Last month, Dave and I had the pleasure of traveling to Fairmont, NC to meet Amanda and Chad for their engagement session. Amanda and I had only communicated by email prior to the session and through the whole process of booking their wedding so I wasn’t sure what or who to expect when we arrived as to what kind of personalities were in store. Amanda and Chad had to be the cutest couple EVER, inside and out! Sweet would not even begin to describe Amanda and Chad was just as laid back as can be! They both had dimples that went on for days and for anyone who knows me well…. dimples are MY FAV!!! We shot in Fairmont, NC on a farm that belonged to one of their family friends. Amanda and Chad were a little nervous about what they should be doing at first, but they quickly loosened up started to just be themselves and love on each other and I think that we captured some really sweet images of two of them together. Although we had to battle some WICKED poison ivy at our first location, I am glad that we took the risk because I think that there is something so magical about the pictures of them in the woods.

I love this next picture because every time I look at it, I see a heart formed by their heads! Do you see it too? LOVE IT!

These next few pictures remind me of that older country song (Yes, I can’t believe I am about to quote a country song! Ha!) where the lyrics are “You and me goin’ fishin’ in the dark, lying in the grass and counting the stars, where the cool grass grows…”. I think was singing that song out loud the whole time I was editing these pictures! While Amanda and Chad were laying and enjoying one another, the dragonflies were curious to see what was going on. Dave did an AMAZING job of capturing them in flight in a few of the following pictures! Dave, I am so proud of your innate photographic skills! And jealous all at the same time!

We had so much fun on this shoot and it was so nice to finally meet Amanda and Chad! We are so excited to be shooting their wedding day in September. They are getting married at the amazing Governor Dudley Mansion in Wilmington, NC and it is sure to be a STUNNING wedding with such a beautiful couple and an amazing venue. Won’t Amanda just be the most gorgeous bride?!

Meet Amy + Roni! I was so completely honored when Roni, of Amy + Roni Photographie , contacted me to see if I would be interested in photographing them so they could have images for their new website. To have other photographers ask you to take their pictures, means a lot!! Amy and Roni previously had their own separate photography businesses but have since decided to join forces to make a power duo and started Amy + Roni Photographie. When I took a look at their site, I knew that I would have a lot of fun shooting with them! And have fun we did! We laughed, we goofed off, we talked about photography business, and just had a really great time! I feel like I have made two new friends and I can’t wait to see how our businesses will collaborate in the future! Thank you Amy and Roni for allowing me to be a part of your new adventure! I am certain it is going to be wildly successful and I can’t wait to see what you guys can accomplish together!

Thanks again ladies! It was so much fun!!

Wow! It has been a while since I have posted hasn’t it? Life has been crazy the last month or so and it seems that a lot of stuff has gotten behind including blog posts. I had surgery last week to have my tonsils removed, so what better time to update the blog than when I am at home recuperating and I can’t talk to the outside world! Right?!  :)

Meet Joshua & Collin! Aren’t they handsome little boogers? I told their mother that she is going to have her hands full with these two! We had the shoot as a father’s day gift for their dad. We started out with some more casual shots, but then we headed over to the baseball fields for some real boyish fun!! Enjoy!

That last one was so funny capturing because I was literally right behind Collin, where an umpire would usually stand. You know! Where they stand with all of their face masks and chest pads? Yeah that is where I stood…. without face masks and chest pads with my camera…. that has a lot of glass. Yeah… not my smartest moment! Haha!

A couple of weeks ago, I had the pleasure of second shooting at Mari & Phil’s wedding! It was definitely a fun day! I got to hang with the boys (and a couple of their ladies) at the hotel prior to the ceremony. I don’t think that I have ever seen such a calm groom! If he hadn’t been wearing a tux, I never would have known Phil was getting married! After all of the groomsmen had congregated, we headed down to the lobby of the hotel where we met up with all of the out of town guests catch buses to Duke Gardens for the ceremony. And when I say buses, I don’t mean those wimpy party buses, I mean two HUGE commercial buses, you know the ones you used to take on the LONG field trips back in school with the bathroom in the back? Yeah those! It was quite the trip!

When we arrived at Duke Gardens, we were greeted with beautiful scenery and a WHOLE LOT of heat! I felt so bad for all of the groomsmen in their jackets! It’s a good thing that they chose tropical flowers for all of the bouquets and boutonnières! They are used to the hot and humid! Speaking of the gorgeous flowers… the ladies over at The English Garden really rocked this one out! The flowers were STUNNING!

