Maria & Ryan

I had an awesome day today with Maria and Ryan! Their Tallahassee wedding focused on family, tradition and fun, making it a great wedding to photograph! Its been a long day, but I just couldn't wait to get the images on the blog-- just in time as I am racing out of town for another wedding tomorrow!
It was a typical Tallahassee summer day-- not a cloud in the sky and nothing to break the heat!
I adored Maria's dress. I love seeing dresses and styles that are a bit unusual, and this dress was the absolute perfect dress for her!
Vince really did a great job with the flowers-- her words to him were "simple and elegant"-- I don't think you could do better than this!The getting ready is always a bit chaotic, but with Maria's long veil she literally needed an entourage to keep it from snagging on everything!
After countless weddings, it still cracks me up to see how many women it takes to get one bride ready! I love this moment as Maria's dad sees her for the first time-- literally 30 seconds before they walked down the aisle!Big churches can be tough-- especially when their rules force us to the back of the church. Bradfordville Baptist is definitely large...But you can still get the close shots. :)I loved this moment right after they walked out of the sanctuary... Ryan looks at Maria and says, "Hey, we're really married!"After all the family portraits, we had some quiet time in the church...I don't normally post full length bridal portraits on the blog, as they tend to not be the most exciting images of the day... but I could not resist this portrait of Maria. I just love her dress and the light streaming in behind her.We decided to do some untraditional portraits...
The evening reception at the University Center Club was amazing! Vince really went all out with the floral decor-- there were arrangements everywhere you looked!The couple had a really sweet first dance... both times. :)
Myra Jean always makes beautiful cakes, but I especially loved the simplicity of this one.Ryan comes from a large family and I swear everytime I turned around, they were laughing together. So it came as no surprise that he and his mom laughed through the mother/son dance. Finally, after a very long day, they ended the night with a rose petal farewell.

www.LongsPhotography.com
Tallahassee and Thomasville's premier wedding and portrait photographers

Vendors:
Ceremony Location: Bradfordville Baptist Church
Reception Location: FSU University Center Club
Florist: Flowers By Vince
Cake: Myra Jean's Cakes
Band: Acme Rhythm and Blues

Baby Andrew

I had a great shoot yesterday with Baby Andrew-- his parents met me at Maclay Gardens and we just let Andrew play! He is always so incredibly good for me and yesterday was no exception! Although he had missed a nap, he was absolutely cheerful and so fun!www.LongsPhotography.com
Tallahassee and Thomasville's premier wedding and portrait photographers

Katie's Senior Portraits

I had a great senior portrait session yesterday in Southwood with Katie! She brought along the whole family and it was an absolute riot as we goofed off all over the park!And the important shot-- Katie really wanted photos of herself hanging from the moneybars, so this is what we got!www.LongsPhotography.com
Tallahassee and Thomasville's premier wedding and portrait photographers

Maria & Ryan

I finally got a chance to photograph Maria and Ryan-- just in time for their wedding TOMORROW!! We met up at Maclay Gardens and had an absolute blast at the park. These two are so relaxed and easy going, it was such an easy session!www.LongsPhotography.com
Tallahassee and Thomasville's premier wedding and portrait photographers

Miss Alex

Miss Alex was not in the mood for portraits yesterday-- and nothing was going to change her mind. Everyone has days like this, when they just do not feel like being in front of the camera. I personally like images like this of children-- it shows what childhood is really like (a rollercoaster). Plus, it gives her parents lots of blackmail when she gets older! :)www.LongsPhotography.com
Tallahassee and Thomasville's premier wedding and portrait photographers

WAW-- We have a WINNER!

Ok... now I just feel defeated! The first guess and its the right answer?? Stumping y'all is going to be harder than I thought!!! :)

Congrats to Sarah for winning the $50 gift certificate!

Check back in June for the next round of the "Where Are We?" portrait contest!!

www.LongsPhotography.com
Tallahassee and Thomasville's premier wedding and portrait photographers

Where Are Where??-- Lauren

I am not even going to lie and tell you that we made this one easy on you! :) I think this is a hard one, but saying that I have probably jinxed myself. Again, no obvious guesses! Yes, it is at a tree... but what tree?? We are looking for an exact location.

