When your childhood friend is getting MARRIED!

This couple's wedding is extremely special to me. Why? Well..Ive grown up with Rachel, ever since I can remember. My sister, Rachel, my other friend Rachel, and I were inseparable growing up. I feel like we did everything together. Some of my very first memories of childhood involved these girls. And if you don't believe me, maybe this picture will prove my point ;) 

And now Rachel is getting married in just a few weeks!!! Her fiance, Quincy, is the sweetest man, and loves her so well. Their families have actually been lifelong friends, but the two of them never really had a thing for each other. Yet, they got reconnected a little over a year ago, and that suddenly changed! He proposed over the summer and they will be married in 3 weeks!! They love Jesus, each other, and others so beautifully. I am so honored to be a part of the day they commit themselves to each other for LIFE! 

We did their engagement photos in downtown Greenville, which is where they both live, work, and go to church now. It is a special place to them, since they will be starting their lives together in this town. My husband came along with me on this shoot, and I am not sure if that was a help or a hindrance, because he and Quincy made jokes and laughed the entire time. ;) It was almost impossible to get a serious photo of them! Either way, it was a FUN day and I am thankful for lifelong friendships!! 

How food poisoning lead to a proposal ;)

I hear all kinds of stories of how couples met and fell in love. But I had never heard of a story that involved food poisoning!

Randy and Sam met a few years ago. Randy used to manage a local deli where Sam came in one day to grab lunch. The next day, Sam woke up with horrible food poisoning. Sam works at a local coffee shop in Florence where Randy came in one day to grab a cup of coffee. As he came up to the bar, Sam looked at him and said, "Hey! I know you! You were the guy who gave me food poisoning!" ;)  

This didn't seem to stop either one of them from pursing each other, eventually dating, and Randy proposing a few months ago! No amount of food poisoning kept Sam from saying YES! 

Sam and Randy first officially met at the coffee shop where Sam works, so it was fitting to do some of their photos in a coffee shop. I had so much fun hanging out with these two, watching them laugh and make faces at each other, and for putting up with my crazy ideas (like basically rearranging the coffee shop to meet my liking, telling them to stand in front of a trash can for photos, yelling poses to them as I stood in the street to get a photo, and Sam trekking up a lot of hills in a dress and flats). They are a true model couple & I was honored to document this special time in their lives <3

California!

So I am only two weeks in to my Friday blog schedule and I ALREADY missed one! But yesterday I was in Hendersonville doing an engagement shoot and I can't WAIT to show you guys the photos from that session. Dream couple + gorgeous location = giddy photographer :)

Today I just wanted to share some photos from our California trip that we took this summer! I was scrolling through my photos from the summer and saw that I had over 700 photos just sitting on my hard drive, so I thought they deserved to be shared! 

Chris and I had the incredible opportunity to travel to Occidental, CA this summer for TWO weeks and team up with a church for their summer camp. It was actually a lot of churches that came together for this one camp, so it was hundreds of students!! Chris spoke 20 times in 12 days (the Lord totally sustained him, and he is such a trooper) and we got to meet so many incredible youth pastors, leaders, volunteers and students. We faced some intense spiritual warfare while we were there, but it was seriously the most uplifting experience. We were able to have SO many conversations with students who are really trying hard to walk with the Lord and have a thriving relationship with Him. We talked to other students who have a crazy home life, divorced parents, abusive relationships etc, and got to just love on them and encourage them in the Lord. We talked to students who got SAVED at camp and hear their salvation story. It was such a blessing being there for 2 weeks, building relationships and enjoying Jesus. Not sure why the Lord uses unschooled, ordinary people like Chris & I to share Jesus with other,s because we are absolutely unworthy, but we are honored to be on mission with Him and for Him. 

After the 2 weeks were over, Chris and I stayed an extra 3 days to explore and travel a little bit. We stayed in Occidental for the 2 weeks of camp, which was a SUPER cute, hippy, and small mountain town. Chris and I found our favorite restaurant EVER there, and ate there way too many times in those 2 weeks! We then stayed in a little cottage in Guerneville (which had a population of about 2000 people) which was so quaint. We decided to walk around the property a little bit one afternoon, and stumbled upon a BEAUTIFUL orchard, with trees FULL of fruit. We literally picked handfuls of plums, apricots, and apples and ate them right there (not sure if that was allowed, but oh well). 

