I met Amanda, her makeup artist, close friend, mother, and brother at the hotel to snap some getting ready shots. It was simple and laid back the entire time which would lay the foundation for the remainder of the day. Amanda looked absolutely stunning! Her gown was altered to create a custom look that complimented her personality quite well. We did have a rain threat for the ceremony but it always seems that the big guy upstairs is always looking down on our wedding couples. After the preparations were ready we headed to the adorable Bell Gable Chapel located in Fayetteville, Arkansas where Amanda and Steven saw each other for the first time. The first look always makes for the best first sight pictures! I just love that one of Steven’s first sight of Amanda! Too sweet! The two walked hand in hand down the aisle past a select group of close family and friends. Unfortunately Steven’s parents were unable to attend due to health issues but that didn’t stop them from enjoying the ceremony from Little Rock, as Amanda’s brother set up a streaming video that played during the ceremony. He played a big roll for them that day by sealing them together as husband and wife. Amanda and Steven both wrote their own vows, it was so intimate that she got a little choked up and they turned together to read her vows to him. I’m pretty sure there wasn’t a dry eye in the crowd, and I’ll bet in Little Rock too! Amanda and Steven are such great people and in the short time that I’ve got to know them I can tell they are meant for each other.
This just in Jessica’s mom just sent me info about this via Facebook!
Moody’s Jewelry is a family owned Tulsa jewelry store and they are hosting a contest! One lucky couple will win $500!!!!! AWESOME! Well that’s where you all come in! Remember the awesome Jessica and Ben?
Yep they are adorable! Well they just so happen to have a super great memory of the proposal all caught on video!!!! With your help they could win $500!!!
Please help them out by going to Moody’s Jewelry’s Facebook page and “Like” their page then vote for Finalist #2 their video is the one that’s 3:15 long.
Here’s just a plug for all you guys out there…..hire someone or get a friend to capture that special moment! And girls maybe start hinting at the idea to your boyfriends now so it will stick when it’s that time!!!! It’s so wonderful to have that moment as a memory!!!! I’ve hid in the woods before and I’ll gladly do it again to capture that experience!
Please go vote! These two are really great people and together they are going to impact so many lives!
She Said Yes showed up with a couple beautiful gowns! They are my favorite place to go for bridal gowns because they offer the most beautiful designer gowns around!
My favorite part about their display was having a variety of sashes that drastically changed the style of a simple gown.
Designs by Nicole Phillips from Joplin showed up with her gorgeously adorable aprons. She sells these treasures as gifts for bridal showers as well as hostess parties or even Mother’s Day!
Bluebird Photography was there too! She’s a really down to earth sweetheart and has some work worth checking out. Isn’t her set up precious?!??! I think I love that gold bowl!
Then the beautiful ladies from FLORA showed up with this show stopping arrangement. Those ranunculus were just too perfect! They are new on my lovely vendors list, I mean, really, they specialize in extraordinary plants!
Goddard Design Group impressed us with this design. If you are looking for something unique I would suggest checking them out.
Of course Lola Boutique is just around the corner but they have some serious style that you shouldn’t miss out on for your honeymoon or just everyday attire! I’m loving these colors! I think I might just be in a muted trend.
Luxe Beauty has always been a favorite although I’ll be totally honest for some reason I get a little uncomfortable when I walk into any place that sells makeup, yes even Dilliards. I have no idea why. Maybe I just feel like everyone is staring down my at home makeup job provided by Maybelline and sizing up my work? I hope I’m not the only one out there that feels a little bit intimidated! They have a beautiful little shop off Dickson St. and the gal at the show was anything but intimidating, she was such a sweet and adorable lady.
I couldn’t believe how many beautiful treasures Mae’s Emporium had to show off!!! This is THE place to go for bridal jewelry!
Amanda was such a classic and beautiful bride as seen in these shots we grabbed of her getting ready. I just love that last silhouette shot with everyone working to finish tying up her gown!!!
These two kept it simple with their best friends as their whole bridal party! Love the florals!
Not sure why but I adore the shot of Rob escorting Amanda to the alter!!! I think it’s the shape of that gown that did it for me!
