Dustin & Ashely’s graduation party

This past weekend I went to Oklahoma City for a graduation party. Dustin and Ashley are cousins of mine who are very close in age (but not siblings) who both graduate from college this year. Our extended family is very close so of course we took the opportunity to have a party! Since Dustin graduated from OSU and Ashley from OU, the party theme was “Bedlam” (that’s what they call the OU/OSU football games for those who don’t follow college football).

Cutting the Bedlam cake

Here is something you won’t see very often, Steely Joe (in the pink jacket) in front of the camera! My hubby took this picture of me with my cousins and sister, mostly to appease my mom who is always complaining how I am never in any pictures from family events.

Dustin, me, Kari, Ashley, and Renee

Both cousins are very close to their respective families, so as a graduation present, I did a family portrait session for both of them. Here are some of my favorites:

Dustin and family

Ashley and family on the OU campus

We had lots of fun, and for those of you who have been around my family, that is not hard to imagine. We tend to leave family events with stomach aches from laughing so much.

Tabitha and PJ’s wedding

Saturday I went out to Eureka Springs to shoot Tabitha and Patrick’s wedding at Thorncrown Chapel. The reception was at the Inn of the Ozarks. As usual, I am posting a few teaser images while I finish up with the pictures.

the new Mr. and Mrs. McGuire

There was a dance floor at the reception that all the little kids just loved. They were having the time of their lives! Here is one of my favorites from the dance floor:

dancing the night away

The first dance is always a great time to get pictures of the bride and groom, they are off in their own world and you often get the most genuine emotions showing through. I really love this image and I hope they will too.

the first dance

Joseph’s senior pics

This was my first senior portrait shoot in Van Buren. We had to cut things a little short as the rain (once again) was an issue. The portraits were done in downtown Van Buren which is a great place for portraits, despite the weather. We could shoot under the awning at the train station while it was raining, then jump out and use nearby backdrops like the mural whenever it stopped!

mural in downtown Van Buren, AR

at the train station

Twins baby pics

I went to my PWN (professional women’s networking) group for lunch today, and several of the ladies were asking about the portraits I took of the twins of one of the members. The ladies of the group took up a collection to give a portrait session as a baby shower gift. The twins had a rough start (but they are doing great now), so they were about 8 months old before we could do a shoot at their home. The layout below is for the folio that was part of the package.

I really love going to PWN once a month. It is a great group of ladies who really support each other. It is a great way to spread the word about you company, but mainly I go ’cause its fun (I can’t say that about all networking groups I have been to)! If you want to find out more about them, check out their blog at:

pwnnwa.wordpress.com

Brittany and Justin’s Engagement Portraits

I met Brittany and Justin at the River Valley Extravaganza bridal show in Fort Smith. It was my first year to do any sort of advertising in Fort Smith. Justin and Brittany’s wedding in September is my first booking in the River valley area. We did the engagement portraits at Devil’s Den (I promise I can do engagement portraits other places – it just so happens my last 4 were all out there!).

Justin and Brittany

The first couple I did engagement portraits for out at Devil’s Den came up with the idea to take thier shoes off and stand in the water below the spillway for portraits. It has since become sort of a tradition.

Devils Den Spillway

It looked like we were going to get rained out, but we got most of the shoot in before it started sprinkling. Since they already came ready to get their feet wet for the waterfall pictures, we did some neat images with their feet off the dock watching the raindrops on the pond.

raindrops on the pond