing has not been as productive as I would have liked.

(For my brides, this next part breaks out in to photographer's foreign language.)

So, I started working on a new wedding but realized, with my version of Adobe CS2, I couldn't read my second shooter's files shot with her Canon 40D. I tried to scour around adobe.com for an updated plug in, but all they offered for the 40D was an update for CS3. I know, I know, I should have upgraded to CS3 a long time ago, but, well, that's the procrastinating side of me, always the last to update technology.

Somehow in the midst of my trying to install other plug-ins, I somehow deleted a plug-in where I could no longer view the raw files from my 5D in CS2! Backup, I could view them, but not edit them. This was the point where I almost threw my computer out the window!

After wasting a few hours trying to figure it out and download other updates and what not, I finally gave in and went to the Apple store to buy CS3. Turns out though, not only did I have to get CS3, but I had to update to Leopard in order to use CS3. Great, one more thing to update and take up time when I NEED TO BE EDITING!

But oh my gosh............ now that everything is installed and updated and I've taken a test drive with it, I am now KICKING myself for not upgrading to CS3 earlier! Bridge goes LIGHTNING FAST compared to how slow it would take to load my gazillion Raw files before in CS2! And I've heard Bridge CS3 can edit JPEGs like Raw files, so I'm probably going to switch over to now for the next wedding to start saving memory space on my harddrives. Also, in my first attempts to use Bridge CS3, I'm excited to discover so many more cool ways that my editing can totally be enhanced and vibrant through its new features!

Point of the story, looking back now, I realize, God had to frustrate me enough in order to get me into action to upgrade to that something better He wanted to give me to now make my editing a breeze and so much faster!

So many ways that applies to everyday life. Isn't it crazy how we settle for ordinary so often when God always has so much better in store? Why is it we resist change so much and give into frustrations when all He asks is for us to go with the flow as He refines us into a reflection of His image?

To my brides, thank you for your patience in getting your images while I work through all these computer headaches. Computers, you can't live with them, you can't live without them.

Rob & Claudette's Album!

I love love love when I get new albums in the mail. As a photographer, it's exciting to see all my work come together in one place to tell the love story of my couple's wedding day. As a guest at the event, it's exciting to relive the event all over again through the flush mount pages. As a new friend of the bride and groom, it's exciting to know I am giving them a moment in history that they will cherish for their lifetime and generations beyond.

Rob and Claudette had a beautiful beach wedding at Serenata Beach Club. Their album came in the other day and I just had to show it off!

Amy & Joe are engaged!

One thing I love the most about meeting my new couples is hearing their love stories. I am always fascinated at how God orchestrates the meeting of two people. Amy and Joe have such a cute story! Through their love of music, Amy attended a concert for the country band, Little Big Town. Joe was working behind the scenes touring with the band, and Amy spotted him from afar. The two exchanged email addresses and began getting to know each other before Amy eventually moved to Nashville to be with the man she knew she was going to marry.

The two were supposed to be engaged earlier on, but an emergency came along a few months back for Amy's sweet little newborn niece, Allison, requiring a liver transplant. Amy became involved in helping to raise money to save Allison's life, sacrificing her own wedding plans, but soon after everything went ok with Allison, Joe finally popped the question and now they are able to continue on with planning their big day.

From day one emailing with Amy, her beautiful faith has glowed through her words and I've enjoyed following her blog about Allison and her sweet story about the power of prayer. It truly is a miracle story about God's goodness! Check out her blog and leave her some love!

Amy and Joe were such a supermodel couple with Amy's super high cheetah heels and I had fun capturing their love all over St. Augustine! Here are my fave photos and the slideshow below!






I LOVE when my brides dress up with fun accessories like Amy's hot heels!






I love the symbolism with the old couple holding hands in the background!