Today is my birthday. I’m 26.

A year ago today, I was in the midst of heavy wedding planning, a bout of pneumonia, getting everything in line for my exit show, and freaking out a little bit about being 25. Well, year-ago me, 25 was pretty great. Let’s hope that 26 is pretty great as well.

I’m thankful to have such wonderful, patient, loving, and supportive family. (Ok, Wednesday isn’t really patient, but we’ll overlook that. She can’t help it if she believes it should be cat time 24/7.)

Since I don’t really have anything profound to say, here are some early Lauren birthday photos. I still make that same cake face, and I do get ketchup all over my face from time to time.

Hooray for cake, and hooray for another year.

That’s right! I’m offering engagement and portrait sessions for $125 in the Atlanta area! What’s included in this delightful special?

• A 2-hour shoot with yours truly
• Online viewing
• 20 fully-edited high-resolution images on a disc
• Lots of fun!

Space is limited, so contact me as soon as possible if you are interested! Email me at lauren@iloveyoumuch.com or use the handy-dandy contact link up top for a form! Feel free to pass this information along to any friends, family, etc. who might be interested. (Great for holiday card season as well!)

BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE!

As an added bonus, my first booking gets a 20% discount and 5 extra fully-edited images!

Ready, set, GO!

From October 29th until November 4th, I will be in Switzerland! Smarty-pants JP is presenting a paper at a conference and I’m lucky enough to tag along. I’ll spend my days traipsing about Lausanne, and perhaps venturing over to Geneva, camera and sketchbooks most definitely in tow.

My internet access will be spotty at best, so please forgive my total absence from the internet and connected world. I know I’ll certainly go through withdrawals!

BUT, don’t let this stop you from contacting me, either by the contact form above or by email- lauren@iloveyoumuch.com. If you’re looking for Atlanta-area photography in November or December, please send word my way, as my pricing is low, low, low at present and space is limited.

And now I must go pack, prepare, and wrap up some projects! Wedding recaps + (hopefully) trip recaps to come when I get back!

About a month before the wedding, while procrastinating doing wedding stuff, my bridesmaid June and I found a diary I had started as a nine-year-old. We stayed up half of the night reading it. We were in tears. Hadn’t laughed that hard in ages. Nothing was particularly  interesting, nothing earth-shattering, just a neurotic kid who blabbered about the most random crap. Super-concerned with listing things, bragging to a journal, and hyper-neurotic about spelling. (Though I must say that most of my spelling errors were ones where I thought I knew the correct spelling…)

“Dear Kitty” has become a running joke, and I thought it’d be interesting to put it all out there, in blog format, on the interwebs. I am a glutton for self-humiliation.

So yes. Go read the crazy and boring stuff I wrote as a kid. It will get nuttier as I go along, I swear.

P.S. Kitty even got a shout out in our smilebooth…

Contact me for more info, dears.

This is all so surreal.

I am writing this from the bedroom that hasn’t changed since I was four years old. The walls are still baby pink, the Laura Ashley curtains still in place, and a giant wicker sofa filled with stuffed animals sits to the side. I’m curled up in the poster bed that my father made for me when I was six, and I proudly helped sand and stain. I look like a frazzled mess– skin a little too red from face-products, hair in a messy bun thanks to running around in the heat in humidity, giant hipster glasses, burned fingertips from a glue gun, various cuts and bruises adorn my hands, arms, and legs, an old sorority t-shirt, and covered from head to toe in paint. Nothing out of the ordinary, right?

Oh wait, yes, that’s right. In the next room my wedding dress is hanging in the bathroom. My wedding dress. My wedding dress. We are getting married, and it is all so surreal. Today, men in blue t-shirts came and set up the tent, put down the dance-floor, hauled out the tables and chiavari chairs, and rolled out the dishes, linens, and other rented items. The planted flowers are all fluffed, the house is spotless, save for any areas that I have roped off for my crazy projects, and it looks like there’s about to be a wedding here.