Special thanks to Lauren for being our model-- she was absolutely amazing and allowed us 100% freedom and creativity in a very difficult location. This is definitely the only time I will use this location-- the native inhabitants of the tree were not too friendly....Rules:

• To guess you must enter a comment on this blog post. You are limited to one guess per day which must include your email address so we may contact you.
• No negative comments will be published.
• The winning guess receives a $50 gift certificate to Long's Photography!
• If we cannot successfully contact you to award your prize, we will not post your comment and we will move on to the next guess.
• If there are no winning guesses after three days, we will post a hint per day until it is guessed.
  

www.LongsPhotography.com
Tallahassee and Thomasville's premier wedding and portrait photographers

The Next Where-Are-We Portraits! Coming SOON!

That's right! We are getting ready to post our next "Where Are We" contest images! The images will go online Wednesday morning, so be sure to check back! We had an awesome model (thanks again, Lauren!!) in what was a really cool, difficult and hopefully hard to guess location.

Again, the rules: (We have made some changes so read carefully!)

• You must guess by entering comments on the blog post.
• One guess per person per day.
• You MUST include a way to contact you in your comment. Comments without email addresses or phone numbers will not be published.
• No negative comments will be published.
• The winning guess will receive a $50 Long's Photography gift card to use on anything the wish-- sessions, weddings, prints, etc.

Have an idea for a Where-Are-We session? Email me at Linda@LongsPhotography.com and you will have a chance to model for one of the sessions! What could be better than a free session?? :) Don't have an idea, but still want to model?? Go ahead and email me as well!

www.LongsPhotography.com
Tallahassee and Thomasville's premier wedding and portrait photographers

Baby Magdalene

I think every parent can attest to the fact that babies have a sixth sense about when things are scheduled. Most babies just KNOW they are supposed to be good at a certain time, and that will be inevitably the day they miss a nap or had a bad night of sleep or are just crabby. Miss Magdalene is no exception-- she decided to boycott her nap on Thursday before her 3 month portraits. She was so tired, but we did manage to get some smiles and sweet faces. I am pretty sure her mom had an easy afternoon, as Magdalene was so zonked when she left!www.LongsPhotography.com
Tallahassee and Thomasville's premier wedding and portrait photographers

Baby Jason

Baby Jason is one of those perpetually happy children. He isn't that particular about who holds him, he smiles at everyone and is an absolute ray of sunshine. I was so happy to see him and his mom on Thursday-- it definitely brightened my day!

www.LongsPhotography.com
Tallahassee and Thomasville's premier wedding and portrait photographers

Jill & Brent

I caught up with Jill and Brent on Tuesday night for their engagement session. We had such an awesome location-- Ten Oaks Farm-- where Jill works. It 's so great to shoot in new areas with different looks and lighting!Isn't it always the case in a family portrait that one of the children refuses to behave??

www.LongsPhotography.com
Tallahassee and Thomasville's premier wedding and portrait photographers

June 9th

So, whatcha doing on June 9th? Its a Monday, so probably not a lot, right? Well, why not come out to Golden Eagle for a Bridal Showcase? Its a new kind of bridal show that will have the entire club decked out like a real wedding. The florists are decorating everything, they will have a ceremony area set up, there will be all kinds of linens and table decor set up, they will have LOTS AND LOTS of FREE food, and I will be giving a talk on questions to ask your photographer before you book!

Still not convinced? The entry fee is $5 and it gets you a FREE drink at the bar! Need any more convincing??? They are giving away a FREE honeymoon! How friggin cool is that?

Even if you are not getting married in Tallahassee, its a great chance to get ideas on flowers, centerpieces, linens, etc. Plus, you still get yummy food and drinks and a chance at the honeymoon!

Also, there will be doorprizes from all the vendors there-- we are giving away a FREE engagement session!

For all the details, just go to www.goldeneaglecc.org You can even pre-register and be all set to go! The vendors are all members of the Tallahassee Association of Wedding professionals-- probably the best way to plan a Tallahassee wedding is by visiting: www.tawp.org

So, see you June 9th at 6pm!!

www.LongsPhotography.com
Tallahassee and Thomasville's premier wedding and portrait photographers

Alexis and Blue

Olyn and I had the BEST time yesterday at Lake Iamonia Lodge photographing Alexis and Blue's wedding! These are people who know how to have a good time! Seriously the best wedding food we have EVER tasted and awesome music from the band, Superheros.

