Julia's Photo Blog

As I mentioned in my last post, Shelby & Tim had an incredibly large wedding party, but to their credit (they must love Shelby & Tim a lot) they were surprisingly easy to direct for pictures.  I think it also may have had something to do with me mentioning that the quicker we got through with pictures the faster they could get back on the air conditioned party bus. :)  I don’t do jumping shots too often, but at Tim’s request we got the whole groom’s side of the wedding party mid-air (and as one of his groomsmen said, that is hard to do with just 5 people, let alone 12!). A few of them got some serious air time! I had a lot of fun with this whole group- there were a lot of characters and they had me cracking up at times!  As always my time working with just the couple was one of my favorite parts of the day- they are so naturally cute together!  We hit a few spots around Forest Park before heading downtown and getting some more urban pictures near the beautiful reception site, Lumen Private Events. I loved the personal decorations that Shelby and Tim chose for their reception, including a wall of their pictures, momentos, and a cute family tree, and beautiful birch candles made by Shelby’s grandfather from a repurposed tree that died in the yard of Shelby and Tim’s new home.  The reception was gorgeous and turned into a pretty great party with the dance floor staying crowded for most of the night!  I loved being a part of this couple’s special day.  Congratulations to the newlyweds!!!

On July 16 I had the pleasure of photographing Shelby and Tim’s wedding day.  With 11 bridesmaids and 11 groomsmen plus a small handful of kids, they had the biggest wedding party I’ve ever worked with (the couple apparently called them their “wedding army” :). We had some pretty high temperatures that day, but (and yes this will sound cheesy, but it’s true) the hot temps outside didn’t compare to the warmth and joy shared by family and friends helping to celebrate Shelby and Tim’s big day.  These two aren’t just adorably in love… they are also adorable best friends, and it was so evident throughout the day!  The ceremony was at St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, which is also where the couple got ready.  While the girls got dressed in a little side chapel bathed in lovely window light, the boys got dressed in the not quite as lovely basement (but they had a foosball table to keep them entertained, so I’m pretty sure they didn’t mind!).  While the couple chose not to see each other before the ceremony, they wanted to hold hands before walking up the aisle, so we set Tim in place and Shelby came down to squeeze his hand around the corner (so cute!).  I’m sure you will agree that Shelby was a truly radiant bride, and once she walked up the aisle the two of them couldn’t take their eyes off of each other!  The ceremony was made extra personal and beautiful by the two pastors, Shelby’s uncle and grandfather.  Here are a few of my favorites from the first part of the day… look for some gorgeous portraits and reception pictures in the near future!!!

I first met baby Dane when he was just 9 days old (unless you count meeting him as a baby bump when I took maternity pictures for his mom, Karrie!), so when Karrie took him out of the car for this portrait session it was CRAZY to see how big he’s gotten!  He is sitting up and even standing up on his own (as long as he has something to hold onto :) and I could tell he’s getting ready to start walking pretty soon!  We had a warm summer day for our session in Faust Park, but we made the most of it by finding some shade and keeping Dane entertained with one of his favorite toys, Thomas the Train, and some nearby wild flowers.  I can’t get enough of his big blue eyes… what a handsome little man!  Here are a few of my favorites from our session…

So you just can’t fake cuteness like this.  Audrianna and Cameron are an adorable young couple that are clearly completely crazy about each other. Every time I asked them to look at each other they just instantly started grinning ear to ear- they are giddy with love, which was fun to see and definitely fun to photograph!  We had a lovely day in historic St. Charles, wandering main street, popping into a coffee shop, and finally heading down to a grassy area by the river just before dusk.  We got way too many cute shots to count, so it was really hard narrowing it down for the blog post, but here are a few of my favorites! Be warned that you may go into cuteness overload!

A few months ago I sat in church on Sunday evening, completely distracted from the sermon by the adorable little girl who kept popping her head up over the pew in front of me.  Being the total sucker for cute kids that I am, I started playing silent peek-a-boo with her, and she smiled and giggled (needless to say, I have no recollection of the sermon topic that night).  She was so cute through the whole service that by the end I had a pretty good case of I-WANT-TO-PHOTOGRAPH-THAT-ADORABLE-CHILD syndrome kicking in, so I just introduced myself to her mom, gave her one of my cards, and told her I’d love to do a family portrait session with her family some time.  I was thrilled when she called to set up a session for her family of six (4 kids 7 and under!).  They really wanted some nice individual pictures of each of the kids, and they told me that if I could get some good family shots it would be a great bonus.  I gotta say, wrangling four young kids can be a challenge at times, but the Christy family was a lot of fun to work with! Little Alice was probably the grumpiest about having her picture taken, but we got her laughing and smiling with a little playing and coaxing. 3-year-old Caroline LOVED having her picture taken and followed my directions perfectly, giggling and knowing she was super cute the whole time.  5-year-old Davis was a ball of energy that could only be contained in short bursts before he just had to run around for a bit (so we rolled with that :). And big sister Meredith was stunning posing for her own pictures and a big help with her younger siblings! We got a lot of great shots- here are a few of my favorites!

