Personal Story: October
Fall is fading into winter. This time of year has two sides for us - the insane side where we are hustling like Christmas else trying to get everyone's pictures to them before the holidays. Then there is the side where we LOVE the weather, the extra special time with family and friends surrounding each holiday, the decorations for each season, etc. It's hard to explain... I know you other wedding vendors out there get it. Cheers to this crazy beautiful time of year!You can see my insta posts from each month in 2015 so far here: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, and August.Commenting on these instagram posts, starting at the top, reading left to right…* I've got lots of amazing "littles" in my life and this lady is one of them! We have been good friends with her parents since college and I love nothing more than to get a FaceTime call from her tell me that she asked her mommy to give her the "ms ashley" hair do that day... and of course I've got my typical hair do to match! What a compliment!* FRIENDS. If you are not up on The Flourish Market, who they are what they are doing and what they sell, you need to get in on it! One of our past SP couples, Emily and Chris, have come up with this AMAZING idea to have a fashion truck for GOOD. Shopping with meaning, shopping fair trade, giving jobs to people in desperate need. And to top it all off, the clothes and accessories they have curated are not only amazing, they are really well priced. Get on your holiday shopping with them ASAP!* David and the men of Young Yonder had an amazing show opening up for Jack the Radio's album release party. It was a crazy fun night of good music, friends AND family coming out and supporting these guys that make good music. Am I proud of them? HECK YEAH I AM!* Speaking of the Young Yonder men, I went with a couple of them (my husband included) to the NC State Fair. I don't know if y'all have heard of it, but we did the free lunch pass thing for the first time and OMG it is so worth it! You go to one of two specific ticket counters, give them $10 in cash. They give you a two hour lunch pass and as long as you return before those two hours are up, you get your $10 back! Free entry to the fair for two hours - ended up being PLENTY of time to get all the good food you would want! This year's food highlights have to include the new pimento cheese jalapeño and bacon hushpuppies with siracha-based dipping sauce. Yes please!* I had the great honor of photographing my cousin Megan's wedding. This day was SO her and SO lovely... I will talk more about it when I blog it. My other cousin, Megan's brother Tyler, is also engaged and will be bringing into the family this sweet little flower girl you see here helping me photograph the reception. I so loved her enthusiasm and excitement as she picked out what she wanted to photograph and her delight when she would see her image pop up on the back of the screen.* I'm so so so so so so lucky to have some amazing women in my world. These two have been walking with me for a couple of months now, and since the time has changed and the weather has turned cooler, sometimes we have to resort to walking in the mall. Is it our favorite? Nope. But are we still moving and enjoying each other's company? Yes.* I'm sure you've picked up by now the fact that David and I love good music. We saw Noah Gundersen (pictured) at Cat's Cradle and he did not disappoint. There is such therapy in hearing and writing and experiencing music that is raw and honest.* Well back to my cousin's wedding... I had another helper that evening, my sweet little brother. He has said for awhile now that he is going to work for us when he gets older. We will see how that plays out, but so far his work seems to be promising! Like my little lighting trick for photographing rings in a dark reception?* We closed out the month of October with David's family in Jacksonville, NC. Halloween has always been David's favorite holiday so it was fun to spend it in his childhood home. We got to hang out with his family and their friends, watch his niece trick-or-treat, eat lots of candy and share lots of laughs. Here you can see David and his Mom getting their makeup ready for their Halloween costumes.... David made his up on the fly.