A little fun with the rings:

I chose to hang the dress in the doorway... not thinking people would actually need to come in and out... I mean, can't they see how pretty the light is there?? :)I loooved her shoes! How she managed to stay up on them in the grass, I will never know!Olyn rocked the formals outside-- again, we chose the best light... and completely blocked one of the sidewalks into the building. Gosh... we are kind of obnoxious!! :)Vince did a great job with all of the flowers-- Alexis admitted to being near tears when she saw her bouquet. It was exactly what she had dreamed of!
I loved the cute touches of hydrangea everywhere. These hanging buckets lined the aisle.The ceremony was so sweet and beautiful in a field facing a forest of pine trees.We had a wonderful time with the couple's portraits-- we had beautiful light and they were a riot to photograph! Alexis definitely has her hands full with Blue's antics!This is probably the best example I could possibly give of the male perspective versus the female perspective. While I was capturing this beautiful, romantic shot....Olyn focused on the drink Blue left behind! It is definitely a new twist on the shot of the bouquet in the foreground!I have to be 100% honest about this shot. Olyn and I did not pose this or ask Blue to do it. This was 100% his doing... I just had the camera to my eye at the right moment. And I have to admit it is one of the funniest moments I have ever seen or photographed!
The sun was just setting as we went into the tent for their first dance.
After dark things started to get a little rowdy!And finally, they left with a bubble send-off!

www.LongsPhotography.com

Tallahassee and Thomasville's premier wedding and portrait photographers

Vendors:
Ceremony and Reception Location: Lake Iamonia Lodge
Florist: Flowers by Vince
Cake: Myra Jean's Cakes
Catering: Poseys
Band: SuperHeros
Transportation: Classic Limos
Videography: Waterford Productions

Baby Joseph

I just adore Joseph! His gummy grin always brings a huge smile to my face! I really can't believe he is already 9 months old! He is so ready to walk, too! I can only imagine how hard its going to be to keep up with him at his 1 year session! :)

www.LongsPhotography.com
Tallahassee and Thomasville's premier wedding and portrait photographers

Janna, Shelby and Cammie

Last night, we raced against the incoming storm to get Janna, Shelby and Cammie's senior portraits in. The rain held off just long enough and gave us some easy light to work with. I had such a great time with the girls and they were amazing the whole time. I am in LOVE with their images and can't wait to find time to update the web galleries!www.LongsPhotography.com
Tallahassee and Thomasville's premier wedding and portrait photographers

Baby Caden

Yesterday was a big reminder to me of how important my work is. I went to meet Baby Caden at his home yesterday afternoon for his newborn session. I absolutely love his parents and I have photographed their engagement portraits, their wedding, their maternity portraits and now their son. Walking into their home, it really hit me that my work is all over their home. That the images I had created mean so much to them that they have them displayed in almost every room of the house. It definitely made me reflect on how rewarding my job is!

Baby Caden was absolutely adorable and very much alert! He watched me almost the entire session! I don't think I have ever had a newborn that awake and alert!

www.LongsPhotography.com
Tallahassee and Thomasville's premier wedding and portrait photographers

Baby Rylee

Seriously... what could be better than a smiling baby? Rylee came in for her six month portraits and she was one of the happiest babies I have ever seen! Her outlook on life is like living at DisneyWorld! She was so much fun and absolutely made my day!

www.LongsPhotography.coom
Tallahassee and Thomasville's premier wedding and portrait photographers

Baby Suzanna

Baby Suzanna was in the studio this week with her big brother Drew for her six month portraits. She was an absolute cutie and really cracked me up with her sideways sitting. This little girl is so determined to walk, I think her mom is in for a lot of trouble really soon!www.LongsPhotography.com
Tallahassee and Thomasville's premier wedding and portrait photographers

Eva and Jace

I woke up yesterday with butterflies in my tummy. We do engagement sessions for 99% of our couples so that we are all old friends by the wedding day. Since Eva and Jace live in Tampa, we weren't able to do the shoot before the wedding, so I was a bit nervous about the day. It only took me about 10 minutes to calm down, as Eva and Jace are two of the friendliest, most down to Earth people you could ever meet! Olyn and I had an absolutely amazing day!

