We have had the chance now to share two meals with them as we talk wedding planning, and both times we had to drag ourselves away. Talking with them is inspiring and challenging all at the same time. It is exciting to see a couple who shares such similar interests with each other and how the Lord has brought them together as a perfect pair. I know that they are going to use their gifts in a huge way to bless so many people in their path.

This session couldn’t have been more perfect. I love shooting couples in locations that actually mean something to them. On a pretty day it isn’t unusual to see Hannah & Jake laying up under a tree at McFarland park, talking with each other and soaking in the river. On any other day, I bump into them grabbing a latte at Rivertown coffee. Actually, when I think of Rivertown, Hannah’s face is one that I see standing in the front. They enjoy the sweet simple parts of life with each other. And I hope this session shows that off.

Here are a few of their images that I love. I could have blogged every single one from the day, it was tough to narrow down. I hope you enjoy as much as I do! Be Happy and love each other,

T

Going through life with someone so closely, then being able to be there as they work to welcome their child into the world, then see the new love pour from their hearts as they see their baby laid on their chest… wow. Words do not describe that type of emotion. That moment of holiness where you know that something only God can create has just been brought before you. Seeing David support Megan and coach her through her hardest moments makes me want to sit here and weep. You can only pray for that type of mate for your best friend. Megan found it.

I cry every time I go through these images. New tears, happier emotions. This little family is apart of my family. They are a huge piece of my heart.

Landon David, I pray so much for you. I am so so so so so happy you are here. You have been blessed to join a family that will love you unconditionally. I may not be as cool as your Tia Kiki, but your Aunt T loves you with my whole heart. And I am loving watching you grow. I can’t wait to see you with your new little buddy. It is only appropriate that I give you a best friend before your first birthday

I introduce to you one of the cutest kids to ever walk planet earth… once you see his 3 months you won’t even argue this point… so ridiculously cute. Enjoy. Newborn Baby3 Months…. and oh, so stinking cute

My heart is full.

Be Happy and Love each other,

T

Enjoy a few of their shots… and feel free to “ohh & ahh” over Taylor Beth’s beauty. Gorgeous.

Be Happy and Love each other.

T

He knew Rhea Anna from High School and told me he remembered she “has a nice smile” haha. It isn’t often that Wes remembers details like this about other people, but I quickly saw that once you meet this lady, her smile will stick to you. It is beautiful and contagious. I can’t imagine anyone knowing her and not having this be one of their favorite characteristics of her.

I am sure it is even one of the things that drew Benjamin, her groom to her.

This couple couldn’t have been any sweeter. I loved every moment we were there. Here are a few of their shots:

Be Happy and Love each other,

T

About a year after that she emailed me a photo of an owl piggy bank, labeled “Armosa Fund” She told me that she didn’t know when she would get married, but she knew that when she did, she wanted us there.

I then really began to follow her journey & love story. Her relationship of falling deeper in love with Tyler and her blogging about her faith. Over the last several years, I have seen a girl open herself up and become passionate about life and living for Christ. I have seen her blogs go from causal telling of what she did that weekend to challenging women around her to love deeper and to serve with their lives. To say she has been an inspiration is a mild understatement.

She is actually the reason I found courage to blog about my faith on here. For a while, I wanted to be neutral and just show love. But she helped me realize that it is important to show where your love comes from.

Shooting this wedding was a dream. Wes and I were honored to be there as her photographers and her friends. We have loved this journey.

Nicole & Tyler, you are beautiful. I pray blessings and patience and love overflowing in your marriage. I pray you see those wrinkles when you are 75 and still drinking your sweet tea together. I pray you laugh with each other tons and your babies (one day) will be inspired by your love. We have a rare gift.

Congratulations to you both. Love from the deepest corners of my heart.

Here are a few of your images.  

More goodness to come… plus, travel blogs will be arriving shortly! Next week, Wes is taking me and my bump to Norway and Paris! I am so excited to get back to Europe, it will be freezing but it will be nice to blow kisses at the Eiffel Tower one last time before this little one arrives!

Be Happy and Love each other,

T

We started their session in downtown Florence on Mobile street, the spot where Chance proposed to his bride in front of hundreds of people. We, then, found ourselves exploring the Natchez Trace jumping out and shooting wherever our hearts desired. I love these types of shoots.

I should mention that Chelsea & Chance are the lucky winners of Alabama Perfect Weddings! A wedding give away sponsored by No’ala Magazine and the Burritt Museum. There are tons of amazing vendors involved! North Alabama brides, I highly recommend checking out the list if there is anything you are still looking for… Chelsea and Chance are only using the best! Two of the talents involved directly with this shoot were Natalie Faggioni doing Chelsea’s make-up & Jordyn Dean styling this bride and groom!

I am lucky to just get the chance to photograph this beautiful couple. They make my job easy for sure! I hope you enjoy their session as much as I do! 

