Our weekend: donuts and photo shoots!

Friday:  We attended the Basketball Senior night for one of our youth group students. It was epic! They CRUSHED the other team!

Saturday: Caleb woke me up and said we were going to the flea market! I didn't feel that those plans required clean hair so you know this girl threw a hat over her leftover curly hair and called it a day ;) The day got even better when Caleb agreed to DONUTS on the road! Then, the lady made my weekend when I asked for a regular glazed donut and she told me she had a hot fresh one in the back. Legit the best thing I've ever tasted.

Later that evening Erin and I had a girls night in! Including some of the best things on earth: coloring books, buffalo chicken dip and a hilarious movie. I love nights like that. Just talking for hours, catching up on life, and unwinding!

Sunday: I did something a little bit outside of my comfort zone by photographing a head shot/brand session for a new friend, Carly! She owns Surcee Florals. She's so so talented and seriously SUCH a sweetheart! I couldn't help but edit a few right when I got home, so here's a sneak peak!

After that, we shot a sweet session with this adorable family! Tara is one of Caleb's (many) cousin's, and it was so fun hanging out with them - they live over an hour away so we don't get to see them as often as we'd like! We had a great time during their session, and seriously, how cute are they!?

I hope everyone had a great weekend. Happy Monday, lets make it an awesome one!!

Friday, but kind of not.

Today is Friday and the office is filled with chocolates, donuts, cake pops and homemade goods. I really thought this wouldn't happen until Valentine's Day, but hey, I'm not complaining. As the Receptionist at my company, I've been thinking about "stepping up" my receptionist game (reminds me of The Office, every time) by bringing in homemade goods, planning fun little events, etc.!

Yesterday at the all-employee quarterly meeting, I was given a plaque for my 5 year work anniversary. I have to say I never thought I would be here for 5 years, but I'm super thankful I have been. It was super sweet to hear the CEO's talk about me so highly and to get the quick little "congrats" from my co workers throughout the day! Although answering phones and keeping track of the conference room schedule isn't my life calling or anything, I'm super grateful God planted me here all those years ago. I've made some really great friendships and have some awesome memories, too!

Transitioning into my other work life now, we have our first wedding of 2017 on the books tomorrow! I have to say Caleb and I are both excited, but a little nervous. This happens every year, before the first wedding, the feeling of "what if we forget how to do this" kicks in. Yet somehow we end up picking up right where we left off and enjoying ourselves and before we know it the day is over.

This week was rather uneventful...if you don't count the night I cut my finger open while cleaning a kitchen knife, ugh.

Some highlights of the week?
Ordering a pizza because who cares on a Monday.
Forgetting responsibilities and starting a new show together.
Getting more paid-time-off because I hit my 5 years at work!
Making my first cup of coffee for the year!

I hope everyone has a fun weekend ahead of them! Make it awesome!

A full heart after a quick weekend.

I got a last minute invite to hang with two of my favorite girls on Friday, so after a quick dinner at home with Caleb, I was off. I love that these girls could've been doing anything with their friends on a random Friday night, but they wanted to hang out with me! I'm so thankful for them and the fun we had together! We watched RV (seeing Robin Williams on screen nearly made me cry!), learned a little bit of John Legend's "All of Me" on the keyboard, and of course, played with every last Snapchat filter there was!

Caleb texted me and told me he went to my Aunt and Uncle's to watch Hacksaw Ridge (again) with my Uncle since he hadn't seen it, so when I left the girls, I went over to their place and watched it with them! Seriously, such a good movie.

We slept in Saturday and after Caleb made breakfast we each worked out. I REALLY didn't want to, but Caleb convinced me that I'd feel awesome afterward, and of course I did, so I'm happy I did it! We really just lounged around all day doing a lot of laundry, cleaning and napping.

I made some BBQ Chicken Stuffed Peppers for us for dinner and they were SO good! You need to click this recipe and make it tonight!

After dinner we spent the rest of our evening with some of our best friends doing what we do best; GAME NIGHT! Erin and I of course won our traditional puzzle race (yes, those are a thing in our households), we played a hilarious game of Disney Monopoly and I discovered my love of Racko!

Sunday was pretty freaking incredible. We slept in (whoops) and even got to cuddle our adorable nephew for a while and hang out with E&J some more!

THEN! I was able to photograph (actually, I was one of about 10 photographers that were split up into 4 groups) TWO styled shoots at a local venue called Urban Artifact. This was a project we'd been working on putting together for a couple of months through our Tuesdays Together group, and it was so fun to see it all come together. I haven't uploaded all of my own current photos yet so for now you get this google photo to paint a picture for you...

via

The point of these two "styled shoots" was to showcase all of our creative talent within the group and to give everyone more portfolio material! We've got everything from photographers to videographers, florists to calligraphers, bakers and event planners! You name it, we've probably got it. It was so much fun to spend a few hours snapping away and getting to shoot alongside some other photographers! The point of this group is "community over competition", and it was really cool to see everyone work so hard on something and see how BEAUTIFUL it turned out.