Eva and Jace had adorable (and yummy) favors-- m&ms in their wedding colors!Missy Gunnels did another fantastic job with all the flowers!
We had a few minutes for portraits with Eva before the ceremony and I found beautiful light everywhere I looked!The girls were up for some fun portraits, so we tried a variation on the "bridesmaids formal".Jace and the guys also gave us a few minutes for portraits before the ceremony. I love the tan tuxes with black shirts-- we have seen more untraditional tuxes this year than ever and its so cool to see fashion trends for the guys as well as the girls!
Eva beamed all the way down the aisle.I loved all the stained glass and the high ceilings of St. Thomas More.
After the ceremony, Eva asked me if I saw "when Jace picked up my arm like we won a sports competition and showed off my bingo arms!" I laughed for a solid five minutes at her description, so I had to show the image.
I didn't think it was possible, but Eva's smile was even bigger on the way out than on the way in!We had lots of time for portraits after the ceremony, so we did portraits in the church and on the grounds outside.This is probably my favorite image of Eva and Jace-- its so true to their love and their personalities!Eva had found a spot underneath one of the large oak trees and it was an ideal spot for some romantic portraits.
They were so excited to join their friends and family, they came running into the reception.
And immediately had their first dance! I hadn't been to Capital City Country Club since I was in college and I was so excited to shoot a reception with so much natural light coming in the windows! It was beautiful!Once the party was underway, we snuck out at sunset to do a few more portraits on the grounds of the country club. The light was absolutely perfect and we had a great time doing some casual portraits.Missy did a great job adding simple floral accents to the cake.

Eva didn't even try to feed Jace a piece of cake before she smushed it all over his face. He got his revenge in the end!After the formal toasts, Eva decided to say a few words. She spoke about how much she loved Jace, that "even at his BEST , like right now when he is hungry and hot and tired..." Isn't it funny how misspeaking one word has such and impact? I love Eva's face as she realizes her mistake.Eva's reactions all day were absolutely hilarious! I love her face as Jace takes off the garter!While Olyn is the master of the action shot, I finally beat him with this one!After the formalities, they definitely heated things up a bit!www.LongsPhotography.com
Tallahassee and Thomasville's premier wedding and portrait photographers

Vendors:
Ceremony Location: Co-Cathedral of St. Thomas More
Reception Location: Capital City Country Club www.capitalcitycc.com
Florist: Missy Gunnels Flowers www.Missygunnelsflowers.com
Cake: Publix
Makeup: Randi Buchanan
Band: Key Creek Band

Natalie and Dane

Natalie and Dane's Friday wedding was such an intimate, loving event. Olyn and I really felt honored that they chose us for their day. I was also thankful that the weather finally started cooperating! I feel like I haven't had a rain-free wedding in ages!

Olyn's awesome shot of the sun above St. Paul's Methodist Church.Some simple fun with the rings.Vince Fontana (Flowers by Vince) did a great job with all the bouquets-- the chocolate ribbon matched the bridesmaids' dresses exactly!
St. Pauls has beautiful frosted windows that let in the softest most beautiful light. We had a few minutes with Natalie alone before the ceremony.
I think bridal portraits can be a lot of things, but I think that every bride should have one image that is angelic and ethereal. For me, it was this image of Natalie.We also had a few quiet moments with Dane before the chaos of the day began.The ceremony was incredibly personal and moving, as the church plays a major role in the couple's life.Olyn and I are always very respective of the church's rules, so I waited outside the doors so I could photograph the recessional from the ground and through the door windows, I saw the most perfect frame of the ceremony.
When Natalie and Dane were pronounced husband and wife, the silent sanctuary erupted in cheers and applause. I don't think I have ever heard a church get that loud!
After shooting what feels like a million weddings, I am tired of lining up everyone in a row and taking a quick snap. Olyn and I are working to add some fun to the formals, so we played around a bit on the steps of the church with the bridal party.
We arrived at Dorothy B. Oven Park with a few minutes left for Bride and Groom portraits.
The couple shared their first dance as the sun was setting.I really have to give a hand to Natalie's StepDad. He maintained his composure through both the Father Daughter Dance and his toast!
I love watching the Bride and Groom during their toasts... their expressions are priceless!
After dark, we went inside for the couple to share their cake (petit fours). After waving cake around for a few minutes each threatening to smash it on the other, Dane finally blurted out, "Just bite the friggin cake, Natalie!"She could barely eat she was laughing so hard.Olyn is the master of the garter/bouquet toss. I don't know if its instinct, or just good timing, but he always gets the action shot!

www.LongsPhotography.com
Tallahassee and Thomasville's premier wedding and portrait photographers

Vendors:
Ceremony Location: St. Paul's Methodist Church
Reception: Dorothy B. Oven Park
Florist: Flowers by Vince
Cake (Petit Fours): Tasty Pastry Bakery
Catering: Klassic Katering

Baby Madisyn

Baby Madison was in the studio again this week for her three month portraits. She was so serious at first-- I didn't think she would EVER smile! But after her mommy and I made fools of ourselves, we got a few grins. Isn't it funny how babies can make you act like an idiot for a smile?? :)