I'm Baaaack!

First off, I apologize for the sudden blog hiatus! Things have been so busy lately I've hardly had time do everything I need to do, much less blog.

Without further ado, I know you've all been waiting for the good stuff . . . updates and pictures!

As promised, here are some pictures from my cousin's high school graduation on June 6.

The graduates - my cousin Shelby and her boyfriend -


Shelby and Mamaw -


My mom's youngest sister and her family -


The five oldest grandchildren, in no particular order -


The five youngest grandchildren with the graduates, in no particular order -


And here are some pictures of my bridal shower loot! Please note that this is not everything I got. This is only the stuff I could get to easily without waking J up at such an hour. Did I mention how much I love everything I got? I love every. single. thing. Thank you again to everyone!

My childhood friend, Brittany, wasn't able to make it to the shower so she had this mailed to us. How awesome is this? I absolutely love it and cannot wait to put it up in the house! It is PERFECT!

We received our wedding favors last week and here's a sneak peek . . . for those of you who guessed that our favors are koozies, you were correct!

I love them! They are so cute and exactly what we wanted! Hopefully our guests will love them as much as we do while enjoying a cold beverage in Jamaica. What more can a person ask for?

In recent news, we have decided to have a post-wedding, wedding reception whenever we return from Jamaica. Of course, we will have a reception in Jamaica with our guests who are there, but we will also have one here with everyone who couldn’t make it or who was originally invited to our wedding when we were planning to get married in Charleston (we had to shorten the guest list drastically when we changed it to Jamaica).

It will be in either late October or early November of this year. We are waiting for the final word on whether we will be able to get the venue we're hoping for. Our plan is to have a band, wedding cake, etc., just as you would have at any wedding reception, and have everyone we know and love there to celebrate with us!

This past weekend, we had some friends over for an afternoon of backyard fun in our pool. And a fun afternoon it was! The slide was a hit; the kids seriously couldn't get enough of it! It makes me happy that our pool is already being used so much this summer and it has only just begun!

Now that I have finally returned to the fabulous World of Blogging, I'm off to join my family on vacation and be a beach bum for the remainder of the week.

HOORAY for furlough days and four-day weekends!

**WARNING—LONG POST ALERT!**

Please pardon my disappearance. I've had a lot going on recently and, sadly, blogging has been the last thing on my mind/to-do list.

Here's a weekend recap from LAST weekend . . . boy am I behind!

Saturday, my cousin Shelby graduated from high school and it was a big to-do for our family, as it is with each of us that graduates. Following the graduation ceremony, family and friends gathered back at our house for a graduation pool party. It was quite the party and the younger kids had a blast in the pool. I don't think they got out once! J and I are thankful the party was at our house because we got to keep most of the oh-so-delicious leftovers and are still munching on them! Congratulations, Shelby, on your graduation and accomplishments. We are all so proud of you!

As you already know, Sunday was my first bridal shower—a monogram shower—hosted by Morgan and Elissa. You've already heard all about it so I won't bore you by talking about it anymore but let me just say (again) that it was a wonderful day! I will spread out all my awesome gifts one night and take a picture so y'all can see all my loot for yourselves!

I have had a photo shoot pretty much every day this week + I am still trying to catch up and edit all the photos I've done in the past few weeks. I'm getting there, slowly but surely! Boy, this working two jobs thing is harder than I thought! Although, I wouldn't really consider photography "work," it is still hard work!

For all my photographer blog buddies out there, I would love to know how you handle the editing portion of your photos. I literally take hundreds of photos during a session. Then, I get home, load them onto the computer, and go through and edit them all . . . one by one. I lighten them, brighten them, sharpen them, etc.—whatever I see fit. This works, but is VERY time-consuming. I do not want to hire someone to do my editing because I do enjoy doing it and I like the feeling of knowing what my photos look like when I produce them to a client. I just am wondering if there is an easier, quicker way to do this process that I'm not aware of. If so, PLEASE DO SHARE!

This is what my schedule looks like for this week . . .

I had a shoot scheduled for Monday that got cancelled due to the weather; did a shoot Tuesday and then went to a girlfriend's lingerie shower; did a shoot last night and then went to J's softball game; Bunco tonight; rehearsal dinner for a friend's wedding tomorrow night; a shoot Saturday morning; a friend's wedding Saturday night; baseball team pool party at our house on Sunday.