When we got to the ceremony area, the best man promptly checked out the scene to make sure everything was ready…

Phil was looking all business prior to the ceremony…

Because I had been with the boys all morning, the first time I saw Mari was when she was walking down the aisle. Can we say STUNNING? Her dress was absolutely beautiful paired with a gorgeous blue bouquet! Every little girl dreams of how they will look on their wedding day walking down the aisle towards the love of their life, and I am pretty sure that Mari’s dream must have come true on her wedding day!

I am pretty sure that Phil’s dream came true as well judging by the look on his face as he greeted his bride walking down the aisle! That is a look of pure joy on his face isn’t it? You can just tell that at that moment, there was no one else in the world besides the two of them! (The groom’s mom’s reaction to the left of Mari was pure emotion as well! )

Mari and Phil had the coolest tradition at their wedding ceremony, one I had not scene before. Before the wedding, both Mari and Phil wrote a letter to one another telling the other everything that they loved about them and all the hopes and dreams they have for the future together. They then sealed the letters in envelopes and brought them to the wedding. During the ceremony, Mari and Phil put their letters in a box along with a bottle of whiskey. If they are ever to have a period in their marriage where things are rough, they are to get the box out, open and read the letters together and share the bottle of whiskey and remember all the things that they loved about one another when they got married. If they never have to open the box, on their 20th wedding anniversary, they are supposed to open them up and drink the whiskey. How cool is that?! What a sweet thing to have!

Mari and Phil are big UNC fans, who  happened to chose Duke Gardens for their wedding ceremony. Mari made a special request for me to grab a shot of her dribbling her UNC basketball on the Duke grounds just to show her true loyalties. Mari was a trip! She was so exuberant and full of life and often you found Phil just watching adoringly her as she entertained the masses with her bubbly personality!

How cute are they?!

The reception was held at Bay 7 in the American Tobacco District in Durham, NC. WHAT A COOL VENUE!! I have to say, that anywhere with brick walls and hardwood floors gets my vote! After Mari and Phil were introduced, they pranced out onto the dance floor for a upbeat and “islandy” feeling first dance. Their excitement was contagious!

After all of the food, toasts, and cake cutting was over, it was time to tear that dance floor up! Good-NESS could Mari D.A.N.C.E!!!! I don’t think that she stopped the entire night! The D.J. was AWESOME and played great music all night long. At moments I wished that I could drop the camera and jump in too!

It was an amazing day with beautiful and happy people! I feel so thankful to get to be a part of the most amazing day of people’s lives and I feel especially grateful to be a part of this one! Thanks Mari and Phil and best of wishes!

Happy Mother’s Day to all of the mothers who are reading this post this evening! I hope that your days were calm, restful, lots of fun with a lack of stress! My second Mother’s Day started at 430 this morning with a run to the ER with Griffin. Add to that a doctor who proceeds to tell us that he thinks that our child who is running a 203.4 degree temperature has Kawasaki’s disease BEFORE running any sort of tests…. and it makes for the beginning of a lovely Mother’s Day!! Needless to say, the doctor was wrong and caused us an unnecessary three hours of worrying during which three nurses had to hold my 19-month old son down to take his blood. Yeah… thanks Doc.

During those three scary hours, I thought a lot about being a mother. I thought a lot about all of the time I waste in my life doing things that don’t really matter, when I could be spending more time with my son. I thought about all of the things I stress about on a daily basis when I should be thankful for every second I have with my family and I should make an effort to enjoy every single second of it. Life is so short. My life is so busy. I need more time. I need more time with my son. I need to cherish these years as they are already passing so quickly. I don’t think that I have ever felt the sense of relief I felt when the doctor on the next shift came in and told us that Griffin’s blood panel was fine and that it must just be a virus. Even though it was a HORRIBLE way to start off Mother’s Day, I am thankful because it made me so thankful to be a mother to the most beautiful boy in the world and it caused me to re-evaluate my priorities.

With that said, Happy Mother’s Day to all of you wonderful mothers! Enjoy EVERY second! The moments pass so quickly and you never know when life can happen and everything changes in an instant. In honor of capturing and treasuring memories, I would like to offer a $50 print credit to all mother’s who book a session for their children before the end of the month. Email me for details!

And I suppose some of you are waiting for the winner of the contest right? To select the winner, I had a random number generator randomly select a number (it selected 12) and then I counted down the comments and found the winner.

