sales, tails, and ales

Tiffany and I concocted a fine excuse to hang out in the yard all day, listen to music, and eat/drink ourselves into near comas. Well, one more real-er reason was to make a little money for a road trip and new bicycles. So, we filled up my backyard with all of our what-were-we-thinkings, and attempted to sell them to willing strangers.

If we had stuck to our plan of charging people a dime for us to stop signing for 1 minute, we might have made enough for a trip to New Zealand. Instead, we sang our way to at least some gas money to go to the beach in a few weeks. YAY!

Here are a few pics from our selling soiree!

Tiff's signs were of the more southern "yard" variety, and mine were of the northern "garage" variety. Both types did the trick, but mine were technically false advertising. Many apologies.

In case it's hard to tell in this next photo, the shoes do go down the entire length of the porch railing. We kept trying to find a Cinderella who wears a size 6.5-7 shoe. I loved how Tiff would immediately ask anyone who came up the driveway if they fit this description. Their reactions were a continuous reminder that my feet are freakishly elfin.

All hail Tiff's monkey bread!!! If my parents hadn't been there, I would have totally made out with this bread. Instead I ate about half of it while passing it mental love notes.

Leigh showed up for a bit with sweet pup nugget, Gus! Since I last saw him, he has apparently begun eating trucks because he's on a fast train to giant town.

At about 10:15am, I was told we had reached an "acceptable" time to start drinking mimosas. Champagne, after 10am....beer, after 1pm....hard liquor, after 4pm....cracked meth balls, after 2am. At least I think that's what my mom would say. Also, below you can see where I inherited my muppet face.

Tiff examines my "get a man" shoes. Currently, I can be found wearing shoes from the "I give up" and the "these don't make me want to cut off my feet" collections. Ahhhhhhh.

Tiff made the BEST signs. This one may just be my favorite. You know...FANCY!

We thought anyone who made fun of our stuff should have to pay more. I think we owe ourselves about 20 grand.

Here's me and Tiff modeling some of our sassy accessory items. Dork twin powers...activate!!!

White sand and blue water...here we come!!!

lauren & colin's wedding!

Both Lauren and Colin are just as beautiful on the inside as they are on the outside! From our first meeting, I was struck by the kindness, smiles, and addictive giggles they share with those around them.

Throughout their wedding day, we all witnessed how Lauren and Colin love deeply and laugh deeply. In fact, they broke a record. I often talk about how I get moved to tears at all weddings. Well, this time, I choked up THREE times! Just before the ceremony, Colin hugged his dad with such emotion, I couldn't hold back a few tears. Then, during the ceremony, Colin surprised everyone (including Lauren) by singing a gorgeous ballad that he WROTE. He has the voice of an angel, by the way. Finally, I cried a bit again during the toast given by Lauren's father. These families are so full of support for one another, and it was pretty incredible to be around.

Thanks so much for making me feel like a part of your caring family, and I'm lucky to have been there on your special day!

I have to give a shout-out to my second shooter, the wonderful Stacy Ventresca! She's so great to work with, and it was fun being the Stac(e)y duo!

Here's Lauren, looking about as classically beautiful as you can get!

....and the handsome Colin!

This is one shot we couldn't miss. Their wedding was held at the beautiful Gardens at Great Oaks in Roswell. There was a fantastic mansion on the property with an old-fashioned kitchen. We couldn't wait to take a fun picture of Lauren cookin' up some goodness for Colin!

To see a slideshow of more images from their big day, click HERE

The slideshow is worth a look just for Lauren's "throwing the bouquet" face. Probably the best I've seen yet!

1 page of fame

I had a great lunch with my friend Melanie yesterday in East Atlanta. After stuffing ourselves with chicken and brie sandwiches at Kasan Red, we walked through the village to look at girlie goodies. We stepped into a small consignment shop with incredible vintage hats and purses. There among the pretty garments was the book "50 Dates Worse Than Yours" by Justin Racz. I said to Melanie, "this is gonna sound weird, but I think there's a photo I took in there". Sure enough, on page 48, there it was.

A couple years ago, my friend Dan Berman in NY said he knew a guy (Justin) who makes these "50 Worse" books. He and Justin asked me to photograph a scenario where a guy and girl are on a date and the guy runs out of gas. Not the kind where he runs out of gas and puts the moves on her or turns into a zombie and dances around in front of John Landis, but the kind where the guy effs up and the girl is livid.

My hubby Matt and my friend Jen Caldwell were the willing modeling victims. The evening we decided to shoot, it was POURING rain. The three of us also got into some ridiculous argument on the way to the location. In retrospect, this worked well, because the angry faces in the image are for realz.

