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Newborn: Everly Mae

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My heart melted a little bit on this day. 

Although I have nieces and nephews, I've always lived far away and been unable to see them as newborns, let alone be in the hospital to meet them and see my siblings holding their newborn children. So it was an amazingly special moment to be around these new parents soon after their daughter arrived. Joy absolutely radiated from each of them, and it was very clear that this girl is going to be so well loved.

Welcome to the world, Everly, and congratulations once again, Ben and Katie!

Alec + Emily {Engagement}

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This post (along with many others) is extremely overdue. As 2016 started (and quickly rolled on), I had set up some goals for myself; blogging on a regular basis was originally one of those goals. And yet, as January passed and February has been speeding by, I have been going back and forth on whether or not that is actually something that I should, and want to be doing. I have more or less had this particular post written for over a month at this point, but have been indecisive in terms of the wording and layout, and if keeping a blog is worthwhile for me right now. I've decided to attempt to plug away at posting on a regular basis (mostly since I have such a huge backlog of images I want to share right now), though I'll likely keep things extremely simple and stick to the images for the most part.

With all that said, to start things off I am going to share images from one of my favorite shoots of last year. Back in November, while home in Minnesota for Thanksgiving, I had the pleasure of being asked to photograph one of my longest and best friends, Alec, and his beautiful fiancé, Emily.

Alec and I have been friends since junior high, and we have been part of the same group of friends since that time.  It is a tight knit group of people, and I have often joked (with a strong hint of seriousness) that the approval of this group in regards to my significant others is just as important as that of my immediate family members. 

Although I don't know if Alec thinks the same thing, I can definitely say that we approve of Emily. Emily is a ball of joy, and you cannot help but smile when you are around her.  It has been an absolute pleasure getting to know her on the few occasions that I get home to Minnesota, and I am proud to now be able to consider her a friend.

Alec went above and beyond on the engagement ring, and worked with a local jewelry designer to design a ring just for Emily. The main stone is a sapphire, with a precious diamond on either side. It looked absolutely stunning with the hint of snow around, the golden evening light, and Emily's vibrant green jacket. 

We spent most of the engagement session walking down the Browns Creek Trail, in my hometown of Stillwater. The trail used to be railroad tracks, for a very slow dinner train that followed Browns Creek around the Stillwater area. When we were kids we used to roam around on the tracks, even though we weren't necessarily supposed to. I have lots of great memories from along this trail, so it was fun to shoot an engagement session in those locations.

We also ventured onto the golf course for some images at the end of the shoot, which was another important place for a lot of us Stillwater friends while growing up. In fact, the other friends whose engagement session I photographed had their wedding reception in the clubhouse of this golf course. 

We ended the evening (appropriately) at a coffee shop in downtown Stillwater. Emily wanted to incorporate some string lights into that portion of the shoot, and I'm so glad she suggested it. The ring just looks stunning with that warm, golden light on it!

Thank you to Emily and Alec for inviting me in on this portion of your adventure together! I am so excited for the two of you, and cannot wait to see how your lives grow together from here. 

And with that, here we go on this next blogging journey of mine. I would love to hear from anyone that decides to stop by, so leave a comment below! Have a wonderful weekend!

Tabitha + Meagan {Proposal}

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This post is long overdue, but the end of the semester had me running around like a chicken with my head cut off. 

I always get excited when friends ask me to be involved in important events. Not quite a month ago one such friend, Tabitha, approached me about the possibility of hiring me for a special event. She was going to propose to her girlfriend, Meagan, and wanted me there to document it! Needless to say, I was on board. The plan was to get some of their friends together to take part in a Canvas and Cork event at Straight Upp Creative Studios. If you haven't heard of these types of events before, essentially you book a room and an instructor, and they walk your small group through painting an image all while you drink wine/beer that you bring with. The two of them had gone on a date there previously, and Tabitha thought it would be a great place to propose since they loved it so much the first time. Since I had met Meagan before, we decided that I would be there under the ruse of promotional materials for Straight Upp. Tabitha and I met at the studio a few days before the big night to work out final details, and she painted the canvas that would be used for the proposal. 

The night of, I showed up halfway through the painting process and wandered around taking "promotional" pictures. They all kept on painting, laughing, and drinking their wine, and Meagan didn't have a clue (or so she says) about what was going to happen. When they finished their paintings they all went up front to take a group shot, which gave someone the chance to switch out Tabitha's wine glass painting for the proposal one. After the group shot they headed back to the room, where Tabitha got down on one knee in front of her painting, and popped the question! Meagan said yes, which resulted in tears of joy, champagne, and lots of smiles and laughter. It was an incredible night, and I am so glad I was asked to play a part in it.

Congratulations Meagan and Tabitha!!