Surprise 80th Birthday Party - Libby & Moshe

Last Saturday I got to photograph a surprise 80th birthday party for Libby and Moshe. Their family and friends from all over the United States met at the Park Cafe in Nashville, TN to celebrate their favorite couple. Songs were song, poems were read and toasts were given to the birthday girl and boy. These retirement parties and milestone birthday parties are quickly becoming my favorite thing to photograph. It is amazing to see the lifelong friendships and families connections that have lasted for generations. Libby and Moshe are truly blessed and I can honestly say that I too was blessed by getting to photograph these connections. Happy Birthday, Libby & Moshe!

Quinoa Chickpea and Avocado Salad Recipe

This past week this recipe popped up in my Facebook feed and I decided to try it. It is so easy to make and is soooo good. When the hardest part of a recipe is making the quinoa, it's my kind of recipe. I used my Instant Pot to make the quinoa but you could always buy the precooked frozen kind to make it even less painless. The recipe is vegan, but I added feta to it which, in my opinion, makes everything better. This recipe comes from one of my favorite food recipe bloggers - Skinny Taste. You can find the full recipe HERE.

Vegan Tortilla Soup Recipe

I was planning on making this recipe a couple weeks when it was freezing cold, but life and work got in the way and I made it today and it's close to 90 out. This is nowhere near as pretty as anything that I photographed this past weekend at Food and Wine, but it still tasted pretty dang good. It's really garlicky which I love.. just make sure that you eat it on a day when you're not planning to be around people for several hours. Also don't burn your parchment paper like I did while crisping up your tortilla. Thanks to Running on Real food for creating this recipe. It really was delicious.  Get "The Best Vegan Tortilla Soup Recipe" Here.

Total Eclipse Proposal - Morgan & Matthew

Matthew called a couple months ago to inquire about my wedding proposal photography services. In hopes that it would throw her off the scent of another big event, Matthew's plan was to surprise Morgan with a trip to Nashville for the weekend to view the total eclipse. After the eclipse he was going to take her to Arrington Vineyards for a private tour. I would be waiting for them at the end. I arrived early and sat at picnic table pretending to be on my phone but still trying to keep an eye out for the moment that Matthew dropped to one knee. Morgan noticed me but later told me that she didn't understand why someone was creepily watching them. Ha! Oops! Creepy is a first I think...I hope. Matthew popped the question and Morgan was in complete shock. It was very obvious that she did not at all expect it to happen! Congratulations guys! Thank you so much for letting me be a part of the start of your new life together. Thanks to Mackenzie at Arrington for all her help!

Sneak Peek Intimate Ravenswood Mansion Wedding - Courtney & Danny

This past Saturday was Courtney and Danny's Intimate Wedding at Ravenswood Mansion in Brentwood, Tennessee. They hired me to stop by for a few hours and capture their getting ready, portraits, ceremony, and a tiny bit of a reception. Check out how elegant this intimate wedding was! It was beautiful and sweet and I am so happy that I got to be involved!  

Special thanks to all of their vendors:
Venue: Ravenswood Mansion
Day Of Planner: Amanda Bledsoe
Florals: Brentwood Florist
Wedding Cake: Homestyle Bakery
Rentals: Music City Tents and Events
Catering: Brentwood Catering
Band: Groove Addiction Band

Personal Vacation Photographer Dollywood - Beechler Family

Once upon a time, 50 years ago (last year), a man and a woman were married. They went on to have three children and later 7 grandchildren. One of their daughters, Tami, decided that since they all lived in different cities and states and haven't all been in the same place in years, they should have a family reunion and vacation together to celebrate their parents' 50 year wedding anniversary. They rented a cabin right outside of Dollywood Theme Park, purchased weekend passes for the park, and planned for a weekend of spending time together and honoring their parents. 

