For my dear friend Lisa

Lisa and Adam are getting married next September at the Bavarian Lodge in Frankenmuth, MI. I've had the pleasure of creating not one, but two inspiration boards for them. It's been a while since I've been able to channel some creative energy towards the wild world of weddings, I really had fun with this project.

I was going for vintage elegance with the first board. Given their location and a color scheme of sage green and chocolate brown, this was my interpretation for a more classy affair. If Lisa and Adam opt for a more laid back atmosphere, my second board shows a hint of Oktoberfest. This board has more emphasis on the brown with the use of wood grain repeated in table tops, beer barrels, and even the cake design. Both themes use decorative wheat and a chocolate wedding cake, why not? (Lisa, check out the olive green color and use of feathers in this board over at Snippet and Ink)


Some photos that didn't make the cut but I had to share:

Our garden-the end results

As I previously promised, here are the fruits of our labor from our first season of gardening together:We had to prematurely pick the all the peppers because of a threat of frost. Hopefully this year we'll be able to yield a larger variety of green, yellow, orange and red peppers.


Our only goal is to grow enough tomatoes and peppers for our annual cooking of Aunt Rena's awesome salsa. But this year we decided to try our hand at carrots and lettuces. Wish us luck!

Our garden

It's beginning to warm up around here so I thought I would share some photos I took last summer around our yard.
We have the most beautiful sunflowers growing every year. They started growing when my grandmother lived in this house and had a bird feeder on the back porch with sunflower seeds. They're not as big as the common sunflowers you see therefore they never get droopy and topple over from the weight of their head like most do. This also makes them ideal for cutting to put in floral arrangments (which Josh often does)

The sunflowers have been cross-pollenated so many times we are lucky to have a variety of sunflowers...it never ceases to amaze. These photos don't even reflect the vibrant red coloring in the flower petals. And look at this little white breed that showed up for the first time last summer!
Josh knows I like simplicity so he picked this single flower for me. We had some odd looking Dahlias come up but I really loved the strangeness of them. If you click on the photo to enlarge you can see what an abnormal looking Dahlia it is.
Every year we have one or two frogs that come to live in our little ponds with the goldfish
A beautiful tomato ripening in our garden. I'll have to do another post about the vegetable garden because I have plenty more pictures to share...

Our beautiful wedding location

We've had amazing weather for November in Michigan. The past couple of days have been in the low 70's. Today I walked around our yard barefoot for the first time in weeks! I wanted to be sure to post these photos while it's still felt like fall in these parts. Josh and I finally made it out to our ceremony/reception site to finalize all the layout for the actual ceremony, where the tent will be built, and areas for camping. My parent's good friends, Steve and Gail, have been gracious enough to suggest using their property for our wedding and we couldn't have asked for a better location. Not to mention they are absolutely the some of the nicest and laid-back people you will ever meet. Gail even told me that day about her wedding experience, a drive through chapel in Vegas, and her wishes to renew their vows in the middle of the Grand River with wading boots on! Their place is 5 miles west of our house in Grand Ledge and it really is nature at it's finest. We are SO lucky to be getting married at there. These photos were taken on a cold Autumn day, but keep in mind our date is set for August 22nd.

This is the path back to the location of the ceremony. All our guests will have a nice little walk through the woods to get there.

Clearing in the woods where we will get married!
Their dogs and cat followed us while we walked around the property.
path to the Reception tent.
This is where the reception will be. My dad and the guys will build our tent from the ground up here. Look at Josh and Gail all bundled up, it was cold that day.
Steve and Gail's horses, what a beautiful site/sight!

OCD

Maybe I should get it out there that I am a perfectionist and probably a little obsessive compulsive. It's to the point where I mostly never let anyone help me with anything, because I only want things done my way. That sounds so horrible in writing but it's true. We just had our 2nd annual Halloween Bash and this is one of the first times I've allowed other people to help me cook food and hang decorations for a party. I love being a hostess, but with that comes my urgent need for everything to be absolutely wonderful and impressive. I want the largest selection of food, the funnest atmosphere and an amazingly good time to be had by all...except for me. I always spend so much energy trying to make everything perfect that I stress way out and don't enjoy one minute of it. Even my own engagement party was spent watching a pot of water boil for corn because I was so busy trying to do everything myself that I forgot to turn the stove on for such a little thing.

So the Halloween party...I will say that I still went back and moved some decorations around, BUT there were many things I forced myself not to care about and just be grateful that people were wiling and able to help. And I had a blast! People were fed and fun was had by all including me! I desperately have to keep this experience in mind for our Big Day. It's perfectly fine to let go of my own image of how things need to be. We're getting married and nothing else matters, right?

I had sent out an email to our families and wedding party with a list of items we were hoping to obtain for our wedding. I tried to make little to no specifications on the items, forcing me to make do with what I'm given. After all beggars can't be choosers. I received the 1st items off my list the day of our Halloween party. Josh's mom had called earlier in the day asking me what type of blue vases I was looking for. In the midst of party preparation I had no time to return her call and when Josh's brother Nick showed up for the party with the vases, I got nervous about what they looked like. "what if they're not our style? the wrong shade of blue? too small? too big?" I opened the bag to find she had purchased vases that look identical to ones I had gotten on clearance months ago! It was a sign; If I can learn to let go, then I will be rewarded with beautiful blue vases. Er... I mean...don't worry, be happy.

Autumn in Grand Ledge

Today...
all I want to do it share some of my favorite portraits from this past weekend.
Tomorrow...
I will post something a little more wedding related.
I promise.

Anyone who's been to downtown Grand Ledge can recognize this location; the Island park. I love how blue the sky is in the first photos from this set. And look at the beautiful colors reflecting in the Grand River.

Recognize these two little guys? I'll give you a hint: One goes "Gobble, gobble" and the other goes "Roar!". It looks like we walked up on two farmers having a chat about their harvest this year.

Of course you can't have Fall without playing in the leaves.

Hello. I'm finally doing this

I'm writing this first post immediately after a disgustingly cute fall portrait session with two 1- year old twin boys. One with curly hair, one with straight, in overalls sitting on bales of hay...oh, and yeah, we did Halloween costume as well (Turkey and a Lion). It's been such a beautiful fall here in Michigan. This morning's first session was a family at Grand Ledge's Island Park and I am fully convinced by the reflections of red, orange and yellow in the water of the Grand River, that this is the most vibrant autumn season I can ever remember.

In the past 3 months I've had unbelievable changes in my life and as one who hates change, I need as much as possible to find some constant in my life...maybe writing a blog? A wedding/portrait photographer, full-time receptionist, belly dancer, bridesmaids to two other 2009 summer weddings, and bride to be of my own August 2009 wedding most certainly does not have enough time in the day to maintain a blog, but...I'm hard-headed and do whatever I want. Lucky you...

Enjoy! I'm off to buy groceries for dinner.