Christmas moments

One of the best things about living close to family are the little moments. The other evening I came into the living room and saw Graycen and her Grandpa sitting on the edge of the sofa, admiring the Christmas tree.

Neither of them knew I took the shot until I the next day. How fun.

Christmas along the Promenade

Last night was Southern's annual Christmas along the Promenade. It's been a while since we've attended this extravaganza, but since Graycen is old enough to appreciate it, we figured it would be a nice break from our normal evening routine of...work. :-)

We were able to grab a quick shot of Graycen "petting" the deer just a couple seconds before she tried to push it over!


We ran into Stacy and Chris, for the first time since their wedding. We photographed their wedding two years ago, and it was great to catch up with them. Stacy is six months pregnant, with a little boy! Congratulations guys!


We also ran into this guy. He was doing a great job serving hot chocolate, so I took his picture. "Hey, aren't you Garrett?" he said. I didn't know whether to say yes, or to lie. Before I could answer he reminded me that he was a groomsman at Sandra and John's wedding last June in Florida. How cool!


Don't we look tired...LOL!


Time for a snack break with mommy and aunt Heather.


Perspective.

I love field trips

My Intro to Photography class at Southern has been begging me to come to the studio all semester long. Well, since we finally have everything ready, we figured there were no more excuses. So on Tuesday we met at the studio, enjoyed refreshments, and then went over to the North Shore for some shooting. Special thanks to our good friend Courtney Herod for taking the group picture.

One of our recent brides, Annette (Chaviano) Thurmon, was kind enough to model for us.







Of course little Graycen came along and watched for a bit.


Mommy helped Graycen take her first picture. The picture was SO GOOD that I didn't post it because I don't want her to make me look bad...yet.


I'm not really sure what to say about this one...

Brandy and Sticky's e-session

On Friday we had the opportunity to work with Brandy and Sticky, two of our clients that we hadn't had the pleasure of meeting yet. They're from Ohio and they made the trip to Chattanooga so we could shoot their e-session. They're getting married in Savannah, GA, in February, and we couldn't be more excited about it.

It's flattering when clients are willing to travel for their e-session, and of course there's a little more pressure, too. :-)

We had so much fun working with them, as they're fellow wedding and portrait photographers. Their business (Brandy J. Adams Photography) in Ohio is going great, and we couldn't be happier for them. They're also members of OSP, and that's how we "met."

We had a great time shooting, and after we were done we headed to lunch so we could hung out for a bit. Joy and I had so much fun and we're really looking forward to their big day in a few months.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING :) part 2

So we're all fattend up and lovin' life. We missed Tabor and Heather, who were out of town for a wedding (wonder what that's like...LOL). Thanksgiving this year was hosted by my aunt and uncle, Eileen and Randy, and their children Veronica and Ben. I think there were about 24 of us there, but we could've handled more. It appeared as though there was enough food for 50, at least!

Graycen...ready to go, sporting her Blue Button Boutique coat!


Graycen and cousin Cole, waiting patiently for dinner.


Dinner...yum!


I've never seen someone like bread as much as this girl. Here she's on her fourth dinner roll. She had already had 3 pieces of bread earlier in the day. I guess she's on the anti-Atkins diet. Maybe when she grows up she'll own a Panera Bread...that wouldn't be a bad deal!


Here's the entire troop, sans two who realized what was about to happen and escaped before we could catch them. We do have much to be thankful for!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING :)

We want to wish you a Happy Thanksgiving! We are thankful for so many things and so many people...we can go on and on! Our families, friends, colleagues, clients....you know who you are and we love you all so much! You have been such a blessing in our lives :) We want to leave you with one of my, (Joy) favorite music videos and Christian artist of all time and cry everytime I see it, ("Legacy" by Nichole Nordeman) and a great message :) When I first saw this video years ago, it was around the time I was doing my calling to be a nurse...and when I saw the nurse in the video, it really hit home. Then a photographer friend, David Jay, posted about it on his blog several months ago, I watched it more closely...and didn't realize it was also mainly about a photographer :) Its one of those videos that means alot to both Garrett and me, it really hits home even more and I hope you get a blessing from it too :)

Nichole Nordeman

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Now go and spend time with family and enjoy this holiday season :)
Hugs and God Bless!
Joy, Garrett, Graycen, and Sulley

Loren and Ryan

Without a doubt, one of the most rewarding aspects of our job is connecting with people at such an important time in their lives. From the minute I met Loren and Ryan, I knew we were going to have fun working together.

