Monday, April 30, 2007

Heather & Gary

The end of last week was busy with a newborn shoot, an engagement shoot and a wedding back to back! Hence, the tardy postings! Heather and Gary are getting married Memorial Day weekend at the beautiful River Farm in Alexandria. I look foward to this b/c it's a gorgeous site and I've never had a wedding there plus they are a fun couple and that always makes my job easy. When I woke up Friday morning for their e-shoot to rain, I thought DARN it, for the third (yes, third!) time, we will have to reschedule but within an hour or so, it stopped raining and we went for it despite the gray clouds! They are a gorgous couple, aren't they? We met in Old Town Alexandria by the docks and had a great time.


Thursday, April 19, 2007

Carlos & Eunice

Last Saturday was a beautiful love-filled day. This was an unusual wedding for me in that I booked it without ever meeting the couple. They're fabulous wedding planner Samara of BY DESIGN EVENTs, showed them my website/portfolio and that's what they used in their decision-making process in hiring me -- I was flattered! They are the sweetest, most easy-going couple and it was PURE pleasure meeting and working for them. Their ceremony was so moving that I was in tears. It was truly a sacrament of God's loving grace.

Here is Eunice in the beautiful vintage car before going into the church....








Thursday, April 12, 2007

Sponsoring a child thru Plan USA

I'm so glad I now have this blog as not only do I get to talk about my fun brides and portrait clients, but b/c I get a chance to talk about things that are near and dear to my heart outside of photography and hopefully raise awareness among my readers to these important things.

About 7-8 years ago, Jack and I began sponsoring a child in the Philippines thru Plan USA -- a non profit that helps children around the world grow and prosper thru monthly donations made by a sponsor family. Our little sponsor child, Jean-Mae, was 3 at the time and we just ended our sponsorship last month -- she is now 10 or 11 and the community is doing so well that they no longer need Plan USA's aid. As their website states...."Today, Plan works in 49 developing countries and is one of the world's largest development organizations. Child sponsorship is the foundation of our organization. We have about one million sponsors in 17 donor countries helping over one million children all over the world, together with their families and communities." For a small amount each month, you can sponsor a boy or girl in virtually any developing country of your choice worldwide. For those of you who do not know me, my mom is spanish-filipina and naturally, this country has significant importance to me. I have been there twice, once when I was 9, the other time when I was 13 and I was struck to the soul, even at that age, on how impoverished so many communities are...the impossibly poor people and the conditions they live in were shocking to me.

Last week, we were informed our new sponsor child is another girl, this time 11 years old, named Jay-ann. Her parents are my age and are very, very poor. Their family lives in a house made of cardboard with a thatched roof! For water, they obtain it from a public stand pipe 1 KM from their home. And believe it or not, their latrine is an open field or public area. The live in an area called Masbate South which is a very remote island somewhere in the middle of the Philippines 7000 islands.

I feel so so fortunate that my kids are growing up in a developed country where their lifestyle does not revolve around finding water or food.

A link to Plan's website is on the left side of my blog.

Here is Jay-ann and her mom! Thanks for reading!



Wednesday, April 4, 2007

A visit to York, PA

This week is spring break for my boys so my mom, the boys and I drove up to York, PA on Monday for an overnight trip to 1) visit friends of my mom, 2) visit my best friend from childhood who I had not seen in about 8-10 years and 3) visit the grave of my father who passed 10 years ago Feb 22 from Parkinson's Disease. We had glorious weather both days and it made for a nice, relaxing trip.

My friend Barbara and I camped together for 8 consecutive years at Camp Glenkirk in VA from 4th grade thru high school. My boys and her girls met for the first time and everyone had a great time chatting and catching up and even coloring Easter eggs. Her husband took us on a tour of one of the downtown York firestations late Monday night. Talk about a treat for my kids! On Saturday, he was awarded "Firefighter of the Year" at his station out of nearly 85 firefighters! Congrats Dave!

Be sure to click on an image to see it larger!









Tuesday, April 3, 2007

Keli & Danny

Saturday I had the honor of photographing one of my favorite couples, Keli & Danny. Their wedding was amazingly beautiful and full of moving music as Keli is a elementary music teacher and knows how to put it all together! She even wrote a song for her new husband and had it played for their first dance! You don't see that often!

Here are some of my favorite photos from their big day that I have looked at so far! Aren't they a gorgeous couple!?