Andrea & Matt's country wedding

My big sis & my new brother..... From the first time I met Matt & saw him with my sister, I knew he was the one for her. It takes a special person to put up with my sister's corky personality (shh, don't tell her I said that, heehe). I truly have never seen Andrea smile so much in my life. Matt lets her be the person she is and loves her for her fun, spunky personality. She threw a huge party for him on his 29th birthday last year and little did she know, he had a surprise for her. Wrap in a box that she thought was a present for him, was a gorgeous solitaire diamond ring. He asked her to help him open the wrapping & dropped down to one knee, as she pulled out a small box.... then she started crying & dad too!

So that brings us to the planning of the wedding. What better place to have a wedding, than my parents beautiful home in the country..... Ethel, La. A town so small you can't really even call it a town, with one flashing red light, a post office & a country store... One might miss it if they blinked while driving threw. My parents bought 20 acres of woods when I was 9 (later adding on 20 more acres) and every weekend without fail we would head out to the property, machete's in hand & work until dark trying to clear a path for a driveway. Once the driveway was done we started on the pond, cutting down trees & turning them into 2x4's to build our future home with. Over the next several years we continued to work on the property, eventually selling our home and moving into the cabin that we had built for weekends that ran too late. My 9th grade year of high school we finally began to dedicate all of our free time to building our home. Aunts, uncles, grandparents, cousin's... you name it, they all pitched in at some point to help my mom & dad build the home of their dreams. It was 3 years later, and it was finally done!! And well worth it. Now I can go home and remember all the things I learned from my mom & dad and it makes going home all that much better. I can't say enough good things about my family. Without them, I wouldn't be who I am today.

Long story short... A little over a year after the proposal, the big day is finally here & everything turned out beautifully...

The details, photographed by yours truly.....
My parents home from the end of the driveway...

The remembrance table... for our three Grandparents, as well as Matt's.

When my sister first got engaged we talked about who was going to do the photos if I was in the wedding... we thought about maybe having dad make a helmet cam for me. So I would walk in the wedding & take photos at the same time. Needless to say, that didn't work out... LOL... So my wonderfully artist & handsome boyfriend Reilly (and second shooter in training) stepped up to the plate and shot his very first wedding alone. He was nervous, but I think he did great for his first time.....

Meet the fam.... Big sis Kaycie, me, Matt, Andrea, Dad, Mom & big bro Brent.

My other big sis, Kaycie & Kayla (one of the only two nieces I have)....

My Grannie & niece & nephews.... (Luke, Kayla & Layn)

My big bro Brent & sis (in-law) Kim.....

Andrea's New Orleans Bridal

Two weeks ago I flew into New Orleans Airport & was greeted by my two big sis's, Kaycie & Andrea & cousin, Sandra. Andrea (the middle sister) was getting married the very next weekend. I flew in a week early so we could do it up for her bachelorette party with a night on the town in New Orleans... which is a big deal for us country girls from Ethel, La. Andrea had the most talented & sweet seamstress in Louisiana who made her dress for her.... my mom! Andrea, as you can tell, looks nothing like me with her curly blonde hair (or any of my other siblings), she jokes about being adopted all the time. I think she did an amazing job & made my sister look even more beautiful than she is. Now I only have to get some pictures like this of my equally amazing sister, Kaycie.

It was not the best day for a photo shoot in New Orleans, rainy, muggy & just nasty outside. The city was also incredibly busy with people from the weekend Art Festival, that a good shot in the market was impossible. Instead, we headed inside for a quick shoot at our hotel Renaissance Pere Marquette Hotel. The hotel was beautiful & the staff was amazing. Mark, our bellman (in the photo below) offered us a brand new luggage cart for our use (b/c the old one we snagged wasn't good enough, he said), he even offered his hat to Andrea and did a great job at modeling for us. Once the weather cleared we headed outside for a few quick shots on the streets before heading back in to get ready for our big night out with the girls.

I'm back with a Sneak Peak

So as you have noticed, the past two weeks I have been out of the state and no where near an internet connection. I traveled home to Louisiana for my sister's wedding and while I was there managed to slip in a few photo sessions..... Here are a couple of sneak peaks of what I was up to.

First day, Bridal shoot in the city....

Then the back out for a night on the town for the bachlorette party....

And on Monday I managed to squeeze in a family session of a friend from high school....
Then Saturday was the big day.... My Big Sis's wedding.

And on Sunday we made some time for a quick day after shoot being they jetted off to Jamacia for their honeymoon.

Stay tuned for more details to come on all of these sessions.