Lauré Love Photography

Ryan and I were never able to do engagement pictures or any other fun sort of professional photographs, so when Kaylah contacted me to say I was excited was an understatement! I was battling with a rather difficult photographer via Facebook trying to get nice pictures of Ryan, Rylie and I before he deploys. Kaylah came in at the perfect time and definitely saved the day!

Over email I quickly learned she was not only one of the nicest people but so incredibly willing to work with us and our difficult schedules! With pre-deployment leave and my work hours we weren't the easiest to schedule but Kaylah was super flexible and I was very excited to meet her, especially once I saw her website!

This excerpt is from Kaylah's website:

I graduated in 2012 from the New York Institute of Photography

with my Photographer's Certification. This means I put time, money, and effort into actively learning how to use my equipment to best suit my client's (that's you) needs.

I'm fun. If your husband rolls his eyes and makes excuses as to why you just caaaaaan't get pictures right now, this is huge. I make it a top priority to make the majority of your pictures look unposed & natural, and there's usually a lot of laughing involved.

"I specialize in couples, newborns, weddings, homecomings, lifestyle sessions, product photography, pet photography, still life, etc..." That quote right there? That is not me. While I CAN do all of these, I specialize mostly in couples photography. This means my look isn't generic, it won't look like something you can get done by anybody else, and you won't be disappointed.

I offer more than just a CD with printing rights. I know this is a huge deal to a lot of people - who doesn't love the luxury of owning digital files of your pictures to print off at your leisure? Here's what most people don't know: "At your leisure" usually means "when you get time" (which usually means "never"). My full sessions come with a disc AND a print package - so your pictures can be displayed promptly (which, of course, is why you came to a photographer in the first place).

Awesome right?!

I was especially excited about the second point. Ryan is a LOT of things; happy to have his picture taken is NOT one of them. He grumbles anytime a camera comes into view and when you ask him to smile he gives some weird grimace thing that drives me nuts. My husband insists that if the corners of his mouth are upturned then he is smiling. No. If you ever see my husband's real smile you know how far that is from the truth!!

We met Kaylah in downtown Jacksonville in the early evening. She was right on time at our designated meet up spot and took us to our location. I was pretty nervous, as I tend to be, but that quickly melted away as we got to work. She was very sweet and even tolerated Rylie trying to lunge all over her at every moment. Not only did she capture some amazing images but she made our family translate on film in a way that was very us. It was composed, fun and natural... as you can see below not a fake smile in sight from Ryan! We had a blast, disobeyed a sign or two in the sake of Chive On "I Do What I Want" and had a great time! Ryan got me hooked on the Chive and I knew if we wore our shirts for a few fun shots he'd be more than willing... and Kaylah was familiar with the Chive and right on board!

Check out the AMAZING shots from our session:

Even with the Dup running like crazy, I think she saw her can of treats I had by my purse, this became one of my favorite shots. I think it was the second time she clicked the shutter. Perfect.

These two are my favorite. One I plan on printing to a canvas for our room... a service Kaylah also has on her website for use as well as prints.

 Such attitude. I was trying hard not to giggle and look all tough.... not sure I succeeded but I tried!

Also loving this one! Ryan likes to dip me... a lot! Ever time we dance it usually ends with a fun dip!

All my blogging friends and readers in Jacksonville, I highly recommend Kaylah and Lauré Love Photography. She was a pleasure to work with and I hereby reserve her for Ryan's homecoming, whenever that may be! Kaylah, you may not have a say in the issue ;) I could not imagine working with anyone else! You got my husband to smile and you captured some amazing images we will treasure for a long time. This stage of our lives, just a married couple and a dog, are forever something we will cherish. I cannot stop showing them to everyone! Kaylah was professional but still fun and made us very comfortable to obtain some wonderful images. I honestly give my full recommendation for her as a photographer!

Check out Kaylah's website here and her Facebook here. On this page she has her price packages available, prints included, for some terrific rates. I will probably be ordering some prints from you soon!

Thank you again for everything Kaylah!

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Disclaimer: For a services review my session and digital copies were free but all opinions expressed here are my own and are not influenced by that in any way.

PCS - Part 1

Wow... I don't blog for two weeks and blogger looks totally different! I am a little confused on this new interface thing but I hope I get used to it soon. I cannot believe tomorrow we will have been in our house for two weeks. We are finally settled in and Ryan checks in on Tuesday to start work. I have definitely gotten spoiled having him all to myself the past few weeks. Considering I am not working yet (nine applications out so far, no response back at all on any) I am wondering how I will feel once it is just me in the house. Anyway, back to the beginning! The weeks leading up to the move involved my mom coming to help for a week, a drive to Jersey to see the family, and a semi college reniuon at a local bar to say goodbye to everyone!

