Julia’s Blogfest

In 2 weeks, I will be heading to the Chesapeake Bay Beach Club for Georgette and Jason’s wedding.  I am so looking forward to it — for one, I love spring weddings and LOVE the Bay but these two are going to have a fun wedding on the water so I  KNOW I’ll have lots of opportunities for great shots.

So this was a very unusual session for me but equally fun.  Here’s why.   I was asked by another photographers studio, a couple days before this happened, if I could do this session for Betsy + Alan as a gift for them from Betsy’s “boss”.  I happened to be FREE and so I offered up my services.  Betsy is a graphic designer for the fabulous Sarah Petty Photography of out Springfield, Illinois (a photographer for whom I hold in very high esteem) and Sarah wanted to give them a little wedding gift by having someone do a session for them locally.  Betsy lives in Texas and her fiance Alan, lives, and is stationed with the Marines in FL.  But they got married in Virgina.  Got all that?  Good.  I’m not even sure how long Betsy and Alan were engaged by they decided to do a quick Justice of the Peace ceremony?  wedding?  event?  [you get the idea] on Friday, Nov 13th.  I offered to be with them at the exchanging of vows but they decided to wait another day and come up to Alexandria where, ironically, Alan’s uncle lives.  So we did the session in Old Town and I want to wish them the very best LIFE together!  I’m so glad my calendar was open to do this.  [And I apologize for taking so long to post these Betsy and Alan!!!]

Me having fun with a little self-portrait action……

So I trumped some of my other sessions to blog this one.  This is unusual.  I did this session last night in DC and had to post these now.  These two love birds hired me to shoot their wedding 3 weeks ago…and their wedding is TONIGHT.  Yes, tonight.  Now their story is a bit different.  They both work for the State Dept and are assigned overseas — Tony in Iraq and Sheena in the Republic of Georgia.  They have seen each other 2x this past year!  When she emailed me about a month ago I was confused b/c she didn’t give too many details on this other than saying they were getting married Aug 5 in Old Town and they needed to make arrangements STAT!  So she booked me via email and I think we had maybe one phone conversation before I met them last night!  She was 9 hours ahead and it was tricky to get a phone call in so all correspondence was done via email and we managed to pull it off — pricing for their unusual wedding (read:  short with only some family), contracts, and payment.  So we met in DC last night and had a gorgeous, breezy evening.  I wanted to use the Capitol in some of the shots…yes, a bit trite.  But I do so many sessions in VA so it was fun for me.  Traffic is light in DC in august and parking is easy up by the Capitol after business hours so it was a great excuse to get into town.   Sheena flew into the US Saturday, Tony arrived Sunday and they both head back to their respective posts this weekend.  In a few months, Tony will join Sheena in Georgia.  I think that’s better than the other way around!

This was one of those sessions where I was giggling behind the lens b/c they were having so much fun and while I couldn’t hear what Tony was saying to her (I am using my 70–200 so pretty far away) he was busting her up!  It was so cute.  It’s really too bad they are not one of my 8 hour wedding couples!  Loved them!

And since this is a whirlwind wedding, I wanted her friends and family not attending the ceremony to at least see some photos of them together sooner than later.

I have to hurry up and blog this because I have so many other sessions to blog!  Bevin, Mike and I met up last month for their engagement session on one of the storm-free summer evenings here in Alexandria!  They are one of my Baltimore wedding couples and will have their wedding at Loyola Chapel and the Intercontinental Harbour Court Hotel in Inner Harbour this October.  Since I don’t usually shoot in Baltimore this will be a nice change for me and I really look forward to these venues and working with them.  I love Bev’s pop of red in her shirt and high heels to give the sessions a fun little UMPH!

This was a refreshing and fun shoot.  Lesley, Charles and I spent a good 90 minutes on the Mt. Vernon estate here in my hometown of Alexandria for their engagement session this past weekend.  It was their idea since there is a fee to go on the grounds and I’m so glad they were willing to pay!  I love Mt. Vernon and love living miles from this historic monument.  Despite the crowds at 10am, we walked around and had a great time in many little nooks of the estate.  These two are getting married Labor Day weekend at Collingwood Estate a few miles down the Parkway where I do a lot of  portrait sessions too!  It’s gorgeous there and I’m thrilled to finally have a wedding at this venue.  They just opened their new indoor venue so more and more weddings are taking place there.  So if you know of a bride who is looking for a historic spot in Northern VA, have her contact Judie Kunkle at Collingwood and take a look.

I had to get a closer look at Lesley’s awesome red shoes!

Just having fun with the props.