Dear pumpkin smashing teenagers...

Dear people who think pumpkin smashing is fun: get a life. Sure, its a well known (immature) tradition for teenagers, but get over yourself. You about ruined our night last week when we came home from a long day to find one of our BEAUTIFUL pumpkins smashed in the middle of the road. So, Caleb had to pick out a new one at Kroger over last weekend. Luckily, his new one is just as awesome, but still...why do some people think its fun to sneak onto the front porch of a strangers home and steal their decorations!?!

Dear people who don't smash pumpkins: you rock. Thanks for being nice.

Dear Friday: I'm so happy you're finally here. This was another busy week full of endless meetings, 3 engagement sessions, and timeline calls.

Dear Jenna: thank you for wearing the coolest outfit ever to your engagement session last night. We're all obsessed.

Dear tomorrow's wedding: can't believe you'll be our 26TH WEDDING of the year!!! Only a few more to go for the year and we get a (very) small break.

Dear gym: I'm really sorry I haven't visited you in a while. This has been the busiest month ever and I hope to see you really, really soon!!!

Dear fall decorations: I never want to take you down - shoutout to Emily for this cute piece!

Dear meal planning: you really do pay off, even if sometimes you take forever to sort out! I have some tasty meals planned for the next couple weeks!

Dear Becca and Angie: thanks for meeting me for dinner this week! I know we don't get to see each other as often as we'd like, but I'm excited we're all making more time for it! Catching up with friends is the best.

Dear Caleb: only a few days until your birthday and I am so excited to celebrate you for a few days!!!!

love his goofy smile face.

I really hope everyone has some exciting plans for the weekend! I'm using a vacation day Monday so Caleb and I can enjoy a long weekend (since we have to work Saturday) and celebrate his 27th birthday. Woo! Have fun, friends!!!

Blogging is crazy!

A few years ago, Becky and I started reading each others blogs and commenting nearly daily. We always joked that one day we'd meet and we'd eat as much Mexican food as our bellies could handle and finally go on a long run together. Well, I'm thankful that last March, Becky bought a plane ticket to make that funny dream a reality because now - I consider her a REAL life friend. She's always just a snapchat/text message away, and I'm so thankful for who she is...especially when she agrees to look like crazies in the Photo Booth app.

that time Erin and I introduced Becky to the COOLEST supermarket ever! ;)

I may not be the best at this blogging thing, but I sure am having fun with it. If there's one thing I'm most thankful for in regards to blogging, it's all these amazing friendships I've created that I genuinely know would continue if our blogs ceased to exist. Becky is not only a fantastic friend, she's extremely hard working! She's in the middle of training for her first FULL marathon!  If you have a second, leave a comment and tell Becky how stinkin' awesome she is and wish her a happy 25th birthday!!! =)

In other news, I had an incredible engagement session last night and holy gorgeousness, guys! Dani and Tony were amazing...

Even though he's a Steelers fan, I guess I can still shoot their wedding next June ;)

I'm thinking of showing more of my work on the blog, rather than just little snippets...like possibly doing a full post on my recent sessions? We'll see. I need to make the time to sit down and actually do it, this is a busy season of life for us! I hope everyone has a fantastic Tuesday.

How about a stay-cation?

So I have these vacation days that I have to use by the end of the year, or they go away. Like, FOR GOOD. Which means I'm going to take them, even without a real vacation planned. Caleb and I kept saying we'd plan a random all-inclusive trip somewhere, but we never actually sat down to plan anything official. As much as we'd love to take another Dominican Republic trip (best place ever), something was calling us to a "stay-cation" this year.

I've always thought a stay-cation would be fun, but now that actually we're making it happen, I'm officially VERY excited. There are a couple weeks over November/December that we're considering, and I'm stalking my cities event calendar like nobodies business. There's a TON that our beautiful city has to offer that we never make the time for because of our busy schedule...so I'm pumped to begin our official stay-cation checklist! If you've ever "stayed home" for vacation, I'd love some tips on how to make it even better! We want a few days in, and a few days out!

