Andrea + Joel say "I Do"

I am SO EXCITED to post some images of Andrea and Joel's wedding. They were married Saturday, June 23 at Sacred Hearth Catholic Church in Columbia and hosted a dinner and reception at the Stoney Creek Inn. I met Andrea and Joel over a year ago through a referral from the event planner, Kat York, at Stoney Creek Inn. Kat used to be my manager when I worked at the University Club as a server. She was kind enough to give them my name as a potential photographer since she'd seen some of the event and food photography I did for the Club on occassion. Andrea and Joel were great to work with and Joel was so patient during the couple's formal portrait session.


Fluffing the veil...

Beautiful bride...Beautiful bride, with veil...The flower girl...Joel's tux... he looked great!Father and Bride enter the church...

A funny moment during the ceremony...Husband and wife...finally!
Joel is a volunteer firefighter and I had the exciting opportunity to make some portraits of them with the fire engine. It was so much fun!

Ah, what a beautiful couple...The ring shot...

The bridal party flowers adorn the head table...The first dance... Mood lighting on the dance floor...

The wedding cake, simple and elegant....

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE NEW MR. AND MRS. PAULEY!

Is it Friday yet...?

I AM EXHAUSTED! The wedding on Saturday wore me out! I selected a few images (well, more like a dozen) to post but haven't had time. Perhaps tomorrow, so check back. As for now, here's a briefing of how our weekend panned out.

Saturday :

• Sleep in (9am) then get up to prepare for wedding. Seth makes brunch while I get ready.
• 12 P.M. - Seth drops me off at the church and will return just before the ceremony begins to assist me for the rest of the day. In the meantime, I photograph the bridal parties as they get ready.
• 1:30 P.M. - Ceremony begins.
• 2:45 P.M. - Formal portraits of grandparents, parents, bridal party and bride and groom.
• BREAK TIME - Go home and relax, eat a snack and prepare for remainder of evening
• 5:00 P.M. - Arrive at Stoney Creek Inn for the reception. The bride and groom planned a cocktail hour for guests to mingle, drink and eat appetizers before they make their grand entrance.
• 6:00 P.M. - Dinner is served, and dancing to follow. The party is (mostly) over by 9:30 P.M. Time to exit!
• 10:00 P.M. - With a bit of energy left in our bones we decide to head to the Coalier house where many of our friends are hanging out for the evening around the campfire and camping out. We stayed until midnight and collapsed in bed as soon as we walked in the door.

Sunday: MY 27th BIRTHDAY!!!

• Slept in again (9am).
• 10:30 A.M. - Seth took me to breakfast at Ernie's Cafe.
• 11:30 A.M. - While Seth was running some "birthday errands" I stayed home and relaxed, looked at some of the wedding photos, did some light housework and just enjoyed myself knowing I didn't have to accomplish anything. After all, it was my birthday, right?
• 1:15 P.M. - Open presents! I got a body pillow and a soft, satin pillowcase to help me sleep better. I think Seth was tired of the fortress of pillows in the bed, leaving little room for him. I also received a nice picture frame to add to our family wall of snapshots. And, for dessert, Almond Joy and Mounds candy bars! Yummy!
• 3:00 Water the garden and outside plants. We enjoy doing this together and taking a walk around the yard to see what new plants have popped up or in bloom.
• 4:00 P.M. - Head to the new TACO BUENO. Yes, that's right, fast-food tex-mex better than Taco Bell, but the real novelty is that this restaurant brings back memories of home for me. The first Taco Bueno I dined at was the one in Owasso and it was a favorite hangout for the high school students. We shared a mexi-dip and chips to hold us over until dinner.
• 4:00 P.M. - shop for dinner ingredients - yes, my birthday was all about food!
• 6:00 P.M. - grill fish and pineapple over the fire pit. The menu was catfish marinated with lemon pepper spice and topped with pineapple & mango chutney (with fresh cilantro and red onion). Small baked potatoes on the side. Delicious!
• RELAX for the rest of the evening! Happy birthday to me!