Be Happy and Love each other,

T

The last 5 years are truly filled with the most amazing moments of my life. Having the chance to marry my very best friend, and be able to say even still that the days we aren’t next to each other are my least favorite in the world, I am so thankful. It seems like yesterday that I walked down that aisle, and I am sure 50 years from now, that memory will still be just as amazing. I can honestly say, it was and will forever be the greatest day of my life, every other day just adds more joy to the journey.

Things I am most excited about:

• Seeing our kids face at disney for the first time (yes Lindsay, I think this is my number one
• Watching Wes get down on our kids level
• Seeing our baby smile for the first time
• Experiencing their first performance, whether it is at basketball, dance, piano, or ballet… I already feel proud of whatever they choose to do.
• Not getting sick every day… hahaha….
• Seeing our kid love other people
• Hearing his/her dreams, I hope they dream
• Taking him/her on their first plane ride, I have a feeling they will be mesmerized like their Dad.
• Finding out if “it” is  a boy or a girl…. Which won’t be until the due date! Yes, we plan to wait! (At least that is the goal)

That is the short list. I am so excited about so many things. I know for sure this will be an adventure and I know our lives are about to change.

What does this mean for Armosa? We are still booking weddings. I am not ready to “retire” yet. haha. Wes is so supportive and wants me to continue working as much as I want to. I LOVE what I do, and I plan to just keep on pushing through. But I am going to take less brides. I plan to only book 2 weddings per month and be more selective about what weddings I get to be apart of. I want passion! If I only do 2 a month, I want to work with couples who are as big of dreamers as I am! I am so so excited about our upcoming year. These brides are the reason I love what I do.

I have to add that this is the first time I have watched any of our wedding footage since the day of the wedding! (The plumbers toilet is always broke, and our wedding video never got edited… haha) I have been apart of well over 100 weddings since I said, “I Do” and I genuinely don’t think I have ever seen a bride as excited as I was. I loved hearing the laughter throughout our entire ceremony and remembering I how felt, I was literally coming out of my skin! And I wish so badly we had the videography then that we do now, things have changed so much in 5 years… haha!

Also, we aren’t packing up our suitcases just yet. We have a couple of trips before little Wages comes, and we also plan to show this baby the world. It may be in small pieces, but the soles of our shoes need to feel the earth, we won’t be kept still too long

I love you all. Thank you so much for being apart of our journey. I hope you continue on for the next part.

Be Happy and Love each other,

T

Andrew waited a week or so then slyly asked for her number through social media. Thank the Lord this couple lives in the 21st century. They hit it off immediately and have been going strong ever since.

I must say, I loved every moment we spent together on this gorgeous afternoon in Fairhope, Alabama. We didn’t have to tell any awkward jokes to make these two laugh, and you have no idea what a relief that is to me! haha. You can tell Tori and Andrew have a lot of fun together and are invested into each other’s happiness and joy. I loved seeing the two of them interact. Tori is a crafter and blogger. She is blogging her wedding journey if any of you bride’s want some inspiration from a “real” bride.

I hope you enjoy their photos and get excited about their May wedding. I will tell you, it is one that I am over the moon excited to be apart of! It is the month of love and I couldn’t think of a better couple to start with this month. I have so many exciting things in store this month! Check back this week because I will be posting a video on mine & Wes’ love story!!! Yes, so many people as us about our story and I will be sharing a piece of it with you this week!!!!! Yay! I am excited to share it with you!

Be Happy and Love each other,

T

Yup, Chanda and Levi both describe their first date as “the worst date ever.” She was home before her parents even made it home from their date! Levi dropped her off and didn’t think twice about it.

Well, at least that night… It didn’t take long for these classmates to realize they needed to see each other again. Who initiated it? I am not sure. But I am sure it took them both some time to warm up to the idea. By the second date, I am pretty sure it was love and hopefully really good dessert…. And it has been ever since.

This couple made me smile so hard behind my camera, watching the two of them laugh together and flirt like they just met… it filled my heart with joy. This couple is nothing short of lovely. I can tell they understand each other in a way that no one else ever will. They are each other’s best friend and right hand man.

Enjoy their engagements. You will see that their smile is contagious and the love between them is undeniable. 

Be Happy and Love each other,

T

So we found the local police, filed our claim, and ran to ship with moments to spare.

The first several days were hard. We were sick to our stomachs over the footage that was lost. But Wes made me get off the boat in Turkey just so he can say we touched ground there. haha. Literally, we walked off the boat, took a handful of photos and immediately got back on.

