Here are just a few photos from today’s wedding! Congratulations, Monica and Brandon! You guys rock!

Have fun on your honeymoon in Vegas!

My computer has been sent in for repair the last few days, but in the meantime I thought I’d post some tips for ensuring that your wedding photos turn out the best they can be!

Wear Long-Lasting Makeup
Even if you don’t normally cry much, don’t take the chance at wearing anything other than waterproof mascara. If you wear mineral foundation, make sure you get it in matte so that it doesn’t shine in photos. Be sure to do a makeup trial before the wedding and take pictures of yourself so that you know what to expect on your wedding day!

Create an Emergency Kit
Be sure to ask a parent or bridesmaid to carry a small makeup kit, snacks, tylenol and a small sewing kit in their purse.

Get Pearly Whites
If you can afford it, spoil yourself and your groom with professional teeth whitening. You’ll look and feel like a celebrity with pearly whites.

Make an itinerary
Whether you’re working with a planner or doing everything yourself, make a rough timeline for the day.  Hand it out to a couple key people (groom, photographer, DJ, officiant, etc.) so everyone is on the same page.  Wedding days never run perfectly according to schedule, but this will help keep everyone on track. 

You gotta have sole
If you can, don’t be afraid to bring comfy shoes for the reception. Most people won’t be able to see your feet under your dress anyway, and you don’t want to take your first steps into marriage with blisters!

Don’t try to do everything yourself
Delegate. Delegating tasks to the people around you will give you the space to enjoy your wedding.  Put someone else in charge of paying vendors, moving things from site to site, and all the other small tasks throughout the day.

Eat a Healthy Breakfast
The wedding day moves fast, and before you know it, you’ll have gone half the day without anything to eat. Having a protein-rich, low-carb, healthy breakfast will give you energy for several hours without making you crash.

Relax
No doubt you’ll get a little wound up during your wedding day.  When you feel yourself getting stressed, remember to look around and take it all in. This is your day, and you owe it to your self to enjoy it! Just breathe, give your new husband or wife a squeeze and savor your special day!

We stopped by the local humane society to take a fewmore photos today, enjoy!

Affordable Materials + DIY Skillz +Vintage Paper = Awesome Favors

Corey and I went up to Elk Knob on Sunday and took a few photos! But first, a confession: I didn’t actually make it all the way up to the top. I know 2.6 miles doesn’t seem like a long way when you’re sitting there reading this at your computer, but it’s an eternity when you’re climbing a mountain. Plus, they’re still working on building the trail so some parts are extremely steep and slippery. One does not simply walk up Elk Knob.

Can you believe they still use a pulley system to haul up gravel for the trail? Too bad we couldn’t ride it like a zip line.

The mountains in the background are actually all the way in Virginia! You can see Howard’s Knob in Boone off the far left.

The self is not something ready-made, but something in continuous formation through choice of action. — John Dewey

Life can be so overwhelming that it’s sometimes too easy to become a mere bystander. In some ways, being behind the camera blurs the lines even more because to take good photographs, you have to train yourself to be an observer of the world, which can be a role too passive for “normal” life. I get into this funk about every time this year, when summer is in full swing and and I feel like everything is too intense to take just one thing at a time.

As a culture, we are obsessed with aesthetics and I’m sure most of us spend a lot of time thinking about how to unclutter our homes, our office spaces and our desktops. But maybe what we really need to do is unclutter our inner landscape. Breathe, put things in perspective, decide what’s important and what can be put aside for now.

Lately, my focus has been on:

• Working in the garden
• Rebalancing household duties
• Going to bed & waking up earlier
• Volunteering for the local animal shelter
• Saving as much money as we can
• Organizing all my personal photos
• Reading books from my 100 classics list this year

This week has been especially busy, but I’m enjoying it. I am really making an effort to open myself up for new and interesting experiences. I’ve always been a procrastinator, so at the advice of the quote at the top of this post, my technique lately has been to put something on my calendar and just do it without trying to over-think it too much. If I let myself worry that I won’t have time for X or Y might not work out like I’d hoped, nothing will ever get done!

Do you have any inspirational quotes on this subject? How do you keep your life from just going into auto pilot?

Here’s your weekly dose of photos from the Farmer’s Market here in Boone. Enjoy!

Here are just a few more photos I took yesterday at the humane society. Not to get all Bob Barker on you, but please remember to spay and neuter your pets!

There will be many more posts to come, as I’ve been invited back next week to take more photos! This time I’ll be bringing some fabric backdrops and we’ll be taking the dogs and kittens out of their cages, so I’m excited!

Today I dropped by our local humane society and took some photos of all the wonderful cats and dogs waiting to be adopted! If you haven’t already, please considering donating, dog walking or adopting from your local pet shelter. It’s such a good cause!

Love this inspiration board, it makes me want to go to the beach!