This story is extra special to me. For me, it all starts on the other side of the world during my stay in Siem Reap, Cambodia. There I met a group full of wonderful,  heartfelt students that were studying abroad. Several of them desire to surrender their comfortable lives in the USA to help others in need of God, education, love… Lauren was one of these people. She’s a small town girl with really big dreams. She plans to live out those dreams with her soul-mate, Brian. They were separated for 10 long weeks while Lauren studied abroad…and in some crazy way Lauren was able to plan a GORGEOUS wedding over 9,000 miles away! One day she was talking with some of the other students about one of the last needs on her list for her wedding…a photographer. We got to talking and discovered we only live 3 hours away from one another. Next thing you know I was booked for her date.

A couple days ago, Lauren & Brian said their vows on a stunning September evening. You couldn’t have asked for a more amazing day. Every detail of her wedding was so perfect. Congratulations, I wish you both the best.

Venue: Autumn Brook Manor

Hair  Artist: Tisha Gravitt

Makeup Artist: Amy Rene’e Steenburgh

Flowers: Lisa Hale-Rains

Groom sneaking into the house where the girls are getting ready…but he’s not allowed to peak!

Another session of Before & After…

The image below was taken right after the ceremony and the light was falling FAST! I was pretty frantic…not going to lie. I knew we had around 10 minutes of good photographing light left, but it’s difficult to whisk the bride and groom away from everyone that wants a hug or to congratulate the couple…so I went with the light I had anyway because I didn’t have any images of the bride and groom as a married couple yet. I didn’t want to bump the iso up too high because it would cause more damage with grain and I knew I could do less damage to the photograph using lightroom. In lightroom I bumped up that fill light and exposure pretty high. Beneath that dull grey was the right side of the image. SUCCESS!

The image below is a pretty simple fix. Lauren’s back was heavily backlit by the sun and it makes for a great dramatic look. Especially with the beautiful weeping willow surrounding her. I did a fill light in lightroom and did some extra dodging in photoshop.

The sky was fantastic that day. I just had to use it for my background with Lauren’s dress. Hard part was that her dress was in complete shade. Basically I had to edit one image on top of another. I bumped up the exposure and fill light bar in lightroom just for the dress. Then I put the layered brightened dress on top of the bright blue sky.

Where to begin with this amazing couple? I had the honor of photographing Khiem & Shaun’s special day on a hot hot hot summer evening. I swear the sun was extra close to the earth that day. This couple radiates in sweetness and love. They were incredibly kind and beautiful to photograph. We originally met during their engagement session and hit it off.  I truly adore them and see us being long lasting friends. To show just how incredibly sweet this couple is I have to share this wonderful letter I received from them for photographing their wedding…

“Dear Mia,

Kim and I wanted to thank you so much for sacrificing a lot to be a major part of our wedding! We are in love with your pictures and are already getting hundreds of questions about your wonderful photography. Kim and I both absolutely adore your creativity and expertise and cannot wait to see how our wedding photos will turn out. So again, thank you so much for being so wonderful and for blessing this momentous day with your artistic creativity and personality! 

P.S. Please thank Johnny for us, he’s super awesome too! (Johnny Cheng is my oh-so awesome-amazing-wonderful 2nd shooter)

Kindest Regards,

Shaun & Kim“

I was super-duper excited to be able to fit their wedding into my hectic schedule. I was able to fly in from Cambodia a couple days before their wedding. Totally jet-lagged I woke up at 3am and ended up drinking 3 lattes before the wedding. I felt like a teenager trying to stay up for 3 days straight just for the fun of it! I hope you enjoy the pictures and much as I did!

Venue: Flint Hill

Hair & Makeup Artist: Ariel Eva Hair & Makeup Stylist

Khiem and Shaun opted to do a First Look Session before the ceremony. It worked out so perfectly because Flint Hill is a smaller venue. They had a nice quiet moment together before the ceremony to calm their nerve in the presence of one another. I highly recommend having  a First Look Session.

When the vows started the tears started to pour. Shaun had the entire party crying. He is so sincere with his love for Khiem…

Shaun faced his friends and family and apologized for making them all bawl their eyes out. Adorable.

It’s that time for Before & After pictures! The 1st photograph was taken behind a curtain at the Flint Hill venue. Pictures in front of the window with the bride naturally looking out the widow is a common capture on every wedding photographer’s checklist. They are always lovely to see, but sometimes you need to switch it up a bit. In my mind I created this photograph before I came to the wedding. I’ve photographed a wedding at Flint Hill before and as I was flipping through the pictures I saw the beautiful lace curtains and knew I had to use them. I was worried I wouldn’t be able to capture enough detail because the room was so dark and only had one another small window projecting light into the room. Thank goodness for handy-dandy photoshop! I did a lot of dodging for this photograph. I also did a strong color boost, bumped the contrast, and cropped.

The First Look is one of my favorite moments to witness as a photographer. The couples are so genuine…in love…excited. I absolutely adored Shaun’s entire reaction to the first look.  He was so excited and anxious, which called for great moments to capture. I loved when he put his hand to his face as he waited for Khiem to make her presence known…but Khiem was just a tiny bokeh dot with Johnny next to her in the picture. I didn’t have the heart to throw out the picture..so I combined the image of Khiem closer to Shaun with his hand touching his face. It made for a more dramatic story like effect. The first two images are straight out of the camera. I did some dodging, color boost, contrast boost.