I first met Kara over a decade ago (yeesh, has it been that long?! Yup… summer of 2000!) when I was her CAMP COUNSELOR and she was MY CAMPER in my first ever cabin full of campers at YMCA Camp Lakewood. And now, cute spunky little Kara (who is still super cute and spunky) is getting married! And while she is making ME feel all old and nostalgic, she is making Joe one happy and lucky guy!  And, after finally getting to meet Joe and see them together for the first time over coffee and a mini engagement session, it’s pretty obvious to me that he is making her one happy and lucky girl too. They were super cute and giggly together and couldn’t stop cracking each other up, which made taking their pictures a pretty fun job for me!  I can’t wait for their September wedding at the Missouri Botanical Gardens (the Japanese Garden section… sooooooo pretty!!!)! For now, I hope you enjoy getting a little glimpse into the cuteness of Kara & Joe. :)

Last fall I held a little contest, hosted on my facebook page, called the Cutest Kid Photo Contest.  Parents could send in snapshots of their kiddos, and people voted for their favorite pictures by “liking” them.  The winning photo earned the child’s family a free portrait session.  Meet Alexander (who won the contest when he was still a pretty little baby)- now all grown up to handsome toddler status!  Alex’s mom, Kelly, went to grade school and high school with me, so it was really cool seeing her again and meeting her husband and little boy! They chose to do the session on Kelly’s parents’ property, which was really pretty and wooded and featured a cute log cabin, some lovely fields, wild flowers, and even a tiny waterfall.  Kelly’s dad acted as our “nature guide,” driving us around the property and making sure we didn’t wander into any poison ivy!  It was a pretty hot day, but Alexander was a trooper, and we got a lot of cute pictures! Here are a few of my favorites…

A little break from my normal portrait and wedding posts to let my readers know that my pictures are on a CD cover! Pretty cool!  Massachusetts based singer-song writer Rythea Lee just released her album Something Knows You, and she chose to use two photographs I did for her as part of a larger photo session on the front and back covers. She describes her music as a unique style blending folk, indie, pop, and rock. The album has some beautiful songs and really clever lyrics… you can listen to the music by visiting the website for her CD: http://rythealee.bandcamp.com/, where you can also buy a copy of the album, if you’d like!  Here are the cool front and back covers featuring my images!

I loved everything about Christine & Nick’s World’s Fair Pavilion wedding reception. There were so many cute and personal details, like the framed pictures of relatives on their wedding days, the FOURTH generation vintage cake topper on their beautifully decorated cake (strawberry and lemon flavored!), the playful “Mr. & Mrs.” engraved on the handles of the cake knives, the lawn games set up for the guests’ amusement (Bocce Ball and Croquet), the white leather couches and chairs carefully placed around the dance floor for extra comfortable and stylish seating, and enough white roses that they probably could have covered the whole pavilion with them!  The food was both beautiful and delicious (I’m going to have dreams about those bacon wrapped fig appetizers), and everything was so elegant and delicate in its presentation that I literally found myself photographing the butter dish at one point because even the butter was notably pretty (and mostly because I wrote about it, I did include the picture below)! As a backdrop for all of this, we had the most amazing sky full of colorful clouds (which later turned into some lightnight flashes, but the rain held off until the end of the reception!).  I loved that up until it got dark and the lightning started the dance floor was outside on the terrace, overlooking Forest Park- it made the most beautiful setting for the first dances and one of my favorite moments of the day, when Nick’s mom interrupted her dance with him to hand him over to his grandmother, who was delighted to finish the dance. The live entertainment by Pleasure Groove was awesome and entertaining all night, as was the cocktail hour band, accompanied by none other than the mother of the groom for a number of songs (she was great!). Everyone danced and enjoyed the party until it was time for a fairy tale ending to their fairy tale wedding day… the newlyweds were sent off in style with their closest friends and family showering them with rose petals as they climbed into their horse drawn carriage and waved goodbye.  I may have gotten a little carried away with the number of pictures I’m posting, but I also got pretty carried away with the number of pictures I took, so this was as far as I could limit it down- Enjoy! And to Christine and Nick- thank you so much for asking me to be a part of your truly beautiful day!

And just for fun…. I did NOT plant these shoes… I think a bridesmaid had some sore toes, but they fit the setting a little too well to not take a picture. :)