First Easter In Our New Home

For the first time we are hosting Easter at our house! Both of my parents have decided to be in Greenville packing up my little brother Christian as he is graduating in just a few weeks!!  Traditional it is at my folks house but since that didn't look like that was an option, we invited everyone else to our house! 
One thing I love about out place is that we actually have enough room to host our friends and family; it really has been a big blessing to have that space to make those memories! 

After a beautiful church service celebrating and singing our heart out, everyone joined us  at our house for some fellowship and banana cream pie.  Although the sun was shinning we determined it was still a little too chilly to eat on the porch so we ate inside. Grandma made ham and we got to use our electric knife (from our wedding) for the first time! 
After lunch Marcus and I played Summer and Jenny (two of my sisters) in one of Jenny's newer games - Ticket to Ride. We both really like it! We all played while consuming hot chocolate with homemade whipped cream and Starburst Jellybeans ( One of my favorite things about Easter are the Jellybeans). Jenny ended up being the final winner! 

All in all It was a good happy Easter!
 

When Should The Ring Bearer & the Flower Girl be ready for photos?

One  of my favorite stories of ring bearers was one of my little brother; Christian was a ring bearer for one of my cousin's weddings. He was terrified because he thought he was getting married to the flower girl. He was extremely hesitant, but eventually persuaded by a giant water gun this size of his torso that my grandma Gertie was holding out in the middle of the aisle. To this day it still one of my favorite family wedding stories.  I share this little piece of family history to let you be aware when you have kiddos in your wedding, they have a tendency to think this big party is for them!

Kids have there own schedule but working with them can also be a joy because they are only this little once. For wedding party photos and family photos you want the ring bearer and the flower girl to be ready at the location 20 minutes before we start shooting the full wedding party. In your timeline you want to plan to have them there for long enough that they can be included without it being too much time in between that it is overwhelming for them. If that is too early or interrupts nap time consider doing separate wedding party photo with them after the ceremony.  

As learned with my family, bribes are always acceptable!

Shoot and Share Competition | What I Took Away | Finalist

Finalist against more than 30,000 other photos?! YES, I AM FREAKING OUT!

If you don't know what this is Shoot and Share is a fun and addictive photo competition that anyone can be a part of!  You can add up to 50 photos in numerous categories that fit each niche of your style and passions. 

The photo of mine that made it the farthest was my pancake cake from a shoot last year! This photo made top 100 in it's category coming out to be 25th out of 7,635 photos. <3 Every time i saw my photo when voting my heart would skip a beat and then start to beat faster and I would get giddy with excitment! It is so much fun knowing someone voted for you!

This is my second year entering photos, but my favorite part is the AMAZING talent I see when voting. I have learned that flowy dress portraits can make me sit in awe for minutes where I never want to look away,  movement in photos can cause a almost dreamlike quality to photos, leading lines make wedding photos pop. I learned any time it has a mermaid theme or a corgi in the photo I will vote for it!  It has been such a cool inspiration and new goals that I want to implement in my own photos!  

Here is a little screen shot of some of my favorite photos from this year competition.  The photo by Lexy Parks was my ABOSULTE Favorite from the contest!!  I encourage anyone who love photography to either enter or vote next year! WARNING: Voting for the shoot and share contest is extremely addicting and will steal many hours of your life, but will fill your mind with beautiful photos!