Katie and Aaron were married at Derbyshire Baptist Church with a reception at the Willow Oaks Country Club here in Richmond, Virginia.  The weather was perfect: sunny, breezy, warm but not hot, cool but not cold.  As Aaron said, its the kind of weather you would order up for your wedding day if it were possible to place such an order.

Katie hales from Radford University and Aaron from VCU.  I realize that I am about to get hate mail from our beloved Hokie clientele but I don’t know what else to say: we haven’t seen a party quite like this!  I’m no wuss, I can dive into a crowd of thrashing dancers with the best of them, mosh pits do not phase me and I do not cower from the occasional crowd surfer.  But there I was in the middle of a country club on a Saturday evening, wishing I had protective padding and maybe even a helmut.  It was that live…

I’ll put up some photos here to sum it up or you can check out the slideshow to see more.  And if that’s just not enough, click here to be notified when their online gallery is available.  Congrats to Katie and Aaron on such an awesome wedding, its obvious you had the time of your lives!

Oh, and to this kid: work it, lil’ man…

Posted by Mel @ 8:37 pm, in Weddings | No comments | Permalink

Most of the time I am grateful that photos don’t include audio (motherhood, apparently, is no cure for potty mouth) but it would have been a pretty cool feature for this shoot.  At a mere 15 months old, Jasper had me very impressed by her vocabulary and knowledge of numbers and letters.  Joy assured me that they haven’t been using any index cards (we both roll our eyes at the “My Baby Can Read!” commercials) but its obvious that Jasper is big into story time with her parents.  She has little foam letters and numbers that she loves to play with and she can pick out just about any letter you request to see.

Jasper’s baby sister is on her way any moment now, I am always peeking at email to check for good news.  A beautiful mural was painted on the wall of the nursery-to-be by a family member, I love how both the Moses basket and rocking chair lay empty in wait.  Can you find the bunny on the wall?  Jasper can, she’ll show you if you ask.  Predictably, I loved the tiny, knit bunny booties too.

Poor Jasper doesn’t really know what’s coming.   Joy and Reggie have tried to explain the concept using a doll baby that Jasper can wheel around in a dolly stroller.  But to be fair, I hear that its just as hard for mommies and daddies to imagine another child too, how is it even possibly to love someone as much as you love your first born?   While it might take a little while for Jasper to really appreciate it, she will someday know how lucky she is to have a sister.  Sisters are the best.  Brothers are OK too, they are just smellier.  Or so I have been told.

While taking a snack break from picture taking, Jasper was coloring in her high chair and I witnessed the following exchange.  It made my heart swell up… could it be that they teach us?

(Joy draws a heart on the paper with a crayon)  ”What is this?”

Jasper says, “HAPPY!”

“No, that’s this.”  (Joy draws a smiley face)  ”What’s this?” (Joy points to the heart)

“HAPPY!”

Indeed, girlfriend.  Mine too.

Posted by Mel @ 7:46 pm, in Portraits, Wee Ones | No comments | Permalink

If you were looking for me in the middle of a teenage funk, it was a pretty good bet that I could be found sulking in Old Town, Alexandria.  I took a series of drawing classes at the Torpedo Factory at the age of 15 and adopted the area as my personal reflective space, somewhere I could go take my tormented soul to enjoy an ice cream cone from Ben and Jerry’s anonymously while staring out at the water.  When Erica told me that she and Mark were planning a wedding reception in the Torpedo Factory I was intrigued, remembering the concrete floors, cat walks and pleasant “art” smells created by paints and thinners as I wondered how the space would translate.  It translated awesome…what a great spot for a funky, modern reception!  The ground floor was professionally lit and transformed into a wonderland of silver tablescapes to complement the blue hues that followed us through the day from the flowers to the pier lights.

Victoria of Perfect Detail Event Planning made sure that everything was in place and was fantastic to work with.  Guests enjoyed cocktails in a tent off the back of the main building facing the pier as the sun set before they were invited inside to dance beneath disco lights and lanterns.  Erica looked a-mazing, we knew that she and Mark were going to be a lot of fun to work with from their engagement shoot last fall.  It was great to see the Wilberger and Clifton families again and we’re thrilled to add the Howells to this group of crazy, fun clients that we have had the privilege of working for over the past few years.   We really do love you guys…

Here’s a slideshow with our favs and click here if you would like to be notified by email when Erica and Mark’s online gallery is available for viewing.  Congrats to Erica and Mark and thank you for inviting us to be a part of it!

Posted by Mel @ 9:24 pm, in Weddings | 1 comment | Permalink

Its been almost a year since I saw Anna and Lauren last, I’m not sure either even qualifies as a “baby” anymore they are such little girls!

Fiver and I met a 5 year old girl at the playground last week who slumped in the swing next to me, twisting and drawing a circle in the sand with her toe.  She asked me about the baby in my “bag” (sling) and said she had a baby too but she was only 5 days old.  I asked her about “her” baby and she was clearly less than thrilled to talk about her baby sister.  I told her to hang in there, she can’t do much right now but someday you’ll be best friends just like my sister and I.

I’ve been taking pictures of A&L since Lauren was 10 weeks old and its been fun to see their sister dynamic over time.  It wasn’t until this session that I could see the budding of buddies.  Of course there’s a lot of eye rolling, hair pulling and “stop touching me!” to come as it is with all sisters but right now, Anna will grab Lauren’s hand and off they go…

Portraits are usually taken of faces but I was very drawn to scenic shots of the girls who looked like twins running through the wonderland that is Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens.  Especially in b/w where the effect was surreal:

Here’s a slideshow of this fun, tulip sniffing session and Happy Mother’s Day to Chrystal and all my awesome mommas!

Posted by Mel @ 8:03 pm, in Portraits, Wee Ones | No comments | Permalink