Well we have made it to the end of Schmidt Studio’s biggest year ever!  30+ weddings in a single year.  Many memories made, tears shed, laughter abounded and FRIENDS made who will forever be called family.  Today, is our last wedding of 2011.  In less than 8 hours our “shooting” year will be done but we STILL have many more weeks of work ahead of us, proofing, and getting the year wrapped up!   We cannot think of a better way to end our year than with Joe and Helen’s wedding TODAY!  It is a beautiful fall day and we are SO excited to call them friends.  I know today will be a beautiful joining of two lives and a heck of a party after!!!!

So, Joe and Helen… get ready!  The Schmidt’s are ready to make this one amazing!

While you are waiting on their wedding peeks… here are a few from their firehouse engagement!

Yup.. It’s 11/11/11 and that means a TWO wedding weekend especially since 11/11/11 fell on a Friday.  I first met Candace while working in the wedding industry but have gotten to know her over the past year since we photographed Maureen and Chad’s wedding!  We are SO happy for Candace and Danny.  They are the couple who you just know will be together forever.  Mutual adoration is how I would sum up their relationship (from our perspective! LOL)…

Can’t wait to see them say I do!!  See you guys in just a few hours! Happy Wedding Day Candace and Danny!

Here are a few from their engagement session a few weeks back:

Well we made it!!  We are here in Bradenton, Florida for Sarah and Ben’s destination wedding on Anna Maria Island!!!  This is actually our first destination wedding for a Lexington couple!  We are so super excited for them and know it’s going to be an AMAZING day!  Happy Wedding Day Sarah and Ben… while you are waiting for their wedding sneak peek, her are a few of their engagement photos. (sorry for the blatant overuse of exclamation points in those sentences…LOL)

Congrats you two!  Today is the day you have been dreaming of for 8 years!  I pray that God will bless your life together and that today you will be able to take time to enjoy the day because it will go by far too fast!

Today is a big day in the Wedding world.  Any day that has a “significant” date is always a popular and busy day for wedding professionals!  Today happens to be 9/10/11.  AND it is Ashley and Brad’s wedding day!  We are packing up and will soon be headed to Ashley’s hometown (Bardstown, Kentucky) for their beautiful wedding!  Ashley has worked her bum off planning this important day and we are honored to be a part of it!

Not only that, but after all the cruddy weather for the past few weeks I know that MOST of the Lexington brides HAD to have been on edge!  But… low and behold… THIS is what we get today!  Furthers my philosophy that God smiles on Wedding Days!

These are a few of our faves from their Engagement Session on Ashley’s parent’s land in Bardstown!  Look for wedding pics coming SOON!!!

CONGRATULATIONS Ashley and Brad (and Caiden too!) we will see you guys in just a few short hours!

When Kelsey told me that there was a family farm with an OLD barn that she would like to have in their engagement photos… it was like the heaven’s opened up and the sun shone down… Seriously… this is the stuff I live for!  Creeks… barns.. dogs… I am all about it!   When we arrived at the property I was unsure if I was even in the right place because I could not FIND the barn!  But there she was… hidden behind MUCH brush and MANY chiggers… (my ankles suffered!) there was this beauty…

Can u see her???  If not look closely…

NOW you see her right?!  I love it when people take me to locations that are sentimental and special and this barn definitely is both of those things to Kelsey and her family!  Standing inside its crumbling walls I couldn’t help but wonder how many mouths that one barn’s profits had fed over the years and how many kids had played hide and seek there.  There is a certain form of reverence that I feel for old buildings like these… similar to the respect I have for elderly people… my mind just goes in a millions ways wondering what it was in it’s hey day!

And what would a FARM engagement session be without a dog… and not just any dog… HUCKLEBERRY HOUND!!  Cute right?!!  He was WAY excited to be included in the photos!  I hear that when Justin proposed he was informed that he was getting a package deal… Kelsey AND Huckleberry!

Obviously Justin and Huckleberry get along just fine…

And yes that would be Troy… aka photographer… aka husband… aka Dog Whisperer.  I think his exact words to Huckleberry were “Hey look here dog… you’re gonna sit your butt down there and we are going to take this dang picture…”  LOL

Kelsey had also requested that we go to their favorite Creek for some photos…. so we did!  We braved the skeeters and the chiggers and the random cats!!  The pics made it totally worth it!

We even found this cool old building on a hill … like I said before… old buildings… speak to me.  Troy may be the dog whisperer but I think I am the “crappy old building” whisperer!

Right about this time a random cat decided to befriend us.  I managed to lure him away once with the promise of something in my hand and a hearty “here kitty kitty kitty” the second time… she was not fooled!

As night fell… we managed to get some pretty cool shots near an amazing rock formation that turns into a waterfall when it rains!  Wish we had had some rain!! Of course it has rained EVERY DAY since then!  Sheesh.

And so adventure over the creek and through the barn was over but stay tuned… the wedding images will not be far behind!

If you are a friend of Helen and Joe’s who has stopped by… be sure to leave a comment below this post for them!

The session started off at Keeneland:

Yes… we dared walk on the track!  It’s the off season…

Then we packed up and headed downtown to the Firehouse!  I almost giggled with excitement!!   And let me tell you… Helen is a MASTER at changing in the car.  She popped out of that car ready to shoot!

We just couldn’t resist playing with the rings… I mean we had the helmet there… it was just BEGGING for this photo!!!  So… Helen’s ring got it’s own little mini session… yes… we un-apologetically like to display the engagement ring!!!!!

And then Helen asked if we could get a few pics on the front porch swing.  Yes… this fire station has a front PORCH!  It is one of the oldest in Lexington, if not the oldest, so it is full of all kinds of cool history (I am a history buff so this is right up my alley!).  Helen and Joe have spent many nights enjoying the view from that front porch and it is where their love started, has grown and blossomed into the thing of beauty that it is now.  So sweet that they will get to keep this memory even long after Joe leaves the station

Yep.  It was a pretty fabulous day!  We ended it with a trip to Mi Pequena Hacienda for Mexican food!  I mean really… does it get any better than that?  And either I was REALLY hungry or that was some of the best Mexican food that I have EVER eaten!  LOL

Helen and Joe… we are SO looking forward to your wedding day and know that it is going to be an amazing good time!  See you again VERY soon (probably at Orange Leaf… again… LOL).

When Melissa first called she told me that they were going to have a small wedding on their farm.  Well in Kentucky that could mean a LOT of different things.  I was unprepared for the GORGEOUS main house and state of the art barns that we would find on the property!  Of course I was pleasantly surprised also by just how sweet Melissa and Joe were together.  You can just tell when Joe looks at her that he absolutely ADORES Melissa and vice-versa.  It was a privilege to work with this fabulous couple and their families.  Bridal and Wedding sneak peeks coming soon!