It’s finally that time of year! 2011 Wedding Dates are officially open and ready for booking! As I publish this blog post every 2011 wedding date is open! But the really good dates, aka. July and August, will be booking fast. So, if your dream wedding date is in those two months and you have to have Charla.ca photography your wedding please email me asap!
idea (at) charla dot ca
I’m really excited to meet everyone who’s contacted me so far and can’t wait to hear from all the other newly engaged couples out there! We’ve got a lot to talk about!
The most exciting Charla.ca Photography goal of 2010 is a new website which is under construction and hoping to launch it in the early months of 2010.
One of the first and surprising (meaning completely unplanned) stages was a logo redesign. A new logo was not one of my 2010 goals but with my new website design came the urge to create a new ’signature’. And I feel my logo is my signature, at least in the virtual world.
My first thought was to keep in undisclosed until my website launch and my second thought was ‘that’s no fun’. So here it is. I hope you like it, cause I do.
Friday night I started feeling really sorry for myself.
Being ‘Star of the Week’ is a coveted title in Liam’s kindergarden class. It means you get a make a poster all about you that displays in the hallway for everyone to see. It means you get to be leader for one whole week. And it means that Legs the Frog gets to come home with you all week. At the end of the week you get to write in Legs journal and tell all about the exploits of Legs and your family. Your story goes down as part of history in the Kindergarten class at St. Bonaventure’s College. It was finally Liam’s time.
Ryan left for almost a week around noon on the Friday, the Friday before Liam was to be star. In the throws of Friday night my sinus’ became so blocked I woke in fits of panic feeling like I couldn’t breath. No amount of blankets could warm me up. Liam came to my rescue around 8am with water and everything else a sick mother needed. I mustered the strength to take me and my pillow downstairs to the couch where I could at least witness what the kids were doing and where I would stay for almost 10 days.
My niece, Kassi, graciously came and fed the kids on Saturday. My symptoms worsened. As I tossed in bed I cried out to God to heal me. But God didn’t heal me. There was no way I could enter into the week like this. No way I could take Liam to school on Monday morning and no way that I could journal about a stuffed frog. I couldn’t care for my kids, myself, the dog or a frog. If I had the strength and I could find a hole I would have crawled into it and died. I would have given up. I wanted to know how to have enough faith to be healed.
During the dark night God came back to me. He paced the word LOVE in my fevered night vision. What? I didn’t understand. I was the one who needed to be loved. Was He telling me to be the one to have love? Love, love, love. I like to say I meditated on it all week but really it just haunted my fever soaked dreams.
1 Corinthians 13. ‘The greatest of these is love.’ ‘Love never fails.’ No matter what wonderful things I do in this world if I have not love while I do them the deeds are nothing. Wait, it also says ‘love bears all things’. Life I guess is not meant to be easy. Easy is boring right?!
Through the most horrible sinus infection I’ve ever experienced I was shown much love from my 5 year old, from my sister, niece and aunt as they took care of the kids and even from my dog as she slept with me to keep me warm. I was also loved by God as he spoke to my heart more than once over that time.
‘Love bears all things.’ Not some things or certain things but all things. Love bears up sickness and hurt, arguments and strife. Loving is also trusting. When I put my own self pity aside and just loved, just trusted God, love beared all things in my life. I have a new understanding of love. Love does not equal quitting. Quitting meant giving up on my family and myself. But love meant perseverence, it meant growth, and a new me.
Love is greater than faith and hope. God wanted me to see that I didn’t need more faith to be healed I needed more love. And LOVE never fails. I wrote in the kindergarten journal that Legs had a great time as he watched Liam take care of his mommy. Liam was Star of the Week thanks to Kassi who drove him to school each day. And Legs hung out at our house, as sickly as it was.
Legs is now with a new family. And LOVE, not ‘I luv u‘ love but real love, has conquered this house.
Time to start some serious upkeep on my blog. Christmas was such a great time to be with family and forget the internet even existed! Seriously, I barely checked facebook! It was awesome. And I dare say it has taken me this long to get back into the swing of things.
What’s on the list for 2010! I’d thought I’d give you a little foreshadowing on what this year holds for Charla.ca Photography!
1. Hiatus: This one really excites me! Until May I will be clicking my shutter buttons purely for creative purposes. However I do have a workshop or two on the go and am really looking forward to that.
2. Zambezi: Yes, that is the name of a large river running through Zimbabwe. But it is also now the name of our new little adopted dog, Bezi. As I type she’s been with us for only three days. You can expect to hear about her as often as you do my kids!
3. The Meeting Place: I’m currently redoing the space where I like to hang out with my couples. I have photo updates from time to time on my Facebook Page if your interested in interior design. My website is also undergoing renovation, stay tuned for great things to come.
4. Mayan Riviera: May marks the beginning of the wedding season for Charla.ca Photography. I thought I break in a little gentler this year and start the season in Mexico with Jennifer + Joey as they say I do! Expect some great stuff from the get-go in 2010!
5. Maui: I’m beginning to think this update is not that exciting so I thought I’d end on #5 with possibly the best part of 2010, Maui. My husband and I are flying to Maui in August to shoot the wedding of Alain + Kathy! It’s going to be phenomenol. Ryan and I have decided to stay on for 10 days to explore the islands and have a much belated honeymoon of sorts! I cannot wait!
That’s it, for now, my top 5 things to look forward to in 2010!
Because all great things end and begin with photographs here are a few of our very new and precious Bezi,
This is our wet dog after her first bath in our house
‘Dog Whisperer Jesse’ loves the job of taking care of his companion.
Bezi is definitely a bundle of energy!
Amanda and Neal! Congratulations to the newlyweds!
It was a very hot summer day in August that Amanda and Neal decided to say ‘I do’ in Eastport, Newfoundland. They chose to do a ‘First Look’ which means they decided to see each other for the first time before the wedding ceremony. After seeing each other in a private beach location we began their photo session. One of the sites we thought of was an old barn that was in Neal’s family. Neal was very patient with me as blinded him a few times setting up my lights. But once I told them to get lost in each other it wasn’t hard to get just the right image.
For me this image says many things. I love the cover and vibrancy of the barn, light and especially the grass. But as the light forms an outline and draws you into the couple you can’t help but be taken by the moment of newlyweds, stowed away in a cool barn from all the excitement and celebrations, hoping to steal just a moment from everyone…including me. Wedding days definitely do and should focus on the celebration of marriage but I also believe that every wedding day should include a moment like this one!
This image is one of my favorites from the day. Now it’s time for Amanda and Neal to choose their favorite and claim their prize on a canvas!
Check out their full wedding post and more their story on the original blog post and slideshow.
