4.5 months.

As we drove to the California desert to see family, Taylor Swift sang exactly what I was feeling at that moment.

"You are the best thing... that's ever been.. miiiiiiine."

I held his hand from the passenger seat and just stared. And he caught me and looked me with that sweet smile that makes me giddy. I turned away and looked at the road, and he looked back at the road. Then I looked at him again, and he caught me again. He never just lets me stare at him and take in all those details that I love so much about him. He always knows when I'm looking and can't help but look too and make me laugh. Every. Time.

Finally I looked away and back at the road with him but got that nervous giddy feeling in my stomach. It just kind of hit me that in 4.5 months, Stephen and I will be married. Like, married married. Husband and wife. Partners for life. Growing old together. Having a family and little "mini-mes" of us we joke about having one day. And I still can't believe some days that he's actually... mine.

The funny part is that I wasn't supposed to be here in California right now. I was supposed to be in Florida getting excited about him coming out for my birthday and Christmas. But the night before the night before Thanksgiving I got a call from my mom. She and my grandparents were both horribly sick and having just got over a bad cold myself, we agreed it would be best not to be around them. When I told Stephen, he begged for an hour for me to come spend Thanksgiving with his family. But that meant buying a ticket right then and getting on a plane the next morning.... and hello, was I really THAT spontaneous? I didn't think so.

Until I hung up the phone.

And in my analytical way I overanalyzed all the reasons why I wasn't that spontaneous enough to just change plans last minute.

But then I realized, I hated that. I wanted to be spontaneous.

So I bought a plane ticket and headed to the airport the next morning. On the way, he called and asked what I had decided, and for the first time ever, I lied to him. I told him I decided to drive to my grandparents about 6 hours away. That was the perfect amount of time to distract him until I landed in San Diego. Once the plane landed I called him immediately as soon as it let me have service.

"I have a confession to make," I said on the phone when he answered.
"What??" He asked.
"I've been lying to you all day," I admitted.
"What do you mean?"
"I'm not at my grandparents, SURPRISE, I'm at the San Diego airport. Come pick me up."
"You're still lying," he said in shock.
"NO, I'm NOT," I argued.
"You're lying. Stop lying. Are you really here? You can't be here, you're lying. Wait, are you REALLY HERE?" he said started to get excited.
"YES, come pick me up!"
"I'm on my way, but I think you're still lying."

And oh my gosh, I hated lying to him all day leading up to it. I so never want to do that again!

So now I'm here in San Diego and we've been going on all these double dates with his friends and hanging out with his family. These are a few shots one of his friends took of us at dinner and tagged us in on Facebook, and I just look at it and smile. I smile because I see in the photo how happy he makes me. And how proud I am that, as Taylor Swift would say, he's the best thing that's ever been mine.

Black Friday Sale!

In this season of thanks...

I've always had a certain problem that I blame on my "only child syndrome."

Problem is, I have a hard time letting go and asking for help with the simple things in life.

Because I never had to share with siblings, I'm just used to doing everything on my own. If my mom wanted my room clean, I couldn't delegate that task to another sibling, I had to do it my own. And living on my own the past 5 years, I've just learned to survive by doing everything myself.

Unfortunately, this translates into my business. Yeah, I should outsource more, but gosh, no matter how many times I try to convince myself that I could free up my life by paying someone else to do my editing, I just can't do it. The artist perfectionist in me is just too controlling.

And when it comes to shooting a wedding, while I've always had a second shooter, I've never had an assistant, because of that dang problem of wanting to carry all my own bags.

But then I got hurt. Right before my Fall 2010 wedding season started, I suddenly got a horrible pain in my left neck that ran all the way down to my finger tips tingling and hurting and just not feeling good. I dreaded having to carry my ShootSac camera bag in that very spot on my shoulder because it was all I could do to stand up in so much throbbing pain. After many visits to the chiropractor and my masseuse, Stephen finally brought up a concept foreign to me:

"Why don't you just let someone else carry your bags?"

