THEN (not so long ago) and NOW (newest session) THURSDAY

Once upon a time there was this boy named Charlie and this girl named Casey. As you might guess they were friends that grew to be more than friends. Yes, they fell in love and knew they wanted to spend the rest of their lives together.

Casey purchased a beautiful dress and hires Jami as a wedding a photographer almost a year in advance. [By the way, great planning, Casey.] So first their engagement session was photographed...this gave Jami a chance to meet the bride and groom in person. She had already met Casey's mom and had talked to Casey over the phone.

[This is when I became an intricate part of this family's lives. I captured beautiful engagement photographs in spite of the wet grass due to the dew. I wanted to post one here, but not bad enough to dig through my back up files...so use your imagination.]
[I did learn during the first session that Charlie was a great guy and very lucky groom. He had Casey didn't he? This is when I really began to bond with this family. We did have some really nice images from this session photographed at Rosalie before the wedding. If I run across them in the near future, I will post them then.] Okay...back to the story:

Casey needed a beautiful bridal portrait to surprise her groom, to display at the reception, for the newspaper, but above all as an heirloom to cherish forever! So back to Rosalie during Spring Break while the Azaleas were blooming....what perfect timing to create such an HEIRLOOM!

The day had come for the bride and groom to pull all the wedding plans together to celebrate this special day with family and friends. [To me, that's what the wedding is...the day of celebrating and sharing your love with all the others that you love!]

THE BRIDE AND THE GROOM...

[Do you look at the these images and wonder how we captured so many nice images of the bride and groom? You know, after the wedding, it is always so hectic trying to take pictures, cut the cake, the first dance, throw the bouquet and before you know it..it's time to leave. Here's how I did it and the only way I would photograph a wedding if I were to start doing them again. The Bride and Groom actually see each other before the wedding. Yes...that's what I just said (i mean typed) they SEE each other. It's all set up where they see each other for the first time in their wedding attire. I've done it different ways according to the particular wedding arrangements, but it is a very special moment. I've been told it takes the edge off of them being so nervous when it comes time to walk down the aisle. I just know as a photographer...it is best in so many ways. But here are just three examples: 1)You have more time to create beautiful bride and groom poses (the old way you usually only get a few shots because by the time you finish all the others, you don't have much time left for the main characters of the show). 2) As soon as the wedding is over it's time for the celebration (the party, a.k.a., the reception). 3) You look great in your wedding portraits because your clothes are still fresh and so is your make-up before you've cried and kissed a dozen friends and family. The list goes on...okay, enough of the soap box...back to the story.]

Let's get Hitched!

Some time later...

Casey and Charlie are expecting their first bundle of joy, but for some reason, God was ready for him to come home before his parents were ready.

God's miracles never seem to end because before long Casey and Charlie were excited the holiday season of 2007 as they were expecting a baby girl, named Avery. Casey's mom, Cristi wanted an extended-family portrait session while Casey was expecting her "Miracle from Above".

The Holiday Season of 2007 this family was expecting a Miracle.

Due to some unforeseen complications, Little Miss Avery Grace could not wait until her delivery date to get here.

She came early...VERY EARLY! SHE WEIGHTED ONLY TWO POUNDS AND TWO OUNCES.

THUS SHE HAS BECOME KNOWN AS A MIRACLE BABY.

To read about about Avery's Debut in this world click:

HERE

And Baby Makes Three:

The look of love...

[Just briefly reading Casey's story from the above link and then looking at this image, I find that I still tear up. WOW! OUR GOD IS SO GOOD!]

Charlie makes a great a dad!

And could Little Miss Avery Grace be any luckier than to be born to a mom like Casey!

[After months of reading Casey's mom's updates and continual requests for prayers for this sweet, sweet little girl and about a month after she came home from the hospital, I finally meet Avery! Isn't she precious?]

AVERY GRACE

about 12 weeks old

Approximately 11 months after Little Miss Avery was expected to arrive, I photograph her one-year portraits here in my studio. She looks like a typical one-year old!

My a year flies by so fast!

ONE-YEAR OLD!

I hope you enjoyed my first THEN AND NOW THURSDAY story. I don't have many stories like this to tell especially since I don't photograph miracles like Avery everyday, but I am sure that if I dig through my files from time to time that I can find something similiar if not from clients...I am sure I can look through my own personal files. Do you think you can tolerate one more image of My Little Sweetheart?

~~jami~~

P.S. Casey, I hope you didn't mind me doing this little story...I may not even have it accurate, so let's just call it a story. I had worked on some of the wedding images that I wanted to use when I posted images of Avery first portraits on the blog. I had picked several and wanted to post them and these along with the images. So then I had this idea of a THEN AND NOW post thus I decided to do it like this. I also realized that I have several images from the newborn that I never posted. I had picked about 10 or more to post, but then I quickly posted the "sneak peak" my favs. So stay tuned because I will probably be posting the rest from the newborn session soon too! I included a few of them here. I will probably end up re-posting a few of these again when I do the other post. You don't mind me showing of your images more than once, huh?