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
Camellia + John Paul : Children’s Portrait Session
These littles are very dear to my heart. They just so happen to be my niece and nephew who live just far enough away to make taking photos a little hard to coordinate with school and work schedules. Needless to say, I was thrilled to finally have them back in my studio for some fun portraits documenting their ages (4 & 7).
The outfits their mama dressed them in were adorable and classic and so fitting for their ages. Camellia loves the camera and strutted her stuff like a girl who has seen a few episodes of America’s Next Top Model. Such a honey.
And JP, he’s golden. He really is. My parents get to spend lots of time with them since they live right next door and they never have a bad word to say about either of them. Gotta love grandparents.
I hope you love these images as much as I do… well, maybe that’s asking a lot if you’re not also related to them, but leave me a comment below and let me know which picture is your favorite!
Enjoy!
Becca
Kris + Katie : Wedding Photography
My brother-in-law, Kris, got on April 13th to the loveliest gal. Her name is Katie and her mom owns Addie’s Floral in Albert Lea, Minnesota. So I knew their wedding flowers were going to be beautiful for sure!
(Funny fact: I chose Addie for my wedding flowers when I got married to Andy over 10 years ago!)
After quite a bit of thought over having an outdoor wedding at their place in a rustic barn setting, wedding was held in Albert Lea, MN at the Methodist Church. Which was a good thing because there was quite the crowd for this beautiful couple!
I had the honor of being chose as their photographer, Andy was an usher, and our son, Collin was ring bearer! He looked so handsome in his suit!!! I was so excited to see him and Andy all dressed up for the wedding.
I’ll admit there are quite a few extra pictures of Collin mixed in the proofs.
*insert guilty grin*
After the wedding, the couple stopped at Pub 69 in Twin Lakes for a quick drink before heading to Diamond Jo Casino in Northwood, IA for the reception.
I was thrilled with their reception choice. #1 because it’s a very photogenic venue inside. #2 the food is awesome and served very fast! #3 it’s only 7 miles from my studio/home!
(Another fun fact: My younger brother also had his wedding reception there.)
They had me take portraits from “getting ready” until their first dance and the father-daughter/mother-son dance. Which is just right for designing a storybook wedding album. I can’t wait to get to work on it! Although I must say, I’m going to be a little jealous since my own wedding portraits aren’t this good!
Enjoy!
Becca
P.S. I apologize (sort of) for sharing so many images. Usually I can narrow it down a bit more, but it’s hard when it’s your own family!!!
Mark : Senior Portraits : Northwood-Kensett High School
I have just been getting the most handsome guys walking through my door this year! Mark is no exception. He was pretty pumped up for his session with his truck, his dog and his gun… oh, and his sister, along for the ride.
I took senior portraits for his older sister, Cari, a few years ago when she graduated. So it was good to see her again and catch up on everything she’s been doing.
Mark had a great time watching the two of us trying to get his dog’s attention. You can’t tell by the pictures, but he just did not want to look at us! Luckily, I didn’t have to work hard to get Mark to smile.
Well, that’s all for now, back to my to-do list that is never ending this time of year!
Enjoy!
Becca
Miranda & Brandon : Engagement Portrait Session
Another amazing couple visited my studio last week! It’s just been puppy love like crazy around here!
Miranda is just adorable. She’s so petite and ever since I’ve known her she’s always looking cute with her makeup and hair done.
Her fiance isn’t hard on the eyes either! He’s a hunky farm boy and I’m guessing she thinks his tractor’s sexy… heeheehee. 😉
Sorry, that was totally corney! LOL! … there I go again! I just can’t stop.
Seriously though… they are going to make my job so hard. They just take too many dang good pictures. Love it!
Guess it’s a curse I’ll have to bear.
Enjoy!
Becca
A new year and a brand new blog!
Happy New Year! I am so excited to ring in 2011 and share my new Rebecca Lynne Photography, real.life.blog with you. I thought it would be nice to have a fresh, new look for the new year. Plus, this blog format allows me to create multiple posts and “schedule” them to post. That’s the main reason for the change.
I am a firm believer in using the new year as an opportunity to reflect on the past and create goals for the future. I feel like I’ve done a really great job blogging and staying current with my posts, but I would like to become more efficient with my workflow and to be honest, blogging was eating up quite a bit of my time.
I would try to create a blog post immediately after I finished proofing someone’s session images, which was fine, but just about everyone knows that the more you can do one thing without having to switch gears the more efficient you will be. Hence, the concept of creating multiple posts one time each week from the previous week’s sessions and then scheduling them all to post on various days throughout the week. I’m thinking 3 times/week. Monday, Wed, and Friday. That’s the plan, anyway!
…
So, enough of this boring, business stuff. You’re not interested in that stuff anyway. You’re here to see images, right?! Well, have I got some cute ones for you!
These were taken a couple weeks before Christmas, but I never got a chance to feature them on the blog and I really wanted to because their mama is such a peach and I just love her to death. We have known each other a looong time and I just feel honored every time I get to photograph her two adorable girls, Morgan and Marlee.
Enjoy!
Becca
Rebecca Lynne Photography : Northern Iowa and Southern Minnesota's Best Photographer! 