Loren and Ryan are one of the featured couples on our new elevate for photographers DVD. They did such a good job in front of the camera that you'd think they were already stars! Rest assured, we're going to do everything we can to help them get there...LOL.

Loren and Ryan were married at the popular Garden Gate Tea Room in Mt. Dora. It was a beautiful intimate ceremony, performed by Ryan's father. Following the ceremony and dinner, everyone headed over to Ryan's parents' house for the reception.

It was such a good time, and it was great to see how close their families were. With support like that, their marriage is sure to be full of love and happiness. Congratulations, guys, and may God bless you both now and forever.

Special thanks to our good friend Frank DiMeo for hanging out and shooting with me at Loren and Ryan's wedding too.

Kate and Nico

Kate and Nico are from Italy. So they traveled to Orlando to get married at Disney World. Their wedding was so much fun! Both of them are so sweet and their families are deightful as well.

Kate got ready at the Animal Kingdom Lodge, which made a great backdrop for pre-wedding photos. The ceremony took place at the wedding pavilion, and then everyone headed over to The Living Seas at Epcot for the dinner and reception.

It was a beautiful evening and we had so much fun working together. Kate and Nico are in the process of building a bed and breakfast on Lake Como in Italy, and of course we wriggled out an invitation, that we'll hopefully redeem next fall when we're in Europe.

We've had a lot of great photographers shooting with us lately, and this week it was award-winning New York photographer, Frank DiMeo. We've attended several seminars with Frank and he's one of our closest friends in the business.

Thanks so much, Kate and Nico, for letting us be a part of your special day. Blessings to you as you as you make a home for yourself and your family in Italy.

Cindy and Mike

It's unusual when we don't have the opportunity to meet the bride and groom before the wedding. But such was the case with Cindy and Mike, from California. When they decided to get married in Pawley's Island, South Carolina, Cindy and Mike started looking for photographers. Mike's sister, Honey, is one of the leading floral designers in eastern Pennsylvania, and because she does so many weddings, she knows a lot of photographers. Honey called her good friend, Laura Novak, and learned that Laura was booked. So Laura sifted through several photographers and helped Honey narrow down the list. After talking with Honey and then with Cindy and Mike, we were so excited to make the cut and be selected to photograph their wedding.

Cindy and Mike were amazing. Cindy was absolutely stunning and Mike was about as handsome as any groom could be. It was such a beautiful and personal ceremony at the Precious Blood of Christ Church. The reception was held at Litchfield Plantation, a beautiful setting rich in coastal South Carolina tradition.

Everything about the wedding day was perfect...great details, lots of emotion, plenty of laughter and so much love.

Thanks Cindy and Mike, for letting us be a part of your special day. May God bless you on this exciting journey.

And of course, a special thanks to our good friend Charles Bordner, from South Carolina, for coming along to shoot with us.







Beautiful flowers from Honey.

Mary and Chad

It's so exciting when we have the opportunity to photograph the wedding of a sibling of one of our previous brides or grooms. We photographed Mary's sister's wedding a year ago in Tennessee.

Now it was Mary's turn. Mary and Chad were married at the beautiful Callaway Gardens in Pine Mountain, Georgia. It was a beautiful autumn afternoon and we couldn't have asked for better weather.

It was also fun to have award-winning Atlanta photographer Marc Climie along with us for the afternoon.

Mary got ready in her villa, and then went to meet her groom. We did the creative portraits before the wedding, then they separated again. The bride arrived at the wedding in a horse-drawn carriage. They were married in a beautiful stone chapel next to a lake. Following the ceremony we headed over to the lodge for a great dinner and reception.

Thanks again, Mary and Chad, for giving us the opportunity to capture your special day. May God continue to bless you as you enter this exciting new journey together.






Marc Climie got this great shot with infared...