As is my custom each October, everything is nuts. The epic pile-on of softball and baseball, engagement sessions, wedding weekends, homeschooling, co-op, and keeping four children alive (the amount of food consumed in this house would shock you to your very core) catches me off guard every year. Justin and I pass each other coming […]

I have the sweetest Gettysburg anniversary portrait session to share with you today! We are absolutely waterlogged after this past week and feeling a little blue for all the activities and sessions that have been postponed from the neverending rain. Softball! We wanna play it! Sessions! I wanna see ya! Let’s enjoy a big dose […]

Hello and welcome to the start of Epic Fall Wedding Season! I’ve got a gorgeous spring wedding at Bluebird Manor in Adamstown, MD to share with you. I’ve been in the thick of engagement sessions for 2025 brides, spending my evenings on Zoom with future clients, and shooting/editing autumn weddings. I also have all four […]

I spent last Saturday night with Sydney and Jake for their Gettysburg engagement session and I’ve never been so happy to be a third wheel in all my life. These high-school sweethearts got engaged on the Hatfield-McCoy trails after graduating from the University of Alabama (I think I am legally obligated to add ROLL TIDE! […]

I’m not embarrassed to say this is the first New Year’s Eve Ball Drop I’ve seen in over ten years. After 10:00 PM, nothing stands between me and my high thread count sheets. I take comfort in knowing my tube of Carmex, water bottle, and the half chapter of the novel I will read before […]

I’ve got one more wedding to share with you before I put up my Out of Office and we head down south for a much-needed getaway before fall wedding season kicks off. It felt nice just to type that. Out of Office. I like it. But before we pack our boogie boards and a bottle […]

I write to you today as the third member of the Thomas Family who has been stung by a wasp this week. They have us surrounded on all sides with a hive inside a raised garden bed just outside the patio door, and a shaggy gray nest tucked inside a recessed light fixture on the […]

I want a snowfall kind of loveThat lights up the sky from belowI want a snowfall kind of loveThat brings people to their window Ingrid Michaelson, Snowfall Our summer schedule is in full swing and, stacked with wedding season, it already has me craving a quiet, slower pace. I know that’s not in the cards […]

If you are not from the Winchester, VA area, do you know about the Handley Library? I didn’t until Olivia’s email came through at the end of January and I promptly texted my cousin Robin, she herself a Winchester native, and asked, “Where can I shoot in Winchester!?” Olivia and Nathan were planning on eloping […]

Wedding (and pollen!) season is in full swing and it feels so good to be back. It feels not so good to be sneezing and wanting to claw my itching eyeballs out upon even cracking a window, but as my sister-in-law says, you can’t sneeze if you’re unconscious (thanks, Benadryl!). I’m headed to Stone Tower […]

coming up for air Today feels hand-wringingly good. I’ve got fun news to share! I’ve had the same website for many years – after bouncing around with different styles, I settled on a simple, gorgeous design that highlighted the images with minimal text. Every time I updated it, it was through the lens of, “How […]

I’ve got an ambitious GoodReads challenge set for myself – 20 books this year. I love the little dopamine hit I get from checking books off the list. I love watching the digital cover move from Want to Read to Read. I love the little message that appears reminding me that I’m one book ahead […]

Hello and good morning from the icy depths of January, the worst month of the year! Like most of the East Coast, we’re buried under several inches of snow, but I’m a housecat by nature and canceling everything on my schedule for the day feels nice. Although suiting up four children into snow gear feels […]

The impending cold snap on the radar this week means it’s time to transport us to a warmer, happier place – how about we take a trip to the Meadowlark Botanical Gardens in Vienna, VA for Amy & Dan’s greenhouse wedding? I photographed this lush, floral-filled wedding at the atrium alongside Amanda Summers. These colorful […]

Swan Cove Manor in Cambridge, MD is the perfect venue for a weekend-long wedding celebration! Privately tucked away on the Eastern Shore with waterfront views, there’s multiple homes on a single property, making it perfected for a 3-day affair. From a welcome party to a farewell brunch, Adam and Grace invited their family and friends […]

I’ve got new portraits for you today – let’s head to downtown Frederick for this gorgeous family session. But first! It’s my birthday today, but I wasn’t served breakfast in bed. No, instead my three-year-old kicked open my bedroom door at 6:00 AM shouting out, “WHERE IS THE CAKE?” I get it. I established this […]

I write to you this evening from the Pit of Despair, a place where three of us have succumbed to a highly unpleasant combination of cold symptoms and the others are waiting to go down, too. I’ve been wearing the same cardigan for two days, and the pockets are stuffed with Halls (one pocket for […]

Love is what carries you, for it is always there, even in the dark, or most in the dark, but shining out at times like gold stitches in a piece of embroidery.  -Wendell Berry What an absolute joy it was to photograph Olivia and Craig’s wedding day at Dulany’s Overlook! Olivia leaned into her Italian […]

And I remember being younger and my mother told me the truthFind someone who grows flowers in the darkest parts of youTake heed when things get hard and don’t you ever turn aroundYou’ll find someone, someday, somewhere that grows you to the clouds Zach Bryan, Sun to Me Her sister-in-law messaged me just a few […]

I’ve been really lucky to work at Dulany’s Overlook in Frederick, MD a few times this year and Rachel and Andrew’s sun-soaked day was one of the best! I loved all the soft, lush bouquets, the blush, peach, and mint color palette, the soft candlelight reception in the barn – so many gorgeous details woven […]

Friday! We made it! It’s was oddly cool and breezy last night and we let the kids run laps around the yard chasing fireflies (and each other) until it was decidedly beyond their bedtime. My husband, who will tell you until his dying day that autumn is the supreme season, commented that it felt like […]

Luck is a thing that comes in many forms and who can recognize her? –  Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea If you are reading this post and you know Missy and Scott personally, you are one of the lucky ones. A toast was given at the start of the reception, chilled champagne […]

I come to you this fine Thursday afternoon lightly crisped, my skin a fading pink from a weekend in the almost-summer sun. I spent the first part photographing a stunning wedding on the Eastern Shore, followed by an all-outdoor Memorial Day weekend picking strawberries and sprawling out in the grass surrounded by wafts of smoke […]

I’m coming to you as a new resident in the Land of the Living, having spent the last 8 days in the pit of despair with our youngest who is currently the proud owner of two flaming red eardrums and a sinus infection, to boot. He is on the mend, thankfully, which means I’ve temporarily […]

Justin and I are coming up on twelve years as a married couple, which is roughly fourteen years together, which, in my life, feels like a very long time. Whenever we do the math surrounding our first date, our oldest child, or how many years in a row I’ve made Black Forest Cake for his […]