Happy Wedding Day to Brad and Ashley!

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!

Bethany & Drew’s Engagement Session (Keeneland, Waveland, Baseball Field and my FAVORITE field!)

So normally I can plan the light REALLY well and it seems that spring is going to impose it’s own set of challenges as far as lighting. Not to fear, this year Schmidt Studio is equipped with some AWESOME new lighting plans and equipment!  Look out world… he we come… off camera lighting and all!  I am really excited for our brides’ receptions this year:)  Stay tuned later in the post for photos with our new lighting… !!!

We met up with Bethany and Drew at Keeneland for their engagement session and started our session there.  WHY?  Is it ALWAYS so windy at Keeneland?  I will never know!   Right now in the middle of changing seasons it can be nice and warm elsewhere and on top of Keeneland’s hill it is 30!  Poor Bethany’s teeth were chattering at one point!

Lucky enough for me Bethany and Drew were good sports.  She fabulously chose some AWESOMELY coordinated outfits for this session.  I think that maybe my next “What to wear” post for engagement will be based on Bethany and Drew!  They rocked it!

I was totally smitten with her HOT boots and AMAZING necklace!

And then we happened upon Bethany’s “drop dead gorgeous, model / amazing” look…

See what I am talking about?!!

At any rate we wandered around collecting some stunning images at Keeneland but my favorite has to be THIS one:

To die for?  I think so! (New lighting should be dually noted here… )

After Keeneland we decided to change scenery and went over to Waveland (another of our favorite haunts!)  Although there was lots of MUD and it was getting dark QUITE fast… we still managed to get some stunning images.

Somewhere along the way Drew sprung it on me that he wanted Baseball pics!  Which we were totally up for, but this threw a curve ball at me (TOTAL pun intended) to be hearing it first during the session.  So I wracked my brain and quickly realized that we could stop off at a field on our way to my favorite field. I think these are by far my favorite images of the entire session!  I am so OCD… I like to have a plan and a backup and a backup of my backup but somehow I notice that my FAVORITE images of all time were not planned at all!  Maybe God is trying to tell me something!

I mean really it’s like “Real Housewives of Kentucky”!  I LOVE this!  Makes me want to get a group of my brides together and do an imitation shot!  (wheels turning… any brides interested shoot me a Facebook message!  .. must be a former or current SS&G bride… ps… I am TOTALLY being serious here! )

PS… Thanks Dunbar for lending us your field for a few photos!  (and here… new lighting again!)

Looks he’s multi-talented!  He can toss a baseball and look at his beautiful bride at the same time!!!!!!!!!  (took us a minute to figure out the logistics of this one!  LOL!)

Have you ever seen a dugout look so HOT!??  I think not … until now!  (definitely some smokin hot new lighting techniques here!)

And there was LIGHT!  Night time?  No problem for the old SS&G… new equipment = new ideas= more hours of fun photographing! (and OMWord… what about this?  Yes… it was pitch black outside and still… amazing pics… right!?)

The session was totally fun!  Bethany is of course the absolute CUTEST ever (Drew isn’t bad himself lol) and we cannot wait until their wedding day!  We know that it is going to be a truly amazing day and we are honored to be chosen to capture their wedding day memories!

The Smith Family’s fall photos

I have known Lynn for a while now through a parent board that we are both members of.  Her daughter shares a few of Kyleigh’s medical issues so we bonded quickly over talks of surgeries and other medical kid related stuff!

When Lynn asked me to photograph her beautiful family I, of COURSE, said yes!  I could take a million photographs in my lifetime but the ones that I will always remember are the ones that were unique and special.  When you have a friendship like Lynn and I do, it makes creating beautiful memories for their family, that much more special!

I also have to say… that these are some of my favorite family photos that I have ever taken to date! 

I even managed to get the boys to smile… REAL smiles!  That is always an accomplishment.  Having two boys myself I know how hard this can sometimes be!

Having my daughter as the youngest child I have to say that there is a SPECIAL bond between a mom and her daughter.  I could not love my boys any more if I tried but there is just something about a mom and daughter that is different than any other relationship in the world!!  I always love capturing photos that express that bond!

And yes… we make menfolk look cool too   Thanks for posing for me guys!

Nicole & John’s Custom Photo Engagement Guestbook

It’s all rage… yes… so the signature mats are still cool but they can only display ONE of your beautiful engagement photos!  That is quite tragic because when you become an SS&G bride you can look forward to at least 75-100 fabulous engagement images (maybe more if you change outfits a couple of times…) !!!!  Not to worry, problem solved!  Share a fabulous engagement photo guest book with your wedding guests.  You can use the book as an actual guest book, in lieu of the traditional lined book with a satin cover and room for 1000 people to sign their names (even though you are only invited 175)!

Each of our books is hand designed using at least 75% of the images from your engagement session.  The colors, textures, wording, patterns etc. are based on your specifications.  For example, John and Nicole’s wedding colors were orange and lime green.  They were have an outdoor wedding so the booked “feel” was based on a summer garden party.  Also, they requested that their dogs be included because they would be able to be in attendance on the wedding day.

