the question: keely and scott

I am absolutely thrilled about the engagement session that I had up at Grist Mill a couple of weeks ago! To start off the story, Keely's awesome cousin, Hayley (Maid of Honor), is actually best friends with one of my best friends!!! What a coincidink! So Haley passed my name along to Keely and that is when the love fest happened! :) Just kidding, but I did instantly fall in love with Keely and Scott! They are sooooo smitten with each other and we had such a ball up at Grist Mill with their engagement session! Sadly, I have never made my way up to Grist Mill so I was incredibly excited to have a new location to play with! And boy did we have fun! We were playing with the sun a little bit (crazy time change) so we took some time and walked around the area to get a feel for some great spots. 

I absolutely love this next series...

Keely and Scott were so laughy, cuddly and just all around lovely! I don't believe there is anything more that I could ask for! 

 I have to say that once we changed outfits, I really felt things start to click and just work! This is one reason why I highly recommend engagement sessions. You never know what to expect on the day of your wedding. If you know how I work, and I know what makes you comfortable (and uncomfortable) then the wedding day is a piece of cake! There's no stress of not knowing how to do things or not knowing what you should do. I consider the engagement session a trial run per se! :) And boy is it a fun run!! :)

We ended the day at this beautiful area of trees right down the road from Grist Mill. It was literally the perfect place for my favorite pictures from this session!! The green, the sunset, the trees...I was one happy girl! 

Keely and Scott...December 1st can't get here fast enough!! I am beyond excited to spend the best day of your lives with you!!! :)

Keely and Scott are also the first recipients of the wedding website that I offer! Yay!!! If you are interested in having a wedding website with your package make sure you let me know and check out Scott and Keely's HERE!

Planning the Big Day ~ All the Inspiration

One of the most amazing things about planning a wedding nowadays is the amount of inspiration that is out there! Whether it be wedding blogs, Pinterest, wedding magazines or friends' albums on Facebook, there is always somewhere to draw ideas from! I love visiting wedding blogs! There are some seriously amazing brides out there who think of anything and everything to make their wedding unique! I can get my cup of coffee in the morning, check my email and just sit on wedding blogs for HOURS!!! Don't put it past me on a Sunday morning!

This is going to be a very small post this week, but hopefully, the amount of info and additional looksies will keep you occupied for some time! :)

Here are the blogs that I hit up (at least) daily:

Green Wedding Shoes: Robby and I are doing vintage spoons for the wedding that I found on this blog the first day I visited it! 

DIY Vintage Spoons

Ruffled: They have some of the best vintage weddings out there!

Style Me Pretty: Their blog slogan is perfect. "The Ultimate Wedding Blog"

Southern Weddings Magazine: because when your a Southern Bride, this is your Bible!

One of their writers, Emily, is currently writing about planning her own wedding!

100 Layer Cake: They have some amazing DIY tutorials!

Once Wed: The most elegant wedding blog I've come across...the photography they feature is to die for!

I fell in love with this Farm Fresh Wedding Photoshoot so much that Robby and I visited the venue...check back next week for my post on Watermelon Moon Farm!

The Wedding Chicks: I love their vendors and DIY tutorials!

Rinse. Repeat.: A bride that shared her entire planning process and then surprised EVERYONE by going and eloping! She is amazing and has beautiful ideas!

I hope you have a blast going through these sites and get some phenomenal ideas!

Next week, I will talk about our quest for the perfect venue...it isn't complete, but it is definitely a journey to talk about! :)

"Change and Struggle go Hand in Hand"~J*

Last week, I had the extraordinary honor of heading up to Nashville with Kristin of KLP Photography to go see not only a photographer, but a mentor and an inspiration. When I saw that Jasmine Star was going to be in Nashville for something called "The FIX" I immediately shrieked, put a note in my calendar and impatiently waited for the day that tickets went on sale. I had no idea what she would be talking about or what The FIX even WAS! But I knew I had to be there. Since starting this crazy and intense ride of kick starting my photography career, I have always watched and listened to what J* has said. She worked her butt off and has always stayed humble and down to earth and that is something to be admired; especially today and especially in the photography industry. 

I'm not going to lie! I was absolutely star struck at first. I couldn't get over the fact that we were both wearing navy and white stripped shirts! Did this mean we were meant to be best friends forever? J*...you're friendship bracelet is in the mail! ;)
Once I had a glass of wine and mingled and met with other photographers, I finally calmed down and really started to get interested in who the other photographers that were there were! People came from near and far! I couldn't believe that everyone in that room was there for this one person. But not only that, they actually seemed to care about what I had to say (or it could have been the wine...when I get nervous I can't seem to shut up). I walked away from The Fix, not only with a new found feeling of accomplishment for what I've already achieved, but also with a gaggle of gals that I know I could shoot an email, or jump on a FB photography forum and ask a question and they would be there to lend a helping hand! That my friends is powerful!

