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When Sarah asked me if I’d be interested in second shooting with Jenn Van Wyk at the beautiful Olbrich Gardens here in Madison, it didn’t take me more than a split second to respond with a resounding YES!  And then I realized I’d be –eek!–all alone to shoot her reception.  Jenn was great, she totally gave me confidence as she packed up her stuff and took off to her next event of the day.  Meanwhile, I sat in my car shakin’ in my boots–but more confident than I was at the beginning of the day!

Sarah and Ryan could not have had a more perfect day for an outside garden ceremony.  It was a little warm but it didn’t bother many.  The ceremony was perfect, it was heartfelt and emotional, with a touch of Ryan.  When it was time to exchange rings, he whipped out a bright red “ring pop” much to Sarah’s surprise.  I love when couples allow quirkiness into their what-is-supposed-to-be serious commitment of vows.

It was at this wedding, that I learned the importance of wearing comfortable shoes.  I learned it here, but I think I’ve yet to act on it….

I had the pleasure of taking pictures of Ethan and Aiden when they were barely six months old back in 2009.  It’s so much fun being asked to continue capturing images of little ones as they grow, so when their mommy called me to see if I’d be willing to take 1 year pictures of the boys the day couldn’t get here soon enough!  It was incredible how much they had grown!  When I met them in 2009, they had JUST started “sitting” if you can call it that!  They didn’t last more than 30 seconds on their little bottoms!  This time, they didn’t last 30 seconds in the same spot!  We had a lot of fun running around after them trying to get great personality shots.

I’d worked with Lauren at my other job for about four years, and we had gotten to know each other fairly well.  We all would listen to her date stories and wishes, and when she started dating Brian we were all secretly sure, she’d marry him one day.  One night, I got a message from her saying she had gotten engaged!  So exciting!! Even more exciting (for me) she asked me to take some engagement pictures for her!  We picked a sticky humid August evening to take a walk through the marshy woods.  It’s a good thing I had learned by now to always carry bug-spray in my bag!  It turned out to be a great way to spend the evening and we had lots of fun! I’m so happy for these two!

Finally, (for this post anyway) the wedding of Mr. and Mrs. Atkinson.  Kim is a dear friend whom I wish nothing but the best for.  I too, worked with Kim at my other job, and we became pretty good friends.  When Kim got engaged, there was no question that I would be at her wedding capturing her day.  It was the most beautiful day at the Allen Centennial Garden on the University of Wisconsin Campus.  And I had the most beautiful couple in-front of my lens!  Kim and Kyle are some of the gentlest, kindest spirits I’ve known who were clearly made for each other.  There was an overwhelming sense of serenity when Kyle held Kim in his arms, and it was my pleasure to capture these beautiful moments for them!

Thanks for lookin’!  Stay tuned for part 3!

Posted in Engagement Sessions,Family Photo Sessions,Weddings
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I’ve been planning my wedding since July of 2009, and I’ll be honest, it was REALLY easy up until now because I could just come up with ideas and get what I needed throw it in my “wedding closet” and forget about it.   That’s where the fun stops for most of us (if you let it).

Suddenly the major costs are coming forward and it is time to make the tough choices.  I tend to choose with my heart, and then regret with my head.  My fiance’ thinks with his heart but leads with his head (and wallet).  This is why we are a good fit.  Lucky for us, we are both grounded and come from good roots.  We have a keen sense of monetary responsibility (he’s just better at actually doing the responsible things) and we understand what may be nice, may not be reality.  At the same time, we understand that we only get married once.

Our first planning move was booking our venue.  We love our venue and couldn’t be more thrilled.  It was by far the nicest place we visited in our search, and while it was on the pricey end we decided that was a sacrifice we were willing to make.  We knew, roughly the dinner would be $20-$30 a plate (pretty average we thought) and open bar would be an hourly charge.  We were sold on the fun ideas and options included in the rehearsal dinner menu and figured we could ‘swing it’.  And then we sat down tonight with our budget in hand—SSSSSSSSSSSSSQQQQQQQQQQUUUUUUUUUUUEEEEEEEEEKKKKKKKKKKK—I’ve never hit the breaks so hard in my life!