Ryan was due to land at Reagan Airport at 11:30pm the night before the movers were due to arrive at 8am. No big deal. We lived literally right down the street from the airport. I could turn left out of the apartment and drive for ten minutes and be there. Well.... when my husband flew from Palm Springs to LAX they sat on the runway in LA for over an hour since no gates were available. His flight door CLOSED EARLY and refused to let him on the plane even though it was still fifteen minutes until take off (the rule I believe is ten minutes). After being bounced around from person to person he got another flight into Dulles Airport, both Reagan and BWI were not an option apparently. Dulles is a good forty five minutes from us and his flight was landing an hour or two later, but what can you do?

Then his flight got delayed again. And again. And again.

Long story short I went to bed at 11:00pm, woke up at 2:00am and drove almost an hour to Dulles to meet Ryan when his flight landed at 3:30am. Naturally his luggage SOMEHOW got on his original flight so none of his bags were at Dulles. So at 4:00 am we are driving to Reagna to pick up his bags. Naturally my grand nine months apart reunion was a little different than expected (aren't they always?)! Between my sleep deprivation and his annoyance at everythin from airplanes to the state of California as a whole, we were both kind of cranky. By the time we got home hit was about 5:30 in the morning and the movers were due in less than three hours. Ryan's reunion with Rylie girl was downright adorable though....

We were home so late/early that our neighbor Adam was leaving for work and stopped to chat with us. Finall around 6:30 am we collapse into bed, I didn't bother changing out of my jeans, and tried to sleep. 8:00am on the dot my phone rings with the movers being ten minutes away. Before I could get up and get Rylie outside, they were there. Four guys and a big truck to pack up our entire lives... except for my husband still sleeping in the bed. Ugh. I had to go in and yell at him (three times) to get up and he ran and got breakfast for everyone. We played with Rylie girl outside and tried just to stay out of the way mostly. By noon we were down to what was coming with us in the truck.

At this point we were both deliriously tired and wanted to blow up our air mattress and pass out. Here, I goofed. I forgot to buy an air pump... major wife fail there. So in the car we go, we return our cable box to Comcast, grab a quick lunch ala drive thru and run to Walmart for said air pump. By 2pm we were passed out! We napped a few hours and the next few days were sort of hazy. We took Rylie girl on walks together, went out to dinner with Adam and once by ourselves to our favorite restaurant, and said goodbye to Alexandria. We strolled King Street and the Waterfront, played with the pup at the park and basically did a lot of walking. When you have no TV (and um, no furniture) it makes you go out more!

Saying goodbye to Carrie was very difficult for me... honestly it was the only time I shed a tear during the entire process. She came over with Poncho and we all hung outside for a bit, like always, and then we walked her back up towards her apartment and walked to our favorite Italian place for dinner. As soon as she went one way up the street and we went the other I had tears running down my cheeks. Carrie got me through these last nine months, it would not have been the same without her and she has easily become one of my best friends.

Before I knew it, Monday morning rolled around. Naturally things went wrong. Rylie gets carsick and needs Benadryl to be ok in the car and we couldn't find it. Ryan went to four gas stations and then just waited to CVS to get more (it was in the trunk of my packed car in case you were wondering). We wanted to be on the road by 8 and didn't get on the highway until well after 9. Oops. I was nervous about the drive, I've never been the driver alone in the car for more than four hours really so the six to eight we were looking at had me nervous, but I did it! I followed Ryan who followed his GPS down 95 and the backway through Farmville.

We stopped a few times, to let Rylie out, grab food and get gas really. I had a moment where I was rocking out to my iPod that turned out kind of funny. I'm blasting *NSYNC and singing and dancing (fist pumping and waving my arms may have been involved) to Crazy For You when suddenly I get a text... "You having fun back there?" Busted. I look at the truck and I can see my husband laughing hysterically in the sideview mirror. This happened more than once. A rock the size of a small meteorite also hit my windshield less than five miles from the North Carolina state line on 95.

It scared the bejeezus out of me, but luckily it didn't hurt my visibility and I could still drive fine. Not fun to have happen on moving day though. We had to be at our closing by 4 so we were pushing it regardless! My parents and my brother were already in town to help us move, clean and settle, so we met them at the house around 3pm. Of course it was locked but I got my first sight!

We handed Rylie girl to my parents and jumped in the car again. We got a cashiers check at the bank and squeaked into our closing with the lawyer and realtor a little bit after 4. I signed my name on more pieces of paper than I ever though possible and then we were done. We have a house! Chris, our awesome realtor, took us back to the house, opened it and let us inside for the first time. He also gave us a welcome mat, some decorative lights, a watering can and a wonderful card as house warming gifts.

Looking inside we had a LOT of work to do.... but that you shall see tomorrow!

 EDIT 12/15/14 PERSEC