Top 17 of 2017

This is my 6th year doing my “top of the year” post. Every year I love this post as it gives me a chance to share some of my favorite moments of the year! Some of them are behind the scene moments and others are ones that you see on the blog already!

I hope you enjoy looking through them! This is one of my favorite posts of the year! Here they are in no particular order!

1) An Almost Accidental First Look 

Katharine and Brad opted to not do a First Look at their wedding this year, so we worked hard to make sure that they didn’t see each other before the ceremony. We had one moment, however, when we had the girls going downstairs and outside to take pictures in the back. We didn’t know that Brad was sitting at the bottom of the stairs reading his note Katharine had written him! We stopped her just in time! I snapped a few pictures of the moment and this one happened to be one of my favorites of the year!

2) Wedding in a Theatre AND a FLAMINGO SUIT

I am cheating a bit by combining these two things, but they were in the same day, so I’ll cheat. In the 10 years I have shot weddings, I had never shot a wedding in a theatre- until Katie and Matt’s wedding! This was such a fun and unique experience to get to shoot their ceremony and many of their couple portraits in the theatre! I loved it! Later on during the reception, Katie’s brother came out in a bright blue FLAMINGO suit! This was the highlight of the night! That and his hilarious speech he gave which had Katie and Matt super embarrassed and laughing the whole time!

3) Almost Rained First Look 

Allison and Shawn got married at Primrose Cottage this summer and Primrose allows the clients to show up two hours before the wedding. I like to start First Looks 2.5- 3 hours prior to the ceremony; so we decided to do their First Look at the Roswell Square just a block away from the venue. We had Shawn set up and even had Allison out of the car and about to walk to him; but the sky looked like it was going to fall out any second, so we made a decision to get us all back into the cars to do their First Look at Primrose- we were about 15 minutes early, but with it about to rain, we knew they would let us in. I’m so glad we did! Within 5 minutes, the sky dropped out! We did their First Look on the porch at Primrose!

4) Ghost Town Couple Portraits

Alicen and Brian got married in Adairsville at their small baptist church where they attend. After the ceremony, we went over to the downtown Adairsville area just two blocks away for couple portraits. I loved the look of the cute little downtown area with it’s historic buildings, old train depot, and old barns. I was shocked that in the 45 minutes we took pictures, we literally ran into no one. I expected on a Friday evening to see others walking around; but we didn’t see a person! Made for taking my pictures very easy!

5) Hiking in a Wedding Dress

Ellen and Charles got married in Sandy Springs and wanted to go up to Roswell to do some of their couple portraits. I love the Roswell Mill, so I was excited when they suggested going! Ellen was amazing! She hiked down to the bottom of the hill to get pictures by the water. I was so impressed! We got some great pictures down there!

6) Fancy Fox Faces

Meredith and Seth had the cutest masks for their wedding reception. They got married two days before Halloween, so it was something fun to add to the day to include masks. Their fox masks were super adorable and fun!

7) Super Hero Kids

Kim and Chad had such a cute idea for their flower girls and ring bearers. They have nearly a dozen nieces and nephews and wanted to include all of them in their wedding. Instead of asking their parents to buy expensive dresses and suits for them to wear once, they let them pick out their own super hero or princess costumes to wear in the wedding. It was so adorable!

8) Primrose, Primrose, Primrose, Primrose

Of my 13 weddings last year, 4 of them were at Primrose Cottage! I had never shot here before 2017 and don’t currently have any wedding scheduled there this year yet; but somehow I got booked for 4 weddings there last year! I didn’t mind because the venue is gorgeous and the biggest perk is that it is .5 miles from my house! I LOVE that aspect of it!

9) Epic Engagement Session

Carmen and Jordan’s engagement session at Piedmont Park and the Beltline was so amazing. They read my style guide and came dressed up! With their outfits as well as the pictures in front of an iconic Atlanta wall on the Beltline, their pictures blew up my Facebook! I loved their session so much!

10) A Mariachi Band

Mayra and Phil had a lot of fun moments at their wedding, but one of my favorites was the surprise mariachi band that came and played at the reception! Mayra’s family is Mexican, so it was a perfect addition to their wedding and incorporating Mayra’s heritage into their day!

11) A Non-Traditional Berry College Engagement

I started so much of my business and pictures at Berry, but I haven’t been up there for years for a wedding. Andie and Chandler booked me for their wedding this December, and we did their engagement pictures last fall up at Berry. I took some of their pictures at some of the iconic locations on campus, but my favorite set came from a set of pine trees that are definitely a non-traditional set of pictures from the campus. I have wanted to shoot there for years, so it was so much fun to get to do pictures in these trees!

12) An Awesome Intern

Erin interned for me for the summer and some of the fall season. She got to come with most of my 2017 weddings with me seeing as I had one in March and the rest were from June on. I taught Erin when she was in 8th grade and I loved getting to have her join me for a season! I’m definitely going to miss having her around this year!

13) An Epic Flashmob

Bethany worked on an awesome choreographed dance with the wedding party unbeknownst to Luke. It was so awesome! She did an amazing job putting it all together and orchestrating it all. I loved seeing Luke’s reaction to it all and how well it all came together!

14) Non-Traditional Getting Ready

Lidan and Tiefi got ready together for their wedding. They didn’t have a wedding party, so instead they got ready together! We got some really fun and great pictures of the two o them during this sweet and non-traditional time. One of my favorite pictures of their day included one Ben captured of Tiefi carrying Lidan’s wedding dress up the stairs. We definitely wouldn’t have gotten that picture if he hadn’t already seen her and hung out!

15) Detail Shots Outside

I had the hardest time with Katie’s detail shots. The theatre they got married in didn’t have great light behind the stage where I was originally trying to take their detail shots. I found a white table, but it didn’t work for a good backdrop, so I found some white printer paper and laid them down for the detail shots to be placed on top. We ended up taking the table out back behind the building where some people were smoking. It was definitely the most unique location I’ve ever taken details shots!

16) Last Minute Snow Day Pictures

It unexpectedly snowed 6+ inches in Atlanta in early December. The forecast did not call for as much as we ended up with, so I wanted to get a set of pictures in the snow. Ideally I would have loved to have gotten some while the snow was falling on Friday, but I ended up setting up a last minute session on Sunday afternoon. Mello saw my post in a Facebook group we are both in and she and Matt got ready in an hour to meet me at the Roswell Mill! I had so much fun with their pictures!

17) Doggie Wedding Party 

This year, I had not one, but two brides include their doggies in their wedding party. Janet in July had her pit bull, Georgie, join her in the ceremony and some family pictures. Emily had Coco, her shih tzu a part of her wedding party. Both ladies had their dogs come down for the ceremony and watch their parents get married. I loved that both of them love their pups so much that they wanted to include them in their weddings!