Hoooooh-leeeee craaaap. Right? Right. Holy crap. After doing this whole wedding thing for I-don’t-know-how-many-months, it’s here. On Saturday, I will put on my something old, the pearl studs given to my mother by my father as a wedding-day present and worn during their wedding, my something new, some wedding undies, my something borrowed, a strand of my mother’s pearls given to her by my father as an anniversary present, and my something blue, one of Wednesday’s shaky mice. I’ll begrudgingly put a sixpence in my shoe for the sake of tradition, even though I go bonkers when things other than my feet or (perfectly straight) socks or tights are in my shoes. (We’ll see how long that sixpence lasts…)

As I lie here, overwhelmed, overworked, and overextended, there are still projects that need to be finished. (I told you all I like to work down to the wire, right?) At this point, whatever gets done gets done– we’re still getting married. It will come without ribbons, it will come without tags. It will come without packages, boxes or bags. Marriage, you see, doesn’t come from a store. Marriage means a whole great deal more. (Now I’m quasi-quoting Dr. Seuss… You see how my mind is gone.)

Back to the marriage part. Come Saturday evening, I will marry my best friend. I have no doubts about that. I will be so unbelievably excited and proud to be able to call myself his wife, and just thinking about it makes me want to cry buckets of happy tears. The wedding day, the stuff that I’m terrified of– the finishing of projects, the not looking fat, the hair looking in place, the makeup being decent, the living up to expectations– doesn’t really matter. (Or so I’ve been told, so I’m sticking to that.) It will all be magical because I am marrying JP, and he is marrying me.

I thank you all so much for your unbridled support. I thank you for reading along as I have, and continue to, ramble along and over-use commas. This wedding community is a wonderful place, and I am so happy to be a part of it. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

So there you have it. My last pre-wedding post. I can’t wait to relay all of the recent disasters, hilarious moments, and gory details of our pre-wedding, wedding, and post-wedding adventures. I think it will all be a blast. So, to quote Liz Lemon…

Yep. One week left until the wedding. You know what that means? I am flipping the heck out. I’m a “omg don’t mess with me or I’ll cry” stressed-out ball of mess. But that comes and goes in waves, because there’s also the “OMG WE ARE GETTING MARRIED” breaking through. I have an incredible amount of things to do, but whatever happens happens. I’m working noon to night on wedding projects, and having a strange amount of fun doing that. Hey, what can I say, I’m an art kid, love deadlines, but also love working myself to the bone and UP TO THE LAST SECOND.

How do I do it? With a little help from Freddie, of course.

I play on “Don’t Stop Me Now” at full blast, do awesome karate-chop dancing, hop around a lot, make ugly dance face, and let it all out.

Tonight I’m gonna have myself a real good time
I feel alive and the world it’s turning inside out Yeah!
I’m floating around in ecstasy
So don’t stop me now don’t stop me
‘Cause I’m having a good time having a good time

I’m a shooting star leaping through the skies
Like a tiger defying the laws of gravity
I’m a racing car passing by like Lady Godiva
I’m gonna go go go
There’s no stopping me

I’m burning through the skies Yeah!
Two hundred degrees
That’s why they call me Mister Fahrenheit
I’m trav’ling at the speed of light
I wanna make a supersonic man of you

Don’t stop me now I’m having such a good time
I’m having a ball don’t stop me now
If you wanna have a good time just give me a call
Don’t stop me now (‘Cause I’m having a good time)
Don’t stop me now (Yes I’m having a good time)
I don’t want to stop at all

So, to my fellow stressed-out “IT’S ALMOST HERE!” brides, remember the words of Freddie. We’re having such a good time, remember? Unstoppable! So cut, print, glue, assemble, herd the cats, and try to enjoy it all. There’s no stopping you.

