sneak peek....

the cool kids

The Lakes have been intertwined with my life for as long as I can remember. Jessica was my babysitter and would make up dances to Cyndi Lauper songs in our living room. She also comforted me as I lay in her lap as a 5th grader crying because I was sure no one liked me. Margaret took me to an Ani Difranco concert when I was 12 with her much older friends and thought it was awesome that I wore tights covered in fruit. John built an ice rink in their back yard and loved to fart on me while I slept. But to his credit, he also hugged me in the halls of East High as a Freshman when he was the much cooler Senior. Meredith and I bonded in the "No-Boyfriend Club" and ooogled over the very delicious Polys at school like Jason Kafusi (secret's out, sorry). She giggled infectiously and loved to call me Kops. Stuart and I were the closest of little buddies until boys got cooties and girls got crazy. We bought matching Airwalks and spent a summer sitting in trees singing Eternal Flame by the Bangles. And another summer amazed that we barely escaped our attic clubhouse before the crazy neighbor set it on fire.

With the Lakes I attended my first Guinea Pig wedding, complete with real wedding invitations and formal attire. Susan's perfect pink frosted cookies and fragile little hors d'oeuvres were served on silver platters. Their dad Randall taught me about the beauty of art and acceptance. I spent time outside of his studio examining Stauzie (sp?) the dogs' teeth and fighting hard against the urge to eat the sugar cubes from his still life set up.

Their mom Susan introduced me to German pancakes and wheat toast with tomatoes and minced onion. She was my beloved English teacher in High School and allowed our class to have a treat bucket my senior year, and we dined on things like pizza and candy necklaces every Friday.

Now, we are all grown. Some of us with kids of our own. Some of us still in Utah, some in Chicago, some in the Lake's second home of Balboa. But one thing stays the same. No matter how far we go, or how much time passes, with the Lakes I always feel at home. I always feel 100% loved and I always feel way cooler than I really am. Because the Lakes are the kind of people you want to be around. They are beautiful and natural and hilarious and eternally young. Like the cool group you wish you could hate but secretly kill to be a part of. And through all the ups and downs that life has thrown at them they still love (and fight :) and laugh fiercely and you get the sense that there's no one they would rather be with than each other. It's inspiring.

I am one lucky girl to know them.

I wanted to include some pictures of Randall's studio where we did the session. The entire place is like a piece of art. It really shows what an amazing artist he is.

I could stay there all day.

for some more Lake fun go here.

the fight....

on days like today

when my computer takes on

an obstinate and

rebellious

attitude

i sit.

quietly idle.

my insides

digging

their way to china.

*

Dear Technology,

may i ask,

why it is

you hate me?

-Amy

at least there's always this......

in the bleak mid-winter......

This beautiful couple was referred to me my mom's hair dresser Lisa who apparently knows more about me than I do. (on a side note: anyone else agree that hairdressers really should be paid more seeing as how they do the same work as Psychiatrists, they just do it in heels with a blowdryer). The bride's mom Rochelle goes to Lisa also and she mentioned that her daughter was looking for a photographer. Lisa so kindly gave them my name (thank you thank you Lisa!) and they looked me up.

I was beyond thrilled.

After talking to the two of them on the phone, I knew right away that I wanted them to be on my Christmas card list. They were charming and sweet and totally giddy about their upcoming wedding. Miriam was a professional ballerina, which blows my mind because the closest I got to a tu-tu was Mrs. Stott's school of dance which mostly consisted of doing somesaults over a stick and doing kick-ball-change to the “Big Ship Lollipop” for candy. Let's just say these stocky legs of mine resembled Miriam's in NO way. She currently works for Amazon in the book team where I am sure they love her because to meet Miriam is to love her. She has such a magnetic personality and is so full of joie de vivre (yes I did have to look that up and yes, i'm still not sure if it is spelled right.) I was immediately in love with her and knew that we were a perfect match. Ok maybe Daniel takes that title, but I call for number 2 :). They really are a perfect match.

Daniel is a Radiologic Oncologist and let's just say that the closest I came to being a radiologist was participating in my chest x-ray last year. I held very still. Basically the same thing right? Anyone? Now, I have however, worked for a fair share of doctors in my time. Many amazing ones (CCP love ya-Dodds what up?), and some, maybe not quite as amazing. So, I'm embarassed to say that I may have had some preconceived ideas of what his personality might be like. I am pleased to report, however that I was totally wrong and I am tucking my tail between my legs (when you “assume.....etc.”). He was adorable. He was relaxed and calm and genuinely friendly to me and my crew. He was patient and sweet and smiled so effortlessly.

