Day 1500 – Fifteen Hundred Days Of Marriage! Praise God!! – Here’s What Happened!

Posted on August 19, 2013 by 365 days of marriage

So, 1,500 days…what have we done in that time?

We got married!

Bret adjusted to living on the east coast

We drove cross country

We photographed 28 weddings together (that’s about 60% of my weddings!)

We did some rock climbing

We ate healthy

We ate unhealthy

I started doing photography full-time

Bret tried puppetry

I made the best crab cakes in the world

We drove across the country again

Bret made me breakfast in bed

Bret built a giant snowman

Bret started a business

I became an old bay hummus expert

Bret bought me the best birthday present ever…flashes!

We took a trip away, just the two of us, for the first time since we got married

Bret completed 4 years of college

Bret, thank you for giving me the best 1500 days of my life. You have helped me to become a better person than I ever imagined I could be. Thank you for always seeing the best in me…and if not, the best that I could be. You have pushed me to be all that God has called me to be. Thank you for truly loving me as Christ loves the church. I am humbled that you love me despite all the times I’ve screwed up.

You rock mister. Glad we can have fun together. 🙂

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Day 1495 – Exciting Day And Exciting News

Posted on August 14, 2013 by 365 days of marriage

If you’ve been keeping up with my FB posts or blog posts…(And it’s a little scary how many of you do!)…you know it’s been a SUPER crazy busy few weeks.

Between shooting a wedding, attending Wedding Wire World, attending The Next Big Buzz AND going on vacation. I cannot put into words how full my brain has been!

When I got home from vacation, I was all ready to jump in and implement everything I learned. Well, that didn’t happen. It’s been a tough week so far! Between feeling a little under the weather…or under the pollen?…and just feeling completely run down (what is that with vacation by the way?)….I haven’t been as productive as I KNOW I can be.

Today, I was still a little slower getting started and really just dragging my feet….again.

So, this morning in my devos, I prayed “Give me the fire back. Help me to glorify You today.”

My day was still dragging a little bit after that, so I sat down to watch a video from the good folks at Book More Brides. They are running a summit this week to help wedding vendors take their businesses to the next level. I was doing some ~~admin work~~, time draining work and figured I might as well listen to something productive. I ended up listening to “The Niche Profit Formula: How to Double Your Price and Still Book Solid” by Mike Allebach of Allebach Photography, aka The Original Tattooed Bride Photographer. I’ve followed him on Facebook for a while and am on a few of his email lists. It was an AMAZING presentation and really helped me to connect a few dots that came up at Mara’s event last week.

That was first….after the presentation, through a series of events, he featured me on his page and friended me on Facebook!

AND DURING the presentation, I got an inquiry for next year!

What a way for God to answer my prayer! And so quickly too!

I also want to just say how proud I am of my husband! He is starting his LAST semester in college on Friday! I can’t believe he’s already at this point! In a lot of ways the last 4 years flew by, but they were also tough. I am amazed at how hard Bret has worked. Love ya darlin’

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Day 1486 – Today Is The Beginning Of Something Amazing

Posted on August 5, 2013 by 365 days of marriage

Whew! As you know, I just finished a business event. It was absolutely, positively life changing. I learned SO much and have already changed my mindset about SO many things! I cannot wait to see how the next few months go!

We had one thing come up at the event that we need to decide about. A big, scary decision. A “jump off the cliff and trust that it’s a good thing” decision. It’s crazy that we’re even considering this. I cannot believe we are! But, I think it will change our lives and will open up doors and opportunities we never could have dreamed up ourselves.

In thinking about this decision, we have already covered it in a TON of prayer, chats with friends and a bit of reading. I spent today outside, praying and reading. Here’s an awesome quote I wanted to share!

“He knows too that God is always wise, and, knowing this, he is confident that there can be no accidents, no mistakes; that nothing can occur which ought not to arise. He can say, “If I should lose all I have, it is better that I should lose than have, if God so wills: the worst calamity is the wisest and the kindest thing that could befall to me if God ordains it.” “We know that all things work together for good to them that love God.” The Christian does not merely hold this as a theory, but he knows it as a matter of fact. Everything has worked for good as yet; the poisonous drugs mixed in fit proportions have worked the cure; the sharp cuts of the lancet have cleansed out the proud flesh and facilitated the healing. Every event as yet has worked out the most divinely blessed results; and so, believing that God rules all, that he governs wisely, that he brings good out of evil, the believer’s heart is assured, and he is enabled calmly to meet each trial as it comes. The believer can in the spirit of true resignation pray, “Send me what thou wilt, my God, so long as it comes from thee; never came there an ill portion from thy table to any of thy children.”

‘Say not my soul,
From whence can God relieve my care?
Remember that Omnipotence
has servants everywhere.
His method is sublime,
his heart profoundly kind,
God never is before his time,
and never is behind.'”

From Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon

I can’t say quite yet what this big, new thing is, but know you’ll know soon!

