A sneak peek of this Friday night’s engagement session while I’m in Dallas for the weekend…a robin’s egg blue piano, her grandmother’s pearls, her mother’s roses, a vintage lace shawl, and an heirloom candelabra are just a handful of personal elements this adorable darling couple used to style their engagement shoot. Almost everything they used to style this shoot was dripping in meaning and sentiment. I was in photography heaven. I haven’t even finished going through their images yet, but just had to share a peek. Can you blame me?
loving Maine…
And the first image (ahem) is the view from our friends’ camp where we’re staying for the month. Do we know how to make friends or what! 
Oh yeah.
I’ll be in the beautiful North for the next several months with my family. I cannot even begin to express how glorious it is up in Maine right now. Words escape me and even my camera feels overloaded with all the visual gorgeousness. I pick it up and don’t know where to point it it’s THAT amazing everywhere. We’ve been blessed to stay at a friends’ cabin on Snow Pond through July. Isn’t Snow Pond a lovely name? There is a more common name but I would slaughter the spelling if I made the attempt and anyway, that name doesn’t convey this lake’s loveliness as much as Snow Pond does The cabin sits on the edge of the lake and has a small dock for the kids to jump off into the water. Almost every window looks out onto the wide and tranquil lake. Shawn can be seen with his bar of soap and shampoo everynight bathing in the water and he says it’s the most refreshing way ever to keep clean. I haven’t been so brave because the boys are convinced there is a long black snake that makes it home near the dock! Nevermind, I am quite content to sit up on the breezy, tree-shaded dock and gaze out over the lake for hours on end. It’s been a wonderful time of rest and we are so blessed by the generosity of dear friends.
And I should mention that the cabin doesn’t have internet access so unless I head over to a friend’s home to use their internet connection, I’ll be pretty much out of pocket through July except by phone.
I also wanted to take a moment to announce the winner of the Engagement Session contest I’ve been running on my website. The entries had to be 20 words or less telling me why they deserve to win. The winners receive a free engagement session as well as $100 print credit. So without further ado, here is the winning couple …..Nancy Lefebvre & Nick Trojand!!
They sent in little poem and a picture of themselves as well:
“We’re Nancy and Nick.
It’s us you should pick.
We’re willing to get airsick,
To hear your camera click!”
You two sure know how to pick out sweaters Congratulations!! Email me with the dates you’ll be in Orlando and we’ll set your session up. I’m looking forward to getting to know you both!
sara + chris at lake eola. coming soon…
I feel like Superwoman right now. Not only have I put up 3 posts in 2 days, but I made pesto this week with basil grown from my ‘garden’, AND my tomato plant has real, live, honest-to-goodness fruit on it. Oh yeah!
So on to Tim and Beth’s wedding day! I woke up the morning of, looked out my window, and waved at Noah’s Ark floating by. Well, at least I’m assuming it was the Ark, I can’t be sure because the driving rain against the windows was making visibility a challenge. But what started out gray and gloomy ended up being a beautiful day for a wedding. The weather turned out be lovely and foggy but the part that made the day so special was the couple themselves and the warmth and cheer of their friends and family. It was like the sun was shining in everyones heart so brightly that it just made everything seem sunny and happy. What struck me most about this wedding was watching the way that Tim and Beth connect with each other. I got a strong sense of their friendship and solid companionship which in my opinion is one of the most valuable traits of a truly meaningful marriage. Plus, almost everytime they were together, Tim was making Beth laugh and laugh with her whole-heart. Friendship and laughter – what wonderful strengths to build a marriage on.
And if you missed the earlier posts, the Day Before photographs are here, Photobooth images here, and the Sneak-Peek is here. And many thanks to the wonderful David Rizzo who drove all the way from Massachusetts to be my second shooter. Check out his images from the wedding here.
Ceremony: Boothbay Baptist Church
Reception venue & Catering: Newagen Seaside Inn -Southport Island
Event Coordinator: Jason Schlosser – Newagen Inn
Cake: Sticky Fingers
Florist: Emily Carter Floral Designs
Hair stylist: Holly – Adam & Eve Salon
D.J.: Jeff Rockwell
Tim & Beth, thank you for everything. For trusting me to capture your wedding day and for welcoming me into your lives. God bless you both with a lifetime of love and laughter.
getting caught up with some blogging. This is for my sweet friend, Amy ~
When I was in Maine, I had a chance to take some photographs of Amy’s daughter, Bella and her friend, Cassy. I was going on two hours of sleep from the night before and I should’ve taken a nap, but who can sleep when the wildflowers are beckoning? I had a session booked with Cassy who is a dancer but we had to postpone the rest of the session till later this summer. But here are a couple of photographs that I captured from the time we did have together. Also, Amy has a picture up of her great-grandmother on her wall and everytime I go over to visit, I’m drawn to it. So…I thought I’d get her daughter Bella to recreate it.
