For the 2 years I have done this post, it has been one I look forward to…but also a humbling one! I try not to take myself too seriously, but the truth is, it is a little challenging for me to make fun of myself…and let me tell you friends, a whole lot of that is coming your way!  I will share much more about it soon, but we honestly had an absolutely amazing 2016.  It was a REALLY fun year personally, and I feel like JGP really took off and made it’s direction clear for us- and we are so excited about where that leads next year!  I will be sharing some favorites of 2016 and some 2017 goals in the next couple weeks, but for today, it is all fun! While I PROMISE most of the way too many images we take on a wedding day are of our couples and their loved ones, we always try to capture a little behind the scenes fun too, for social media, for memories, for posts like this…and for humility!! ????  And let me tell you, there is a big dose of that here!

I notice a few themes that I like to share before hand for you to keep an eye out for…

1). I STILL am rocking the conductor arms more often than not. I guess we can forgive that after 8 years of directing high school choir…

2). The bad posture (or baby weight!) double chin makes it’s appearance frequently! I couldn’t keep those images out because there would be too few left!  Oh well- real life, friends.

3). Michael makes me laugh.  All the time. He will make you laugh in this post too, even though he will be slightly embarrassed about it.

4). I just do NOT make good faces while talking…or squinting into the camera! It is kind of scary, really.

5). I get in the zone with the same few dresses and hairdos and rock them all season I guess…but when it was only 14 or 15 days, that didn’t seem as strange as nearly 20 here! Oh well! 🙂

So enjoy, friends!  And assure me that you do embarrassing things when you work too! 🙂

I was teaching them dance moves for the reception here…;-)
Where’s Waldo??
One of my favorite parts of any wedding day…give me all the details! 🙂 I just have no idea about this… Sometimes I fix all the dress problems… And flower issues… And the hair issues!! Meet my little assistant down there- she trailed me for much of the reception! Or maybe I just play babysitter sometimes, like with this little sweetie on the left…I loved my time with this cutie! And on the right- sometimes you just gotta test the light with the groom! 🙂 Michael the dress whisperer comes into play… Sometimes Michael tries to move like a Ninja out of the frame, but it doesn’t quite work out! 😉 He’s also a great light tester! This is a little blurry….but I love it that they were holding hands just while walking…I wish this for all my brides! I look like I’m hiding in the bushes…I swear I am not! Sometimes you just gotta help each other out! This made me giggle- they were taken as test shots at the same time!
Light looks good! After a petal send off And sometimes, I look like I am staring at my camera confused…I promise, I am not actually confused! PS cute story- this couple is sitting in the pew they got engaged in right before getting married in this same church…be still my heart!! I see you taking this picture of me! How I love some tall grass…and him!I clearly started posing from the right here! haha
My assistant, Sarah, came with for a wedding this season and got this of Michael photographing the groom and me showing the bride where to put her flowers while photographing her! I loved it that it was of us both at work 🙂 My niece also joined us for a wedding (on the right)- LOVED having her!
“It’s a little bright here…” And I saved my favorite for last…because I really am in full conductor mode here 😉 This lovely bride and groom requested a full group shot, and we were able to make it work time wise because they had no bridal party–Michael shot from above while I organized on the ground level.  I whipped out my best directing skills here to organize this large group- and it worked out so well!

Thanks for being a part of this past year- can’t wait for the next!  I promise that some real beauty is coming to the blog soon! 😉 😉

To see last years BTS scene, click here!