Over a month ago one of the sweet event planners reached out to me to see if I knew anyone who'd want to model for us and I had an answer for her right way; Olivia and Sean! They are adorable and so SO in love and it was so great seeing her yesterday!

If you want some awesome behind the scenes footage check out The Rising Tide's Instagram story from yesterday! It was a lot of fun! Since I don't have them uploaded/edited yet, here's a quick #backofcamera sneak peek!

I hope everyone had a great weekend! Of course it went WAY too fast, but what else is new?!

ITS LAUNCH DAY! Our business is here!

Today is the day, friends. The day our business and website officially launch. Our website is complete, images are finalized, prices are set, and we are SO excited to be business owners. We've prayed for this for SO long and I can't even explain to you how much love has been put into this (by so many people, not just Caleb and I), and I can't thank everyone enough. The support, encouragement and love sent our way has been so amazing! So thankful for one of our best friends (who doubles as our SIL), Erin, for making our incredible logo! We're just so grateful to get to do what we love!

So friends, HERE IT IS! ENJOY!

I also wanted to share the blog post below that I posted on our website, for those of you who are interested in our back story, or if you just need a distraction from work. We hope you'll tune in and give us all the virtual high fives from wherever you are today. We are so thankful for you!
_____________________________________________________________

Welcome to Kayla & Caleb! We're Cincinnati based wedding & portrait photographers! We're so incredibly thankful to be starting this business together. This dream has been a long time in the making and we're so grateful it's finally here! If you've got some time, kick back with some hot tea, get your favorite box of cookies out, and read on!

I'm Kayla. When I was just a young teenager, I had dreams of becoming a photographer. I thought I wanted to work for National Geographic and photograph animals and see the world (those things still do sound a bit appealing). All I had to work with at the time was an original Wide Polaroid and my Motorola Razr flip phone, but I made it work. I would photograph anything I could see and anyone that would let me. I grew to love photography even more, and the passion only got stronger as I grew up. Fast forward a few years to post-high school life, when I reconnected with Caleb. We were young, and we fell in love FAST. We spent our evenings watching bad TV, and eating way too much ice cream. When we came home from school, I turned 20 and he gifted me my first DSLR (cue the tears and ridiculous happy dancing), and that's when everything clicked.

Just kidding. I really wasn't very good; I'll be honest! I had no idea what I was doing, but people didn't care because I had a passion for it. I slowly taught myself what I needed to know about my camera and did free sessions for years. I always had dreams of owning my own business, but always thought that dream was too big and that self employment was truly not in the cards for me.

After Caleb and I got married in 2013, he started to pick up my camera here and there to document our lives. He was a true natural and he really had an eye for it! He started to love it and joined me on one of my first weddings for fun, almost just to pass the time. Turns out he was pretty stinkin' good! A few months after our OWN wedding, our amazing photographers took us to dinner and they asked us to join their business as "Associate Photographers" (cue more tears and ridiculous happy dancing). What?! I couldn't believe it. My dreams finally felt within reach.

We happily accepted their offer and worked under their company for over 3 years, photographing 100+ weddings and meeting lots of new people. The experience and knowledge they gave us was invaluable. We learned a lot, and really honed in on our natural style of photography (raw, emotional, timeless and FUN) within the last year. We've grown so much over the last 3+ years, but neither of us could shake the feeling it was time to for a new adventure. We prayed about it, thought of so many reasons it could potentially fail, and then decided to just punch fear in the face and GO FOR IT. Our pastor once told us "you can what-if your dreams to death, but you'll never know until you try", and that was such a light bulb moment for us. We knew it was time to start our own business! So here we are, as "Kayla & Caleb".

We get such a unique opportunity as photographers; to witness and be part of some of the most intimate moments of our clients lives! It's truly an experience we don't take for granted. We can't wait to meet all of you, and start this adventure together. We want to give our clients an experience they'll never forget.

Caleb and I love what we do, and we can't wait to show you just how much!
Stay tuned for more fun!

Our Weekend || A Wedding Getaway to Nashville!

Caleb and I had the opportunity to venture to Tennessee this past weekend for a wedding of an old friend. He grew up in church with the bride, Heather, so we all knew each other already! Also, my bestie was a Bridesmaid in the wedding, which made it even more fun!

They seriously got the perfect weather for a November wedding date. You really never know with November. It could rain, it could be 20 degrees and snowing, or it could turn out to be mid 50's and just tolerable enough to not wear a jacket. Luckily, that last one is exactly what we had. The glow from the sun we had all day was JUST right and I couldn't stop smiling. Michael and Heather, thank you so much for letting us be part of your big day, we had so much fun!

Thats my bestie, Lynds! She and Heather have been roommates for the last few years, so this was a bittersweet day for them!

Their reception was way too much fun! Heather and Michael's friends were all so sweet! We left feeling like we made a bunch of new friends!