That photo up above was taken last night from my phone right before my 3rd engagement session this month. Jackie and Andrew live Downtown and they wanted an urban, city feel to their photos. The sun was bursting through the buildings as we finished, and I'm really excited about what we got!

I got home to my tasty crock pot fajitas (think I'm finally getting in a cooking groove -yay!), then Caleb and I enjoyed a night full of cleaning and editing together. Tonight we're finally off to pick out a dining room table, yippee! I'm just so thrilled we're finally getting settled and really loving the place just as much as we thought we would :)

Hope everyone has a good hump day!

We made it!!!

Phew, I can finally breathe... for now. I survived 2 engagement sessions and 2 weddings within 72 hours. Woo!! What kept me going? A comfy king size hotel room bed, and a lot of energy drinks.

The day started out in Downtown Cincinnati for Jessica and Justin's big day! We had a great time, and finally got to shoot at a new venue - New Riff! It was awesome. They were serious troopers, it was FREEZING outside, and also spitting rain... luckily, outdoor photographs were really important to them and they toughed it out. I think it was WELL worth it. My one piece of advice to brides? ROCK your dress. It's the only day you're going to wear it, so make it worth it. Suck it up, and dance in the rain a little ;)

After we left, we made the 2.5 hour drive up to Maria Stein, OH! The long drive brought to you by this delicious hot chocolate...

We woke up on Saturday and prepped for the day ahead. Molly and Chris were SUCH a gorgeous, sweet couple. Molly and I had never met in person, but spent many hours over Skype getting to know each other. She's one of the sweetest gals I've had the chance to work with. Unfortunately, the weather didn't agree with us and kept us inside the majority of the day. However, they chose the most gorgeous barn to get married in, so it all worked out!

Caleb and I didn't get to bed until well after midnight, seeing as we had a 2.5 hour drive home...so sleeping in is just what the doctor ordered. Caleb went to the Bengals game yesterday (can I get a WHO-DEY!!?! 4-0 baby!!!), while I stayed home and edited my tush off. Then met up with another sweet couple for their last-minute engagement session. Their wedding is next month, and we can't WAIT!!

I'm definitely exhausted today, but really proud of us for getting through this busy weekend. I'm really looking forward to getting through this work week because this weekend? FREE! I can't believe it. We have LOTS of fun planned and its going to be great! Hope everyone had a fun, fall-filled weekend!!!

Weekend, lets do this!

If you read my post yesterday, you know we have a crazy weekend ahead of us. It started last night when I met an adorable couple downtown for their engagement session. Not only do they share in our love of Mexican food, they also share our initials and they really, really like to laugh ;)

....those little dots are gnats. Cute, right? ;)

I was really tired when I got home, but perked up when I walked in the door. WHY? Oh, my freaking amazing husband just surprised me with a filet mignon dinner. No big deal.

Today, we're about to shoot another gorgeous wedding, then have one tomorrow as well, then an engagement session Sunday night. If you're bored, try crossing your fingers all day for me? Rain is in the forecast for tomorrow and as cute as dancing-in-the-rain photos can be, we'd like to enjoy some sunshine with the newlyweds we're photographing! ;) thanks! Happy weekend!

Random weeks are good for my soul.

The randomness of this week was crazy. We had an eventful one. Monday & Tuesday were full of photography, Wednesday was a family night, and last night? I had some me-time. I blasted super girly music through our entire apartment on my new speaker and loved every darn second. The minute Caleb got home, he flipped the switch on that...but then I forgave him when he took this goofy photo with me.

Speaking of photos... here's a little sneak peek from the engagement session I shot on Monday night. Kelsey wanted "LOTS of sunset", and I believe I delivered.

I even got to grab dinner with an old friend and her ADORABLE little babe this week!

We had my family over for dinner Wednesday and my man cooked the whole dinner, and we got our house spotless for our company! Which really came in handy since we have fantasy football tonight as well, at our home! We have a lot of family coming and we're excited to spend some time with them. This is pretty much our last "get together" in our little apartment that we've called home for over 2.5 years. It's starting to hit me that we're actually moving!!!! We've already started packing, and its getting exciting! We're so ready for this new adventure together.