So, it was a good weekend, but a busy one. Tonight I will head to a coffee shop downtown to gather with the ladies from my prenatal yoga class. The class is over but we still want to keep in touch so we're getting together tonight. I'm looking forward to it.

-rebecca

Trying something new

I've noticed that when professional photographers upload photographs to blogs they usually include some kind of border around the image and usually a logo or the name of the photographer. So I tried experimenting with this using a few images from the Allen family gathering a couple weekends ago. Because of the light background on the blog, the white border that I added doesn't really show; however, it does create more space around the photo for the default frame that blogger applies around all photographs. Feel free to let me know what you think!

For the keen observer: In the photograph below I used "R. Allen Photography" rather than just "Allen Photography". In the future, Seth's photographs will also include a personalized logo or his name or initials. He's becoming quite skilled and I certainly want to give him credit for his wonderful images.

I've already posted this image of Alex before, but I did some slight tweaking by vignetting the corners (making them darker) to draw more attention to the main subject. I did the same in the photography of the moth above, but it's not as defined.

The purpose of adding our names to the images is to discourage someone from trying to download or copy our images from the website and using them for thier own. I don't think we'll have any issues with that, but for a professional photographer it's important to protect ownership of the image.

Happy Friday!

-rebecca

Is it really only Wednesday...?

I AM SO TIRED! Last night was my final session of prenatal yoga. I was so sad to see it end. But, the 10 of us (all first-time expectant moms), have exchanged emails in hopes of getting together sometime for a little "reunion" or at least to stay in touch and chat. There's another girl, Amy, in the class who is due 2 days before me and we're to birth at the same hospital! Maybe we'll see each other, or HEAR each other, if we go into labor at the same time! We seem to have had very similar experiences with our pregnancies and share some of the same worries and joys, which I think is pretty neat. The yoga class really helped us all to mentally and physically prepare for childbirth. I truly enjoyed our discussions and I'm so glad I enrolled in the class. After class, Heather and I decided we needed to treat ourselves to a slice of carrot cake at Addisson's. So there we were, two pregnant ladies ordering a piece of cake from Seth's cousin Jessica, also pregnant. It was kind of humorous--you probably had to be there to appreciate it.

While on the pregnancy topic...
We're hoping to hire a doula to attend our birth. I've contacted several of them via email over the past 4 weeks but didn't think it would be so hard to find someone available around our due date. But, I think we found one, we just have to set up a consultation with her and make sure that we're a good fit. If you don't know what a doula is, she's a personal birth coach. That's the short of it. She will be there from the beginning of my labor through the birth of our baby to guide and support me through the process of a natural birth. She'll also help by taking some of the pressure off Seth to be my "cheerleader" in-between screams and groans and grunts. She'll provide a couple of prenatal visits at our home and postnatal visits to make sure that breastfeeding is working and to assist with any other concerns we have. I believe (and have testimony from friends) that a doula will prove to be an very valuable resource for us.

Tonight I'm going to book club with Carrie. It's in Ashland and it'll probably be another late night for me. I'll get a break of no committments tomorrow night and then I'm shooting that wedding this weekend. After that, I'll actually have a little more free time (and a lot more sleep) than I've had over the past 2 months. Thank goodness!

Oh, and one more thing. We did get our car window replaced yesterday. I was very impressed with the speedy service. I'm sure we won't be leaving our car parked on the street anytime in the near future, if at all!

-rebecca

Vandalism

Well, we had the pleasure of waking up at 5:45 a.m. to a sad scene. Our car was broken into last night and we never heard a sound! We usually park our car in the driveway behind our house, but Seth parked his truck there instead because he was unloading mulch, bamboo cuttings, straw and wood that he picked up the from the mulch site yesterday. Nothing was stolen or even touched in the car, just a random act of vandalism, or perhaps the perpetrator got scared before he could take anything. Of course no one ever wants to deal with something like this, but it seemed ten times worse being that we had to deal with it so early on a Monday morning while trying to get to work. I filed a police report and Seth had to had to leave before I had a chance to get ready, so I walked to work. I've been trying to get some exercise in each day so walking to work is nothing new. The only problem is that today of all days this week is the only time it's predicted to rain! So I got the car covered with trash bags and a tarp and made an appointment to have the glass replaced tomorrow. We certainly weren't counting on making auto repairs this month, but I'm thankful it wasn't the windshield or back window as that would have cost a lot more. Hopefully the rest our week will be much better than our experience this morning.