While we were there, we loved asking the locals what their favorite towns, attractions, restaurants, and dessert places (of course) were in the area. Lots of people told us to go to Healdsburg, which is apparently one of the top 10 best small towns in America. We got there one afternoon, went and got dessert and coffee before dinner (because why not?!), window shopped in some super cute stores, stumbled upon a photo gallery that I was SO excited to have found, Chris tried oysters for the first time from the Pacific ocean, and then we ate dessert again after dinner (because..again..why not?!). After we stuffed our faces, we drove back to our sweet little cottage in Guerneville, and it was the most beautiful drive. Through miles and miles of vineyards, small towns, and a beautiful sunset out the window. 

The next day was on of my favorite days. Whats great about California is that you really have the best of both worlds. Its not just a lot of big cities, but its also full of incredible countryside as well. You have big cities, and then beaches AND mountains all right there together. Its phenomenal. Again, the locals told us Point Reyes National Seashore was a MUST see! So we hopped in the car and drove out to the point. The drives in California are just as beautiful as the destination. We got out of the car and stopped multiple times before arriving at Point Reyes. This was just some of the stuff we saw along the way..

We drove through fields and fields of cow pastures, dairy farms, and hay fields, and finally came to a dead end. Where the land meets the ocean. We stepped out of the car and the wind almost knocked me over. It was about 20 degrees cooler there, but unbelievably gorgeous. The ocean was so blue it looked like it had dye in it. You could see the ocean from every direction, as far as the eye could see. We saw whales peeking out over the water. The waves were GIANT and made the ones on the East coast look like little ripples. Unreal. Probably my favorite part of the trip. 

We had also heard that Nick's Cove was a GREAT restaurant, with fresh fish and oysters. We were so excited about trying it! The wine was great, the appetizer was great, and the dessert was great, but the dinner was not so great. Chris said we basically paid $50 for a piece of cardboard. But I had a great dinner view, out the window AND across the table ;) 

Our last day was probably spent the best of both ways...exploring San Francisco by day and strolling through Napa Valley by night. I had been to San Francisco yeaaars ago on a 4 day trip with school. It was an incredible trip, until the last day, when our hotel got broken into and someone stole ALL of my camera equipment, cell phone, my friend's laptop & Ipod. The whole situation was pretty terrifying, but thankfully we had some wonderful friends who were with us and who made the experience so much better. All my photos from those 4 days roaming the streets of San Fran were obviously lost, so I got to go back for a redemption trip and photograph again! 

After our feet and legs were hurting from walking up the steep streets of San Fran, we drove over to Napa where Chris' aunt lives. Her house is literally walking distance from downtown Napa. So we walked downtown right during sunset, ate gelato, explored their local market, and went back to her house for wine and cheese. Literally the perfect way to end our trip. 

So I think I probably win an award for the most photos on a blog post in history! But thank y'all for putting up with my way too long blog posts and excessive amounts of photos. This trip was incredible, and I just never want to forget it. 

Megan + John

Happy Friday everyone! Seems like it is a crazy weekend for most people, either evacuating or preparing for Hurricane Irma! My husband and I are on the way to West Virginia for the weekend, and there has been SO much traffic, with lots of Florida license plates. I hope everyone stays safe and still enjoys their weekend! 

This weekend, I want to celebrate this fun couple who is getting married in ONE month! I met John and Megan at Crossfit in Florence, SC about a year ago. AND John and Megan met at the gym too...so Crossfit has multiple purposes...to loose weight, get fit, and possibly meet your future spouse! My first interaction with Megan was at the assisted pull up bar machine. I had only been doing Crossift for about 1 month, and could most definitely not do a pull up. So Megan, my sister, and I were sent to the pull up assist machine to work on them. We immediately bonded over the fact that none of us could do pull ups and had no upper body strength ;) 

I did their engagement session in Charleston in March. Not sure if you can tell from the photos, but it was bitter cold that day, and super windy on the Charleston harbor. But they were troopers and made this shoot SO fun. I think we laughed about 75% of the time, and shot the other 25%. John and Megan are some of the kindest, most genuine, and super fun people. They also make a very attractive couple :) I can’t wait for y'all to experience the JOY of marriage and I am looking forward to celebrating with y’all at your wedding!!!