Rewind to Friday night when we arrived in TN, we stopped at our favorite book store in all the land; McKays. We discovered it about 3 years ago with Erin and Jared when we made a road trip to Memphis for a wedding Caleb was in, and knew we had to make the pit-stop again. Seriously, I had like 7 books in my hand, all for about .50 cents to $1.75. There was actually one brand new book I've been wanting and it was $7, but that's still a quarter of the price if I had bought it brand new from any other store! We headed back to our hotel and ordered a pizza, watched a movie and called it a night.

When we arrived back home Sunday afternoon, I took a MUCH needed nap. It. Was. Glorious! I'm really excited that we are approaching some SERIOUS free time now that this weekend is behind us. It's much needed. We have one more wedding in December, but guys, we have 4 free weekends before that. I can't even handle it! As much as we love photographing weddings, and serving our clients, its time to take time for ourselves and I'm pumped about it!

Hope everyone had a fantastic weekend as well!

Falling for the weekend.

We had a really great weekend. Friday we had a Fall hangout with our church (aka everyone brings their best pot of chili and we all indulge), hangout with friends, then end the night with s'mores! Caleb and I mostly hung out with the youth group teenagers for whatever reason, and they kept us crazy active. Running all over the camp site, tossing football and just walking around while chatting. We've been so blessed by volunteering to help lead this group for the last (almost) 4 years, and its been fun watching these kids grow up!

So excited to finally have a photo of us that's not a close-up selfie! ;) you'd think the photographer would always have updated photos - but whats the old saying? The plumbers sink is always the last to get fixed? You get what I'm saying!

Saturday was a wedding I had really been looking forward to. The bride, Christina, felt like an old friend when we initially met for coffee over a year ago. She's a local vendor as well, and does wedding planning in the area! I just knew their day would be insanely beautiful, since she has that creative eye!

Who knew a random alley way (that smelled so terrible) could be so beautiful?!

Their ceremony was one of the most emotional we'd ever seen, and it was short and sweet! Their vows were tear-filled, and from the heart. There wasn't a dry eye in the park. Outdoor ceremonies kind of make my heart sing :)

Although our day was pretty long, it was great. The entire day was really easy, and we really had a great time. Bonus points for grabbing a selfie with this cutie!

Before we say goodbye, we always put our cameras away for a few minutes and hit the dance floor. Somehow, we always manage to slow dance when Ed Sheeran's "Thinking Out Loud" comes on, then really get the dancing shoes out for some faster paced music. The bride must've liked Caleb's moves because she immediately starting imitating him and I happened to pick my camera up from the table to snag this in time - and I'm so happy I did, ha!

Sunday was pretty busy - with cleaning the house, experiencing another Bengals loss (insert all the sad faces here) - but getting to see my nephew!! Then going back home so Caleb could prep the youth group lesson for that night. He killed it! He is so great with the teens and is such a natural teacher/leader, it was fun watching him bring the Word to them!

I hope everyone has a great week. Mine is definitely JAM-PACKED, but after Saturday's short wedding day we leave for vacation and I could NOT be more excited!!! :) I'm so ready to unplug and just spend time with some of my favorite people.

Our weekend || snap happy

I'm going to be totally honest, as this past weekend approached, I was a little nervous. We've shot plenty of double-header weddings (2 in a row in one weekend) before, but I think with it being towards the end of the year, I was just more tired than usual.

I'm happy to report that we survived! Successful wedding days both Friday and Saturday! It's always so amazing to me how unique each wedding day is. Both of them could not be more different from each other, but were still gorgeous and unique in their own ways. We really did have so much fun; especially when the bride and groom from Friday insisted we put our cameras down around the end of the night and just "have fun"! This meant a lot, they are actually photographers as well, so they totally understand what a long day can do to ya! It was much appreciated. We danced for a solid hour and just had a great time with some friends we knew at the reception!

Sunday was an incredible message at church, and then a family session for an old friend of mine. Taylor and I graduated high school together, and we have so many fun memories together. We actually reconnected when she and her man, Seth, were both in a recent wedding we shot! It prompted them to want to get some family photos done, so we all met up at a local park and hung out in the woods - which really gave us some amazing light! Fall family sessions are my favorite!

Taylor is seriously gorgeous. I was always envious of her crazy blue eyes back in school! Her baby girl, Rowen, and her son, Levi definitely both take after her with those gorgeous eyes. This photo makes me laugh; a total "motherhood" moment! Their family session was honestly a breeze with their effortless giggles and adorable outfits!

Caleb and I did groceries after the session, and since our fridge broke, our cart was FULL this trip! We got home before lunch, still, and enjoyed a MUCH needed afternoon of relaxing and napping. The Bengals game was just horrible, sadly, which lead to more napping and lounging around. We finished the night off with a quick (chilly) grill out and endless episodes of The Flash!

I hope everyone had a great weekend, and has an even better week!