Drum roll please……………………………………….

Nichole Olbertz come on DOWWWWWWWWN!! Nichole shoot me an email whenever you want to set up a session!

“I REALLY want to win a seat to Love Affair Workshop. GO read details and sign up to join in on the fun! http://www.loveaffairworkshop.com”

That’s all folks!

Ok, ladies and gents! It is time for the very first giveaway for Tara Parker Photography!

What’s the prize you ask?

A $250 gift certificate

from Tara Parker Photography!!

This gift certificate can be used in any way that you like on future sessions and products. This means you can use it towards session fees, print costs, albums, announcements, gallery wrapped canvases, and framed portraits. This gift certificate can even be used towards the cost of wedding packages as well!

Wouldn’t this be an AWESOME gift to give to your wife or mother on Mother’s Day? Wouldn’t this be an awesome gift to give to your friend who is getting married and needs to have engagement portraits taken or a bridal portrait? Do you have a friend who is expecting that would love maternity portraits? Of course you can just save it for your self too! There’s no shame in that!

How do I enter you ask?

There are a number of ways to enter and you can enter more than once! Whoo-hoo!

1. Become a fan on my Facebook page by clicking HERE and then click “Like” at the top of the page. After you do that, come back to the blog and leave a comment on this blog post with your name. If you are already a fan and want to enter the giveaway, just leave a comment to say that you are already a fan and leave your name. (= 1 entry)

2. Suggest to all of your friends on Facebook that they should become fans as well! All you have to do is go to the left of the screen on the Tara Parker Photography Facebook page and click suggest to friends and it is easy as pie! When your friend becomes a fan and comes back to leave a comment on the blog, if they leave your name in their comment as well, you will BOTH receive one entry each! This means that if 20 of your friends become fans and they all leave a comment saying that you referred them, they each get entered but you get TWENTY more entries!! Another easy thing to do, is click the Facebook symbol at the bottom of this blog post, and it will automatically share this contest on your Facebook page. Don’t forget to tell your friends to say that you referred them!! (= unlimited entries)

3. Leave a comment with a cool idea for a location for a shoot within a 30 mile radius of Raleigh, NC or a 30 mile radius of Wilmington, NC. I love looking for new places to photograph your pretty faces!  (=1 entry)

What is the catch you ask?

The gift certificate must be used toward session fees or products for a future session. This means that you cannot use it to order products from a former session. The session must be scheduled for a date before September 1, 2010. The session must take place within a 30 mile radius of Raleigh, NC or a 30 mile radius of Wilmington, NC. You must be willing to have a WHOLE LOT OF FUN!!! And you must be able to able to tolerate my obnoxious laugh!

The contest begins…….. right about now! The contest will end at 11:59pm on May 7th. All giveaway entries will be entered into a drawing held on Mother’s Day, May 9th. I am looking forward to working with one of you!

OK…..GO!!

Dave and I were out of town most of the weekend last weekend but returned just in time for a shoot in downtown Raleigh on  Sunday evening. I had received an email from Abriel a little over a month ago requesting to schedule a shoot for Abriel and her husband, Kolter, and she wanted to include their four dogs. Yes, FOUR DOGS!! Dave and I waited for them to arrive that afternoon, and every time we would see someone with a dog, we would say nope… just two dogs…. nope…. just a lady and her dog. Finally we counted 1…..2…..3….4, and then we realized that the four adorable pups were accompanied by their GORGEOUS parents! Abriel and Kolter were made to be in front of a camera and they looked like they just stepped out of a magazine!! My photographer heart started to pitter patter because I knew it was going to be a great shoot!!!

Abriel and Kolter met when they were in high school and married when they were really young. When I asked them how they met, Kolter told me that they went to different schools and that his best friend was trying to hook her up with another one of his friends when they met. I told him that that didn’t sound like a very good best friend if he was trying to hook Abriel up with someone else! They have been married for over five years now and Abriel told me that they are very much still “boyfriend and girlfriend”. I could tell what she was talking about when they interacted because they still have that young and fresh kind of love after even 7 years of being together!  It was so nice to see! Because they were married so young, they decided that they would first grow their family with puppies and wait a while on having kids of their own. Abriel sent me an email about “the kids” before the shoot and I absolutely adored how she described each of their own personalities! This is what she had to say about them…

“Bailor, who is the oldest, (7), is a shitzu/pekingese mix. We bought him after we had been dating about  3 months. So we’ve had him for quite awhile. He’s very calm, and sweet. Then after being married for about 3 months, we got “Truffles”, a yorkipoo with a witty and charming personality. She’s 5, and is extremely dainty and sophisticated. She’s extremely smart, and gentle-hearted. Truman, our 5 year old bichon frise, is the biggest of the bunch, and probably has the biggest “heart” as well. He’s a love, and a teddy bear! Then, last but not least, our new little addition: “Little Lamb”, who we call “L” for short, is a 4 month old precious Maltipoo. She is absolutely beautiful, and has a face that makes everyone melt.”

