I love unique sessions, and I love different ideas. I love having shoots become an experience, a crazy fun memory (with some different photos). May it be on the Cliffs of Moher, with Elephants, under waterfalls, the top of London’s tower bridge and so on. I was so excited when Kristina asked me to do an after wedding session. Immediately the planning began. Kristina has a huge love for animals. After a lot of talk, we decided to rent camels, and a few other animals. Why camels you may ask, well why not. We didn’t want pictures with horses, or cats, we talked for a long time about alpacas. I think the reason was simple, we wanted an experience, something a bit different. That we got.

This was my first ever, sunrise session, I don’t really believe that we are supposed to be up before the sun, so I never am. But when you have camels, a stunning bride and groom, 100 degree heat in the day, and beautiful morning light, I was convinced that morning was the way to go. We had so much fun! The camels had much more personality then I ever expected. There was one moment in which I asked Ryan to kiss Kristina on the cheek, a camel went and put his lips against her other cheek! I am convinced that he thought Ryan was eating something tasty off her face so he went to check it out on the other side, but it did make for one awesome moment and I just love the picture (below). The farm had many other animals. They even had doves that they let Kristina and Ryan release, the doves flew around then came back. I am kind of in love with these pictures, what an amazing day and what an amazing experience!

Thank you to Kristina and Ryan for helping me brainstorm this session, and for having so much fun (even when the camels tried to bite your heads), and thank you to Thu for waking up at such a crazy hour to help with this crazy fun session!

In my last blog post I came across the above image. It is one of my all time favorite father daughter moments. There is such joy in this photo, it really makes me smile. I realized that a wedding day can be the biggest day of a dad’s life. Father’s dream of walking their daughters down the aisle, giving their daughter to a good man, their father daughter dance. They give the toasts, welcome their friends, sometimes even pay the bills. I am very privileged to photograph one of the biggest days in a father’s life. This post is a dedication to some of my favorite father moments. A big happy fathers day!

Now I realize that I didn’t give my dad many of these moments as a bride, instead my dad got a bit more of an nontraditional experience. Below are two images of my dad, taken in Zimbabwe the day after my wedding. The first we are feeding elephants, the second yes he is rubbing the belly of a lion. Thanks for all the amazing memories and for all the adventures! Happy Father’s day.

The Plains, Virginia

I just loved everything about Lyndsey and John and I loved everything about this wedding! Lyndsey and John are both very environmentally conscious, and their wedding was one of the greenest weddings I have ever seen. Their flowers were the seasonal flowers from Whole Foods, their rings were made by Brilliant Earth, which uses recycled gold and platinum and sources materials and gems from mines that use sustainable practices, their favors were Newman’s Own organic rainforest alliance certified chocolate, the caterer used local food and all of the meat came from a small farm where the animals were treated well, recycled paper was used for the invitations, envelopes, reply cards, seating cards, menus, favor boxes and signs, the venue was family owned, the list goes on and on.

Lyndsey is just the sweetest person ever! Her smile is so warm, and very contagious! Every time I met up with Lyndsey I always felt so relaxed and happy. Plus for the three times we met, every time involved her giving me chocolate. Coolest person ever. John is just as relaxed and down to earth. This wedding was full of love, happiness, and just a good ole relaxed time. It was beautiful!

Cassie and Devin had a private ceremony and got married just the two of them. A month or so later they hired me to get some shots around DC and Old Town. It was really funny, I was kind of expecting the shoot to be a bit like an engagement shoot, casual clothing, low key… I showed up to find Cassie stunning in her beautiful wedding dress, high pink heals, hair done, make-up perfect and Devin in his Marine Dress Blues. It was hard taking my eyes off this beautiful couple. I all the sudden got really excited.

The shoot ended up a bit of a production. Devin is a bit quiet and doesn’t like a lot of attention. Having a Marine plus a breathtaking bride walking through the DC monuments ended up being quiet the spectacle. Groups were standing and applauding, people were coming out of the blue thanking Devin for his service, a tour bus even slowed down so that everyone on board could take photos. It was definitely not the low key shoot I was expecting.

We quickly moved out of the city and somewhere more quiet, we moved to the back cobble stone streets in old town. Both Cassie and Devin have such a fun laid back personally. They started playing around, laughing, smiling, and just goofing off. It was tons of fun!