sarah and thad

awhile back i had the amazing opportunity to go along with a photographer and second-shoot with him at a wedding !! it was definitely an awesome experience and he was so gracious about having me shoot with him.. it gave me the beginning of a knowledge about how to go about shooting a wedding and what to look for and do.. i had an amazing time !!

sarah was absolutely glowing the whole day.. from the moment we showed up at her door until we finally left the reception around 11pm.. you could tell she was thrilled beyond words that she was about to marry her best friend..

her dress was stunning !! all the bead work and embroidery.. and sarah wore the dress like a princess..

her bridesmaids helped her put on her garter and it was so funny :)

i love this shot !! sarah wanted a picture of her and her parents.. and their dog.. well they had the hardest time getting the dog to look toward the camera.. and this was while they were trying to convince him to look the other direction :)

sarah seemed to have a really awesome relationship with her parents as evidenced by the numerous hugs.. tears.. and looks like this one..

sarah's bridesmaids were so attentive to her.. and her matron of honor was pregnant and actually due the day of the wedding.. it was definitely very evident how much these girls loved sarah and were so happy at the opportunity to serve her on this amazing day..

after spending some time with the girls.. it was then over to the church to meet up with the guys..

thad was so relaxed :) he seemed so confident and yet quietly humbled by the fact that it was his wedding day..

at the alter..

her flowers were absolutely gorgeous !!

sarah tried so hard to make it through the ceremony without crying.. it was so sweet :)

details..

haha outside for some portraits.. they were soo happy together..

did i mention that these girls were awesome?

then it was over to the reception.. held at stratigos -- an amazing.. gorgeous place..

when we got there.. the photographer i was with said "okay.. the first thing i like to do upon arriving at the reception is to photograph the cake.." so we walked over.. only to be rushed away by the mother of the bride.. because the cake was the wrong color !! there was someone on the way from the bakery to change it we were told.. and she did too !! i was surprised how quickly she scraped all the flowers off and iced new ones on.. talk about nerve-wracking tho !!

more details..

gotta love a good cake smashing !! i totally can't wait to do this someday :)

first dance.. to "Bless the Broken Road" by rascal flatts..

from then on the real party started.. the DJ was wonderful in getting everyone.. and i mean everyone out on the dance floor !! so much fun !!

love the motion.. the bride is in the middle if you can't tell.. sure you can easily give photos this motion in photoshop with a few clicks of the mouse.. but i'd rather do it straight out of camera -- the hard way =D

haha !! i really really hope that the photographer caught that face because that is simply priceless !!

right before we left.. i caught this moment.. the dance between the mother and daughter.. both were crying and it was so sweet !! it wasn't rehearsed.. or even planned.. i'm not sure if anyone else realized what was going on.. but it was such a sweet moment..

all in all it was an incredible experience !! i feel like i learned so much from the photographer and just being there for all the aspects of the wedding.. its one thing to read about wedding photographers.. but its a completely different thing to actually follow one around for a day and BE one.. i can't wait to do it again !!

on the way home ..

on the way home from vacation.. we stopped in norfolk, VA and took a ride on this boat..

it was an interesting ride.. they gave a whole history of the harbor and the area while we were sailing..

emma.. chillin' below deck..

ellen..

ruby..

anyway.. the ship was called the american rover .. no duh right?

some of the family..

all these naval ships were in the harbor.. and the captain of the ship who was doing the tour knew each ship by name and what it was doing in the harbor etc..

daddy's motto in life :)

they did set sail and let the ship be powered by the wind for a little bit.. pretty cool stuff..

ruby got to steer the ship !!

one of the ships that was leaving the harbor..

how it all started ..

even tho' we were "officially" on vacation from wednesday, aug. 6 until sunday, aug. 17.. vacation seemed to start for me the weekend before.. when derrick came down from phoenixville to spend the weekend with my family.. we had an amazing time.. so much fun.. yet it all went by so fast..

thursday was the ice cream social at my house.. derrick and paul were our sling-shot holders while the kids shot off water balloons..

so after derrick came down on thursday night.. we left friday morning for the lake.. spent all day friday swimming.. canoing.. and just chillin' down by the lake.. then saturday morning we went to swallow falls -- and after we got 4.5 inches of rain friday night -- the falls were absolutely bursting with water.. we have NEVER seen so much water !!

snapped a quick shot of derrick :)

stephen.. such a little monkey :)

mum sat us all down for several "group" shots.. this is one of them :)

this is derrick making me nervous.. he was standing IN the falls.. as in.. another 3-4 steps backward and he would have been standing in the middle of swallow falls.. ugh.. he claims that it wasn't slippery at all.. *shrugs*

this is a little frog we found.. lol

i think you really had to be there to realize how huge this was.. but normally there is a beach and room to wade in this pool under trolliver falls (a couple posts back i posted about when naomi & paul.. and the nelms' family came down.. there are pictures in that post about what trolliver falls normally looks like) anyways.. we couldn't even get off the trail or we would have been IN the water.. crazy stuff..

sunday on the way home.. we stopped at jumonville and hiked up to the cross.. it was a beautiful sunny day..

i think he was pretending to be a model :)

did i mention that the day was beautiful ?

so yeah.. it was an amazing weekend.. went way too fast.. and i can't wait until we can do it again..

day 10 of family vacation 2008

this morning i was up to see the sunrise.. the first time i tried to catch it was wednesday morning.. and it was too cloudy.. you couldn't even see the sun at all.. so i was determined to see the sun rise over the ocean.. so i was up again this morning..

walking to the beach at 5:50am..

there's the sun :)

on the way back.. the water in the "lake" was so still that the reflexion of the houses was perfect !!

emma.. walking down to the beach for the last time to swim..

haha this picture is so funny that mom got.. i walked out to the sandbar with ruby and steve and we just kinda caught some waves for a while.. and mom got this while we were out there :)

we wanted to walk back down to the beach one last time before we left..

the "plan" was to walk down and pick up a few shells.. and just walk along the beach until it got dark.. but as we got closer to the beach we realized this huge storm was brewing.. the clouds were so weird looking !

as we finally decided to walk back.. it got looking pretty nasty..

here's the storm creeping up on the moon.. kinda scary..

and thus ends our vacation to the outer banks.. tomorrow morning we wake up early to head out.. we'll drive half way tomorrow and then be home sunday night :)