What they don’t tell you is that you have a 19% service charge topped with a 6.5% tax on all food and beverage sold.

“WhATTT!” I said!

And of course my matter-of-fact, even-keel fiance’ simply says “that’s how they make money, there’s nothing we can do about it.”

Suddenly my 6 hour open bar is being reeled in and my dream Down Home Country buffet rehearsal dinner is headin’ back down South.

“It’s all about sacrifice and compromise,” he said.  “What is more important to you, treating your closest family and friends to a fantastic meal, or giving everyone else 10 drinks instead of five? They still are getting free drinks!”

I was so angry about these fees that we never accounted for while I’ve been engineering my weekend in my mind for over a year!

It all works out, we will have a great down-home meal for the rehearsal and we’ll have a kick-ass party the next day with open bar for a good portion of it–even if it’s not the whole thing.

“It’s about sacrifice and compromise Kaitlin,” I keep saying to myself.  I can’t help but feel my heart smile knowing that this significantly insignificant decision in my life is a precursor for the rest of our lives together.  “It’s about sacrifice and compromise Kaitlin.” And we are pretty damn good at it.

So I’m starting to see why people get “so stressed” about planning their wedding.  But it’s all about keeping sight on what really matters about the day.  Do your research, keep up with your homework, and READ THE FINE PRINT.  But for now, just reach for serenity…here’s a piece of mine:

Posted in My life,Weddings
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For the past two years, my birthday has rolled around and I’ve inevitably found myself asking Ryan, “how old am I going to be?”

Thank goodness he’s on top of things (or at least good at math) otherwise, I might have been stuck at 25 forever.   Not that Id’ be complaining about that!  27 is a weird age.  It’s almost 30, which to many is such a pivotal number, but its just over 25, which to many is a landmark.

I am declaring 27 the hump year!  That makes today, my hump birthday!  That sounds like something to celebrate!!

And celebrate I did {my style}–I woke up bright and early at 9:45am (sleep much?), followed it up with a nice hot cup of tea, and one of my favorite morning indulgences, a buttered roll (which in my eating world is a big no-no) which reminds me of my favorite biggest brother, who got me hooked on dunking rolls into said tea.  Yes, he used to drink hot tea with me, though I’m sure such accusations would be denied today.   As I was sitting down getting ready to enjoy one of my favorite morning routines, I realized I would not have a birthday cake this year.

My mother always tries to make our birthdays special.  One of the things she always did for us was to make sure we had a birthday cake.  This is a very thoughtful and awesome gesture, but in thinking about not having one this year I realized with a pit in my stomach that this may be the first sign of {gasp} old age! No longer are the days of birthday cake for breakfast!!

I rounded out my morning catching up on my favorite blog-sites and sipping a second glass of tea until I finally talked myself into dredging up all the dusty boxes from the basement to put away all the Christmas decorations that have so welcomly warmed our home.  This, coupled by dusting, vacuuming and mopping passed the time until my love got home to take me out to what has quickly become one of our favorite restaurants.  For Ry’s birthday in October, we decided to try this new-to-us but much talked about place called Lombardino’s here in Madison.  It looks like a whole in the wall place with a pizza guy painted on the cinder-block outside, but when you go inside you are transported  to Italy and find yourself engrossed in a menu you probably won’t understand.

See, if you didn’t know any better (or read the damn sign) you might expect a rickety little pizza place……but instead you get this:

A little ambiance…..

And THIS:

mmmmmm…..a fancy kinda eggplant parm!

And some sort of fancy lamb-chop with some amazingness underneath.  Ry went out on a limb, I tried the amazing fancy stuff underneath and he ate the whole lamb part….

