Rachael + Brent//Athens Engagement

I need to start this blog post by saying that the day after I took these pictures, Brent and Rachael painted themselves green (BODY PAINT) and rode their bikes around Athens for St Patrick's Day.  Needless to say this is an awesome couple.  I loved getting to hang out with them and hear their story.  They met on a ranch out west and started long distance dating months later, so being married will be the first time they will be together in one place! I can only imagine how ready they are for that.  Brent lives in Charlotte, NC and works with youth at a church.  Rachael also works for a church (Christ Community Church in Athens) and is part of their killer band that is just about to come out with their album (check out more about it here ).  She is pretty amazing on the piano!  Brent and Rachael were up for anything and their love for each other was really sweet.  We took some pictures where Rachael lives (in a full of cuteness house near downtown), which is where Brent proposed.  We walked around downtown looking for some good spots, and I was excited to find a stop sign that said, "never STOP lovin"  So good:) We had some high school girls cheering us on when they kissed, and Brent and Rachael were really good sports about it.  The best part was going over to our friend's farm for the last set of pictures.  It was crazy that on March 16 it was 75 degrees and green as Ireland.  We played around in the grass field and wanted to venture over to a cute red swing, but saw a wire fence between us and the swing.  Rachael touched the fence and found that it was an electric fence (ouch.)... way to sacrifice the hand, Rachael, for the sake of cute pictures.  I also got some pictures of Brent reading to Rachael a book they got and read to each other for Valentine's Day.  Brent often reads to Rachael so they wanted to include that part of their relationship, too.  I think that is super precious.  Jared and I used to read Lord of the Rings together back before children (BC).  We only made it to the second book because some chapters were painfully long (especially the one where they are in the forest forrrrrrrevvvvvverrrr).  Anyways, life BC had some fun reading to each other times.  But I guess we still do read to each other in a way, except now the books are Where the Wild Things Are and Curious George. Oh, and there is a little person sitting in between us, too.  It's fun to see how love changes and grows over the years.  I hope Brent and Rachael can still read books together under trees in green fields 30 years from now and find the same if not deeper joy than they have in this stage of the journey.  You guys are awesome, so much fun.  I am really looking forward to the wedding and am so encouraged by your love for each other! Front porch where Brent proposed... and where he tickled Rachael to get her to laugh:)

leave it to Athens to have crazy stop signs. Never stop loving, guys.

this picture makes me think they are famous (and I'm the creepy paparazzi!) or maybe I think that because JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE and CLINT EASTWOOD were in downtown Athens shooting a film! So we were just pretending that Rachael and Brent were famous and I was stalking them:) Can you believe JT was here? I'm going to ride the streets playing my N'SYNC and rocking out with my two children.  He could autograph my stroller. this is a super random picture, but I had some fun HUGE balloons that I've been playing with in photographs and so Rachael and Brent did a "I'm about to fly away with this thing" jump. Brent looks like a balloon ninja.

Rachael will be moving to Charlotte once they are married, so this picture is in honor of their new home together... Ironic that we took these pictures in Athens (home of UGA) but Rachael wore a UNC Chapel Hill hat- that's love! You guys are the cutest. 

this was the lovely couple and me, the third wheel, spinning around.  I wish I had a picture of what it looked like from the outside looking in (me with my camera around the other person's neck and running in circles).  Mostly just for fun but I do love Rachael's expression in some of these shots. It's all part of trying to really capture people's personality and have fun. you guys are the cutest- thanks for asking me to be a part of everything!!!

Marshall + Rachel//Atlanta Engagement

One of my favorite quotes comes from Rachel Reece about love.  I've known Rachel for almost 4 years, and all throughout this time she has been in love with Marshall Sims.  I can still picture our friends in my living room, and what Rachel said when I asked her how things were going between her and Marshall.  Among many things she said, "home is when I with him."  My eyes filled up because I thought that was such an accurate way to describe the experience of love, a feeling of being at home with someone.  So it was special for me to photograph Marshall and Rachel's engagement pictures because I have seen their relationship and know how much they love each other.  Marshall & Rachel are getting married in just a few weeks, so I'll be posting their wedding pictures soon but I had to make sure to blog a few engagement pictures first.  So here's to love and the blessing of being at home with another person... thanks Rachel for always being an inspiration to me:)

Kat + Justin//Athens Engagement

A friend of mine sent me a message almost a year ago telling me about this awesome girl I needed to meet who is in the photography program at UGA.  She and I connected over Facebook (of course)- she was looking for a photography internship and I was looking for help with wedding photography= perfect match.  We met over pizza at Your Pie (which I love, by the way.  just found out they have a special on Tuesdays for gourmet pizza and drink $6 = joy).  Not only do we both love cameras and all things photography, but she has a huge heart for Jesus and a love for the church.  We hit it off and have been hanging out/working together ever since!    Kat and I got together after she returned from a study abroad in May at a coffee shop to talk photography but really ended up talking about a particular guy named Justin.  Kat had decided she wanted to date this guy, and she talked about how comfortable she was with him and how much she respected and liked him (sounded like love to me:).  At any rate, every wedding we photographed after that I made sure to see what she liked about the wedding and what she wanted to include in hers... and wondered when that might be. Needless to say I was SO excited when she called me to say that Justin asked her to marry him!! Justin works with Christ Community Church and is a gifted musician, and Kat is talented photographer (check out her stuff here) with a great eye for all things beautiful.   Every photographer knows the pressure is on when you shoot pictures of another photographer (they look at the picture and wonder what f/stop it was and if the ISO is too high!) but I don't think I could go too wrong with such a photogenic and rockstar couple.  Really.  They both can pull off the serious model face that I am terrible at (my mouth just quivers and breaks into an awkward smile!) and just have a dreamy look to them.  Here's a few from our time- thanks guys and I'm so happy for you!!