Huh? And not do it myself? Why would someone want to actually carry my bag? I would never ask someone to do that.

He reminded me of how he spent a year carrying bags and interning, and how important carrying bags was in his education just to be given the opportunity to observe a photographer he looked up to. He encouraged me to put something on Facebook, and... well... I became overwhelmed at the response! I still was in shock that anyone would want to carry my bag. I promise I'm not that cool.

Now that my Fall wedding season winds down for the holidays, I look back at how grateful I am to have had some A-MAZING assistants, and I can't believe how LONG it took me to let go because I was so blessed in return by the chance to get to meet some great new friends. Not only did they save the pain in my neck, but I had a lot of fun with them behind the scenes! Each girl bent over backward to help with all the little details of the day to make it flawless for my brides and grooms, so with Thanksgiving approaching, I just wanted to post a blog saying THANK YOU to Chloe Austin, Melissa Bonacci, Jennifer Cox, Lindsey Mills, & Alison Sloan! You girls seriously are the best and from the bottom of my heart, I am grateful to have gotten to know each of you through my silly ShootSac!





To all those reading this, I hope you have an incredibly blessed Thanksgiving reflecting on love, life and family! :-)

Cupcake queens.

As I prepare to become a wife, I'm trying to learn how to be more domesticated with things like baking and making a home look pretty. The night before my girlfriend's came over, Stephen texted me asking why I was up so late.

"I'm nesting," I replied.
"Huh?" he naturallly texted back.
"Like a momma bird, preparing her nest where her family will live."

No, there are no baby birds on the way, but with a husband on the way, I've kicked into that nesting mode of trying to get our home ready for where we will live when we get married. I was up late Saturday night because I had gone to Bed Bath and Beyond to buy some "homey" things like matching glasses, and new sterling silver silverware. I had finally had it with my mismatched random cups and cheap forks and knives that I had been using since first moving out of my parents. It was time I got big girl dinnerware. That nesting part of me wanted presentable things to provide guests when that point comes that we start hosting dinner parties.

But for now, I had my girlfriends coming over to bake cup cakes the next day so I was also in a mad rush to clean my place!

On Sunday, my friend Beth Morgan was in town, and she and our friend Kacy came over to catch up on some much needed girlfriend time. We all share a love of cupcakes, and photography, so naturally, as photographers we documented the whole night! Here's us being our silly girly selves!

I don't know what it is about cupcakes, but they just take me to a happy place every time. All is well in life when I'm eating a cupcake! And it's even better when you get to share it with girlfriends!

Jillian & Matthew are engaged! /// Jacksonville Engagement Photographer

I first met Matthew while shooting a wedding he was catering in 2008, but I had long heard about him way before with a reputation as one of the best chef's in Jacksonville. He is the owner of the fine dining restaurant, Matthew's, in San Marco, and it's the place where he met his soon to be wife, Jillian, shortly after she moved down from Pennsylvania.

We started the session at their restaurant and ended the night by capturing what they love to do best, cooking at home. Jillian and Matthew were one of those couples that couldn't stop laughing through the whole session, and she totally kicked his butt ending the night in a pillow fight.

Here's my favorites from the day!

Sarah & Brian had another baby! /// Nashville Family Photographer

I was recently in Nashville to shoot a wedding when I got a surprise Facebook message from one of my former brides, Sarah, who also lives in Nashville. She and Brian had just had a baby the week before and asked if I could squeeze in time to take new family photos! First of all, how she was able to be pregnant and I did not see that on my Facebook newsfeed, I'm clueless, but I was so excited to take photos of her addition, Eli, having had documented the arrival of his older sister, Elle. I just love watching my bride and grooms turn into mommies and daddies and continuing to photograph their love.

Here's my faves from the day! Congratulations Sarah & Brian on your beautiful family!


Grandpa!


And Elle with her Grandma!


Elle with her new baby bro, Eli.


Um, cuteness!


Eli and Daddy.




Love the kissy face with her mommy.








Seriously my favorite shot of the day!


















I look pretty good with a baby in my hands... he he he