One thing that Tami wanted was for everyone to be able to enjoy each other and be present. She didn't want anyone to have to worry about taking photos with their cameras or cellphones so she hired me to be their personal vacation photographer! This seriously was one of the best projects I have ever had. I spent two days following the Beechler clan around photographing them praying, eating, playing, singing (a lot of singing) and laughing together. One of my favorite moments was when the old family photos were brought out. The younger Beechler's found their parents', aunts', and uncles' teenage fashion hilarious. Most of what I did was photojournalism but one afternoon we spent a little bit of time doing portraits of everyone at Chimney Rock Picnic Area.

I loved all the time I got to spend with these people. They welcomed me into their family, told me multiple times to put my camera down and join them for meals, and shared their lives with me. It was such a blessing to get to work with them and I feel really honored to be able to capture their time together knowing that they will be able to relive that time through these photographs. 

Inspiration Shoot - Netflix The Crown

Since Downtown Abbey is over I had to attach my Anglophile self to another show that takes place in England and preferably involving royalty. I fell in love with the manners (sometimes lack of) and elegance of Netflix's The Crown. I found a fellow Crown lover in Brittany from Inspired Help and we started conspire on a styled shoot. We decided that East Ivy would be the perfect location and Brittany built a color scheme around a play on the colors of the British Flag. We mixed old world and new old design elements together to show that you can utilize both on your wedding day. Please enjoy our efforts and special thanks to everyone that made this possible.

Venue: East Ivy Mansion
Planning + Decorating: Inspired Help
Hair & Make-up: Chelsea Coker
Crown + Earrings: Eden Luxe
Dress: The Dress Theory
Dress Designer: Miss Hayley Paige
Florals: Rachael Ann Event Design
Rentals: Music City Tents & Events
Vintage Rentals: Two Monkey's Vintage
Catering: Dream Events & Catering
Bakery: Baked in Nashville
Paper goods: Fete and Quill
Ring: Brentwood Jewelry
Model: Maddy Newton

GiGi's Playhouse - On The End CrossFit

One of my favorite florist friends, Lauren Marie Atkinson, has been posting photos of a group of GiGi's Playhouse participants working out at her CrossFit gym, On The End CrossFIt. "GiGi’s Playhouse is the only nationwide network of Down Syndrome achievement centers; changing lives through free, results-driven programs for individuals of all ages, families and communities." I wanted to help out and I asked Lauren if I could stop by and photograph what was going on. The teamwork, the joy, and sense of accomplishment that I saw from the volunteers and the participants was intoxicating.

Lauren has been working with this group for for 5 months training for the "Murph" Hero Work, which is one of the most famous CrossFit. "Hero workouts honor a fallen solider. Murph is usually done over Memorial Day weekend and Honors Navy Lieutenant Michael Murphy who lost his life in Afghanistan in June 2015. It consists of 1 mile run, 100 pull ups, 200 pushups, 300 squats, and another mile run.  It was his favorite workout and he would often do it with his weight vest on. It's encouraged to wear a weight vest- which is why Andrew, Josh, Tyler, Caroline, Alan, Ben all passed it around! They finished the workout together as a team! They had been working towards this workout and all the different movements on Wednesdays. They went from being able to do no pull ups to getting their first pull ups to getting multiple pull ups in a row!" 

"Gigi's is the benefactor for Row for a Reason! When I (Lauren) decided to row a half marathon for charity with some other CrossFitters in middle Tennessee three years ago, we were trying to find a local charity where we could see firsthand how our charitable efforts were making a difference. There is a member of the CrossFit community at another gym whose son has Down Syndrome and someone mentioned GiGi's to us and we decided to go with them!  

After the first year, we started training some GiGi's athletes to row with us on teams for Row for a Reason 2016 and then after that I approached the owners of our gym to see if we could start training them at the gym throughout the year. There are so many benefits in connection to the Down Syndrome community and exercise so we decided to go for it."

If you would like more information on GiGi's Playhouse, please click here.