Especially if Miriam was anywhere near.

I absolutely loved being near them. Their love is infectious and made for an utterly amazing day.

Now, living in Utah, let's just say that Jewish weddings are not the norm for me, so when they explained that they were coming here to Utah because Miriam's dad Rabbi Frederick Wenger, who retired from the Congregation Kol Ami, was going to perfom the marriage cermony for his daugher in his synagouge, I was ecstatic to experience something a little different. It was so fun for me to learn about their traditions and beliefs (Thanks Daniel for teaching me about the menorah :). I felt loved and accepted from the second I opened the door and Miriam's mother and father greeted me with such kind hugs. I felt their genuineness and it immediately put me at ease.

I feel so lucky that I have a job that allows me to be surrounded by so much happiness and love. It really is such a blessing to be able to a part of it all.

So, to Daniel and Miriam thank you for allowing me to be there and for trusing me. I am moved by the two of you and I know that life holds only but the best for you.

All my best.....hope you enjoy.......

-Amy

The ceremony and reception were all coordinated by Kim Albers at Every Last Detail. I was blown away at what she was able to do. Absolutely beautiful.

I also need to say a HUGE thank you for the unbelievable kindness of my two helpers. Kristen for being a totally unflappable assistant. She was running everywhere and never batted an eye at any of my crazy requests. You kept us level headed and grounded. I love you oodles.

And also to Morgan my second photographer. I absolutely adore her style and her eye. When my original second shooter fell through, she graciously agreed to fill in. And oh, how glad I am that she said yes! I will forever adore her for being willing to take a chance on me, and the fact that she is TOTALLY groovy was a wicked awesome bonus. Thank you thank you Morgan. I NEVER could have done it without you. (plus I'm so happy to have a new sister-in-arms :)

I love these close-ups of the rings that Morgan took .

The rings were engraved in Hebrew and said "I am my beloved and my beloved is mine." I ADORE that. It's so perfect.

Another of Morgan's shots:

tomorrow

lavender part 2

fields of purple

can you say delicious?! i love this picture of the STUNNING Anikah.

more to come....

My kind of town.....

Chicago here I come!

My beautiful sister Brittany just had a gorgeous baby girl!!!

And poor little me has to take a vacation all the way to Chicago, snuggle a fresh little baby, and take fabulous pictures of a squishy little one and her sister. What a hard life I have. Haha!!

So, obvioulsy I will be out of the office, but if anyone needs anything, my fantastic Shoot Coordinator Kate is on the ball and can answer any question you may have. She's fab to say the least. And if any of you want me to get a message to Oprah while I'm there, let me know and I'll pass it along. We tight. ;)

Have a great weekend.

I'll high-five Mr. Caray for you. (that link brings severe joy to my heart-"if you were a hot dog....." etc. Ah good times!!)

love, hurricanes, and flying goldfish

So it's official. We conquered the mystical creature I call the Bridal Show. And by conquered, I mean we prepped and planned, drilled and glued and didn't have an aneurysm. I consider this conquering. I consider this a success. All the hours of stress and meetings collided into one beautifully designed booth,

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crisp clean marketing materials (designed by my Nate the Great),

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and one KILLER wall.

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A wall unlike any other. A wall heavier than any other. A wall that would soon end one poor little creature's life.

The day started like any other really. Alarm going off, hair being done, peacocks frolicking in the garden. You know, typical. But what seems to start well, does not always, you know, end well.

Let me back track. When we came up with our ingenious plan for our booth, we didn't account for two very important things. 1) This show was going to be at La Caille, and 2) we are not engineers. When we pictured Bridal Show, we thought of florescent lighting and little curtain rooms. The kind of little rooms that would have some type of bar high off the floor enclosing our little slice of wedding marketing bliss. Lovely polyester, billowing in the breeze. What we sooo did not expect was a beautiful little patio with only a 2 foot tall barrier to protect us. Where, we panicked, is our lovey poly-blend covered bar on which to lean our newly constructed wall? The clock was ticking, bunnies were bouncing and we had to find a way to make do. So, we took a chance, because what else did we have. We leaned our 8'x8' wall tenderly against the glorified cement step, shoved our two lovely antique dressers against the wall in desperate hope that our little sandwich would hold our pictures through the day.

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To our delight, it seemed to be working.

For about an hour.

Suddenly, in the middle of our 90 degree, Utah, July day, came some sort of freakish hurricane strength gust of wind.