Many of our brides send pictures of their wedding colors, bridesmaid dresses, invitations, cakes, fabrics, words to their first dance song, readings that will be at the ceremony etc.  Some of our brides say “You know us… do your thing!” and are stunned to find a beautiful book that is a total surprise to them!  You can be involved as much or as little as you would like with your book design!

Depending upon how many people you will have at your wedding we have books from 8×8 all the way to 11×14.  An average wedding will comfortably fit inside an 8×11 book.  There are hundreds of covers to choose from, from various colors of linen or leather, hardcover, softcover or even Our engagement books begin at $200 to add to any wedding package and are completely custom designed to match your wedding and engagement photos beautifully.

Call the studio today for more information!  859.312.5361

Alyssa & Chris’ Engagement Photos

Alyssa and Chris will be getting married this summer at Keeneland and we are very much looking forward to their wedding!  For their engagement session we ventured out to Waveland State Historic Site, in Lexington.  It was a beautiful fall day.  In Lexington it is tricky to catch the fall color because our peak color comes at the end of October which is generally rainy.  Also, this year, we had a VERY DRY summer so our fall was not extremely colorful and the leaves fell early.  Fortunately enough for us, Waveland was still beautiful and we thoroughly enjoyed roaming their grounds for our shoot.

Alyssa and Chris even allowed us to bring along a videographer friend who is making a promotional video for us!  (shhh… the cat’s out of the bag now!  Look for our promo video coming SOON!)  They were such great sports and we know that their wedding is going to be TONS of fun!

I have to say that Alyssa and Chris’ engagement pics are some of my VERY FAVORITES from this year!!!

Without further ado Alyssa and Chris:

A few fabulous black and white images from our session:

Then the fun part.  Sometimes we will ask our couples to do fun things like dance in the middle of a field or jump on each other’s shoulders.  We asked Alyssa and Chris if he would pick her up and swing her around… while kissing!  I guess its kind of like trying to chew gum and walk… here is what happened…

It started beautifully, all nice and romantic, great color… nice action shot… and no sooner than I said “looks great guys!” did this happen….

And like any good photographer… I did NOT stop to help them … I really was most concerned about getting the shot!  LOL  Bad… right?  I did however, stop to laugh with them after it was all over.  You have to laugh at yourself every now and then right?

(NOTE: No brides or grooms were harmed in the making of these photographs…( although I cannot speak for the grass … it was pretty dry and crunchy…..)

But I guess all is well that ends well right?

Amanda & Brian’s Engagement photos :)

Amanda and Brian are admittedly special to us.  We just met them in the process of their booking us to photograph their wedding but during that process we learned that they will be getting married at Cardome in Georgetown, KY.  Would anyone like to guess WHY that is SO important?

Image courtesy: Forish Wedding Photography.

Yes… 10 years ago Troy and I had our own wedding there and I still think that it is one of the most beautiful venues in Kentucky.  (PS… YES I own the rights to my wedding images and the “negatives”… 10 years ago our pics were shot on medium format FILM! )  **This is where I insert a mini lesson on copyright law… anyone visiting here… PLEASE… respect your photographer’s right to own their creations.  Do not copy, post, recreate or print your photos without their permission… it makes us photogs really cranky! … we do have businesses and children whose mouths we need to feed and we gave everything away for free we would all be broke and have no money to buy these cameras that help us create these awesome images!** rant over.

Amanda and Brian’s engagement session pretty much traversed the entire city.  We started out downtown at one of Amanda’s favorite places in Lexington, Triangle Park.  She has fond memories of Triangle Park, as do I!  We stayed downtown for a bit and later headed to Brian’s house to change and pick up their dogs.

We were off to Masterson Station park and some surrounding areas to shoot some true “fall” images!  It was cool gorgeous day and the fall color was amazing.

Here is what ensued:

Lindsey & Allen Engaged (and married!)

So, yes, epic fail on blogging this year.  The holidays hit, the snow came, the files piled up, the planes flew us to Disney, we LOVED it and came home sick… LOL.  That pretty much sums up our November and December 2010!!  In the midst of the madness we met a TON of awesome couples, shot three weddings and booked SO many weddings that we are already looked forward to 2013 wedding bookings!  YAY us and yay all the couples!

At any rate, every year we have the honor of photographing a special couple’s wedding on us.  Yes… for free.  Why?  Because we want to!  I wish I that I could spread the free wedding love and fabulous photos to everyone but unfortunately I have three very hungry caterpillars (er.. kids) at home who like to eat (and fly to Disney!).  But… each year we give away a wedding.  Could we book a wedding on that date?  Yes, but we charge nothing on that day because we can.  We do own the joint!