I don’t think I’ve ever gotten to experience an Arch of Swords ceremony, until now!!!! I apologize in advance for not knowing a whole lot as far as terminology about the Navy (well Military in general), but I believe Rob was a commander in the Navy. Traditionally the bride and groom walk through the arch of swords. That passage is meant to ensure the couple’s safe transition into their new life together. My favorite part was after they reached they end they said “Welcome to the Navy Ma m” Old movies, 50′s, black and white, the olden days, these were all things that came to my mind. So glad I was able to witness that part of their ceremony!
I was able to capture this real moment following their ceremony! Love this shot!
Shortly following the ceremony we cruised around the gardens in a golf cart and stopped off at several beautiful spots for their portraits! This couple set aside nearly 3 hours for portraits!!! Gotta love when clients think of us! :)
Oh this is totally another favorite of mine!!! Just love how she’s looking up at Rob!
Their reception was held in the ballroom at the Arlington Hotel in Hot Springs. Of course we’ve gotta start the reception off with awesome details!!! I almost dropped to the floor when I walked in!!!
This shot was a must have for this Hot Springs wedding!
The must have ring shot!
Little known fact…..Amanda just so happens to be a Dietitian……ummmm guess what I am……Dietitian drop out!!!! Awesome!
Ok that sounds awful, so I just pursued a different career path for myself while attending college? What’s so bad about that? Seems like it paid off to me though! I love weddings and I love photographing them! I LOVE LOVE LOVE my job and would never trade it to work in a hospital setting or go through an internship and take a test to tell people that they aren’t eating right……especially when my favorite food group is…seriously….candy! I give props to Amanda for sticking it out and becoming a wonderful Dietitian! It’s not as easy as you might think, trust me!
Ok ok ok with all that said I have an appreciation for food, I don’t necessarily like it and I’m definitely not always willing to try it, I just like to appreciate it. So here’s to appreciating! I mean really these two had a lot of food! I didn’t even know it was possible to make an ice sculpture of a shrimp!
Can I just say how much I love personal touches? Is this not the most adorable thing you’ve ever seen? Please please please when you are planning your wedding include lots of personal little touches like this!!! We as photographers love it, and you as the bride and groom will love having your wedding represent who you are!!! It’s a win win right?
They cut some cake….
They did a little dancing….
And then they left….. (of course nothing other than a sparkler exit!!!!)
I had so much fun shooting this wedding! It was wonderful to get to know you Amanda and Rob and we wish you the best in the future! Congratulations!
Hey everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend! I just wanted to share how our Saturday went over here……
I must start this story with Friday actually. Friday morning I pack up little T and we head over to grandma’s house to get to work. I get there and we make a list of things we will need to pick up at Lowe’s. Finally after we eat lunch we get around to Lowe’s and leave with hardware and wood and white spray paint (my best friend), to make so easels. I spray painted about 16 long pieces of wood only to leave the rest of the hard work for my mother to do….she’s going back to school to be an engineer so she’s got a knack for building stuff like that.
I swing by Eventures to rent a few items like a cocktail table and some linens for our booth.
We finally make it to the convention center about an hour and a half before the doors are to be locked and everyone has to be done setting up until morning. I start pulling out all my linens from Eventures to put up my pipe and drape only to find out not all of the panels are the same color and I was sent out with the wrong size pipe. This would prove to put a damper in my design. So I called up Mike and he agreed to fix the problem and to meet us at 7:30am to get us the right equipment. (I want to mention that I love Eventures and they do a wonderful job but in my haste and unpreparedness things got miscommunicated…… I’m pretty good about showing up to rent something I need the next day at 4pm, leaving no time for mess ups). I left the convention center that evening with pretty much NOTHING accomplished as I had originally planned.
Well as you probably all know by now I have a new little one with whom we are still adjusting to sleeping around here. Oh the joy. Friday night my little guy decided he wanted to wake up every hour making for a very long night! So when 6am rolled around and my alarm clock went off, some how it magically got turned off and I didn’t wake up for another hour. Let me remind you I’m supposed to meet Mike at 7:30 (and I live in Huntsville). Period, it’s not going to happen, so I called up my wonderful mom and asked her kindly if she would go pick up the correct equipment, thank goodness she did!!!!!