The epic jumping picture is always difficult to capture on the first 39485 takes. But you can always combine the pictures to create a nice even jump! Luckily I only had one bridesmaid to fix on the end. Easy-peasy. I just placed a good capture of her jumping right over the final image. Did a color boost & contrast boost.

I had the honor of photographing this oh-so beautiful couple a few days ago. I can’t wait to share their wedding with the world. Their love is infectious.

Cindy & Mark had a gorgeous wedding at the Black Stone Vineyards in the Dahlonega mountains. The sky was breathtaking when I arrived…then an hour before the ceremony the storm clouds rolled in. This was not a normal thunderstorm. It seemed our world was on the brink of a tornado! This storm got in the way of photographing time, but suddenly the sun popped up out of no where leaving us with a stunning sky. Chairs were wiped down and we were left with nothing but ooohs & awwwes with the mixture of gorgeous skies and emotional vows. Congratulations Cindy & Mark!

Cindy & Mark opted to see each other before the ceremony and I absolutely loved Cindy’s reaction to the First Look…

Cindy & Mark’s son, Zane, was way too cute for words! Cindy had this adorable “trick” she would do to get Zane to do cute things like give mommy a kiss. She would pretend like she was crying and Zane would immediately go and love on her!

One of the most memorable parts of their wedding was when Zane road his toy card down the aisle! He had a blast parking himself right next to daddy for the ceremony.

Today 2 very lovely people are saying their vows, and I am honored to document their story.  Kim and Shaun are amazing clients, but really I see them as great friends. Along the way we have really connected. I know we will stay friends and I’ll hear about their adventures together as a married couple years down the road. When Kim contacted me to be her wedding photographer I wasn’t sure if weddings were in my path of photography. I thought I was moving to Cambodia right away, or going to be traveling too much to commit to a far off date. Kim checked back with me every month to see if I had any news about my traveling photography jobs. I thought she would give up over time, but she has some major dedication…and I love her for that. She saw something in me that I didn’t know existed. In a few hours I will be part of their history and it’s so exciting! Congratulations, Kim & Shaun!

Goodness…this is probably one of my all time favorite engagement shoots. I just couldn’t decide which images to post, so get ready for system overload of love. When Kim contacted me to do her engagement and wedding I instantly knew I would love this couple. She was so peppy every time we discussed her engagement shoot. She wanted bright, fun, fantastic colors that matched their personality. I went on a crazy photo-man-hunt and found the most amazing location for their shoot.

Kim and Shaun met 2 years ago while playing a nice game of 4-square at UGA. The two sparked and the rest is history. For years their relationship has been built up on writing letters and surprises. Shaun loves taking Kim on surprise trips, and their last trip was to every girl’s dreamland…Disney World. Shaun waited until the grand finally of fireworks by Cinderella’s Castle to ask Kim to marry him. Kim excitedly replied, “YES”, but Shaun couldn’t hear her over the fireworks, so he said, “Please?” hahaha!   I’m looking forward to their wedding in July!

Also big thanks to Johnny Cheng for being an amazing assistant during Kim & Shaun’s shoot. I couldn’t have done it without you!

Oh-So Fun Out takes ~

I love capturing the memories of two people that have fallen madly in love with one another. I’ve known Lauren a little over a year now. We actually first met at the dog park and I was admiring her ADORABLE foster named Penny.  I didn’t know very much about fostering and Lauren became my guide. She also gave me contacts to start photographing for Athenspets.net. So, I immediately liked miss Lauren. I don’t think she knows this, but she was a huge catalyst in helping me get started in the dog world, and I wouldn’t be where I am today without her help.   That day at the dog park I picked her brain with a bijillion questions about fostering, Circle of Friends, and Athens Pets. Eventually, she asked me to foster a terrified/unsocialized little puppy that COFAS couldn’t find a foster home for. I was so gitty I didn’t care how bad off he was. After several weeks of trying to find him in his hiding places all over my house and in the woods of the dog park, he became the biggest mush. After I helped him overcome so many of his fears and he was adopted…I became ADDICTED to fostering. Over the years I’ve gotten to know Lauren and her passion for animals. She has a HUGE bleeding heart for all things furry. Her fiance has been more than supportive. Jason is a total sweetheart. He was so funny during the whole engagement shoot. I think he was trying to calm Lauren’s nerves when being in front of a camera. Jason was a natural! haha! Enjoy! Congratulations Lauren and Jason!!!

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And now the oh so fabulous outtakes of these two hilarious people. Jason has the best sense of humor. Their session was full of giggles.

before.

after.

Playing around with photoshop. Trying new things and making images more vintage. I’m in love with all things vintage. Something about the butteryness of sunlight makes my heart melt. Better examples to come. I’ve been tossing around the idea of showing my photoshop secrets…not sure if anyone is interested in see them. I’ve receive a few emails on the subject. What do you think?

More photos…

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On a brilliant September afternoon, Shaun & Tiffany Powell professed their love for one another by exchanging vows. The beautiful ceremony was encompassed by apple trees and crisp mountain air. Tiffany grew up playing on her grandfather’s apple orchard, and couldn’t imagine a more romantic place to have her wedding.  Shaun & Tiffany met at their church over 7 years ago. Their friendship blossomed over the years and they knew they couldn’t live without one another. Congratulations love birds!

You may remember Shaun & Tiffany from their engagement session.

And they lived happily ever after.

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