About 365 days of marriage

I started this blog in April of 2011. At the time, Bret and I were wedding photographers and it was a way to share how marriage is more about the day to day and so much more than the wedding day itself. For about 5 years, I blogged about the joys and sorrows of the Christian walk, marriage, work, family and friends. I’ve blogged every day since a few weeks after I started. In May of 2015, we photographed our last wedding. Now, I have become passionate about simplicity, particularly in marriage, Christianity, business, travel and life. For a number of reasons, we have become minimalists. I’ve found that having simplicity makes life so much deeper, refreshing and joyful. I hope that this blog will help others see the benefits of living simply.

Day 1336 – Murphy Rehearsal Posing!

Posted on March 8, 2013 by 365 days of marriage

I love taking test shots of Bret! 🙂

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Day 1335 – Did You Think I Only Do Weddings Too??

Posted on March 7, 2013 by 365 days of marriage

My contest is in full swing and I’m so excited for all of the entries so far! I was surprised though at one entry though! I have a spot for comments and the person asked if I did family portraits! I realized that my Facebook feed is mostly full of weddings and maybe I don’t talk about the portrait side enough!

So! I wanted to share a few pictures that show what we can do!

Engagement sessions

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Family portraits

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Trash the dress (or rock the dress) sessions

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Portraits with backdrops and studio lights

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Senior portraits

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And more!! So, make sure you sign up for our contest (if you’re within an hour of Monkton, MD!) and try for a chance to win one of our sessions!!

Day 1333 – Hot Topic – Do We Drink At Weddings?

Posted on March 5, 2013 by 365 days of marriage

I don’t know how many of my potential and current clients actually ask this question…but I’m still going to address it.

When we shot the wedding on Saturday, both of us were offered drinks a few times. I can totally understand this! We strive to be great friends with our clients, their wedding party and family. I think the fact that we are offered drinks means that our clients feel comfortable with us. I have no doubt that every client who has offered truly would not care if we did drink. But 95% of the time, we choose to not drink during the day. The 5% of the time that we have had a drink it has ONLY been in the last 15 minutes of the evening or after we are officially off the clock. So, feel free to offer us a drink! We’ll politely decline until the end of the day!

On Saturday, we were very graciously invited to the after party at the bride’s parents’ house. We had such a blast kicking back, leaving our cameras packed up and enjoying the company of our AMAZING clients!

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Now, you may be wondering why I would write a post like this. You might be thinking, um, Jen, OF COURSE you won’t drink at a wedding! And you’re right. It’s easy to explain this when it comes up at a wedding. I’ve never addressed it before because of that reason.

BUT, at the rehearsal for this same wedding, at the nearly very end, the groom ordered a number of shots. There was an extra one and he turned around and offered it to Bret. Since it was almost time to go, I said, what the hey! I, of course, got photographic evidence…and it it one of my favorite pictures of Bret. 🙂

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Day 1332 – The Many Faces I Make While Shooting

Posted on March 4, 2013 by 365 days of marriage

So, I’m actually writing this in the wee hours of tomorrow. I couldn’t sleep, so I ended up getting up and culling (the process where you narrow down the images you took to the ones you want to edit) until about 5 a.m.

Recently, when looking for a table at a Panera Bread before a client meeting, these two women said, do you need a seat? We can get up. I said no thanks because I needed an outlet. They said I had this very serious, “I mean business” face. I never realized I did this. Hopefully I haven’t scared others while looking for a table! I just realized it’s probably worse when I’m stalking a table!

I found a number of very funny images of myself while going through. A few were super serious. It made me think, sheesh! do I have a mostly scary face during weddings?

Here’s a few…

This one says, “yes, I’m way too important to be here. I’m even pretending I have a bouquet to make me feel special.”

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