Margaret Ann

Welcome to my FISRT blog post on my new site!!!! It has been forever since I have blogged-and I feel so ashamed about it. BUT, from now on, Fridays are going to be blog days! So follow me and check out my new blog post every Friday :)

I have taken so many photos over the past few months and have posted NONE of them! Social media is great, but it is not good enough to post the hundreds of photos I've taken this summer. Well...I could. But I would probably loose about 64% of my followers. So thats why blogs are GREAT! You can post dozens of photos and no one is mad about it! 

I wanted my first post to be special and meaningful to me. I have travelled to some pretty incredible places this summer, photographed some beautiful weddings, and met some fabulous people along the way. However, I wanted to highlight one of my very best friends today, someone who means so much to me, and someone who I have grown to love more and more over the years.  

And that is my sister. 

Margaret Ann is 4 years younger than me. Therefore, I grew up thinking I was the superior sister, bossing her around constantly and always telling her what to do. Needless to say, we fought a lot. Screamed to the top of our lungs at each other when my mom would leave the house. If I told her to do something, she would do the exact opposite. Which made me even more mad and angry. Anytime our friends would come over, we would exclude her from playing with us, saying she was too young. Even Genevieve (my other sister, who is only 2 years younger than me) and I would go off by ourselves and not let her tag along. 

Thankfully as the years passed, I grew less bossy. Margaret Ann grew less stubborn. Our screaming fits got quieter and quieter. And our love and friendship grew. Now, this girl is truly one of my greatest friends. 

Genevieve, Margaret Ann, and I grew up super close as we got older. We did everything together, would talk for HOURS in my room at night, and always wanted to hang out with each other. When Genevieve got married in 2015, it was really hard on our family. We LOVED her husband and were so happy for them, but our family was so close, and now it was so different. Gen and I had always shared a room growing up, until the day she moved out. We had a tight bond that developed over 17 years of being roommates. 

Yet, even though it was so hard when Gen moved out, Mog and I grew extremely close. When I tell you we did EVERYTHING together, I am not exaggerating. The only time we were a part was when I was in class or at work. We would get up at 7am and go to the gym together. Sweaty and hot from our workout, we would go to the coffee shop down the road and sit together before I had to go to class. When I got home, we would sit in my room for hours, doing homework, having late night dance parties to keep us awake for a night full of studying, or just talking on my bed until our eyes were practically closing from exhaustion. We spent day after day with each other, until I moved out & got married in January. Im forever thankful for those days. That time of my life will never be here again, and I am thankful for the memories, talks, laughs, and days we spent together. 

Now a little big about Margaret Ann. That might be her official name, but everyone calls her Mog. She is the most compassionate girl I know. She is always QUICK to serve others and put other's needs above her own. She is absolutely hilarious and will never cease to keep you rolling in laughter. She loves the outdoors, picking flowers, laying in fields full of tall grass, and watching sunsets. She is an explorer and is always full of awe and wonder for even the small things in life. She is always so selfless and SUCH a good listener. She is a wonder woman in the kitchen and ANYTHING she cooks looks and tastes like it came out of a pro chef's kitchen. She also equally loves eating, as much as she loves cooking. She is a phenomenal artist and literally showed me up in a drawing class she took with me at my university, even though I was an art MAJOR and 5 years ahead of her in school. But more importantly, she has a contagious love for Jesus and a heart for serving Him. She spent her whole summer in Costa Rica, pouring out her gifts and talents to the poor and needy. Even though she is younger than me, I look up to her and admire her Godly character. 

Mog just started college a few weeks ago, so in honor of that, I wanted to share some of her senior portraits we took back in May. It was so special because we got to shoot in the fields we grew up LIVING in during the long, hot summer days, and next to her favorite tree that she named Arnold. We LOVE this land and have spent so much time in it over the years. Its her favorite spot in the world, so it was awesome getting to shoot there!

Anyway, sorry for the excessively long post. If you didn't read it all, I am not offended. I promise they won't all be this long ;)