Things got better though. Once we got to Israel, we were soaking in the air, enjoying the salads, and exploring history. Our first stop in Israel was the garden where Jesus prayed the night he was arrested. Wow. Look at that tree! It definitely looks like it is thousands of years old. Completely amazing. This was the easiest place to imagine Jesus. Yes, they had built a church there, but the garden still stood, I know it has changed, but I could imagine the entire area with trees and bare earth. I could imagine Peter taking out his sword. Completely in awe. The next stop was Bethlehem, which is actually controlled by Gaza. We had to cross into Palestinian borders and I will admit that it was completely intimidating… especially with the crisis going on. These kids sat just outside the church of Nativity. This is inside the Church of Nativity, built over the area believed to be where Jesus was born. This is considered the first Holy site, and in 135 AD a church began to be built. The tile floor below dates back to 400 AD. This blows my little American mind. That night we made our way to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which is a church built over where Jesus was crucified and buried (and ROSE AGAIN!) This place was unreal. Honestly, we didn’t take many photos. One reason is it was too dark for our 400ISO film to handle and it was too amazing to even take a moment to stop and think of anything else. The photo below on the right is what they say is the stone in which Jesus body was laid for burial. I will be honest, I don’t know if it was or not. I mean, I do believe that things can be kept for that long, I mean our country isn’t that old, but we will always know where George Washington was born and we will preserve it. So I can imagine that this is in fact the stone, but even if it isn’t… it illustrates and makes things so real to me. I can literally see what it would have looked like. It makes Jesus even more real to me.

I had a moment while at the church that I want to share with you. If you read my post about the equipment being stolen, then you know my heart was not in a good place at the time. I literally told Wes that I was glad that the thief was going to rot in Hell. I told him that it was the first time I didn’t care about someone’s eternal soul. I have never felt that way.

So I am standing in the top part of the church, on the hill, where Jesus was crucified. I am imagining what took place. Standing and just staring, trying to block out the gold and mosaics they have created there, I wanted to see it how it really was. So I see the cross, and I remember the two crosses next to it. Then my heart became so heavy, or full, I don’t really know. But I felt this huge weight on me, and then just felt in my heart Jesus say, “I forgave the thief.”

Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. Slap in the face, kick in the gut. The one last things Jesus did before dying was tell the thief next to him that he would be in paradise with him. Jesus forgave. Jesus forgave all. This is the God that I serve. A loving God. Bad things do happen, worse things happen than having $30,000 worth of work and equipment stolen… but Jesus doesn’t see that, he sees hearts, he sees love. He forgives. And if I want to be like him, I must do the same… I must love all despite their past, their burdens, their sins. This was a huge huge moment for me. Overlooking Jerusalem. The Western (Wailing) Wall built in 19BC by Herod the Great, it was used to enclose the Temple. The wall is all that is left of the temple and considered one of  the holiest sites in Jewish culture. For them, the Holy of Holies lays just on the other side of the wall. You never put your back to the wall, and millions of people come here each year to say their prayers. The next day we went to Masada, which was one of Wes’ favorite places. It is another holy site to the Jews, and holds amazing stories and history of their people.

We also went to the Dea sea, which you can start to see below. We took beautiful photos there, but I am still waiting for them to develop. I will add them once they are done. It was and experience I would highly recommend to anyone. People told me that you float, and well, they weren’t exaggerating…. you literally sit down on top of the water and float. Crazy. Bad luck struck us again as we arrived in Egypt for the pyramids, the only camera (our Contax 645) that wasn’t stolen decided that was the perfect place for the battery to die. So we bought the only Kodak point and shoot we could find and made it work. I cannot tell you how much it hurt me to be in front of the only remaining Wonder of the World and to be holding a disposable camera. Haha. Life is funny. Here are a few of our photos that actually turned out. 

The truth is… a photo cannot give justice to the places that I have shown you today (with the exception of the pyramids). And for me, that is a rare thing to say. Usually, I can see a photo and imagine what it was like in the moment that the photo was taken. But you can’t imagine what it is like to stand in front of the Garden where Jesus sweat blood crying out to his father. No photo can ever give you insight to how that feels. You can’t imagine what it is like to see the tomb where Jesus was laid, the way your heart feels when you see it. No photo in the World can ever give you that feeling.

This is why we travel. I love that photos can help me go somewhere else, it can help me see the World and places I have never been and will never go. But this is one place I am so thankful I touched with my own hands.

This is a place I hope to see again. And whatever place it is for you, whatever place your heart is pulling you towards, the place that the photo calendars just don’t do justice for you, I pray you go there. Touch it and experience it for yourself.

I can now say that I have literally seen the things I wanted to see. Yes, there are a few more places that I would enjoy, I never want to stop exploring the World, but I have touched the places in the World my heart had longed for most. I am so thankful. I am so blessed. Wes, on the other hand, well, his list grows daily… so don’t worry there are more places to come.

Now we will be on to new adventures. We actually have a HUGE one coming up this year. I have kept it on the down-low. I haven’t even shared what we are doing with friends yet, details are almost worked out. BUT I hope you join me. Wes and I have both decided we think it will be our greatest adventure yet. It is something that We have wanted to explore for a while, but wanted to get these other places in first. I am SO SO SO excited to take you there with me.

Stay tuned. We are hoping to announce where it is within the next month. Just a few more things to square off before we do. I think you will enjoy it.

Until then, I have some amazing couples to share with you. Beautiful brides and wonderful stories. More blogs to come. 2013 is going to be a great one. I hope you think so, too.

Be happy and love each other,

T