Looking back through all of our sessions in 2016, we had a lot of memorable moments we just couldn’t pass up remembering. I don’t know if we are just lucky but we have some incredible clients that love to make a statement, show their personality, or just can’t get any cuter, and here they are!

In no particular order…

1. Our Senior with an inflatable parrot – Yes, we got an amazing email a few days before our senior session with Michael, and it was from him, clarifying that he has ” a quirky sense of humor” and asking if he could be on a float in the James River. He showed up in slacks and a bowtie looking so sharp, then before the end of our session, pulled out an inflatable parrot that he had to inflate more because it wouldn’t fit in the minivan completely inflated! You have to see this post, because it made us so happy!
2. Being able to see my best friend from Kenya – We photographed Angela & Daniel this summer, and I grew up with Angela’s sweet family in Kenya! It was so wonderful to see one of my best friends, Andrew at the wedding, even if it was for just a minute or two. So many great memories I have of times spent with him.
3. Surprise video slideshow for a father – We have had some amazing father of the bride moments over the years, but we had one of the sweetest to date when our wonderful bride Samantha created a slideshow while her father-daughter dance was playing, with photos from her childhood with her father. You can’t get sweeter than that, and her father just loved it!
4. Santa crashing a wedding – This year we had our first Christmas themed wedding, and it was AMAZING! All the intricate details that we couldn’t stop photographing, and a venue decked out to the nines for this sweet Christmas-loving couple. Half way through the reception, to the Mark & Sarah’s surprise, Santa showed up to celebrate with them!
5. Cars getting stuck in the mud – Alex & Challoner’s wedding was everything you could want from a wedding hosted on their backyard farm. And even the rain could not stop this happy couple on their wedding day, though it did stop some of their guests from leaving! They called their next door neighbor to come and help tow some of them out with his tractor, and you bet we were there to capture it.
6. Groomsman’s split pants – Mary & Reed had the most amazing wedding, and their bridal party were the perfect pair to add a that much more fun to their wedding day… The excitement as they helped both Mary & Reed get ready, each in their own way, the emotion in their toasts at their reception, and yes you heard us right, a groomsmen splitting his pants part way through the reception as he was celebrating and dancing!
7. Our expo disc running in the water at the beginning of an engagement session – So we use an expo disc to balance our light, and literally as we went to use it for the first time this past wedding season, it literally rolled right off the front of my camera as I was standing on a bridge, and into a moat full of water. We were at Ft. Monroe, photographing a travel-themed engagement session, and because of our amazing couple we didn’t even need it!
8. Getting ‘essays’ for reviews on Google –  After we deliver our images to our clients, we ask them to give us some feedback in a few different ways. They fill out a questionnaire to help us better our service for future clients, and if they want, they can write a review in the Knot, or on google. Some of our clients do share a review, and we so appreciate all of them so much! And this year, we got two amazing and essay-like reviews! We feel that these are the reviews that are most helpful because they go into so much detail about how we believe we should serve our clients. Thank you to all our clients that do this to help future and prospective clients know us a bit more.
9. Helping billy set up for his proposal – We were so excited for our first proposal session, and we love being involved with our clients. He walked us through his proposal plan, and it just so happened that he was using globe lights as part of his proposal. WE LOVE GLOBE LIGHTS… and it’s something that we pick up every time Target is having a sale on them. So we headed up there early, and helped with part of the setup. But more than that is all of the back and forth we had before that, asking for prayers that the rain would hold off, sending us pictures of the rooftop, and a video of the view of the city from the rooftop! The entire proposal was just one amazing experience, and we are so happy for Billy & Ellen!
10. Megan’s family all dancing together at the father-daughter dance – Another father-daughter moment hits the top of our reel. Both of Megan & Spencer‘s families were just adorable throughout their wedding. But what took the cake for us was half way through Megan’s father-daughter dance, both Megan and her father motioned for the rest of her family to come up and join them to dance with them. And I mean with them, in one big dance hug. IT WAS AMAZING!
11. Eating a cookie with our clients after their grand exit – I mean who doesn’t love cookies, and when we get to share one with our couples as their first thing they do immediately after their wedding reception ends, you know your clients are just the best! We literally drove right behind them as they departed their venue (which was their farm) and drove down the street to Sugar Fix!