michelle+brandon :: children+family :: mississippi family photographer

I very rarely take on children and family photographs. It's no secret that weddings and engagements are my true love (next to Josh of course), but I just couldn't resist when my friend Ashley's mom contacted me about photographing her and her 13-year old son, Brandon, while I was in town for a wedding. It was so crazy to see him all grown up... a far cry from the little boy playing t-ball, watching cartoons, and annoying his teenage sister while her friends were over. As a matter of fact, it makes me a little ill to think that Ashley and I became friends when we were his age.

Some may call us crazy, but Ms. Michelle, Brandon, and I decided to brave the freezing cold at 8:30 on Saturday morning before the wedding all for the sake of some great photographs for Christmas. You wouldn't know from the photos that we were all shivering, sniffling, and putting on our coats in between shots.

Here are a few of my favorites from the morning...

 

Ms. Michelle+Brandon - Thank you both so much for sacrificing your Saturday morning and braving the cold! It was so great to see y'all, and I look forward to having the opportunity to photograph your family again sometime!

a day in mayberry :: mount airy wedding photographer

This past Saturday, my grandparents (better known as Mamaw and Papaw), Josh, and I took a day trip up to Mount Airy, about 45 minutes from where we live. We had decided to take Mamaw and Papaw, who were visiting from Nashville for the weekend, to the town that The Andy Griffith Show's fictional town of Mayberry was based off of. You may think I'm a little young to know too much about Andy Griffith and Gomer Pyle (shazzaam, shazzaam) and Barney Fife with his one bullet in his shirt pocket, but you obviously highly overestimate my cool factor.

Being the sheltered and incredibly dorky young child that I was, I spent many an evening watch TV Land and soaking up the likes of The Andy Griffith Show, I Love Lucy (my favorite is the episode where Lucy and Ethel work in the candy factory), and Green Acres. I also went through an intense Happy Days faze, during which I named our pomeranian mix puppy Fonzie (ayyy!) and dubbed a kitten we found Chachi. Don't judge me.

We started off with an awesome lunch at Goober's 52. I'm talking fried dill pickles, cheesy bacon ranch fries, and a fried green tomato sandwich, y'all. Good stuff. Then we headed to check out some of the sights, including Floyd's Barber Shop (from the show) with a real live Floyd look alike giving haircuts. And in honor of Mayberry, I've decided that all of todays blog images should be in black and white...

We got lots of sweet treats from Opie's Candy Store, including some delicious dark chocolate covered cashews, and checked out the old-timey soda fountain.

They also give squad car tours around the town, and although we didn't take a tour, I just had to get a picture. We decided that the city must have bought up every single Ford Galaxie still in existence.

After we walked around for a little while, we drove by the little, tiny house that Andy Griffith grew up in, and then headed down the road to Pilot Mountain. It was a long drive to the top, but it was so worth it. The view was beautiful, and Josh took this photo of me with Mamaw and Papaw.

I'm so glad we got to spend time with them and show off some North Carolina sites. Despite mine and Josh's fear that Mount Airy might just be a little bit out of our age range, we really enjoyed our time there and have decided that we may just go back when Josh's mom visits us next. 

charleston - part two :: greensboro wedding photographer

So continuing on to part two of our Charleston trip...

A few weeks ago, Josh's cousin Buddy from Texas had gotten in touch to see just how far we live from Charleston, since he was going there for a friend's wedding. Because it was too far out of the way for him to come to us, we decided that we would drive down to Charleston for the weekend instead.

On Saturday morning, we met up with Buddy and his family and had a great time exploring the city together. Josh and Buddy hadn't seen each other in a really long time (like 10+ years), I had never even met him, and neither Josh nor I had met his wife, but we all got along like we were old friends.

Cousins.

Buddy and his beautiful and so very sweet wife, Sherry, and below, their itty-bitty baby girl, Abbie... the most precious little princess I've ever seen.

This little one was a trooper all day. Despite the heat, humidity and being hauled all over Charleston, she was perfectly happy just to nap in her stroller.

After getting aquainted and having a dose of Starbucks, we caught a breakdance show on the street...

We spent the rest of the morning just strolling around downtown, checking out the market, and trying not to fry in the heat. We decided to rest a little while by taking a carriage tour...

That was our horse, Kevin. We learned all about Kevin, his likes and dislikes, and his complete schedule for about the first 15 minutes of the tour.

Our tour was of the residential district, which was full of really interesting information that we probably wouldn't have found out just by walking around. Unfortunately, the tour stomped out any hope of ever moving to Charleston, since we were informed that just the normal, moderately sized houses go for about a million bucks. YIKES! We're gonna need to book ALOT more weddings before we reach that goal.

After the tour, we grabbed a late lunch at Hyman's Seafood on Meeting Street, which has apparently been visited by a ton of celebs. Now they can add us to that list :) The seafood was really good, and the fried green tomatoes with creole mayo... YUM. 

Unfortunately, this was our last stop of the trip, and we had to part ways, but we will certainly be better about staying in touch with the cousins alot more often. Buddy, Sherry & baby Abbie - we had an awesome time hanging out with y'all and we can't wait to see you again (hopefully very soon). Watch out Texas, here we come!