It's hard to find time to edit in between all of this. Now you see why I'm trying to find a better way to manage it all.

Contrary to what I may cause you to believe, I do love my life and all that I'm doing. I enjoy staying busy. It keeps me from getting bored and spending too much money. (Yes, it's a bad habit I need to try and kick – HA!) I wouldn't change a thing!

P.S. All kinds of pictures to come soon!

Monogram Bridal Shower

I just may be THE luckiest girl in the whole world!

Yesterday was my first bridal shower, hosted by my great friends Elissa and Morgan. It was such a special day for me. It was a monogram shower and everyone took things to an entirely different level. I got SO many wonderful monogrammed gifts—more than I could've ever wished for!

I cannot wait to put everything to use! But first, I must find room in our house to store it all . . . I think it may be time to move. HA!

Me and the fabulous hosts!


The delicious sugar cookie favors they made - complete with an "S" for my soon-to-be last name!


My bow bouquet that Morgan made me - LOVE it! :-)


My future SIL, me, and my friend Megan


Me and my little sister, Kallie


My BFF and I - she surprised me yesterday morning when her and her hubby and kids headed from Fayetteville, NC to Charleston for the day to spend it with us!

My friends - Katrina and the soon-to-be Mrs. Chandler!

Cutting my delicious cake from Ashley Bakery - complete with my soon-to-be monogram on it!

SO CUTE and YUMMY - I loved it!

More friends - Steph and April - such a great picture!

I was showered with so much love, so much friendship, and so many heartfelt words and gifts from twenty of my closest family and friends – what more could a girl possibly ask for!?

THANK YOU to everyone who took time out of their busy weekend to share yesterday with me and help make it a day to remember and THANK YOU to Morgan and Elissa for hosting such a fun, special shower and making it so perfect! I cannot thank you enough!

Well, hello!

I hope y'all had a fabulous weekend and are having a great week so far! My weekend was C-R-A-Z-Y!

Friday night, J and I went to dinner with our travel agent and her husband. They were in Charleston for the weekend for a mini-vacay so we decided to meet up. I'm so glad we did. We had a wonderful time at dinner and it was so great to finally meet in person. Dinner was yummy and the company was even better! Friday night was the most only relaxing part of my weekend.

Saturday morning, J and I woke up and headed out to the ball field hell for the last little league game of the season. It was SO hot out there - hence the hell part. If you've never been to South Carolina during the summer, you have no idea what you're missing! After the game, we went to lunch with J's mom and nephew and then headed back home. We had Morgan, Grady, Ryan, and Coop over to our pool for a bit before I had to leave for a 3:30 family shoot. After the shoot, J and I went out to his aunt and uncle's house for his cousin's graduation party. Congratulations, Austin, on graduating and your accomplishments!

If you thought my Saturday was busy, you're sadly mistaken. Sunday was even busier! I woke up and headed out to shoot some photos our friends' children. It was a great morning and we had a fun time hanging out at The Battery. Afterward, I grabbed a bite to eat and headed to Waterfront Park for another family shoot scheduled for noon. Once I was done with that shoot, I ran home, met my sister here, grabbed our bags, and headed out the door for Myrtle Beach to shoot family photos and rehearsal pictures for the wedding. It was a busy Sunday, indeed. When we finally ate dinner and got settled into the hotel room, I was OUT for the night! I was so tired, I don't even remember falling asleep. Sister says we were in mid-sentence when I crashed, but I don't remember a thing . . .

Monday came quickly . . . perhaps too quickly. It was a day off from my regular, full-time, weekday job, but it was not a day off by any means. I now know why wedding photographers get paid so much. The amount of work that is put into photographing a wedding is INSANE. You have no idea until you do it yourself . . . I know I didn't! The wedding went well and everything went smoothly. It was a great first wedding shoot and I cannot wait to start editing the photos and see how they turned out. But until then, I have something like 2,000 photos to edit . . . HOLY SHIT! Just the thought of all the photos I have to edit makes me sweat a little.

Did I mention I did another family shoot today (which adds another 300+ pictures to the 2,000 I already have to edit), I have a brief shoot tomorrow afternoon, a shoot Saturday morning, my cousin's graduation and graduation party Saturday afternoon, a shoot Sunday morning, and my first bridal shower Sunday afternoon . . . when will I ever find the time?! Anyone want to hook a sista up with some good pills? I'll gladly accept anything at this point . . . HA! I kid, I kid!