I get little T all ready to go to spend the day with his daddy and I head out. My first stop was supposed to be Fed Ex to pick up a print that I needed for the show……I know I’m so good at this last minute stuff! I pull in and to my surprise they don’t open their doors until 9am. Ugh. Don’t they know this show starts at 10am!??!?!!? I can’t have this!
I took off and decided I would go to Target and see if I could find some white rugs to cover the beautiful hotel carpet…… I knew I would need 4 -4×6 rugs total. I actually already own one for my office but I thought I could just go buy 3 more and return them later! Just my luck, I go to Target (thank goodness they open at 8am!) and there they are the white rugs……well only two of them!!!! Ugh. Nothing is going my way today! I buy them anyways thinking maybe I could make it work with 3 or have extra time to drive all the way to Rogers and back (what a silly idea!)
I head over the the convention center and met my mother there. She saved the day and brought in 4 easels and the white linens!!!! We get started…..it’s about 9am at this time……we have less than an hour to get everything set up!!!! AGHHHH!! (In years past I would spend hours and hours creating my booth and making it perfect ….. the day before!)
Donnally saves the day too in this story. I assigned the task of finding white flowers (anything but roses) to her the night before. Well of course florists don’t open early either! Well that turned out just fine since she’s the doll that ran up to Fed Ex to pick up that print I needed so badly and arrived about 15 to 10am!!!! AWESOME!!!! (Shout out to Donnally…..thanks so much we couldn’t have done it without you!)
Lisa who owns The White Dress Boutique and Creekwood Gardens had a booth a few spaces down and came and helped hang our sign and cameras on the back wall! I’m so glad I had people to help me pull everything together at the last minute! Thanks Lisa!!!
At 10am the doors opened to the public and I still haven’t had a second to get my makeup on! I asked Donnally to man the booth (which she did great for never having done a show with us before!!!) Whoops probably should have given her a run down before I just took off! I came back and she said she just took notes from Mens Warehouse (the booth across from us)!!!! Love it!
Wow! What an eventful morning and it all looked so well and pulled together so great! Thanks everyone!
We met with LOTS of new brides (Congrats!) and had a chance to make some new friends and chat with old ones, we ran out of brochures about an hour before the show was over (so we ended up handing out the Arkansas Bride magazines with our ad page bookmarked!, and had a good time! What a great show and thank you for stopping by and checking us out! Let us know if can do anything for ya!
Sorry for the terrible iPhone shot (my mom isn’t so talented at taking pictures) but it’s better than nothing. And who would have thought that I would have forgot my camera!!! Ugh.
Our recent work post will be photos that we’ve been working on or it could include other work we’re working on too (you know for those non busy months) ha!
As if I didn’t already have enough on my plate I decided in the middle of the busiest season for us (fall family portraits) and in the middle of being a stay at home mom (which is a JOB if you didn’t know) I needed to have a office remodel……geeez……my brain what does it think sometimes? Oh well I’ve got support from my hubby finally! I say that bc I always start projects and they usually never get finished….but now he’s starting to see a change (probably since I decided I would tackle one room at a time from start to finish!) and even said the other night….”this room is next” —–> referring to our bedroom, which looks awful with a few pictures hanging on the wall randomly, our bed only on a frame with a makeshift headboard, two very mismatched side tables, and a project of mine gone bad when my hubby decided to take matters into his own hands…..a dresser I was painting white and ran out of spray paint……he mustered that I wasted money on the project and that I had plenty of spray paint left over in storage and I should just use that…..of course I didn’t want different colors…….so he took a can of BLACK and went to town on the drawers……so we ended up with a black and white dresser……it will find a new home soon I promise, but for now I’m not working on that room. :)
This is my friend Erica! :) and of course her hubby too! They moved here from Utah a few years ago. I was super excited to meet her when we finally met up last year. She’s an amazing photographer (she did Titan’s newborn pictures!) so if you want some newborn pictures she’s the one to go to!!! She’s so talented and super patient even with my screaming baby and my hubby that was totally ready to go after 30 minutes! But you can’t even tell that in her images!!! She’s great she really is! Check her out…..http://ericakirbyphotography.com/
And you should recognize Chelsea and Stew they’ve been all over our blog! They just got married May 1st so give it up to them! Congrats! These are their babies right now…..Philly and Hubert. I just love Hubert’s ears!!! They actually did a great job during the shoot! It’s always hard to get them to look directly at the camera though!
