Peace and Pandemonium

My little Sophie is taking a bath.
She dumped a whole bunch of smelly lotion in the water thinking it would turn into bubbles.
It didn't.
She's wonderful.

While she bathes, I am thinking about a few things.
Today is Tuesday and Miss Sophie starts Kindergarten tomorrow.
My baby! My youngest, for now, is starting her schooling years.
I am beaming with pride and yet uneasy with how fast time flies by.

I am planning on taking some pictures of my big five year old today.
She had her birthday on Thursday the 26th.
It went unoticed on my blog, but in real life, we celebrated.
I will make it up to her and me and you in the next day or so.




Fall is on the horizon.
It never fails to have the same effect on me.
My soul is stirring. Stretching, yawning and AWAKENING.
My heart is leaping with excitement for the joy that this season holds.

I've been trying to contemplate the fact that I'm having a baby in less than 3 months.
A brand new baby. !!!
A loving gift from God given especially to me.
I am in the process of preparing myself for it.

A Mother.
Again.
The most sacred calling a woman can have.
The most treasured blessing I can imagine.

I want to be present.
I have this overwhelming desire to soak it all in.
My third trimester. My pregnant form. My eagerness and anticipation. My fears and concerns. The beautiful unknown.
I want to feel it all fully.




September is my month of work.
I am so excited for this month!!
I cant wait to create. To see the unseen. To anticipate decisive moments.
To capture love.

October is my month of devotion to myself and my family.
My birthday is on TEN TEN TEN this year. I'm very excited.
I will be connecting to my mind and body this month. Empowering myself and building up my reserves.
Dreaming in full fall colors.

November is my month of anxious anticipation and giddy excitement.
Last minute preparations which lets be honest, will probably mean ALL preparations.
Sleepless nights spent imagining my litttle guy. His skin, his smell, his innocence.
The miracle of birth!

December is my month of exhaustion and probably a little freaking out!


I CANNOT WAIT!!!

My boys started school today!
Sophie starts next week!
In 7 days I will be home in the mornings by myself!
All three of my kids in school at the same time!
Yoga here I come.

At least until November...

I found Jessie via a mutual friend and was immediately blown away by her raw talent. I fell in love with the quality of her work and knew I wanted to meet her in person. We quickly became facebook friends and have been planning to go shooting together just for the fun of it.
This past week we finally got together.


Jessie came with one million ideas, endless props, location suggestions, multiple outfit changes, and her lovely friend Liz who is also a photographer and a really cool girl to boot.
I came with, well me. :)
Oh, and my camera. I guess I wasn't totally empty handed.

We set out on our shooting adventure but due to a series of fortunate events, we ended up at Liz's friend Emily's house who is also pregnant and was an extremely gracious host. She enticed us with a hot meal and provided such warm company that we ended up spending half of our daylight inside eating pancakes and homemade syrup for dinner and talking about babies. :)

Eventually we got out to shoot.
A little.

In the end, we didn't have nearly enough time together.
We will be getting together again soon.
We did however, have plenty of time to get to know each other better and make new friends. That was my whole purpose in going out in the first place.

Success.





Jessie.



Liz.

There was a lot of thought, love and attention to detail present at this reception.
The decorations were so organic and pretty!
The guests enjoyed made-to-order strawberry shortcakes and plates full of fresh fruit.
It was perfect for both the young and old (at heart)...








(Oh and don't you worry one little bit, I made sure to promptly eat my very own plate of deliciousness.)


After a fine evening of mingling, eating, and relaxing after a long day, the bride and groom cut their cake...




My favorite part of the night came when Steve's brother Chris, sat down to play his guitar and serenade the newlyweds.
I was fogging up my view finder. No joke!
I was crying so much that I was just snapping my camera hoping for focused pictures because I couldn't see at all through all the tears.
(I blame these uncontrollable tears on the baby!)
Thankfully, I wasn't the only one crying. It appeared to be one of the proudest moments for his mother.
She had an expression on her face that spoke to me.
I knew a little something about her pride in that moment, and it was beautiful to witness.







The bouquet was thrown...






The garter was tossed...








Until finally it was time for the bride to dance with her dad...








Followed by her new hubby...






After that, if you wanted to dance with the bride, it was going to cost you a pretty penny. :)




Once the dance floor opened up, everyone got in on the action...








The festivities continued on until it started to get late...




Everyone prepared for the big farewell and sent the happy couple off to start their new life together as man and wife...








And there ya have it. One of the most beautiful, emotional, heartfelt weddings I have ever been invited to, let alone, able to photograph.
I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. :)

Labels: weddings

Later in the afternoon we met on location for family formals.
We took a lot of these, but pictures with each mother were of the upmost importance...










The bridal party...











Then it was off to the ring ceremony held at the Salt Lake City Hardware Building...



















A special thanks to my friend Leah Wright for second shooting this portion of the wedding day with me.

One more part to go. Stay with me...

There are so many pictures I want to post from this wedding so lets consider this part one with much more to follow....


At first we waited...










And then...








Stay tuned...