Emily + Jeff came all the way from Louisiana (oh yeah, a lot of southerners pronounce it as “loo-see-anna”, and yes, I had to spell check this a couple times just make sure I didn’t leave out an “I”… Paula Deen would be so proud) for their wedding and we could not have been more excited to spend the day with this incredibly sweet couple.

Emily + Jeff, thank you so much for hanging out with us and humoring me on all my ridiculous ideas (“hey Jeff, pick Emily up and swing her around on the 2 foot wide dock WITHOUT losing your balance!”)

Our heartfelt thanks go out to:

Venue: Emerald Grande + Harborwalk at Emerald Grande

Photographers: Lauren Kinsey Photography

DJ: Kevin Roberts Entertainment

Cake: Publix

Flowers: Emerald Coast Flowers

Hair/Makeup: Make Me Blush by Jessica Miller

Officiant: Tom Sharon

Rentals: Emerald Grande

Dress: Jenny Yoo, Bella Bridesmaids

Jewelry: Custom made by Brooklyn Company, West Monroe, Louisiana

We started out with a friendly game of croquet at the Southwood House in Tallahassee. Which quickly turned competitive…

But they kissed and made up. Play nice kids.

Woops, spoke too soon.

This is Presley. He’s a little shy at first, but when he warms up to you, he is the sweetest puppy ever. True story.

Snuuuuuuuuggle. It looks comfy doesn’t it? I think Nick really was asleep here.

After snuggle time, we headed off to find some trees to climb. Brenna + Nick have been climbing trees together since they were little, and Brenna’s mom wanted a picture of them in a tree together. Umm, I think we can make that happen!

Only problem is, Nick is afraid of heights. Brenna comforting Nick.

He got over it quick.

Brenna + Nick, we love ya’ll and we can’t wait to see you again soon!

We also got to go to some really amazing other locations to shoot in, Amelia + Jeremy had so many great ideas and places that were special to them, we love it when couples make a session truly about them!

We started out at the Jacksonville Library, which is super special to A + J because they are both working on graduate degrees (alright, go ahead with your smarty pants ) and spend a lot of time there together.

We made a “pit stop” at the Cummer Museum. Love love love.

AND THEN, we were off to the Jacksonville Zoo! I haven’t been to the zoo since I was about…7?

You HAVE to ride the Merry-Go-Round at the zoo. It’s not an option. Plus the guy working there will let you ride for 274373762764 times non stop

A +J, thank you so much for hanging out with us all afternoon, we really had a great time and we look forward to seeing you again soon!

I still can’t believe I do this for a living.  Here’s what’s coming over the next couple weeks (I knew our couples are about to chew their fingers down to nubs waiting on these )

Krista + Chris (and their adorable kiddos ) - getting married this November (woot woot!)

Amelia + Jeremy – getting married next May! (*at the rate time is flying, it will feel like tomorrow!)

and Ginny + Jack – getting married this *GASP* April!!

You’ll want to come back for all of these. Promise

Really, i’m not a writer. It’s why i’m a photographer So when I started to write this post, I was just sitting here for an hour trying to figure out what to say about this AMAZING joining of souls. For this post, I am starting something different. Instead of trying to verbalize what I feel, I decided to let the images speak for themselves. I hope you feel the same way I do after looking at them.

But seriously, there aren’t many words to describe how awesome Lesley + Josh’s wedding was. Lots of laughter, joyful tears, gorgeous sunshine and drinks for the house.

Lesley + Josh, you have been a blast to work with from the word “go”. We enjoyed every second that we got to spend with you and we cannot wait to be a part of the many chapters of your life together.

Thank you for giving us this opportunity to document your life and thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your selfless service to our country.

{Our heartfelt thanks go out to:}

Ceremony: The Oldest House Garden, St. Augustine Florida

Reception: Shannon and the amazing team at The White Room, St. Augustine Florida

Makeup: Paulina Perez

Cake: Sweet Weddings

Florals: 57 Treasury

DJ: Bobby Spencer of ABC DJ’s

Photographers: Lauren + Michael Kinsey, Lauren Kinsey Photography

Accomodations: The Casa Monica Hotel, St. Augustine Florida

Saturday, Michael + I were PRAYING for weather as gorgeous of this day… it had been storming all day and the weather man called for more rain on Sunday… 80% chance, in fact. I tweeted about it, Facebooked hourly updates, and when we left our house on Sunday morning, it wasn’t looking too promising. We were prepared to bring out our galoshes, but when we arrived at Amelia Island, the sun was shining bright and we had some beautiful blue skies. Thank you God!

I have to admit- I was a little nervous when we arrived. Usually, we get to meet with a bride at least once before her wedding, but we had never had a chance to meet Megan before today because we were never able to coordinate our schedules! From the time I first talked to Megan, I knew we would begreat friends, but it’s always a little nerve wracking meeting someone for the first time.

When we walked in, Megan immediately gave us both a hug and her family was so warm and welcoming, we really did feel like we were a part of the family.

Megan + Wade, we had so much fun capturing the pure joy and love surrounding your wedding day, and thank you so much for inviting us into your lives! We had fun and we will see each other again soon!

See what I mean by GORGEOUS day?

Megan was one of the calmest brides I have ever met.

Megan was so excited and joyful all day!

Alright, little side story here. Michael was out in the garage with the bridesmaids (that sounds funny, huh? ) and we noticed that these pool were sitting here together… they weren’t turned exactly all the right way, but the wedding date was 1-17-10. Coincidence?

LOVED Megan’s choice of colors… so beautiful! All the girls looked great!

Holy hotness Batman. Megan, have I mentioned that you are STUNNING?!?!