But let’s not forget about their to-die-for tiramisu!  I didn’t even know I liked the stuff ’till I went here! ANND they even lit me a little candle 🙂

Tomorrow, I’m getting my diet back on track, so tonight I celebrated like it was my birthday.   (And it was!)  I’m sure you’ll be hearing about that journey….

If I had to do my birthday over again, I’d probably do it just the same.  I might always miss having birthday cake for breakfast come the morning of January 5th, and I’ll never replace the warmth of waking up to my mothers boquet of balloons or tolerance of having dozens of teens over to help me celebrate moving on in life–but if anything has to take place of those moments, it would be days like today, where piece of mind, solitude, memories of love, and the love of my life surround me.

Here’s to being 27, and taking huge steps in my life, including continuing following my passion of photography, and marrying my best friend.  Does it get any better than this?

Posted in My life,Products
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If you are like my fiance’ just the thought of being on a “program” is enough to make you stop reading this post and go and grab the box of cheezits in protest.  I’ll admit, I don’t believe being on a weight loss “diet” is necessarily the best way to manage your health.  However, as much as I hate to start it, and have started and stopped MANY times, weight watchers has got something on everyone else.

It really teaches portion control if nothing else, and having been on and off again so often in my short life, an undeniable ‘point’ calculator has taken habitat in my brain.  Granted…it doesn’t stop me from grabbing the 50 point candy bar or making the 10-point-a-piece  pizza; however it has always come through for me when I again became desperate.

They advertise not as a diet program but a lifestyle change.  It isn’t difficult if your committed.  And if you do what they say, you WILL lose weight.  That’s why I always go back.  There’s nothing like seeing the numbers drop on the scale….ESPECIALLY when your wedding is in the wings!

I’m not really a bandwagon person, but I’ll admit, the past two New Year’s I have jumped on the New Year-New You wagon and this year I am really determined, and my soon-to-be-hubby promises me he is too….

So, I’d like to share with you two products, and in honor of the New Year I’ve got one that is “old” to me and one that is “new”.   I’m not necessarily going to toss out the old and ring in the new–I’m just not getting rid of the old 🙂

Weight Watchers

Weight watchers has really changed in the last ten years (yes, I have been on and off the program for over ten years people).  While I don’t feel my inability to commit is a reflection of the program as much as it is myself, the great thing about weight watchers is that if you need that someone to help you stay committed you can go to meetings and make connections with people just like you.  If you are some one like me, and you’d rather just do it on your own…they have www.weightwatchers.com.   Here you get all the benefits of going to meetings, you just have to keep track of your weight yourself and take the initative to discover everythign through their site.

I like Weight Watchers because it keeps up with any research out there and is always trying to improve the program to make it easier on you to ensure your success.  And like I said, its just overall easy if you are committed!

Until March 12, 2011 you can join the newest program on WeightWatchers.com and get all of the online perks for a three month commitment of $53.85.  This is awesome because it waives the $30  sign up fee!!  I’m considering joining again because they have recently updated the program, and I have heard wind that you can eat all the fruits and veggies you want!!

Check out www.weightwatchers.com/winterpromo to get the deal!! Let me know how it goes!

9Round

I have recently been enlightened to this new (to the Madison area) gym. I haven’t been yet, but I have an appointment to go January 10th.   It is called 9round, and its essentially a kickboxing/martial arts 1/2 hour workout with a trainer, whenever you want to go!  There are 9 different “stations” that you workout at for a quick three minutes, with some sort of slow cardio inbetween each round to total a 1/2 hour workout.

It is either $50 a month, or $99 initiation fee and then $30 a month for unlimited workouts.

I am intrigued because it sounds like the trainers get to know you, they are always there, and they are willing to kick your butt!  If you are like me, you need that little extra push by someone who knows what they are doing to really get excited about working out!

I think this is a great alternative to a gym membership because it is a full body workout, with a trainer.  There are no obligations or contracts, and in my case, I can still do all the cardio I want at home when I’m done at 9round!

I’ll let you know how it goes!  Check it out:    http://www.9round.com/

Posted in Informative,Inspiration,Products
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