It's that time of year again!

Time for all my couples to start getting their engagement photos done for summer/fall weddings. This past week was almost a blur.



Calee and Charles - see a few more of their sneak peek here.

Candi and Rico - see a sneak peek of their engagement session here too!

Jenny and Drew get Married! St. Joseph, Missouri Wedding Photographer

You might recognize Jenny. She was one of my bridesmaids at Lauren and Josh's wedding back in July. Nope, they had no idea that they both booked me. I had no idea they were friends until I saw them in a photo together on facebook. In any event, it's always so much fun to see a lot of the same players at multiple weddings as you get to know everyone a little better. Both are really sweet people, and I'm not just saying that because. I'm saying it because it's true. I have both Drew and Jenny on my facebook and every few days, Jenny posts a sweet little love note on Drew's wall. It's so obvious that these two are head over heels for each other.

To see the rest of the photos, please visit here.

Sneak Peek - Sarah and Kyle Engagement Portraits - Maryville Missouri Photographer

What she cared most about, was being outside, and so that's what we did. They are rustic sort of couple, with a country feel so being outside, with her uncle's old barn was just right for them. It would be hard picturing them any place else.

See more photos from their engagement session here.

Megan and Levi - engagement sneak peek

These two are so cute and fun. I have many more to share soon!

More than just a little obsessed with this building lately.... it's a mini "barn" near me that has seen better days. Great small scale to shoot with.

More soon!

Hannah + Sam = Engaged! Maryville, Missouri Wedding Photographer

She spoke in hushed tones, even though Sam stood only 12 inches away. "I can't wait for everyone to see my dress it's [redacted**] with a long [redacted]." Slowly, you could see the color flood her face as she realized what she'd just done. "Uh oh" she said, as she looked at Sam. Sam just smiled, like Sam did the entire time. "I already know it's [redacted]." "Well," she says This is when I learned three things about this couple. {Read the rest of this post here}

Lesley and Colby - Engaged! Sneak Peek - Nebraska City, Ne

Lesley and Colby are so sweet and kind. It's obvious that they love each other. They wanted to do something different, and so we ended up in Nebraska City, Nebraska at Arbor Day Farms. This place is golden! No really. I could shoot every day for a year and never hit all the good spots!

A million and 12 more to come.
OK, maybe just 12.

In the meantime, lots more shoots coming up, another wedding, some senior pics, some albums to make, blah blah blah. Calgon take me awayyyyy!

This pretty girl I know named Hannah

more of this girl soon....

and her sweet handsome fiance too.

In the meantime, 2 weddings to get edited this week!

Kayleigh + John = Getting Engaged!

I met Kayleigh for the first time at a bridal fair. She's so sweet and kinda quiet. She really REALLY wanted me to shoot her wedding for her, and that really REALLY made me want to shoot her wedding.

Funny how things work out.

Her mom was with her, and something she said stuck with me. She said "John is the perfect man for Kayleigh, we couldn't ask for a better guy." You know what? Mom was right. These two are good together and it's obvious that they love each other deeply. You know, that icky, squishy, please stop looking at each other so much because I've been married for more than 2 years, kinda love. ;P

Keysa + Andy = Get Engaged!

I have to introduce you first, to this special couple. They remind me that it's kind of a small world at times, and that I'm getting old.

Sigh.

Keysa (which is a rockin' name) first met me over the phone. I was calling her place of employment looking for trash service. She worked in the front office. Sadly, her first encounter with me, was me complaining about my former service! LOL. She was cool about it, and that makes her awesome in my books. So anyway, I really didn't MEET Keysa until one of my dearest friends started working in the front office too - just the two of them.

I would go to visit my friend Stacy, and chat with Keysa while I was there. It was so funny, I really didn't "know" Keysa, but she is so easy to talk to, it was like I've known her for ages. At one point, we had decided we were all going to star in "The Real Housewives of Nodaway County" (where we live), and do a total redneck spin on it. Keysa was going to get to be the pretty one.

Now Andy, I've known Andy since he was like - 6 years old. What I can tell you about Andy back then, was this... he was ornery. There's no other way to say it except he was a trouble maker. Adorable as heck, but ornery. His dad and my ex served on the fire dept together. His mom and I both worked for competing newspapers around the same time. Plus it's a pretty small town if you wanna get technical about it.

Imagine my surprise when about 20 years later, he's a full grown adult. Exactly when did that happen? I dunno, all I can remember is he's this little 6 year old toe headed blond little stink butt. (see how I made that whole sentence with no commas? pfft)

So then one day I'm talking to Keysa, she says something about her boyfriend, I ask her who it is and she said "Andy W" and I'm like "GET OUT! He's grown up now??"

(I live in a bubble I tell ya - this is how I can tell people that I'm 28 with a straight face).

So one day, I'm sitting in a local restaurant. I happen to see Andy sitting there a couple tables over, and I say to myself "Good god when is that boy going to ask her to marry him already?" No really... those were the exact words that were in my head.

Approximately 2 weeks later, Keysa is announcing an engagement ring!

Keysa, you are welcome! I put the marriage juju on him.

I was happy when they decided that they wanted me to shoot their wedding! They are pretty awesome and fun people - in fact, Andy is a wedding DJ himself!

Both love to play softball, and spend most of their summer evenings at the ballfield (no that's not how they met - they met in high school) so it was no big suprise when they wanted to do most of their shoot at the ball fields! Thank you guys, I had fun, and it was one of the more interesting engagement shoots I've had yet!

Kandy and Ryan are engaged - Missouri / Iowa Wedding photographer

Next month I will be shooting Kandy and Ryan's wedding. Kandy is a lucky girl, she will be getting married next to a pond, which is in her parent's yard. They will be on a dock extending into the lake, that Ryan happened to build. I can't think of a more memorable place to be married. I am kind of scared of water, so this might be a long lens kind of moment. LOL.

I traveled to Bedford, Iowa to her parents home so that I could see where it would be, and also do their engagement photos at the pond, and more later at the Lake of Three Fires.

What you can't see is the kitty that kept following us, and wanting to be in all the photos. LOL. I LOVE cats, but I'll admit he was a bit of a pest.

This last one is my favorite of the whole set. Sweet and innocent, yet sexy at the same time.

I'm looking forward to what that pond will bring. But I'm hoping the cat won't visit. LOL.