Kenison-Smally : A Rustic, Country Wedding
It’s amazing how complicated life gets sometimes. It seems so wonderfully simple when people see you in the grocery store, they say hello, smile at your kids, you both agree the summer is going to quickly and the kids are growing so fast, and you move on… but when you own a business, things are never quite a simple as they seem. LOL!
Case in point: I had been talking back and forth with a bride, answering questions about wedding pricing and she had told me I would be the photographer for their wedding. She was excited and so was I. A few weeks later, I get a call from a wonderful family friend, Jordan…
Jordan is a girl I took senior portraits for back when I was just getting started doing photography full-time. She loved her photos, we ended up doing a “cousins” family photoshoot, then I photographed one of those cousins the next year for her senior portraits as well. After all that, I asked this same gal to babysit my oldest son for me when he was born (I was pregnant when she was graduating and she seemed so genuinely excited and interested I knew I could trust her with my new precious baby boy.) She was beyond amazing. She brought him back to her mom & dad’s house and was never impatient to get him back to me even though I worried he must be getting in the way of her social life. She didn’t feel that way at all, in fact, her and her mom took him all over the place to eat out for lunch with the rest of their extended family, go on little shopping trips and all sorts of other interesting adventures. He (and I) inadvertently became “adopted” members of their extended family and we often celebrated birthdays, holidays and just regular old Sunday afternoons with them. I also ended up photographing her older sister’s son’s newborn portraits a few years back. Needless to say, we are all very close.
… back to the phone call…
she’s asking me about wedding photography and the date has not been set, but she’s thinking about the same date as the other bride I’ve been talking to and who “unofficially” has booked me (AKA: no deposit has been given or contract signed). I beg her to pick one of the other dates but she warns me it’s pretty likely this will be the date because it also happens to be her parent’s anniversary! How can I argue with that?!
{It also just so happens to have another element of ginormous significance… it’s my BIRTHDAY!!! 😉 Hahaa!}
… When it all was said and done, that was the date, June 25th, so I had to debate whether or not I risk upsetting the other bride, possibly ruining my reputation and delicately retract my commitment to photograph her wedding, or risk missing one of the most exciting moments in one of my friend Jordan’s life… Oh, decisions!
Obviously, I knew I couldn’t miss out on Jordan’s wedding, even if I wasn’t photographing it. So, I picked up the phone and gave the unlucky bride a call. She was so amazingly gracious and I was so full of gratitude and relief that she still had plenty of time to find another photographer and not to worry. Happy dance time!
Fast forward to Engagement Pictures… which you can find HERE.
And now it’s time to share some from the BIG DAY!!! It was the most beautiful, rustic country wedding. Set at her parent’s home with all her closest family and friends in attendance. It was a nail-biter though! There was predictions of lots of rain but we only ended up with LOTS of wind, and no rain until later that night around 10pm when everyone was safely under the tent and a little too tipsy to care that their feet were getting all wet.
The wind did make portraits quite challenging. Think wispy hair and ties flying sideways… yeah… not cool. I just had to let go of some of the ideas I had to take pictures in other parts of the yard and stick to an area behind a couple of sheds to keep my subjects from looking like they were about to be swept away. But even with all that, we have a TON of amazing images to choose from for Jordan’s wedding album which I’m excited to start designing soon.
Don’t miss noticing the amazing bridal party flowers that were created by Flowers By Bree. She is a local, Kensett, IA florist that works out of her home and she has a God-given gift for coordinating colors and textures with flowers in the most amazing ways. She can take any bride’s vision/request and bring it into a spectacularly beautiful reality. (Was that enough adjectives for you??? Seriously, she is THAT good!)
Enjoy!
Becca
Jenni : Mason City High School Senior Portraits
I love welcoming old friends back to the studio. Jenni visited in 2011 when her brother, Taylor was getting his senior portraits taken. Here’s a cute picture of them together back in 2011… #tbt 
Well, since then, Jenni sure has grown up and is a gorgeous young lady who is very athletic like her older brother and very much interested in sports.
We actually did two full sessions in one day to capture all her cheerleading, track and softball images as well as all the more classic looks. She picked a wonderful variety of outfits so I felt like she opened a door for me and all my creativity just started flooding out.
I’m in love with these images. I had such a hard time narrowing it down but luckily since we did two sessions, I get to show twice as many for their proofs! LOL! Now they are faced with the hard part, choosing! (Yikes!)
But that reminds me to mention…. One of the best parts about choosing my studio is that I am there for my customers, every step of the way, with an amazing ordering experience where we work together, in my studio with their images and lots of samples and I’m able to show them different creative ideas for displaying their favorite images with my state of the art ordering software. It’s so great, why don’t you call and book your session today and see what it’s all about?! 507-383-2344
🙂
Enjoy!
Rebecca
Taylor : Senior Portraits : Mason City High School
If you can’t already tell by the images below, this guy eats, sleeps and breathes baseball! At least that’s what was most important to him when he came to my studio to take his senior portraits.
I gotta say, Taylor, isn’t one of those guys you had to beg to smile. But he totally ROCKED the serious look. He was very excited about and interested in what he wanted his portraits to look like.
I know his mom and him will be really happy to finally see these after waiting two weeks. I am sure the suspense has been driving them crazy!
Enjoy!
Becca
Kory : Senior Portraits : Mason City, IA
Kory was one of those boys who walks in my door and instantly makes me a little nervous. I have to admit. Guys like him always challenge me. I could tell just by looking through his outfits that he is creative and artsy and has a definite idea of what he thinks is cool… and it isn’t quite “main-stream cool”, if you know what I mean.
I get my fair share of these guys. They know that I can pull off the look that they want, it’s just I know how much they are interested in their pictures (they appreciate good artwork) and so I am on my toes trying to get “outside my box” of my standard “senior guy” fall back poses. (I’ll totally admit I have them! I try to be unique, but just like when you’re shopping for guy clothes versus girl stuff… there’s a much greater range with girls.)
Once Kory and I got to know each other and I gained his trust (or just won him over with my charm and grace … LOL!) he really started giving me the inspiration I needed to get the poses and the shots that were going to be unique (but at the same time, not too weird.)
He also brought his guitar, since he is in a band, and that was the highlight of the session for me. I love watching guys get into the roll of rockstar!
I also did a few funkier crops, added some grittiness to this b&w image and made some vintage color effects that I’m hoping he’ll appreciate.
Enjoy!
Rebecca
Parker : Senior Session : Mason City High School
I was thrilled to have Cher and her second son, Parker, in the studio again this year. Her oldest, Tyler, came to have his senior portraits last year and so I felt totally confident knowing that they loved my work and wanted more!
It’s so nice when you really start to know your client’s personal tastes. It makes everything so much easier and I can relax knowing what they expect and that I can provide them with images they will love.
Parker is just the cutest name. And he’s just the sweetest guy with good looks to match! 
I’m wondering if it’s a requirement for quarterbacks to be handsome?
Remembering back to my high school days, it seemed like it was always one of the hottest guys in the class… and then look at the guys in the pros… Mmmmm! 😉
And here is Parker! Handsome little devil!
We also had fun shooting some on-location around Northwood, IA and just taking it easy since we had such a perfect day.
I hope they love these just as much as Tyler’s session… I have a pretty good feeling they will!
Enjoy!
Becca
Rebecca Lynne Photography : Northern Iowa and Southern Minnesota's Best Photographer! 