I never saw the finished product, and wasn't sure if my photo made it in. So when I saw it, I was like "sweeeeet". I'm all published n' stuff.

I love that there happened to be a big sign right there that said "WRONG WAY". I believe that's called happy irony, or art voodoo or something.

joel & jill's wedding!

"A good marriage is that in which each appoints the other guardian of his solitude."

~ Rainer Maria Rilke

Ever since I've known both Jill and Joel, I felt that they were people with very gentle souls. This may sound corny to some, but when I see them together, I get such a strong sense that they will be good to one another throughout their marriage. There is a certain sweetness to their connection that is really touching to witness.

There is always some moment that chokes me up during a wedding day. I'm never sure of when it will be, I'm just sure that it will happen. It must be the connection between Joel and Jill that I described above that made my "crying moment" their first dance. They looked so adorable, and I do love a good Lionel Richie song!

The whole day was lovely, and I couldn't be more excited for these two wonderful people. All my best to you in your new life together!

Here's the new Mr. and Mrs. Don't they look fabulous?!!

After the ceremony, we took some photos around the church grounds when I saw this heart in the sidewalk.....couldn't resist!

I had to get a photo with Sean and Lisa. I shot their wedding in Jamaica, and it's always a pleasure to see them! ~photo by Kevin Bachtel

To see a slideshow of more images from their big day, click HERE

yay rachel!

A HUGE perk of my photo biz is that I form some great connections with the folks who come my way. I'm not sure this would be the case if I were, say, a tax collector. Sorry tax collectors, but you're killin' me. Are they even called "tax collectors" any more? IRS Agents sound cooler I guess. I am SO that angry tax payer right now who will complain to anyone within ear shot. Someone please talk me down from the ledge.

Anyways....I need to talk about Rachel! I met her last year when we shot some fun portraits. She has a very lively spirit, that one. I was thrilled to hear that she has a "left the corporate world to pursue her dream" story. She was doing marketing for a high-tech company and now she is designing jewelry instead. Woo hoo! The right side of the brain wins again! Actually, Rachel is the kinda gal who I know will succeed because she has the creativity of the right side and the organization of the left. Very important when you're an artistically-based company!

Rachel and I met up for coffee and I asked her to bring some of her designs along for show and tell. Everyone who knows me knows I'm the WORST liar ever. Not as in "I lie all the time" but as in "I will never win a game of poker". So when I gushed over Rachel's work, it was most certainly sincere. She's very talented and I would proudly wear any of her work.

Her company is Uniquity Designs, and she makes one-of-a-kind pieces using vintage fabrics and other little treasures. It's all hand-made and extremely eye-catching. She's going to be working on a bridal/bridesmaid collection that I'm really excited about.

If anyone reading this is interested in her work, please leave me a comment and I'll be sure to pass you her contact info. Hopefully, she'll have a website up soon. I have a feeling she's going to go really far with this.

Here's one of the shots of Rachel from our portrait session last year. She has the best smile!

And here are her gorgeous designs....

Congratulations on following your dream, Rachel!

with this ink, i thee wed

I got to see fabulous newlyweds Josh and Stephanie for their "day after" session (though it was technically a "two week after" session). They had some fun hangin' in Bermuda for a bit, and now it was time to take some photos again. Hooray!

I tell couples that they can use the portrait session in their package for just about anything. I will take a still-life of your dog playing x-box if you so choose. Stephanie and Josh had something much better to shoot. When we met, they said there would be "fake" rings at the wedding because they would later be having the "real" ones tattooed on. Looking back, I may have actually begged them to use their portrait session for the tattoos. Thankfully, we all agreed.

Debi at Illustrator Tattoo was really cool, and does beautiful work. We even got to listen to some Bob Dylan while the magic was happening.

So here are some of the shots of the rings being "put" on. Note: I think Stephanie deserves an extra nod for being a superhero. She has very tiny, thin fingers, so that tattoo had to have hurt a tad. I'll be one of those people who goes in to get a battleship across my chest and walks out with a dot and a kleenex.

Stephanie was up first...

She even wore her incredible wedding gown for the occasion! And they say you only get to wear it once. I think she should wear it to Kroger every time she has to buy toilet cleaner. Ya gotta do it, you may as well make it glamorous!

Here's one of the shots we took of the stand-in rings.

Debi's working on the design for the back of Josh's ring. Neat-o!

I love the purple Tetris floor!

The rings in all their finished glory...

Thanks you two for such a wonderful, unique experience!