I'm photographing a wedding this weekend and Seth is going to be my "assistant" since my gear is so heavy. The ceremony and reception is here in Columbia and although I think I'd be fine without Seth, it will certainly be nice to have a companion with me, just in case. As one might assume, I'm constantly on my feet when shooting a wedding and being that I'm 7 months pregnant, I'm sure to feel worn out by the end of the evening. Luckily, the reception ends at 10pm and they may not even want me to stay to the end, so it may be an earlier night than I've been expecting. We'll see. However, because of this wedding, we will miss the campout that Carrie and Kelly have planned for Saturday night. Most of our friends will be pitching tents and spending the night on the Coalier property. I'm sure there will be good food, drinks and lots of socializing around the campfire. I'm sad to miss out on it, as is Seth.

I don't think that I'll have time to post to the blog again until after this weekend is over. So, until then, enjoy your week and don't keep anything valuable in your car!

-rebecca

Tons of Fun!

It was really hard to choose which photos I should post from last weekend. I guess that's the photographer in me...I want to show you ALL of the pictures! But, instead, here is a sampling...

Weekend Fun!

I mentioned on Friday that we would head to Kahoka for a family gathering and a baby shower. It was a wonderful weekend of way too much food, lots of great gifts, fabulous weather and tons of fun had by all. I'll post some pictures later this week featuring some of the weekend activites. We sure had a blast and really enjoyed socializing with everyone. We decided to pitch a tent Saturday--that was my first experience camping while pregnant. I was able to get comfortable but, between the bull frogs and barking dog, it wasn't the most peaceful night's sleep. Check back later this week for pictures!

-rebecca

Problem solved?

I think I resolved the font problem...at least for now. Perhaps the way it looks has to do with the type of browser one is using to view the blog. If you're ever viewing this and something doesn't look right to you, please send me an email or post a comment about it. I'm learning lots of new tricks as I try to troubleshoot things.


On a side note, here's several more images from our photo shoot the other day. Enjoy!

A work in progress...

Well, I'm still trying to figure out this blog thing. I've messed around with the last post trying to edit it several times to make the font larger and easier to read. On my computer the text next to the picture looks very tiny compared to the previous post below it. I'll hopefully get it figured out. If someone wants to comment on how it appears on your computer screen, I'd appreciate the feedback.

Tonight we're heading to Kahoka to visit Seth's family. It's for the annual "family gathering" which got it's start in October of 2004 when we invited extended family to join us at the Allen cabin to celebrate our recent nuptials. This year, Dana (Seth's sister), has been so gracious as to plan a baby shower for us to take place at the gathering. She created wonderful customized invitations and has really gone out of her way to make it special for us. Thanks Dana, we're looking foward to it!

- rebecca

Picture success

Okay, I'll admit, I just wasn't satisfied leaving the office without another attempt to post a photo. As you can see, it worked! I'll post more soon.

-rebecca

The Journey Begins!

So here I am, jumping on the blog bandwagon! The anticipation of the birth of our first child has definitely prompted us to start a blog to keep family and friends up-to-date on how we're doing. I imagine that posts will be pretty brief or just a couple times a week since we currently don't have Internet at home. We'll get Internet service sometime in the near future, but in the meantime I'll be posting from my work computer when I have some free time. I think Seth will get into this, too, and post some of his own messages and images once we have Internet at home. Check back periodically for updates and to see how I've been able to customize our blog. I'm sure it will be a never-ending work-in-progress. This is very exciting!

- rebecca

p.s. Only 10 weeks, 6 days till Baby Allen enters the world (if he/she is on time)! I tried to add some pictures just now but it's not working so I'll try again in the next couple of days. We had a photo shoot at Nifong Park over Memorial Day weekend and Seth made some really nice images of me showcasing my bump!