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Day 1453 – Why I Continue To Photograph Weddings – A Baltimore Maryland Wedding Photographer Confession

Posted on July 3, 2013 by 365 days of marriage

Today I asked my Facebook friends for ideas about my blog post. Some days it’s super easy to come up with ideas, sometimes I have piles and piles of pictures (after weddings are especially bountiful!)….some days, it’s a pretty boring day! Today feels like one of those days. I dragged my feet to get up…to do my devotions….to respond to emails….to workout…. Every. Single. Thing. I’m also a little down today for a number of reasons…particularly for reasons pertaining to my business….

I had two friends respond…the first suggested my favorite color….it’s black for clothes, purple for weddings (this post represents a lot of my purple weddings), and I absolutely love green when I’m outside.

The other suggested “Why did you choose to become a wedding photographer?” This is a GREAT question. The short answer is, a friend asked me to shoot his wedding and something just felt so right about it. I’ve enjoyed shooting weddings over the years, and that’s why.

But then I started to think about why I STAY a wedding photographer….and I thought, you know, it would be a great exercise for ME to remember those reasons…especially on a day when the business side is bringing me down.

There are a number of things that I DON’T enjoy about this job. I am the boss, I am the main person deciding everything that goes into my business. Sometimes Bret will help me decide things and he’ll take a final look through of the edits I’ve done. But most of the time, it’s just me. If I don’t feel like doing something, it’s up to me to rally the strength to do it. (Like today!) Sometimes I hate having to make decisions about things…how to word an email, how to explain my policies, etc. Honestly, it all comes down to pride…I’m not going to lie here. I like to be right 100% of the time, I like everything to run smooth and I HATE it when I don’t know something! I believe I’ve shared before that the last almost two years being a full-time photographer has been a BIG humility lesson!

Now that I’ve gotten a few of the “hates” out of my system, let me tell you why I continue to do this….

Because I believe God has blessed me with the talents to do so. I have a TON of things to work on, I am SO not perfect, but I continue because this is where I believe God has me right now.

Because I can capture huge emotions that will be saved forever.

Because I get to work with my super fun husband….who is also my biggest fan, encourager and “helping-me-to-grow” person.

Because I get to meet amazing new people who I never would have met otherwise.

Because our clients feel this way about us – “I felt like Jennilyn and Bret were part of our family for the day – they fit right in and did everything in their control to make everything run smoothly. I have no complaints at all and could not be happier with our beautiful memories.” – The Ruperts

Because I get to meet other photographers and awesome vendors

Photo credit: Moshe Zusman.
Other person in the picture: Shawna Sherrell Photography

Because I can be my own boss. (I have a love/hate relationship with this, if you haven’t picked up on that yet!)

And lastly, because I have no idea what else I would do!

Day 1450 – Do You Know How Closely You’re Being Watched? Or Someone Remembered Me Over 10 Years Later!

Posted on June 30, 2013 by 365 days of marriage

I’ve been meaning to share a story for quite some time. It happened back in March, but I just haven’t sat down to write it. After an event yesterday, I knew it was time.

Yesterday was my friend Abby’s baby shower. As I was settling down with my food, a few people came by the table and they had the “I know you look.” Abby proceeded to introduce me and each person said, “ooooooh! Jennilyn!!!” Apparently, she talks about me a lot! They even recognized me from my picture! After this happened, I shared the following story….

We were at the Kristofco rehearsal dinner chatting with the family and friends…I LOVE this time during the wedding. It’s great to somewhat kick back and get to know those who are most important to our couples. It’s part of what makes us great on the wedding day.

Anyways, I was checking out one of the gifts (which I won’t share, because I’m thinking about buying it for a friend!) and started chatting with her and her husband. He looked at me a little funny and said, “ok, I have a really weird question….where did you go to college…did you go around this time?…ok….did you have a purple cape?”

Let me say here that I went to college from 2000-2004. Woah!

“Why yes, yes I did!”

“OH MY GOSH! I wanted to talk to you back then! My friends and I called you Cape Girl!!!”

At this point, his wife says, “Oh yea! I remember him talking about you!”

It was hilarious, but also VERY humbling. To think that something I wore OVER TEN YEARS AGO made such a big impression on someone…it made me realize that I need to be very careful in what I say and do…I have NO idea who is watching. It makes me think about days when I walk around wearing my emotions on my face (if I’m angry, tired, whatever), it can make someone else angry…etc.

I had a reversed situation JUST like this yesterday….I was leaving a 7 Eleven and I held the door open for the guy behind me. I stood there maybe two seconds longer…after he left, he said, “Thank you! Have a blessed day!” And you know what, I did! I was all smiles when I got to the car and finished my drive over to K&B.

And since I’m sure you’re curious….here’s my cape! Which, I came to find out later is actually a cloak…since it has a hood. It is black velvet on the inside and purple wool on the outside….very warm and perfect for Raven’s games!

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