How cute is that?! She is one proud Mama! I couldn’t have described them any better because they were all WAY too cute!

I TOLD YOU! They are GORGEOUS!

Abriel & Kolter, thank  you so much for allowing me to photograph you two and your family! To say it was a pleasure would be an understatement! I hope you like your images!

AND BY THE WAY……. Does anyone else think that they look like a grown up and sophisticated Kevin & Winnie off of the Wonder Years???

On April 3, 2010, I had the pleasure of second shooting for Megan Kime at Melissa & Aaron’s wedding at  The Carolina Inn in Chapel Hill, NC. It was an absolutely gorgeous day for an outside wedding and they did a wonderful job of planning all of the details. The courtyard wedding was littered with rose petals and strings of orchids hung from the trees. Not to mention that Melissa had the most FAB-U-LOUS Badgley Mischka shoes!! It had all the makings of a wonderful wedding day! Thank you for allowing me to take part!

Didn’t I tell you that the shoes were FABULOUS?!?

On March 27, 2010, I had the HUGE pleasure of second-shooting at Jaime & Lee’s wedding. I remember photographing Jaime & Lee back at Jessica & Steven’s wedding last October and as I watched them dance then, I remember thinking to myself, “Now that is what a couple in love looks like!” Fast forward five months, and it was now their wedding day where they were married and celebrated with their friends and family at the Prestonwood Country Club in Cary, NC. When Jaime and her bridesmaid arrived, I immediately knew that this would be an amazing day. I am very serious when I say that Jaime was the happiest and sweetest and most excited bride I have ever seen!!! She was just glowing from ear to ear and she squealed with excitement every time she saw another person. I know that every bride is excited to be married… but Jaime was in a league of her own! I think that her voice was in an octave I have never heard before, somewhere between an soprano singer and a dog whistle! She was SOOOOOOOO cute and it was so evident that this was the happiest day of her life, the way it should be for every bride!

While Megan stayed with the bride and the bridesmaids, I had the pleasure of going to spend some time with Lee and his groomsmen. They were a breath of fresh air in a entirely different way! They were very serene, laid back and up for anything! While Jaime was the most excited bride I had ever seen, Lee was probably the most assured and calm groom I have ever seen! Lee probably knew that he was making the best decision of his life so what did he have to be nervous about, right? Jaime is a doll!!

It was very evident from the beginning of the day, that Jaime and her mother, Linda, were very close. Anyone could see it in how Linda leaned in the doorway of the bathroom where Jamie was getting her hair done, and watched Jaime adoringly with a soft smile on her face and lingering tears in her eyes. Someone gave me a heads up before the wedding, that there would be a special bouquet of daisies waiting for Linda in her chair after she was ushered in to the ceremony. Linda calls Jaime Daisy, so it was a special gift from her daughter on her wedding day to the man of her dreams. Linda did not wear her glasses during the ceremony, so when she found the bouquet in her chair, she asked that the note be read to her, I think that the picture says it all about her reaction to her daughter’s sentiment. It was such a sweet moment!

The next two images, I am just in love with! Something about how peaceful they look in both, just makes me feel… love.

All of the gorgeous flowers were provided by The English Garden. They were positively GORGEOUS! They made a different bouquet for each bridesmaid that coordinated with the color of their dress and it was such a beautiful added touch! Their arrangements at the reception were just as beautifully flawless!

Let the party begin!

Jaime and Lee, you two were adorable in every way! Lee, the way you quietly watched Jaime in an adoring way was absolutely breathtaking. As I was going through images, I found so many images where you would just look at Jaime when she didn’t know you were looking, and the love seemed to jump off the screen at me. Jaime, I loved how you would scream with excitement, how you sweetly called Lee “Babe”, and how you made everyone at your day feel like they were witnessing the culmination of a beautiful love story. I was so honored to be present for your beautiful day. Thank you! I hope your honeymoon was every bit as amazing as your wedding day!