Oh, and if you want to have a good time, give me a call… but I promise I’d put you to work. But for now, I’m off to flashdance to Freddie and cover things in shellac.

Fellow almost-there brides, how are you holding up? Everybody that’s already gone through that “last week,” how did you keep it all under wraps?

For our honeymoon, all I want to do is sit on my ass for a week, stuff my face, roll around in bed, and be in my comfort zone. I don’t want to worry about wasting money. I don’t want to be nervous because I’m in a new and unfamiliar place. I don’t want to feel guilty for not going sightseeing every day. I don’t want to deal with epic amounts of luggage, flights, taxis, butlers, rat-bastards, or anything of the like.
That is why we will be spending our honeymoon at my parents’ beach house in Seagrove Beach, Florida. Wedding in one house and then off to the other.

1. This house is where we first said, “I love you.”
2. This house is where we got engaged.
3. Four-hour drive from the big house. I’d like to hope that will be a four-hour nap for one of us. (And by one of us, I mean me. Mama di’n't raise no fool).
4. White sand beaches, Gulf of Mexico. Need I say more?

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5. We know the area like the backs of our hands.
6. Our favorite restaurant ever is here.

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7.Did I mention food?
8. I’ll be able too cook with good cookware and good knives. I’d go insane without those two things.
9. Hot tub, pool, and 3 stories of amazing all to ourselves? Yes, please. Let’s take a little tour…

The house and view from the top. Pay no mind to the white pool furniture. Long story.

Downstairs guest bedroom, pool room, and bunks.

View of the pool from the pool room.

Second floor great room. My personal favorite spot in the house. Great kitchen to cook in. My father made our dining room table, as well as all the beds in the house. True story.

Our bedroom and bathroom at the house. I fought tooth and nail for those brown walls and that drugstore tile.

View down the staircase from the third floor, third floor sitting room, plus the views from the balcony off said sitting room. Again, ignore that white furniture.

Master bedroom, master balcony, and part of the ginormous bathroom. This is my parents’ room, and we’re debating whether or not to stay up here. Note the cameo of my mother in the shower door. All of these house pictures were by her. Awesome.

So yeah, that’s where we’re spending our honeymoon, and we couldn’t be happier. Relaxed, no annoying travel shit to deal with, and besides all of that, it’s a freaking awesome place to have a honeymoon. Suck it, all-inclusives, with your warmed-over food and your annoying waitstaff. Adios, security check-in at the airport. Goodbye, over-starched hotel sheets.

Is anyone else forgoing a big honeymoon for a more relaxed one? Anybody else taking over their parents’ (or other family member’s) vacation house for the event?

*All photos by Matt Miller

By the time we got to the High, the sun was down. I parked on a side street, and then we walked around to the back-side of the High. All of the security guards were looking at us like we were bonkers. First, Matt had us stand waaay far up on the stairs while he laid on the ground at the bottom to take our pikchurs. We played around on the stairs for awhile,  and then JP tried to give me about 44 heart attacks by sliding down the rails. Much to the security guards’ confusion, we went and started taking pictures in a little alcove. We laid on the ground, and that’s how Matt got those bananas face shots of us. Oh, and before that I decided to nom on JP’s nose. True story. JP nommed on mine too, but it was significantly less awesome.

Next we stood inside those concrete dividers, and the light was all awesome and vignette-y. Matt told us that we’d be mainly silhouettes, so we should just change poses after every camera click. Yes, I did do the frame-your-face-voguing. I think it’s amusing to look at those shots and compare what each of us was doing. We didn’t have a clue what the other was doing, well, until JP cheated and looked over. My thing was to act like a total ham-turkey-Tyra-woulda-been-proud girl, and JP jumped and climbed like a monkey.

