Wedding's Galore {plus design for Shabby Apple}!!

Who's ready for August!! We have a lot of exciting things coming up... I'm shooting another wedding next weekend, school start's August 15th, then we head out west August 17th to Utah/Idaho for 10 days for my Aunt Julie and Cliff's wedding and then my Brother and Annie's wedding the next weekend!!  Eeeeek... I can't wait.

Speaking of weddings, I teamed up this month with Candace from Colour by Candace to shoot a Couture Bridal Session!!  I am very excited with how everything turned out... for the whole story/post visit: www.harttohartdigitalblog.com.  Here are a few of my faves....

Enough about wedding dresses... let's talk bridesmaids dresses!!  My adorable sister-in-law to be has asked all the sisters to wear gray dresses for her wedding.  There's going to be a lot of us, so I was hoping to find something really beautiful and different..... that has a little sleeve, hits at the knee and doesn't show enormous amounts of cleavage!!!  Mission: Impossible, right!!!  Actually, I think I did find something, BUT one of the first places I checked out was Shabby Apple Dresses.  They have gorgeous, stylish, modest dresses and I just LOVE the photography all over their website.  Well, I got to thinking... I wish I could just design my own dress.  THEN, I noticed shabby apple hosts a "dare to design" contest...... my pencil hit the paper and I started sketching.

Dress designer I AM NOT!!!  But, I thought it would be fun to try b/c I always have ideas floating around in my head and I really wish I could find something like this for my bridesmaid dress {I would choose paring #1 or #3}!!  Here is my "Design for Shabby Apple"

And just for fun here's one more dress sketch... I want this one too!!

Anyway, hope everyone is having a great summer... looking forward to August!!

Next Stop: Florida (again!!)

Last year I got a call from one of my Brother's best friends asking if I'd be interested in shooting his Orlando wedding in July of 2011.  THAT WAS A NO BRAINER!  You know me and my destination weddings!  And of course, any chance I get to head down to Florida... so we decided to make a 10 day family vacation out of it!

Though our plans changed a tiny bit with my grandpa's passing, I ended up flying straight to Florida from CA with my family that Saturday and Blake (awesomely) made the drive down with the kiddies.

I know I say this every time, but this trip was AMAZING!!

For the fourth of July we did some damage at the outlets and spent the rest of the day on lake!!

Tuesday, Blake and I took the boys to our favorite spot on Cocoa Beach!!  By the way, let me introduce you to my cousin Tristan! (far right)  He came back with me from California and is living with us right now.  He had a great time with us in Florida and we're really happy to have him with us.

AND the next day we took the kiddies to SeaWorld (I'm telling you, this was an awesome trip!) It was the first time for the boys... traditionally we've always done Disney.  I have so many childhood memories from SeaWorld so I loved taking them!!

Tristan LOVES reptiles so we had to show him a good time at the St. Cloud serpentarium!!

Quite possibly one of the most exciting parts of the trip was meeting my Brother Taylor's beautifully amazing fiance Annie Clark (yes, they have the same last name... how convenient is that!!) After a really late arrival - I think by the time we made it home from the airport it was 4:30 am, we had a wedding shower planned for her for the next day!  She was a trooper :)

How about a little tiny sneak peek into the bridal session I did with them the next day!! Could not have done it without the help of my Mom and our fabulous friend/neighbor Eva.  She's such a creative talent... I say it every time... wish I had her with me in Charlotte for every shoot!!

And finally a tiny sneak peek into the reason behind the trip: PJ & Lauren's wedding. Shooting a wedding at 12 noon in 100 degree weather in humid FL is no easy task BUT, these two made shooting a breeze!  We had a blast and I can't wait to share more from both shoots on the Hart to Hart Blog

San Diego Trip - Grandpa's Funeral

This post is probably more for family/for me to remember and despite the reason for this last minute/unexpected trip out to CA, it truly was a memorable trip and I'm so thankful I was able to make it out.

Because a lot of my family still lives out in Southern CA, there were many who were able to attend/participate in making it a celebration of the life of my grandpa.  It was a very beautiful, spiritual funeral filled with lots of memories.  Ash, Cami, myself and my 3 other cousin's sang "How Great Thou Art" along side a video recording of Grandpa singing the first verse a month before his death... that is something I will always remember.  

We also threw in blue carnations (his favorite color/flower) with tags filled with memories and letters.  I loved the picture with my uncle and cousin in their military uniforms.  All things considered it was a very nice day.

Growing up I have so many memories of going with Grandparents to Disneyland, Seaworld, Knottsberry Farm etc... so the day after we all decided to do something fun and enjoy our last day.  We had a great time at raging waters.

I have to give a HUGE THANK YOU TO BLAKE and many friends who helped out with the boys and made it possible for me to leave on a moments notice.  Thank you.

Just June!!

is what I told myself all last month!  We have the whole summer ahead of us... it's just June!  And here it is right smack in the middle of July with school starting in exactly one month!  Whew!! (so many mixed emotions about that)

But anyway, we really enjoyed our first month of summer! Gavin did awesome with swim lessons this year (learned to swim without floaties... he is such a little fish) and of course we enjoyed (are enjoying) almost daily trips to our neighborhood pool.  We made a family trip to one evening of girl's camp this year - all the bishop's were asked to participate in a really neat little play the last night.  Wish I had more pictures... the boys were in heaven.  

June was another high volume {*read: insanely busy} month for photography.  That last week I had 6 sessions in a row that had to be moved/postponed due to my Grandpa's death and a last minute trip out to California for his funeral.  Bring on July!

Rest In Peace Grandpa Clark...