| KeepingitKelley Wedding | Kellie & Ryan Kelley | Springfield IL Wedding | Erin’s Pavilion Reception |

It’s time to show off Kellie & Ryan’s beautiful Niantic wedding with you today! One of my favorite parts about smaller older churches is the beautiful wood work and window details that are perfect for creative detail images… and that front door – swoon.

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One of my favorite things to do during formal portraits on every wedding day is to try to create photos for the parents of the bride and groom along with the formal of the wedding couple. Often it’s been YEARS since parents have had images of just themselves and I just love seeing the connection and love in these families and even though it’s Ryan & Kellie’s big day, it’s also a big day for these four loving parents.

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Every wedding is beautiful and unique and most are meticulously planned, yet somehow at just about every single wedding something goes not quite as planned. For these two our little hiccup (or adventure) for the day was that about 5 minutes before the ceremony was to begin the whole church lost power! Bride was a little nervous but we were prepared and able to photograph with no interior lights as was the videography team and the minister did a wonderful job sans mic. The result was actually a lovely candle-lit ceremony which will be a story for them to tell for years to come. (And about 5 minutes after the ceremony was complete the power came right back!).

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It’s not every wedding that we have the chance to personalize their images like this…. at Kellie’s grandparent’s home with a tractor that’s been in her family for generations!

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Erin’s Pavilion in Springfield is a beautiful venue for any wedding or reception and one of the biggest reasons why from a photography standpoint is the abundance of stunning locations close by for portraits. This small garden out front was my favorite for this ‘wall of ivy’ type look. We had fun with everything from laughing poses to Kellie’s fierce model look below.

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Whenever possible I like to sneak out of the reception with the bride and groom for a few quick sunset images. This gives us something different from what we’ve created earlier in the day, shows the bride with dress bustled (and/or veil gone – Kellie rocked hers all night) but it’s also just a minute with the two of them alone amid the reception festivities which is always romantic!

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I have to say it was a joy to be a part of this beautiful couple’s wedding day and I love their hashtag #keelingitkelley because YES this bride’s new name is Kellie Kelley (isn’t it adorable!).

| Mullen Family Portraits | Decatur IL Family Photographer |

You guys might remember Kayle one of our class of 2017 senior models! Well this fall I had the chance to get her whole family in for their session. I absolutely loved working with Kayle and her mom for her senior portraits and it was even more fun to get her sister and dad in front of the camera too for these family images.

Some of you might have gotten this little treat in the mail from them! Their Christmas cards were one of my favorites. I just loved working in their favorite family portrait with just a subtle foil border on the front and a little reminder of the reason for the season on the back.

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Now this design you’ll find hung on their wall soon! For Kayle’s senior portraits we created a wall collage with 3 separate canvases so they wanted to do something a bit different for the family portraits and decided on a digital collage to feature all their favorite images in a single canvas piece.

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Don’t forget to head over to the Facebook Page to check out their full session proof video to see all the images we created for them AND give them some love with your likes/comments!

| Dylan | Warrensburg-Latham High School Senior Portraits | Class of 2017 |

Dylan was one of our 2017 Warrensburg-Latham high school seniors this year! You may remember seeing the WLHS yearbook photos for the year. Each year I get to create the senior class portraits and while I love the classic and timeless look of a studio portrait I also love getting to dive a bit deeper with our senior experience sessions to show off these senior’s personalities.

For Dylan, this meant outdoors, hunting and his dog! So after we created his studio portraits we headed out to some land where he hunts to create portraits of him in his element outdoors.

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You can see more from Dylan’s session on our Facebook Page (be sure to show him some love with your likes, comments and shares!)

| Heather + Blair | Engagement Portraits | Decatur IL |

Heather and Blair are ENGAGED!!! These two are so fun to work with, Heather is nothing but smiles and energy which I love and you can tell how much these two fit together right off the bat. They are getting married this June and I cannot wait to be a part of their beautiful day. But until then, it’s time to enjoy their Allerton Park engagement session….

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Be sure to head over to our Facebook Page to view their full session proof video and give them some love with your likes, comments and shares!

| Ariel | Argenta-Oreana High School Senior Portraits | Class of 2017 |

Today it’s Ariel’s debut on the blog! Ariel, her mom and I had a fantastic time at Forsyth Park and around downtown Decatur creating her senior portraits. Her session kicked off with a bang with a snake sighting which propelled me and her mom into full on girl screams and ‘evacuation mode’ …. I took off so fast I left my lighting gear in the dust (Ariel who was unphased and laughing at our over the top reactions saved the day by going back over to the snake zone to rescue my gear!). Needless to say I think there’s one area of Forsyth park I think we’ll avoid from now on (we noticed quite a few holes that I’m now convinced were a little snake neighborhood – AHHH).

Anyways, enough about snakes, more about Ariel. Here are our favorite images from her session and you can see her proof show and MORE on our facebook page too!

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