For a while I was worried Jon and Stephanie’s wedding would come and go without us ever getting in touch with them. For clients who contacted us around the baby came, until now, they’ll probably agree that we’re a little bit scattered with our correspondence. Well, Jon and Steph are just as busy as we are, so that made for a difficult time getting in touch. Over the 4th of July weekend, by chance, all of us were up in the same area near their wedding site. We met at the Holden Arboretum (which was amazing!) to check it out and go over the details. Again, Mike and I were just giddy with excitement that we’d be able to shoot in such a lush, garden-y space.

We drove up on their wedding day to a constant downpour of rain. Luckily, the rain held off, and the ceremony and pictures were done outside as we originally planned. That doesn’t mean we weren’t scared of rain, just a little bit, for the events!

First dress we’ve shot from the Running of the Brides. Loved it, so perfectly vintage, and she looked amazing in it!

And the purple vintage details were just so perfect for the location AND the dress.

and so. Onto the people!

Is it strange that I’ve been hoping to shoot a bride with a veil like this for as long as I can remember?

Could we have asked for more from the couple for timing on the bridal party & love shots?! They allowed an HOUR AND A HALF for pictures. We adore when that happens!

Much love and happiness to Jon & Steph!

A wonderful (traveling) wedding weekend. Friday night in Akron for Emily and Brett, back supah early Saturday morning for Katie and Josh. The hardest part of all these weddings? Listening with envy to where each couple is going for their honeymoon! We want a vacation!!!

Thus ends the back-to-back Cleveland to Columbus weddings for the summer. We MIGHT think twice about booking these next summer. It’d be rough with just the two of us, and add in Finn, (and Bella) and it’s all a little bit harder.

And we’re right in the thick of the dog days of summer. One-hundred heat index.

Ahhh, tomorrow = picture editing, AC, and baby time. We missed the Finnbot!

Emily & Brett

and Katie & Josh

Check back soon for Katie and Josh’s couple shots. Probably my FAVORITE shots we’ve done!

Yesssssss! I love finishing a wedding. Then, I love seeing the pics on facebook, and seeing what people have to say about them! It’s vain? Maybe? ….but probably one of my favorite parts of wedding photography.

Talk about LOVE! With Dawn and Ben it was just so EASY to capture beautiful, special moments. They needed no coaching, almost seemed to prefer for us to just leave them alone and snap away. I’m glad they took some time in their busy busy wedding day to be alone with each other….and happy we could capture it forever for them!

annnnnnd maybe my fave pic ever!!!

Part I

Dawn and Ben found us from Utah, and we were lucky to meet with them once before their wedding at the Everal Barn in Westerville. As we toured the grounds and got to know them a little bit, Mike and I kept looking at each other with giddy smiles in anticipation for how great we imagined their wedding would be. We loved the venue, and we could see that they had a great vision and artistic side to them that would be so wonderful to photograph. We were RIGHT!! We’ve been so lucky so far this summer, we’re hoping the great weddings keep on comin’! We had a great time getting to know Dawn and Ben, too. They, and their bridal party, were so great to deal with the heat and stick it out to take some great pictures.

Congrats to the lovely couple, we know you have a long future of laughing and love ahead of you!

Love the rustic feel to the whole property.

Dawn MADE the invites. She sent us one in the mail before we had met, and we were so impressed!

I LOVE catching the bride looking out at the ceremony spot, trying to catch a glimpse of the groom!

This might be one of my favorite shots. Maybe because I’m partial to cute little boys since Finn’s been born….

Annnnnd onto the party! It was a 10:30am ceremony, so the ‘reception’ was a Belgian Waffle brunch. It was great, all the details were so fun and perfect for a hot summer day!

We loved shooting your wedding, Dawn & Ben, and wish you the very best!!

Couple photos of the bride and groom coming very soon!!

Finn seems to have a trend of goodweek-badweek (badweek = less naps, a little more fussy), and we’re in the midst of a fabulously wonderful goodweek that’s been filled with almost giggles and lots of smiles. So as a reward to myself, for Mike and I clearly being such wonderful parents to have raised such a happy baby (this week anyways ), I decided to take a break from the weddings to catch our family pictures up to date.

I can’t believe how much Finn changes in such a short period of time.  I’m truly now loving this parenting thing. Not that I wasn’t before, but I know that all the mom’s out there understand what I mean. We had a sort of ten week get to know you period. Now he knows I’m his, and he’s mine, and that’s fun for everybody involved!!

Jagee takes Finn swimming at Nanny and Papa G’s pool. So happy that he was able to go in, and that we have pictures of it. My mom swam here when she was a little girl! Such an important summertime place for our family.

Finn helps us scout out wedding shoot locations

Finn and his cousin Ellise. Every time I’m looking at a picture of them, I think, “they’re going to be REAL people someday. What are they going to think about all the crazy pictures their parents made them take together!?”

….and my babIES. Trying to keep Bella as loved as she was before Finn boy came and stole the spotlight.

Back to editing for me! I’m absolutely loving the weddings we’ve done so far. Each has been so unique and special. Two more next weekend that we hope are just as fun!