I sat on what she said for close to a week. I didn't look at my notes, I just let it soak in. Once I finally sat down yesterday and looked over everything, I realized that I don't believe there could have been a better time for me to hear the words that she spoke. That she preached! Can I get an 'Amen'? ;)

So to Jasmine Star and The FIX I can only say 'Thank You'. Thank you for sharing, for teaching, for encouraging and for just being You! 

Planning the Big Day ~ The Guests

So, just in case you have recently stumbled across my blog...or me perhaps, you might have missed the small teeny tiny fact that I'm engaged!! :) Yes, the love of my life popped the BIG question on a beautiful May day at none other than the Biltmore! You can check out our blissful (and I have to say the sweetest, most thoughtful and most romantic) engagement right here at Jennie Andrews Photography!

I am beyond excited to start on this little endeavor known as planning a wedding. Most brides probably have a slight panic attack when they realize just how much goes into planning a big shindig...where as I have seen probably (creeping up on) 100 weddings while tagging along with Jennie Andrews over the last 3 wedding seasons, so naturally I thought I had this in the bag. Oh boy...was I wrong! I feel like I just made 5 brides decide on eloping. :( But to be honest, I have seen SO much and have had SO many ideas, that deciding on what I really wanted and what would capture Robby and I as a couple has been a little bit tricky! I know I'm not the only bride out there who has felt like this (I follow an amazing blogosphere of ladies who blog about this very subject - see the end of the post for links). So I would like to put it all out there. Go through the tough guest list decisions, the breaking of traditions, deciding on if we should have a carving station or not...all of the little things that are left out of the bridal binders. Especially for planning a wedding here in East Tn! I hope to give you some venues that are a little bit less known, some alternative ideas for bands or DJ's, and maybe even some DIY moments thrown in here or there (because lets face it...this is definitely going to be a DIY wedding)!

One thing Robby and I knew from the beginning, was we wanted only close friends and family and we wanted it to be laid back. Not show up in your blue jeans and flippie floppies laid back, but a relaxed atmosphere..no fuss. We've patiently waited 8 years for this marriage to begin (it'll be 9.5 by the time the wedding rolls around) so we want to focus on us and making this a day that WE will remember.

Believe it or not, the guest list was the first thing we tackled. I had been told by many, many people that this is where the fights lie. He'll want this person and that person and you'll want friends that you haven't seen in years there. I already knew that family was a must for me...and boy do I have a big family. So I knew that I would have to cut back on the friends...whereas Robby has a microscopic family (compared to mine) so he gets to go wild with his guys, and that was something that I had no problem compromising on. I am very, very happy to say that the mission of the guest list was solved one night, sitting at a restaurant where I had a glass of wine and Robby had a beer. No fights, no "if you are going to invite that person then I want to invite this person". We even started suggesting who the other should invite! :) We had decided that 80 was the number we wanted to stay close to, but we allowed ourselves the wiggle room so as not to add stress to a "potentially" stressful decision. Although the guest list isn't 100% finalized, we have a hard list. Meaning, no one will be added. If we haven't thought of them yet, then there must be a reason (ouch...little harsh there Kay). Once we finalize the venue, we are hoping to finalize the list!

Image by: Jill Thomas Photography found on explore. dream. discover

Need help on narrowing down (or even just beginning) a guest list? I actually created a list of my own, and Robby (with some help from his mom) created his list. Then we came together and went over both of them. Since we had a number in mind that we didn't want to veer away from too much, that limited each of us while we created our own lists. We created a list of the "bare essentials" as we are calling them. These are the people that we wouldn't feel right if they weren't at the wedding. Basically, all of our family members were on this list (with the exception of the long lost aunt and uncle or the cousins that we haven't seen since we were 7). Obviously, not everyone is in the situation we are. I have a close friend who doesn't like half of her family. Not that she doesn't see them...but she doesn't like them. I have told her..."now thats a tough one" many times! Your wedding is your and your fiance's day. And you should spend it with and surrounded by the people who will be there throughout your marriage to support and guide you. Hopefully that will help make those little odds and ends fall into place. 

Check back next week for our "Venue" post...man oh man...Knoxville has some killer areas for venues!!!