Our beautiful wall lurched and screeched. Every bride nearby gasped in horror. I could feel it coming and there was nothing we could do. Nevertheless, I lunged forward over our little dresser clawing at the wall in a vain attempt to stop the inevitable destruction.

I failed.

The wall shot down the hill. Our beautiful fish bowl shattered with a sonic boom, the dresser was launched into my leg and our poor little goldfish rocketed across the sky.

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We all stood in silence. Frozen in our places. Our faces plastered with "no-way-that-just-happened" looks.

All our hard work. All of our beautiful pictures. Our fish?! Un-be-liev-able.

It was totally crazy. Totally devastating. And totally a miracle.

In my attempt to rescue the wall before it's demise, my leg was attacked by the dresser and my finger was sliced (ironically my middle finger),

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but we feel so blessed that no one was seriously hurt, which was a real possibility. That is, no one besides the goldfish whom we have not heard from since.

The other blessing was that the other dresser, which had Cali's beautiful Mac desktop on it didn't even budge. Which made no sense. But nonetheless, it was completely unharmed. Crazy.

The great staff at La Caille, our AWESOME booth neighbors (the coolest family behind Diva Bling Jewelry), and total strangers came to our rescue including one passerby who donated a small first aid kit to me. People are awesome. I'm a big fan.

In the end, there was nothing to be done, but carry on. Although most of the pictures were destroyed, we were able to salvage some of them and still show off some work with the slideshow on the Mac.

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All in all it turned out to be a very successful day, and I don't think our booth was empty for longer than about 5 minutes the whole day.

Most of that was thanks to Cali(of Beautiful You)'s sister Heidi who was a-MA-zing!

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She walked around the show with our cards in bags full of candy talking us up like crazy, and ambushing people for free makeovers done by the uber talented Cali and Catherine.

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(yours truly getting some touchups)

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Heidi even got the DJ to mention us more than 10 times through out the day over the loud speakers. Thank you Heidi!!

She also got people to come and enter in our fabulous drawing for a FREE engagement session and makeup done by Beautiful You. Which leads me to the very exciting part of our post......

We had over 200 entries

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but alas, there can only be one winner, and thanks to Miles that winner is..................

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PEGGY BURCKHARD!!!!!!

Come on down!!!

She and her cute fiance will be getting free engagement pictures and free bridal makeup (fiance's makeup is optional :)

Call or email our shoot coordinator Kate at info@amylittlephotography ASAP and we'll get you all set up.

Congratulations!!!

Thank you everyone who stopped by our booth and made what could have been a devastating day, a totally memorable and FANTASTIC one.

And thank you to Cali and Catherine for being an absolute dream to work with. I love you both!

Most especially thank you to my schnickle fritz husband. What a dream man. You are my best friend. Thank you thank you hun, for doing all the heavy lifting, both physically and emotionally that day, and for encouraging me to step out of my comfort zone. Most of all thank you for believing that I was capable of succeeding. I could do nothing without you.

guess what we're doing this weekend....

in addition to having a panic attack, we'll also be doing this:

July 11, 2009 11 am - 5 pm Map & Directions » Pre-register » La Caille Restaurant 9565 Wasatch Blvd Sandy, Utah . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Fashion Shows * Entertainment * Hors d'oeuvres The La Caille Bridal Show is Utah's finest wedding showcase, featuring must- have products and services for the distinguishing bride and groom. Meet with the finest Utah wedding vendors to help you plan your wedding. See the spectacular display of cakes, gowns, invitation designers, wedding bands, floral arrangements, photographers, and more. The La Caille Bridal Show is produced by TheBrideandGroom.com and The Bridal Extravaganza. We look forward to seeing you there! Register Now » . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Tips for Attending a Bridal Show

(courtesy of www.thebrideandgroom.com/lacaille/) This is our first official Bridal show and we are PUMPED...we are also freaking out, but mostly PUMPED. We are excited to have teamed up with the sassy girls at Beautiful You Makeup. So at the show you can chat it up live with the team from Amy Little Photography and Beautiful You Makeup! We'd love to meet you and we are having some sweet giveaways like a drawing for a free engagement session with makeup artistry from Beautiful You ($350 value). We'll also be drawing numbers for free make up consultations with photos at the show . I'm pretty sure you won't want to miss this. Plus we're awesome. And why wouldn't you want to spend some time with awesome people. :) So come on by and enjoy the sight of me hyperventilating in a brown paper bag. Should be good times for all.