This is what we came up with.
By the way, if anyone comes across any vintage photographs they are willing to pass my way, I’d be eternally grateful.
So since I know that the Mother of the Bride has been stalking this blog waiting for a post from the Wild Wedding Weekend in Boothbay (as I affectionately like to remember it) – here’s the post from the day before the wedding. Instead of a rehearsal dinner, Tim & Beth opted for a BBQ at an adorable little cottage on a lake. We followed that up with the rehearsal and then back to the Newagen Inn in Southport for a portrait session, a bonfire with s’mores, and a super-secret “raid.” What is it about bonfires that always makes me want to burst into a rousing chorus of Kumbaya?!
On a side-note – if you’re visiting Maine in June from out-of-state, factor in double the time you think you’ll need to get anywhere. Because, guaranteed, if you’re used to manicured city parks and marching lines of highways, you will be swept away to distraction with all the glory of the blooming Maine countryside. I made my friend, Amy, who came along to assist me for the day, stop her car several times so I could get out and take pictures and just breathe it all in. I’ve enjoyed several Maine summers, but each time, the riotous wildflowers and scented evergreens simply overwhelm me. There’s something about all that wild beauty that just makes my heart sing. It’s like the earth is declaring the majesty of God!
Look at how overgrown this apple orchard is… 
I don’t know what it is about wind-blown hair but I just LOVE IT!
Beautiful, unsuspecting Beth… she has no idea that sly Tim is making wiggly eyebrows at me as he prepares to squash a fat mound of cake into her face. That cake was no joke, by the way… I believe it was made by Beth’s aunt and let me just tell you, I would welcome anyone to stuff fistfuls of it into my face it was THAT good! It was all I could do to drag myself away from the table. You know, I think it’s possible to get drunk on good cake.
I soooo enjoyed chatting with this gentleman, Tim’s grandfather. He was a photographer in the service and has all kinds of interesting stories to relate.
After the rehearsal, Tim, Beth and I took off for some portraits down by the ocean. Sweet Tim has an internal signal that tells him to stop.turn.freeze.aaaand.SMILE whenever he sees a camera pointed at his face. It took Beth and I some work to get him to loosen up. Actually, it wasn’t much work for me, I just told Beth to whisper sweet somethings in his ear to distract him and …well, have a look.
After the portrait session, the family had planned an evening around a bonfire making s’mores. I took this photograph of Beth’s parents, Troy and Anita. I loved how it looks like Anita is thinking sweet tender thoughts.
During the bonfire, the ‘girls’ snuck off to the boys’ cabin take their revenge on the guys (well, actually, mainly on Tim for cake smooshing stunt at the BBQ.) The girls intention was to steal underwear. The guys had commandeered an enormous, Papa-bear sized tub of left-over banana pudding in their cabin and the promise of getting some of it for myself was the driving force in my joining the girls on their raid. The girls had just managed to steal away the boys’ underwear and were stuffing their pretty little faces with pudding when the boys came home. As the girls jumped out of a back-room window, and I stood there claiming my innocence and asserting that I was just there doing my duty as the photographer. Boy was my heart pounding so fast, you’d think I had just been found guilty of armed robbery. I have discovered I do not have the spine for undercover work. These pics are from just before the guys got home and the girls deserted me for safety. Pffft! 
Check back tomorrow for the full Wedding day post. And don’t forget to leave the newly wed some love in the comments!
Long meandering walks with the kids and exploring, that’s one of the things I love best about Summer in Maine. Looks like we’ll be spending oodles of time between our two favorite states, Maine and Florida over the next several months. I want to see a real live wild beaver, learn to cook like my Mainer friend, Kelly, visit lots of sleepy coastal New England towns, and take photographs out on a still lake with a canoe and couple in love. The boys want to spend hours in their Grandparents’ pool, roam the fields with their cousins, and get muddy while four-wheeling. Shawn…he’ll be working but I’ll be sure to vacation extra hard to make up for the time he can’t And Raenbird, well, she will spend her summer in pigtails, picking flowers and listening to birdsong with me. New England, here we come.
by shipra
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