The Campbell Family (yep that includes our associate photographer Donnally) requested that I drove to Mena (yes my hometown) for their family portraits on their farm. What a beautiful place they have and so many good spots to shoot at!!!
I’m pretty sure this is my favorite shot of the whole day!!!
Enjoy!
-erika
So really who doesn’t love a snow day? We all know the teacher Miss Campbell loves them, oh and the photographer Donnally! :)
Well the coach’s wife Mrs. Dotson loves them (I mean who doesn’t love a paid day off with their hubby?) and the photographer Erika Dotson loves snow too! I’ll be over here watching Ice Age waiting on your phone call to book this special offer!
Be sure to check out Donnally’s post about what to wear for a fun snow session on the blog!!!
Schedule your session today!
*Unique Senior Portraits
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A blog post isn’t complete without a photo! So here’s my boy on Christmas with the small dusting of snow we had!
I look forward to hearing from you!
Enjoy!
-erika
Amanda and Rob were married in the Anthony Chapel at Garvan Woodland Gardens in Hot Springs AR. It’s very similar to our very own glass chapel, Cooper Chapel, up in Bella Vista.
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!
Enjoy!
-erika
I LOVE snow days. And I’m sure you LOVE snow days too. As both a teacher and photographer, I love them for different reasons. Miss Campbell, the teacher, loves getting to sleep in past 6:00, and Donnally, the photographer, loves getting great shots of everything covered in white. Erika had the great idea of doing portrait sessions when it snows!!! How fun would that be? Waaaaay fun. And it would make for some awesome pictures! Here’s an idea for a cute outfit you could wear on a snow day session!
-Donnally
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.
Enjoy!
-erika
This is a quick and easy DIY craft that will shimmer up your home for the holidays.
What you will need:
Candles
Epsom salt
Mod podge
Sponge paint brush
Candles ready to go!
Step 1- Brush mod podge on candles with a sponge paint brush.
Step 2- Sprinkle epsom salt all over the candle. Then let dry.
Step 3- Wait, you’re done! Tada!
Super easy DIY, but also super cute!!! Have fun!
-Donnally
We’re still chuggin along over here at Erika Dotson Photography! It’s been such a great year with many wonderful new clients! We are so blessed to have such amazing people choose us to be their special photographer! It’s been a pleasure getting to know you and work along side you! THANKS! :)
Here’s some of the things we’ve been working on!
Yep you should recognize that gal in the red scarf…Donnally…..and her gorgeous family! Had the pleasure to visit my hometown for a few hours as I drove down to Mena for their family portrait session! They have such a beautiful home with lovely surroundings, what a treat it was to shoot there!
This is Craig, we went out for part two of his senior portraits to Lake Fayetteville. I love that spot! He’s a Springdale Senior, in case you missed it the first time around! Congratulations….again! :)
Here’s Mr. Jack with his mommy and daddy. I traded out some babysitting time with this family! What a great plan and we’re both happy with what we got! :) Dusty and Stephanie have been my hubby’s friends for years so I adopted them too…..I’ll admit they are good company! :) Thanks guys!
Then the Crees siblings! This is Sam. We know each other from high school. Sam and his sisters wanted to give their parents a meaningful gift this year so they booked us for a sibling session! I love that their parents have no idea! What a GREAT gift idea!!!
Well that’s what we’ve been working on! :)
Enjoy!
-erika
-Donnally
Here’s a fun outfit to wear out on a Friday or Saturday night. Just bundle up first!!
-Donnally
Hey everyone we decided to start swapping out a few blog posts to change things up a bit! So I’ll be doing this week’s Out and About post!
I’d like to show you a mysterious side of my life! :) ha ha just kidding, but I am going to share with you something most of you probably have no idea I could do….horseback riding! The day after Thanksgiving when everyone else was up early scouring the stores to find the best deals we were out here kickin back and enjoying the beautiful (FREEZing) day! My hubby and I have done the whole “Black Friday” thing and since we aren’t doing Christmas this year (we’re buying our selves a ski trip instead—ok I don’t ski but a snowboarding trip for me) we decided to skip out on the whole event. (Just to clarify….we are celebrating Christmas just not doing presents!) And to be quite honest even though we planned out where we would go and what we needed the last time…..we both love a bargain and ended up coming home with so much junk we didn’t need and only later to find out they weren’t really that great of deals anyways. So steering clear of disappointment we enjoyed a day with friends and family!
(Please excuse the crappy pictures – I’m not about to take my good camera on a horseback riding trip- I’m not sure insurance would cover that!)
I tried to make mine look as cool as Donnally’s…….hmmm.
Enjoy!
-erika
Forever 21