This year we chose Lindsey and Allen.  Sometimes our couples magically drop into our life and we have never met them before.  This year was different.  We have known Lindsey for MANY years and as a matter of fact SHE attended our wedding 10 years ago!  We were so honored to be able to spend the day with this fabulous couple and capture all of their wedding memories.  We will be posting their wedding pics later (you can see their sneak peek now on FACEBOOK ) but we did have a chance to take them out on an adventure for their engagement session that took us from their own backyard to Evan’s Orchard in Georgetown, KY.

Melanie & Chip’s Engagement photos :p

We met Melanie and Chip after Melanie found one of our wedding slideshows on Youtube and fell in love.  I love when our clients looooove us… we love them back!!   When I mentioned that Melanie and Chip could bring their pet to their engagement session, Melanie giggled…  They have four dogs including Chip’s K-9 partner.  FUN times ensued, I will assure you, as Chip and Melanie wrangled 3/4 dogs for our session including their two Italian Greyhounds, Trooper and Zeus and Duke, the border collie.  We didn’t get to meet the K-9 named Justice but can imagine that the whole crew together would be a blast! I think that 3 may be the most dogs we have ever had at engagement session so the 2010 “Pet Lover” award goes to Melanie and Chip!    This fun couple ventured out to Masterson Station Park, a random field and a railroad track before we called it a day… but man was sunset gorgeous as the day was warm!

Without further ado … Melanie & Chip (and Duke, Trooper and Zeus!)

We also have to give Kudos to Chip who was SO SICK but was (for lack of a better word) a real trooper through the whole session!

Does it get any better than this?  Makes me think of the famous quote: “Do you love because I am beautiful, or am I beautiful because you love me?”  ~Oscar Hammerstein

I have to say that Melanie looked amazing in her red dress and then her cute purple sweater set and amazing mustard colored shoes.  Future brides… note the wardrobe… I LOVE those colors!  See how amazing they look against the sky?  Did I ever tell you (meaning you my collection brides) that I LOVE colorful accessories?  Guess what… I LOVE colorful accessories!  PSA over

Kylie & Adam’s Talon Winery, Fall Engagement

Yes… its true we were outrunning the ONLY rain storm that has entered the Central KY area in the past 3 months… imagine that!  Kylie Taylor and Adam Chilton were such good sports though… they changed in the car and we raced down Delong road to Talon Winery!!  We even stopped off on the side of the road at a random field (good thing… that field was MOWED OVER the next week… boo….).  I have to say… their dog, Brisbane… is awesome!  Total sweetie and super well behaved!  Kylie looked amazing with hair and makeup by the wonderful Anna Crane Simpson .  The vineyards are in full bloom and Kylie and Adam of course were adorable and amazing to work with!  I, of course, am quite partial to this couple… I will give everyone THREE guesses as to WHY and the first two don’t count! LOL  (for everyone who doesn’t know… my daughter’s name is Kyleigh.. said the same.. spelled differently!)

Can’t wait until December for their wedding!!!!

Nicole & John’s Versailles, KY Brittany Farm Wedding

Shooting weddings is not only a career for us, but a passion.  We never take the privilege lightly and always count it an honor to be asked to spend one of the most important days of two people’s lives with them, capturing every little piece   That honor is elevated a bit in our eyes when we are asked by family and friends to be their photographers.  I have to say it is usually a bit more stressful just because you want everything to be PERFECT for them!  My husband, Troy, has known the groom, John since they were small kids so when John called to say that he was getting married we were over the moon excited for him and Nicole!  Sharing their amazing wedding day was a special experience!  The wedding took place at Nicole’s family home on Brittany Farm in Versailles, Kentucky.  On a bright and beautiful July day, John and Nicole exchanged their vows and celebrated late into the night with an awesome reception headlined by Caught Red Handed. It was a fabulous day and evening that ended with a late night send off under a cloud of bubbles.  Good times were had by all!

Makeup by Susan Strange.. who did a fabulous job on both face and body!  She made Nicole’s tan lines disappear!  I was totally impressed!!!

These bridesmaid dresses were so flowy and gorgeous.  I do believe they were David’s Bridal dresses (which honestly shocked me because I am not normally a DB fan!  I was thinking they were J Crew!!)

John helped choose these awesome swirl ties from thetiebar.com

Nicole rocked these awesome Steve Madden wedges that matched her wedding colors perfectly!

Nicole and John were married under the amazing shade trees in her parent’s yard on Brittany Farm.

The reception followed in an adjoining field under a tent decorated beautifully with shades of celery green, yellow and orange.  NO pink at this wedding

Nicole and her awesome bridesmaids.

John and his groomsmen in their tan suits.  Perfect for a warm summer evening!

The main driveway of the farm is lined with rows of yellow and orange Lily flower beds.  It was like they had planted them just for Nicole and John!!!

Their awesome cake by Brenda Renner of The Sugar Forest.  Notice the paw prints on top?  That was Nicole’s way of having her two beloved pups with her on the wedding day!!  How cute is that?

A close up of the puppy prints… awwwwwwwwww…..

Such a sweet first dance!  There was dancing… and a LIVE band (one of our favorite to boot!  Caught Red Handed)

And an awesome bubble send off …