Abby and Jonathan's Ault Park Wedding

 I had the pleasure of spending the day with Abby and Jonathan for their Ault Park wedding.  The dramatic clouds were a gorgeous back drop to their laid back day.  Seeing Abby walk down the steps at the park with her Dad was so dramatic and sweet.   The couple laughed and joked throughout the day, it was nice to be surrounded by such fun people.  I started the day at Abby's mother's home where the view was spectacular. I was really excited to get a chance to shoot a few Impossible Project polaroid images throughout the day.

Josh and Elizabeth Urban Artifact Northside

This past weekend I got a chance to meet up with an old friend and his new wife to photograph their wedding reception.  Elizabeth and Josh were married in Mexico, they planned a celebration at Urban Artifact.  Since most of their wedding photos were taken on the beach, we decided it would be cool to run around Northside to capture something a little different.  I had such a good time.  It had been a long time since I had a chance to do an urban shoot like this.  This is only my second event of the year after having the baby, so pardon me while I post a ton of my favorites...inspiration was running wild for me this day. 

Katie and Kevin's B&B Riverboat Wedding

I have so many weddings from last year to share.  I figured since we are covered in snow and freezing cold why not start with a nice summer wedding.   I had the pleasure of spending July 4th with Kevin and Katie on the B&B Riverboat for their laid back, intimate wedding.  The day was a lot of fun.  My favorite part was when Kevin got out his guitar and sang for Katie, I am such a lush for special moments like that.

Before the boat took off along the river, we jumped off for a few minutes to capture some nice portraits.  I really like the one below a lot.

Amy and David's Friendship Park Wedding

This year has been a little different for me.  Over half of the clients I have booked, I have not met until wedding day.  They have mostly been referred by friends, and are drawn to my style of shooting via my portfolio.  I always have at least one phone conversation, and many email exchanges before weddings day.  It can be  little scary at first, considering I will be with them all day on their wedding day.  I have not had one bad experience with any of these weddings.  In fact, once I meet up with the girl's and start photographing them, I feel like I have known them forever.  This is exactly how I felt at Amy and David's wedding.  As soon as I arrived to their apartment I was greeted with big smiles and just enough of a southern accent to make me feel at home.  The first thing David said to me when I met him that day was that he was very emotional and was without a doubt going to cry.  I was glad he felt comfortable enough to be so honest and open.

The day was one of those we had last month where the rain was lingering over us, but never really came.  Amy and David's first look was one of the sweetest I have witnessed. Emotions were high and the tears of joy flowed unapologetically.  I was so happy to have witnessed so much love.  The day was super laid back and full of so many laughs.  I was so happy have had such a wonderful experience with these two people.  They got married at Friendship Park along the river in Cincinnati.  It's a beautiful location with so many beautiful spots to take photos.   

Sara and Forest's Surreal Engagement Session

I had an amazing time working with Sara and Forest.  When they contacted me about setting up their engagement session I loved all of their ideas.  They wanted to do something that represented their fun personalities.   They gave me lots of freedom to experiment and were up for any crazy ideas I had.  It was a pleasure getting to know them.  I am sad that I wasn't available for their wedding later this month, it has good time Kentucky written all over it, my favorite.

This image is one of my all time favorites.  I tell people all of the time, I never overly plan locations.  Sometimes you gotta just keep yourself open to what inspires you and leave room for magic to slip in.  We decided to stop by one of my favorite sunset spots when we were just about wrapped up.  Construction trucks were driving on the other side of the levee, which sent dust flying everywhere.  It made for a surreal, moody atmosphere that was just perfect.  I snuck in a few polaroids.  I love the way these  turned out. 

Ashely and John's Bell Event Centre Wedding

Their story is one of the best one's I have heard.   John was with a friend who was involved in a small fender bender with Ashley.  He thought she was gorgeous so he asked for her number.  After dating for awhile John took a job in sunny California and Ashley soon followed him there.  Fast forward to now, they are happily married enjoying way better weather than us here in Cincinnati. :)

Their wedding day was one of those rainy fall days we had last month.  I was determined to make sure Ashley and John enjoyed the day without stress so I came up with some unique ideas for pictures.  As I was driving I noticed it was dry under the bridges, and we have plenty in this city, so that is where I took them for some of their pictures.  Everything turned out perfectly.  They had their ceremony and super fun reception at the Bell Event Centre, one of my favorite venues in the city.  The staff always knocks it out of the park with their stellar teamwork and attentiveness.  It was really great celebrating with John and Ashley, what a great end to my wedding season this year! A very unique, and sweet first look. 

Tina and Joe's Asheville North Carolina Wedding

It's not easy to put into words the gratitude and love I have for Tina and Joe.  I met them over a year ago when they were first discussing ideas for their wedding.  They asked me to dinner one night and after a long, very inspiring discussion about life and love they told me they wanted to elope in Asheville and invited me to come along to photograph it.  I was beyond thrilled.  Tina and Joe's story together started over 20 years ago.  They always had a deep connection, but life took them in different directions.    After a lot of learning and growing the universe brought them back together.    Tina has this soft, calmness about her personality and Joe is just the right amount of intenseness to be the Ying to Tina's Yang.  I think this is so important in a relationship, balance is everything.

Joe likes to mountain bike, they stumbled upon The Bike Farm through his adventures.  Once they visited it together they knew it was the perfect place for their intimate wedding.  The farm is surrounded by lush green foliage.  There was a creek running through the land and a giant waterfall at the top of one of the hills.  It was simply breathtaking.  What a magical place to celebrate love.

Tina and Joe were joined by their dear friends, Erin and Ciara for the ceremony.  Erin actually officiated it.  David from Studio 213 documented the whole thing on video.  I can't wait to see what he captured.  Thanks to my awesome assistant/boyfriend, Chris for helping us out throughout the day.  He captured some very cool phone and polaroid pictures I will share later.

Thank you so much for your constant support of my work and for inviting me to document this very special time in your lives Tina and Joe.  I am happy to say I have gained two very good friends through this experience.  I am beyond grateful!

I love the way Joe is looking at Tina here.  She makes him light up. Tina is absolutely  beautiful.  Inside and out. :) After we were all ready to go we headed to the farm for the ceremony. We all stayed at a wonderful place called Cloud 9 Farm.   It is a working farm that has chickens, cows, blueberries, and bee hives that produce honey.  Aiden, Tina's son would get up every morning and help the owner, Janet feed the animals and do farm chores.  I got up to take a few photographs of them at work.  Coming from the city, having no experience whatsoever with any kind of farm animals, it was a real learning experience for me.  Here are a few pictures of Aiden working on the farm.  

September Love

September, you have been so good to me. :)

I am very grateful for the people who come into my life through photography.  I leave every wedding with a greater appreciation for love.  Photographing weddings is a job that is constantly giving to me, in return I am able to give back by capturing the raw emotion that makes the day so special.  Before I share the full blog posts from these weddings, I wanted to post a few peeks and thank all of my clients for giving me the opportunity to not only document their day, but to also make art with them.  This year, I have felt more free than ever to photograph weddings the way I feel most comfortable.  I have been able to really get in touch with and trust my instincts to create images from my heart.  I wouldn't be able to do this without the trust and confidence I receive from my clients.

Thank you!

Here are a few images from my weddings this month.  (Im actually working ahead of schedule, so my first wedding,  Becca and Greg already have a full blog post here)  I will have full blog posts coming soon.

Jennie and Julie

Tina and Joe

Rachel and Brad

Kate and Erik