Here are some lovely tunes that have been giving me creative vibes and helping me get my work done.  Hope you enjoy ; )

And, finally,  here is are some lyrics to a song that literally makes me choke up.  I can’t find a normal cd version to share with you on youtube, but it’s by Hanson, and it’s wonderful… and pretty much sums up my feelings lately.  I’m not going to into detail, but you should really check out the song.  It’s amazing.  This version is the best I could find online…

Somebody let me down
Somebody show me love
I wouldn’t care much either way

I’d rather the sticks and stones
Than dragging the ball and chain
Of what if the world won’t take me

Even if the hole should crack
Even if the blood flows red
Nothing could be worse than numb
So please, use me up

I just want anyone
To use me up
‘Cause no one ever does
Use me up

I’ve carried it all too long
The fear of the pain it brings
Feeling the panic building up

I’d rather the broken heart
Than live in the emptiness
Of what if the world won’t save me

Even if the bow should break
Even if the blood runs cold
Nothing could be worse than numb
Please, use me up

I just want anyone
To use me up
‘Cause no one ever does
Use me up
Use me up

Treat me some way cruel
You could throw me away
As long as I feel it
Show me something real
You can’t deceive me
I am yours to use

By the way, if you haven’t see 500 days of summer… go rent it.  Perfect movie with a great soundtrack.

Goodnight, folks.

On a different note, the Bridal Expo went great.  It was fun to be surrounded by people who all work in the wedding industry.  It’s great to have a connection with everyone in the room.  We had a lot of couples stop by and talk with us. If you are one of those couples–Hi again, and thanks so much for stopping by our booth ; )  We really enjoyed meeting so many people.

Unfortunately, we were very much rushing around the day of the expo and completely forgot our camera.  That’s a big bummer.  I planned to do a blog post with photos from the entire show, but that won’t be happening!  There was this absolutely stunning dress displayed by Bella Bridal Shop from St. Charles.  I told Eric, if I were getting married, I would definitely be over there buying it!  It had coordinating bridesmaids dresses, and they were lovely, as well.  I looked online for a photo to share with you… but had no luck : /  I also have to say, Eric and I both tried a cupcake from Sweet Dream Desserts, and OH MY GOSH!  GET YOUR CAKES DONE THERE!  Although, if you do, Eric and I might just go hide in corner and eat cake all night instead of photographing the reception.  We’ve had couples who have used Sweet Dream before, but we hardly ever eat cake at weddings, so we’ve never actually tried it.  We heard it was the best cake in 3 states or something like that.  I definitely believe it!!  Yum!  Now every time I pass the shop and see the cupcake sign out front, I’m going to have to make a stop : )  I always appreciated the cuteness of the painted cupcake on the sign, but now I can appreciate the goodness of the actual treat!

Today we did a photo shoot for Krista at the Cypress House.  It was a lot of fun taking shots of lovely things, and of course, stunning bouquets.  It was something we haven’t done too much of, but would love to start doing on a regular basis.  If anyone has a shop or items they need photographed, give us a call!  I will be posting shots from the Cypress House shoot soon.  I’m working on Krista’s website at the moment, so once it is finished, I will post a link for you all to take a look : )  I wanted to make note that she supplied us with two lovely bouquets for our booth at the wedding expo!  They really dressed up our space.  Thanks Krista!

Click on the images to go straight to the site.

We just love how it turned out and are happy to get some new photos up, although there are a million more to be posted!  Check back soon for gallery pages.  We have never really done gallery pages, because they just seem too “traditional”,  so we always just make the slideshows our galleries.  I am working on a way to make the galleries unique and actually include them for once!  We need to got some of our session stuff up! Well, we are about to head out to get some work done!  Please, let us know what you think!!

-ae

I found it quite hard to narrow her session post down to a reasonable number of images.  We just had so much fun.  She knew exactly how to “pose” and completely understood our crazy shooting ideas/locations.  It was wonderful.

Of course it was hard for me to pick a favorite, but I do believe this is the one.  I love so many, but this one… : )  Perfection to me.

That being said, I have a new idea/suggestion… well, more of a demand, really.  With all of these daily posts, I would love to hear your favorite/s from each one.  I am extremely interested in the style of photos that really stand out to our followers.  So…. if you could quickly take a second and leave a comment with your favorite photo each time I do a photo post… that would be just fantastic!

Emma and I talked a little beforehand about different ideas we might want to try, and I brought up balloons.  We had never used balloons up until then–so here are our first shots with the new “prop” idea…

Let me tell you, those things got twisted, tangled…. one popped, one blew away… strings fell off.  Needless to say, balloons are something we won’t be using too often : )

So all of those photos, aside from the first (my favorite), were taken from the first day of shooting.  We did two days; one day of fields, barns, rural stuff and one day of downtown, buildings, etc. Sometimes  we are able to hit all of these locations in one day… but we wanted “golden hour”, plus she had school and it was getting dark quickly.  So, we decided to go for the two day shoot.  I’m glad we did.  We got such a great variety.  The next set is from the second day:

I do believe that was the longest post in the history of our blog.  I hope you enjoyed it : )  Now it’s time for me to get back to editing and working on our upcoming events.  January is a super busy month… and here we thought it was going to slow down after December!  I’m looking forward to hearing everyone’s favorite/s  ; )  ; )

Tons more photos from Emma’s sessions will be posted soon!  Plus, we will be posting a list of the new weekly/monthly blog features we have decided on–even though we didn’t get much input from our Facebook fans ; ) ; )  That’s okay, hopefully we chose well!

-ae

Lauren, your photos will be up within the next few days!