OH. MY. WORD!

So, I got to be a part of something super exciting and fun! I was contacted a few weeks ago to photograph an engagement party at one of my favorite venues, The Belle Hollow. Little did I know… it was a SURPRISE WEDDING!! I arrived at the venue early and when a man walked in, dressed ready for photos, I asked if he was the “groom-to-be” and he said “shhhh, it’s a secret.” I think I had a little look of confusion on my face because he then said “nobody knows”. I think the next thing I said was “but they know you’re engaged, right?” and he said “yea, but they don’t know we are getting married”

I’m pretty sure, that at this point, I was making the classic stupid-confused face. It seriously makes me laugh out loud to think about it. Chas, the groom to be, then went on to tell us that they were going to surprise everyone and get married at their “engagement party”. HOW FUN!!!

I’ve never been involved in a surprise wedding and it was just an amazing night! Their parents didn’t even know!!! I got an amazing photo of the moment that Casey’s mom found out that she was about to see her daughter get married!

Their ceremony was so so sweet. I had to hold back sweet tears for them a few different times. I may have just met this couple tonight, but I felt that this type of wedding fit them so well and was so perfect for them. I can’t wait to show them all the photos, but for now, I hope they enjoy my favorites that I was able to edit tonight.

Casey and Chas, I wish you long and loving lives together!

If you would like to see the rest of the images once I get them edited, just head over to Facebook and like my photography page because that’s where I will post the first update!

www.facebook.com/byjphotography 

UPDATE
to see all of the images from this surprise wedding, just click here!

I’m so glad that I got to take sweet Fenn’s 12 month photos. We kept getting delayed by weather so I was afraid he was going to be 2 by the time we got to take photos! One of these days, we are going to build me a studio so that I don’t have to worry about this stupid Tennessee weather. Oh how a girl can dream! I do think that these turned out so so cute. The photos of Fenn with his sister are so adorable. I hate that he was in a weird mood and wouldn’t let his momma hold him for a few photos. It was almost comical how he would freak out anytime she tried to get a photo with him ….(and you can maybe see a photo or two of a freak out if you click on the full gallery link)

To see all the photos from this session, just click on this link: Fenn is ONE

I wanted to write this post to somewhat explain why you may not see a lot of weddings on this website.

Since I started my business, I made the personal decision not to pursue a lot of weddings. This is because it was just too hard to shoot and edit weddings while working full time as a civil engineer 45+ hours a week. Last year, after the birth of my daughter, I jumped back into shooting families as soon as possible and it. was. hard! I ended up neglecting my husband and felt constantly stressed from trying to balance being a new mom, being the wife my husband deserved, working 7-5 as an engineer, and then owning my own photography business. It was too much and I decided that it was just best to not pursue photography anymore. Being a good wife and mother were more important in the long run and I thought that photography was the reason I wasn’t being able to do that anymore. So I started referring out all sessions to photographer friends of mine that I knew could make my past clients happy. It was so so hard to say no to the clients that I so much cared for, but I thought I was doing the right thing.  Fast forward to this past August when my very good friend died. Shea was an unbelievably talented photographer and someone that I looked up to so so much. She was entirely way too good for this earth and it’s still so shocking that she isn’t here anymore. She was most definitely one of the best persons in my life and I truly mean it when I say that I feel honored that I was her friend. When she passed away, we photographer friends made sure that her clients were taken care of. Shea had employed an amazing assistant, Kathryn Mitchell, who managed her business through the end of last year and made sure that her weddings were photographed and edited. Below is just one of the weddings that I helped photograph. I wanted to share some of the images that I took at this wedding and say I AM TAKING ON WEDDING CLIENTS! After helping finish out Shea’s remaining wedding clients, I realized how much I absolutely missed photographing weddings and needed it in my life. Even though I was working more, I was such a happier person to be around. My husband noticed a huge shift in me and we had a long hard talk about me pursuing photography again. This time, we put pen to paper and we made a plan together. A plan that both of us are happy with and believe will work. I have some huge goals for 2017 and those goal include a lot of weddings. I will be rolling out a referral program soon and sharing some more amazing plans very soon. This post is already entirely way too long, and if you’ve made it this far, you are a true friend. So I will now stop talking and let you see this gorgeous wedding…..

But first, one more really important thing, please note that with the exception of the self portrait directly below, these were all edited by Shea’s assistant to match her style of photography. These are not my edits, but I wanted to showcase some photographs that I took and absolutely love to show potential brides my skills as a wedding photographer.

You can see all of the images from this gorgeous wedding over on Shea’s client gallery website. Just click here to see them all: Cox Wedding

It is so crazy to me that this family was one of my first families to photograph – and to get paid for it! Lucy was just 3 months old at our first session. We did that sweet little session here at the same house that this session was shot. It means so much to me that they’ve stuck with me all these years.

One of the great things about this session is that we were able to do two family sessions back to back and get a few cousin photos with the overlap. The dads from the two sessions are brothers and they both wanted sessions at the same spot! I love the classic feel that this session has and I love the meaningful location they chose.

You can see all the images from this session by clicking here!

And their baby cousin’s session here!

Catherine – you were an angel for our session! I’m so so glad that we got to meet!

You can see the rest of the images from Catherine’s session by clicking here!