YAY for this!! I knew when I took it that it was going to be one of my favorites of the day! There was just a slight breeze… ok it was winnnnnnnnndddddddyyyyyyyy!

Drumroll please! I give you, Wade!

Wade’s one and only request was to get “spatted” up. Sounds dirty, right? Since Megan + Wade are HUGE Auburn fans, all the guys had to get spatted up before the big day. I even got spatted. It was pretty fantastic. I rock the spat pretty well.

Hey, you gotta have priorities.

Sam AKA Stevie Wonder.

And most importantly, make sure we zip the fly.

I think i’ve said this before, but I truly loved every detail of this wedding, the sweet simplicity of it really  was so lovely.

The church was awesome, I loved the little white chapel feel.

SHOWTIME!

Ok, I love everything about this image. Megan’s dad was very emotional and I just happened to catch this one right after he gave his daughter’s hand to Wade. I love the way he is looking at his daughter, it makes me very emotional and reminiscent of our wedding.

Megan + Wade held communion for all their guests, it was so powerful to see everyone worshiping and praising God at their union!

MARRIED!

It got dark QUICK. And I mean in-a-hurry. We did not anticipate it getting dark so quickly, but of course we had to squuueeeezzzzeee in some lovey dovey time. Hopefully we’ll be doing some more portraits of these two soon, but for now, this will just have to wet your appetite.

Love love love.

Walker’s Landing at Amelia Island is so beautiful and rustic and Megan decided to have very natural details, which I loved.

Congratulations Megan + Wade!! We love ya’ll!

Isn’t Megan GORGEOUS? Wait till you see what i’ve got in store

We have a lot of couples who have pugs. I’m telling you, i’m getting PUG FEVER!! I WANT ONE!!! Isn’t Chug-the-pug so cute? Love love love.

FAVORITE!!!!!!!!!

We found this funky shop right across the street from where we were shooting, and being the {law abiding citizen most of the time that I am} I went in to ask the shop owner if we could shoot in front of his shop! He said we could, so this is what happened…

Yes, yes it did.

After we finished up at the shop, we headed across the street to this alley way, and then the police showed up… we thought we were busted!

But as it turns out, they could care less and let us play for a few minutes. Another favorite.

Meanwhile, Chug was locked in the car. CHUG: FREE MY MAMA!

Frisbeeeeeee!

Lesley + Josh are both in the military so they brought their dress blues. Heck yes!

I suggested they salute each other- to which Lesley said “i’m an officer so really it doesn’t work like that, he salutes me! ” YES MA’AM!!!! Get it girl!

Lesley + Josh, we love ya’ll and can’t wait for the wedding! It’s sure to be a riot!

At the beginning of 2009, to be honest, I was worried. I wondered if I was going to be able to produce the kind of work that so many people trusted me to create, I worried about how I was going to keep business going, I worried about whether or not I was going to be able to do it all, while working full time and still manage to make our house a home.

I have been reflecting on 2009 for the past few weeks, and I feel such a strange and wonderful mix of happiness, blessed, humbled, surprised, excited, flattered, and many other emotions of the positive variety. My clients this year were, in a word, wonderful. Just absolutely wonderful. I don’t know many things, but what I do know is that the people I have been so privileged to work with are the ones that put my worries at ease. It’s because they are the ones that remind me why I do what I do.

It was a wonderful year. As I watched this slideshow I am again reminded of how beautiful 2010 will be, and how much we are looking forward to meeting new people and making new lifelong friends.

the winner is…

oh i’m so excited…

Christine + Matt!

“I get to marry my wonderful love this Summer of 2010.

How Matt and I met: We both moved to Pensacola, Florida for Bible school. I came from the San Francisco Bay Area and he came from Massachusets. We were friends forever. We have a cappuchino bar at church, and he would volunteer at it. Every time I would walk in the door of church, he would sing sooooooo abnoxiously loud, “Dun Dun Dun, everybody loves Loretz!” It didn’t take long for everybody to start singing that song anytime I walked anywhere at church or school. But we were just friends and Matt was just silly. To this day, people still sing that song… and it’s been 10 years. Anyway, to make a long story short, one day out of the blue we sat next to each other at church and then walked by each other later after church, and something just clicked out of the blue. Seriously. One moment we saw each other as purely goofy,fun-loving friends… and then the next moment… out of the blue, we saw something more. And from there, love grew. And boy did it grow!!!

I volunteer and teach art to children as a hobby at church. It’s something I love. Many of the children are bussed in from projects and it’s their only opportunity to express themselves artistically. I’m one of those people, that if I don’t get to express my creativity, I get fidgety. I love to share my love for arts and crafts and color with others. I’m confident that anything can be achieved with paper, glue, and paint!

Yesterday I made a 9 foot Christmas tree with bamboo garden stakes and a blanket of green tissue paper “flowers” for leaves. I like to think that my class is a little bit like “Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium.” The children were amazed at the big things they can create with their little hands!

I am planning on getting married in a botanical garden. I would like my wedding to be 10% vintagey, 10% shabby chic, 10% country picnic, 10% old time country fair, 10% fiesta, 10% Jane Austen, 10% whimscial and…. the rest can just be pure color and fun. Of course I’ll have a beautiful white gown and all that, but around all this wedding magic, I will build with color and creativity.

Sooo, WE’RE GETTING MARRIED IN 2010! Thank you for hearing my story. I had fun telling it. ”

YAY FOR CHRISTINE + MATT!!! Michael + I are excited for your wedding!! LOVE YOU GUYS!!!

From Christine: “Hi Lauren!! WOW!!! I am so unfathomably excited, you just can’t know!!!! That is soo cool!! Thank you so much for giving us this gift and right before Christmas! SO EXCITED!! Thank you again…I AM THRILLED and I might BURST! ”