WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHER'S BLOG
A Helpful Resource
This year I was blessed to serve couples and families in different ways! I am just throwing together a small gallery of images that I loved from 2022. I was able to shoot weddings at new places like The Whim and return to others like the Machine Shop. I am so thankful for all these beautiful moments shared with me. Due to me being unable to bring it down, this is a monster of a post. So buckle in and please enjoy!
I have always had a big soft spot for Christmas. For me it is not just one day of the year but a whole month of preparing, considering my friends and family and what they might love under the tree, putting up lights that will light up our spirits every morning. I know I am not the only one; I remember back in 2020 when everyone started listening to Christmas music in June just to have an uplifted mood when they needed something good the most.
I think for the most part we keep Christmas pretty simple at our house, BUT doesn’t mean it has any less heart.
Here are a couple of Christmas Traditions that I LOVE doing every holiday season.
My My Grandma Gertie would always show me how to perfectly wrap a present. If you did it in a hurry, she would get after me for wrinkling the paper. It takes patience and skill. I have no earthly idea where it came from but she had these two GIANT rolls of metallic Christmas paper she would bring up from the basement for years.: one green and silver and one red and silver. They lasted years and many gifts. Her love of Christmas definitely made me love the season more and more growing up.
It happened more after I was married. Marcus and I would look for a Christmas ornament from our random adventures. We have an ornament from our wedding and one of our wedding venue. (We got Married at Como Conservatory!) We have one from our Mt. Rushmore Road trip, Mae’s First Minnesota State Fair Trip, Great Sand Dunes in CO, just to name a few). It is such a joy unboxing and reliving those memories every year when I decorate our Christmas Tree. I am greatly looking forward to when Mae will be able to join in on the fun of decorating our tree together.
We constantly have Christmas music playing in our house during the holiday season. I am not musically talented in any way, shape, or formed. But that will not stop me from enjoying and singing my little heart out at the top of my lungs. For Christmas specifically, I will play my small collection of Christmas Vinyl. Mae has been really loving this part of Christmas this year and asking for it to be played on repeat. My favorite Christmas Vinyl I have is Ingrid Michaelson’s Songs for the Season. It is amazing, stop everything and go listen. We also love hearing old Christmas hymns so we do have several of those as well. Ones I would still like to add to our collection: Peanuts Christmas, Dolly Parton Christmas (For Marcus), She & Him Christmas Party, Bing Crosby Christmas, ect.)
This tradition is one that I have really grown to love more and more. I try to have just a small group of family and friends where we get together and just enjoy cookie decorating. This year I am baking everything ahead of time and having all the decorations out to make it a little easier. I am still figuring out the best way for everyone to have an enjoyable time. Christmas Music will be played and sugar will be had. At the end of the night everyone takes home I giant plate of different cookies for their families and friends.
This one is something we did growing up and I think it will be a tradition we keep alive. When we go over to my family’s home for Christmas, my grandpa would always open up his bible and read the story of Jesus being born and how he came to earth. I think even as a little impatient kid excited for presents it always brought us back to the real reason for the season.: The birth of Jesus in Bethlehem.
Thank you for reading things that bring joy to my heart and my family!! Do you have any Christmas Traditions that are close to your heart?! I would love to hear all about it in the comment section.
A MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU & YOUR FAMILY!
Hey There! It really has been a while since I have posted anything personal on my blog or on the internet in general. It has been harder for me to adequacy put my feelings into words. I thought that would always get easier as I got older. Although I wasn’t wrong in some ways like I am now able to tell people what I want or need when I need it, other things I have felt like are more important need to be kept closer to the heart. I have kept my daughter and our adventures off the internet for the most part because I have felt like it is something worth protecting, so I have chosen to not share. I want to focus my online presence to my wedding couples and all my new mom stories wouldn’t be relatable.
What might be more relevant is how God has been working in my heart the last couple on months. I have been feeling really inadequate in a lot of different areas of my life. I think it has really been God pointing to him and letting me know, I am inadequate and I need to be leaning on him for his grace. I think it has really come down to exhibiting His humility in my life.
I have been focusing on my bible reading in Philippeans 2. Just so I don’t loose you here is what it says:
2 Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, 2 then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. 3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, 4 not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.
5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: 6 Who, being in very nature[a] God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; 7 rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature[b] of a servant,
being made in human likeness. 8 And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—
even death on a cross!
‘‘Do Everything Without Grumbling”
9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
12 Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.
14 Do everything without grumbling or arguing, 15 so that you may become blameless and pure, “children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.”[c] Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky 16 as you hold firmly to the word of life. And then I will be able to boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor in vain. 17 But even if I am being poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service coming from your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you. 18 So you too should be glad and rejoice with me.
I think what I have been mediating on the most was how different God’s version of humility is from where it feels like the world currently is. The internet says - If it doesn’t work for you, cut it out of your life. The Bible says- “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.” I have been looking at how I am loving people around me a little closer and trying to use Philippines 2 as the base line.
What should be my example of humility - Christ and His example of coming to the world and submitting to the death of the cross. He did that for you and for me. And for me that is pretty humble.
I am in no way perfect. I am working on this daily in showing love to my family and friends and those around me. I hope that I can be a light and “shine among [others] like stars in the sky” to a world that feels dark.
This is what I will be meditating on this season of life. I hope this was a blessing to you if you needed to hear it too. <3
To my Brides: I know that not everyone believes this way. But please know this is what I believe and this is the bases of why I work so hard to serve you and your families on your wedding adventure and wedding day. I strive to serve you humbly and to the best of my ability so that I might be a blessing in your life.
Your wedding day is important! It is a celebration of your marriage, your commitment, and your love! Marriage is a gift and something truly worthy of being celebrated!
I will be your guide, helping make your wedding photography experience fun and more authentically you.