This weekend we have TWO weddings, Saturday and Sunday. I know we're going to be crazy tired, but we're excited!!! Hope you all have a fun weekend!!

Our first "double header" of the year!

In my world, a "double header" has nothing to do with baseball... but has everything to do with shooting TWO full weddings in the same weekend. Today, I took a vacation day from my day-job to shoot Dana and Brandon's wedding! I'm so excited to be able to photograph them again.

I feel like I don't show a lot of my work because I don't think Blogger does a great job with clarity (on high res. files) so I stopped posting them for the most part, but I hated that! Each one of our couples has unique stories, personalities, etc...and I want to showcase that! So here's a few shots from their engagement session I did earlier in the year. It's definitely a favorite to date, and they were just such a fun couple!

We just need all fingers crossed that this weekends weather cooperates. We're prepared for the risidual thunderstorms from "tropical storm Bill" that may come through OH/IN but, we're ready! Just praying for a little sunshine, or even overcast...that's my favorite to shoot in anyway! ;)

We also have some fun photobooth stuff planned for this wedding... wish us luck!

Have a GREAT weekend!

A few squares for Friday.

All those in favor of 3 day work-weeks and 4 day weekends sayyyy "I"... 

I'm currently trying to decide when I can wear this amazing anniversary dress Caleb got for me. I know I said it yesterday in our trip recap but guys, he knocked this years gift outta the park. How in the world did he find the cutest dress in the mall AND it fit perfect?! I can't wait to plan a fun date night out with that stud!

Although its Friday...I'm absolutely exhausted because last night Caleb had another full (late) night of softball, and right before THAT I had an engagement shoot Downtown, which was right after a full day of work. We didn't get home until nearly midnight and I'm BEAT today. However, I've also said before that I truly wouldn't trade these fun moments for anything. It can be a hassle getting to the fields, but watching him do something he loves brings me a whole lot of joy...and that'll never get old.

This is an extremely old but extremely awesome picture with my favorite people. Yesterday was E&J's 4th wedding anniversary and I just love the crap out of them. They are equally as weird as us, share a love for all things Disney, and are completely content (and even excited) by game nights in with us instead of crazy nights out. #mykindofpeople.

Here's a (totally unedited) little sneak peek from last nights Eden Park shoot!

That actually brings me to my next question...has anyone else using blogger noticed a significant decrease in quality of photos that you're uploading? These files are HUGE and at such high resolution, but I felt like some of my Pittsburgh recap photos looked grainy? Any ideas??

We've got a wedding to shoot tomorrow and we can't wait! Hope everyone has a great weekend!

What'sa happenin {hot stuff}

Well, if you're wondering, YES the sunburn on my arm is still brutal. Oh, I forgot to mention its also along the left side of my neck as well, SUPER CUTE ;)

I had my first engagement shoot of the year last night, and it was amazing. I swear, the couples I get to work with are some of the most fun people! We talked about life, we danced, and we enjoyed the sun going down on the skyline. I got home and had a simple dinner consisting of a PB&J + some homemade sweet tea, and it rocked.

Last weekends wedding was awesome, as well, despite the rain. They went with Orange Leaf (froyo) instead of a cake for dessert, and we weren't mad about it! ;) we even managed to sneak in another #newlywedselfie

My second half marathon is in 4 days. OMG. I am so excited. I've been awful at my training plan the past couple weeks but somehow, I'm so excited for this half!!! I pray that my enthusiasm will carry me through all 13.1 miles of it, and that I can finish! I did buy some new running pants to celebrate...just like last year!

Caleb and I have TWO free weekends coming up. Can you even believe it? I don't even know what to do with myself! Don't get me wrong, I'm thrilled for wedding season to be in full swing come mid-May, but boy...this free time is definitely something to cherish!!!

Enjoy your hump day, everyone! ;)