Personal Story: April
I didn't always appreciate spring - I am more of a fall and winter girl. I've learned that I enjoy the plants going back to green, planting a garden and anticipating what it will grow. I might not enjoy the humid heat of NC, getting sunburnt easily or being a mosquito's favorite snack but those are summer problems I've noticed. I suppose I'm at the point in my life where I have experienced enough on the other side to appreciate the time each year that we celebrate new life coming back into the world. The refreshment of the earth and a restart of the wedding season for us. Eating as many meals outside as possible. Going on walks with friends. These are things I am loving about spring.Let me share with you a few things we experienced in April (catch up with January, February, and March):* After lots of planning in March, the count down was on for the See Her Story event. I was so excited to pull together the last minute details and I was proud myself for drawing up this chalkboard list of our amazing sponsors. We work with some truly amazing people around here!* I have ABSOLUTELY loved having April work in the office with me once a week. It has been incredible for my work flow and this extrovert likes having another extrovert around in the office. On a particularly lovely spring day, April and I decided to eat lunch on our deck... and when I came out with my lunch, I found April testing out the new trough that we bought as a planter. Never a dull moment with this woman.* I am always looking for a space where I can shoot boudoir outdoors. Recently I made a new friend who lives on an amazing farm and invited me to look around to see if it would be a great place to shoot boudoir. HELLO. It's beautiful! Anyone up for an outdoor boudoir shoot??* I had the honor of photographing my Mom, Mother-in-law along with 57 other amazing women at the very first See Her Story event. It was an amazing evening and I am so thrilled at how it turned out. I loved getting to photograph so many women that I love, as well as meet so many amazing new women. You can read more about the event here and how it turned out here.* The women of Story Photographers were all there at the See Her Story event to help out! April and Rebecca photographed women with me the whole evening, and Leah, our amazing admin help was on hand to make sure everything went smoothly (she even talked her sister into helping that evening). It is so hard to find people that you love to work with but I have nailed it with these ladies!* "Find your tribe. Love them hard." I just addressed this one a bit with the previous photo. It is so worth finding the people with whom you can work, play, mourn, adventure, and experience the mundane with. Once you identify those people I feel like you just have to love on them as much as you possibly can. Show them gratitude. Never let them forget how much you love having them in your tribe.* Speaking of taking the time to show the ones you love how much you love them, we were so incredibly sad to find out that one of our 2013 grooms tragically died in a car accident at the end of April. My heart just aches for his surviving wife and baby girl. This event did kick up some grief in me, as I lost my Dad seven years ago suddenly in a traumatic way. Grief is weird and rude like that, popping up when you least expect it. But you've got to feel the feelings so they don't get boxed up and create roadblocks in your life.* David and I got to spend time on a friend's farm on a beautiful night, singing and telling stories around a campfire. No where to be, nothing to do but enjoy good food, good weather and good company.* David's new band, Young Yonder, practices in our garage. One night David decided that he and I were going to revisit the days that we sang together - at churches, in college, at weddings. I love singing with this man. It had been awhile, and we had to knock the dust off a few of the songs we sang, but it was so much fun.