NOW we come to the Alice in Wonderland part. Or, well, I think it’s Alice in Wonderland-y. Whatever it is, I think it’s awesome, amazing, and needs its own word because I think it’s that cool. We got into the TINY concrete boxes. It’s hard to tell, but the ceilings of the boxes are slanted, and where we were oriented in the boxes, my back was essentially pressed against the ceiling. I think they really do look like the part in Alice where she gets all gigundaboob and takes over the rabbit’s house. Or when she cries herself the lake. Fitting both of us into one of those boxes was also pretty tricky. The very last shot Matt took in the Alice boxes was the one with the bike. I heard him coming, but didn’t really catch a look until he drove buy. Homeslice was on a ghetto-rigged bike-with-a-boombox, rocking out to Creedance Clearwater and drove right through the shot. I think it looks pretty freakin’ sweet, if you ask me.

So concludes the engagement picture roundup. I adore them all, and I wish that we could have a photoshoot every weekend now. (This coming from the terrified-hyperventilate-I=don’t-know-what-to-do kid? Yep). I really enjoyed doing all of the bright-color-styling, too, even if it ain’t e’erybody’s cup of tea. We had a total blast, and I’m not too cool to admit that I’m EXTRA excited now about the wedding, because we get to plan and do more fun and ridiculously awesome stuff.

Did seeing your engagement photos make anybody else extra excited for wedding-land? Did it make it all even more real? Also, now that you’ve seen them all, or at least the favorites, what are y’alls’ favorites? Out of the whole mess!

*All photos by Matt Miller

After we were finished playing in the field, Matt asked us where we’d like to go next. We’d previously discussed with Matt the going to Little Five to run around, so I sort-of cautiously suggested that we head to Little Five, but there might be a cool place on the way for us to shoot. I explained that there was this random papered-up graffiti on an underpass on Memorial, and it had “Pray for ATL” written on it. Matt immediately knew what I was talking about, said he’d always wanted to shoot there but always forgot. I was feeling pretty proud of myself, internally patted myself on the back, and thought I got a few cool points with the fates.

That is until we got there. I’d forgotten how narrow the median underneath the graffiti was. I’d forgotten how fast the cars whooshed by. Matt trotted over to the middle like it was no big deal, and I stood on the edge of the sidewalk like a deer in headlights for what felt like 20 minutes. It was probably only about 2 minutes, but my frozen-ness made it seem like forever. I decided to suck it up, and ran across the street with JP.

He then had us lay down underneath the hands. By this point, my adrenaline had kicked in, so it wasn’t really a bother. I felt pretty bad-ass laying in a median with 40,oo0 ants, lots of sticker-bramble-tumbly-things, and of course, a discarded hubcap. It didn’t faze me that I was flashing about half of Atlanta, though I was very, very glad I wore tights. It was actually pretty amusing, and after seeing the pictures, I am SO glad we shot there. We are too cool for school, non?

Next up was Freedom Park, a little bit down the ways from “Pray for ATL.” This part got extra exciting for me, because this is when the CRANES came out. Oh, my delightful cranes. The COLOR that the cranes brought. Ugh, the furious-day-and-a-half of folding was totally worth it. Matt had me put on my TB heels, which I was excited and nervous about– excited for shoe shots, nervous for being 6’7″ rather than 6’3″. (I got over that little mental ish pretty quickly).  He set up the cranes around us, we yanked up JP’s pants so that his blue socks could show for the shoe shots.

After we partied with the cranes standing up, we got on the ground, and Matt rained the teeny blue cranes on us. That was super awesome, even though I’m sure we ruined about 400 shots by one of us closing our eyes. We then got up, and did a few cranes-kissing and us-kissing shots, and then headed off to our next destination: The High Museum!

I love these shots (as well as ALL of our shots), because of the intense COLOR and awesome factor. I’m glad I didn’t come off as a crazy loon by folding all of those cranes. I’d like to think that they were a pretty B.A. prop.

What awesome props did y’all use in your engagement shoots? (Or plan to use, for that matter!) Did you have any nervous-shoot locations (i.e. the underpass) that ended up being totally awesome?

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