Here’s a quick little look at what I’m (yes, I’m = Jess does ALL the editing!!) working on between two days of “real” work, a growing baby, and some lovin’ on Mike….

Steph and Jon’s vintage-y wedding celebration from the Holden Arboretum.

Dawn and Ben’s Belgian Waffle Brunch wedding from the Everal Barn in Westerville.

….And Lauren and Zach’s purpley goodness from around Columbus!

As promised, the rest of Lucy and Matt’s wedding pictures. We LOVED stealing them away and getting some of just the two of them. Hopefully they can fill their walls with beautiful pictures of them on their wedding day, and they will always remember what a wonderful day their wedding was when they look at these pictures!

Coming soon (when Finn decides to take more than cat-naps during the day…) more WEDDINGS!! Ben and Dawn, Steph and Jon, and Lauren and Zach!

We couldn’t have asked for a better start to our wedding season! We both went to college with Matt, and had a chance meeting with him and Lucy at World Market around Thanksgiving. We talked briefly about how, yes, we are doing wedding photography…oh you’re engaged, congrats!! And Matt emailed later that Lucy was the one who put the two together.

We are super huge big fans of Friday night weddings; as photographers, but we also wish we would’ve known so for our own wedding. They allow one night for formalities (the wedding) and a whole weekend full of family and fun.

Matt & Lucy were married at the Clintonville Women’s Club, a perfect place for our first wedding  as it took us all of 5 minutes to get there from our house, so if there was a major Finn emergency (thanks for the babysitting Car, David, Mom and Dad!), we could shoot right home in no time at all. We originally planned to head over to the Park of the Roses for some formals, but after Mike and I checked out the location, we realized there was plenty of greenery and fun-ness for Matt + Lucy shots.

The details were perfect. Just felt…like….summer!

Did I mention how gorgeous Lucy is??! She looked like the perfect bride in her HOMEMADE dress…her mom made her dress for her, and when we asked if we could take it outside to photograph it, we knew that it would be us re-ironing it if anything happened to it!

Just about my favorite part of wedding shooting is the getting ready with the Bride. I love feeling like a fly  on the wall experiencing the excitement and anticipation of the events ahead of her. It’s all so very real and natural, and, as Lucy is: beautiful!

Matt cleaned up pretty nicely, too!

The ceremony was perfect, their friend, who also happened to introduce them, was the person who married them. It felt like we were in the woods, with only Matt, Lucy, and their commitment to each other to focus on.

I LOVE this picture of them. We could’ve taken all the posed ones and pulled them away to take portraits for hours, and I’m quite sure not one would make me happier than this. (speaking of the portrait shots, though, they’re coming SOON!!) They had so much FUN together the WHOLE day. I’m so glad we got this shot!

More from M & L soon. For now, a little two month old (TWO MONTHS! Where is the time going?!?) deserves a little Momma love!

Amidst all the thousands of wedding photos I’m editing, I had to take a break to share our 4th of July holiday weekend with you (look at me all blog-connected!). We road tripped up to Cleveland on Thursday night after some deliberation, let’s go tonight, let’s go tomorrow, ok really let’s go tonight….and got there around 10pm. Always love returning home, even if this summer it’s almost every other weekend, it’s still fun to look around and see what’s different, and feel that sense of home. Extra good that there’s usually a full house to greet us, too!

On Friday we went to visit Aunt Sandy who insisted on us getting out so she could ‘babysit’ Finn. Getting out consisted of a quick trip to the bank and Quizno’s for lunch. We came back to see the babe had awakened and was solely entertained (read: stopped crying) when Uncle Mark did a out-of-control-move-every-part-of-your-body-at-once-style dance. How’d he know it’d work? C’mon! He’s a dad! He knows how these little humans work.

Friday night Dad (aka Jagee) convinced us to join him for a cookout at Freddy T’s house where he could show off Finn, us, and his lovely wife (aka Nanny) to some of his teacher friends. Turns out Freddy T and his wife live on 10+ acres where they devote their “off work” time to an organic garlic farm (their website is coming soon, we were told, in the meantime, check them here. It was a great cookout, and it’s always fun for me to see my parents as people, not parents! Finn experienced his first live music and campfire. And did GREAT! It was a sign of things to come for the weekend and him.

Saturday was my parents anniversary (34!) and filled with a day at Nanny and Papa’s swimming, eating, and family-ing. Mike manned the grill, per the new norm in our family, and Finn got to spend some happy time with everybody.

Sunday was Finn’s 2 month (birthday? what would that be exactly?), and while we didn’t see fireworks, we enjoyed more time with our family doing nothing but being together, and Finn got to give Uncle D a little extra love and attention (without being rescued because of cries).

What a great weekend for everyone! Phew, and now back to the real world….even though all I want to do is stay home from work tomorrow and play with this new big boy who has emerged. All of a sudden, he’s a smiling, giggling, interacting little baby who is taking his world in.

The garlic at Thaxton Organic Garlic Farm.

GrillMaster Mike!

Hope your holiday weekends were great! Shout out to Ms. KLC, who we hope had a fantastic birthday weekend!