I’ve been working on some senior sessions two! Meet Craig. He’s a Springdale Bulldog. I did his sister’s senior portraits a few years ago so they came back for round two! He’s going to be attending U of A next fall! Way to go Craig for picking the best college in Arkansas to go to!!! …….U of A Alumni speaking……. ;)
Then my brother in law Andy wanted some additional pictures of him in his football jersey to end the season off just right! Oh of course his girlfriend Ally had to join in for the fun too! Sorry you two but I can’t NOT share this next one!!!
(LOVE IT!!!! HA ha HA ha HA ha I’m rolling off my seat!!!)
Then of course my house is a disaster…..
Let’s just take a look……two chairs that are projects……parent’s choice boxes full of Christmas Party projects……boxes of things for my office project……red rug on the kitchen table…you guessed it another project…..and then of course a drop zone for Titan’s stuff……oh goodie! I can’t wait to finish up all these projects so I can have my house back!!!
And Titan’s room……let’s see….. all the stuff that was in the office got dumped into his room….poor little guy. It’s a good thing he’s still sleeping in our room or this would not be acceptable!
Ok so here’s a few before shots (excuse the crappy iPhone shots please).
We plan on taking those shelves down, just wanted to try to get a lot of the painting done first.
Now some during shots……
I almost forgot a few other things in the recent work file!!!!!
Our family portraits!
Along with Katie and Jake’s wedding!!! They were married Nov 6th in the St. Louis Temple!
Danielle and Justin were married October 9th, 2010! Their ceremony was so precious! They opted out on having a first look, something I normally don’t recommend, but it was truly worth it with these two! Emotions were in the air and you could feel the love they shared radiate all the way to the balcony we had to shoot from!!! :) Congratulations you two! We wish you the best and many many many glorious years together!
Amber and Alan were such a beautiful couple. From the very beginning I could tell how much Alan adored her! So sweet! They were married at the Dwelling Place in Fayetteville and they held their reception at the amazing Fayetteville Town Center with pretty rentals from Festivities to provide the atmosphere. We got to work with some amazing vendors at their wedding too!
And Pinnacle Limo Services provided them a pretty sweet ride from the ceremony to the reception
Let’s see those pictures!!! We’ll start you off with all the pretty details.
I loved this shot of all the hands helping her get her dress on
Donnally captured this shot great! I imagine Alan and his really great brother were having a little heart to heart right before the ceremony!
Of course if there’s a wedding on a gameday you’d expect the groomsmen to be picking up the highlights on their phones!
Jon took the guys outside for some group shots and I just love this one……look close!
Alan looks like he’s concentrating before the big reveal at their first look.
Amber’s already emotional.
I’m so glad I was able to capture this moment. Having a first look has many benefits but as simple as it may be calming each other down before hand is one of them. Amber and Alan decided to exchange their personal vows during their first look and the traditional vows would be exchanged at the ceremony. What a great personal touch!
You’re looking at Mr. and Mrs. Nichols!
We headed outside to catch the last of the pretty light right at sunset. Alan looks so happy with his beautiful bride!
Jon caught this shot for us. The ambient lighting and the movement is lovely.
Just another reason I recommend hiring two shooters on your wedding day…..while Jon captured the photo above I was able to sneak in and catch what is probably my favorite shot of the night from a completely different angle!
Love it!
Their guests send them off to celebrate on their honeymoon!
Hey there everyone! We are getting ready to make some changes around here, as if that doesn’t happen all the time! :) We need to know who you are and what you want to come here to find!!! Help us out by filling out our short survey would ya! :) Please and thank you!
It’s so wonderful to have that moment as a memory!!!! I’ve hid in the woods before and I’ll gladly do it again to capture that experience!
Arkansas Photographer // We wanna know what you think!!!
Wednesday, October 13th, 2010Hey there everyone! We are getting ready to make some changes around here, as if that doesn’t happen all the time! :) We need to know who you are and what you want to come here to find!!! Help us out by filling out our short survey would ya! :) Please and thank you!
Enjoy!
-erika
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