Michelle and Paul met while working at a restaurant and it was love at first sight! Paul took Michelle out for a fun kayaking first date and right after, Michelle told her family that he was the one! I loved spending the afternoon walking around this gorgeous state park chasing the sun. The hanging Spanish Moss and air plants glowed in the golden hour and the beach's blue waters were on perfect display. There was a wedding and an 80th birthday going on at the park so there was super fun Miami music blasting through this serene backdrop. Of course we had to break into a little salsa, or I had to and they had a good laugh at my moves haha. We had such a fun time talking about jobs, travel, and their upcoming wedding! Can't wait celebrate with these two in February! 

I had the amazing honor of working with some awesomely talented women on Miami Beach's South Beach Art Deco Ocean Drive! Our vision was to show off the stunning and flowy dresses with beach wind and dancer movements. 

💃🏽 Dalliance Bespoke By Michelle is a Miami local dress maker from South Africa and creates these beyond beautiful fabric filled, expressive, twirl-tastic pieces you can rent!

💚  Cindy Makita is also from South Africa (small world!!!) and uses her modeling platform to promote women’s empowerment, equality, and leadership as a career strategist and coach!

💪🏽 Maurah R. Ruiz uses her pageant, fitness, and entrepreneur background to launch her own healthy snack business!

💐 Gracefully Bloomed is from Utah and creates perfect faux flower arrangements!

✊🏽 These new friends are so inspiring and it was so life giving to create art together! Iron sharpens iron and I’m excited for more fun projects together 🥰

Here are my first film frames from a session! In high school I produced film old school style in dark room. In college I carried around my grandfather's film camera and took photos of my friends and family. I love the rawness of film. I love that you have to think about everything and pay special attention to composition, focus, meter the light, know your film type, set your settings and really want that shot because you only have 16 frames per roll. I love the pure art behind film! So I was excited to finally be brave enough and be a hybrid photographer and bring my film camera to two different beach engagement sessions! Both are at my favorite park on South Beach in Miami Beach at South Pointe Park. I love the palm trees, the rocks, and the cotton candy sunset. These are 5 rolls of Fuji 400h on my Pentax 645 and I'm excited to start bringing it to more celebrations! 

Cristy and Nick met in paramedic school and fell in love over their shared hearts for service. They both work for fire departments in Miami and respond to both fire and paramedic calls. These two are so full of courage and love it was an honor documenting their love on South Beach! We talked about their passion for travel, their dog, and their journey to becoming fire fighters. I loved every moment from the 

From the bride:
"Nick woke up and turned to me and said “lets hop on a plane” and of course I agreed. We’re big travel bugs so it wasn’t out of the ordinary at all. We packed a small backpack each with both warm and cold weather clothing not knowing where we’d end up.  When we got to the airport we picked the next flight out and landed in NYC within a few hours. He asked the big question at the top of the One Tower which can seem a bit depressing being that that is where very many people had passed that horrific day, but as fireman it meant something entirely different to us. I couldn't have chosen any way more fitting for us."

Drew and I were so excited to fly back from Miami to Raleigh to celebrate with Lindsay and Kevin! The sun was out and bright for their downtown Durham wedding at Angus Barn's Bay 7 venue in the gorgeous industrial chic American Tobacco Campus. Brick on brick with the coolest architecture! I had the best time hanging out with Lindsay and her bridescrew hearing funny stories and toasting the happy couple. Their friends were so loving and supportive and L+K are so beautiful inside and out that our jobs were made easy. 

These college sweet heats were friends throughout school but senior year just happened to be perfect timing and some how K just kept coming over to L's house to "watch Breaking Bad". Eventually, they went on their first date and the rest is history!! They made it through over 2 years of long distance, raising a puppy while apart, moving multiple times, new jobs and so much more. Drew and I loved seeing them clearly ecstatic to have all their friends and family in one place and throw everyone a fantastic part including capturing several big group shots! What a fun day in honor of two wonderful souls! 

I find it the most wonderful honor whenever a fellow photographer reaches out to me! Mariia is a talented film photographer living in Chicago. Her and her husband were visiting Miami and I was so thrilled they wanted to document their vacation with pictures in my favorite park! Mariia is from Ukraine and Max is from Moldova. Their love story is so beautiful and clearly fate brought them together. She was working in a restaurant and he was driving through her small town and stopped in. They hit it off, started dating, then got married a few months later! Just perfection! They tried to teach me a few Russian words, but even with my love of languages I couldn't pick those up haha. I speak some Spanish and Italian, and I studied Arabic in college. I loved picking up just a few words of Portuguese, Maori, and Swedish during our travels too. But, Slavic is something super special and beautiful. The sunshine was out for their photoshoot and the wind was wild! Thankfully, with the help of her photographer's eye and knowing angles, Marria's dress and hair flowing in the wind looked amazing! We had a wonderful time together and I hope our paths cross again at a photography conference or around the world! 

Drew and I are so excited to be back in Miami! We had an amazing year of traveling the world and we're also happy to be settled into our apartment, seeing friends, and visiting our favorite spots. I couldn't wait to get back out on the sand and in the water documenting love stories! Nathy and Osvaldo were a heaven sent first session back on South Beach! I photographed Nathy's youngest sister's wedding when we first were in Miami so it was so amazing to keep the tradition going! These two love birds are having a destination wedding in Mexico so I'm thrilled I could take their engagement photos in adopted hometown Miami. We had a great time talking, chasing the sun, and splashing in the ocean. I even broke out my new film camera and messed around! I loved how her bright yellow dress popped against the green palm trees and blue water! I love candid moments the most, so this session was full of giggles and laugher as I caught those in-between moments :) Thank you both for sharing your beautiful inside and out selves with me!

Let me set the stage. We just flew back from Sweden, unpacked and repacked in a day, went to Asheville to celebrate our best friends' wedding, then on our 7th anniversary (7/7/19) we hiked along the Blue Ridge Parkway in the Appalachian Mountains to my favorite mountain top with the coolest couple ever. It was quite the welcome back to North Carolina after an amazing year of traveling the world together for Drew's job! As much as we love the beach, we always happen to spend our anniversary in the mountains or hiking. So we had to continue the tradition and document two other love birds story! Katelin and Nick are SO much fun! We battled rain and no cellphone service and finally found each other! We first hiked down to a waterfall where they bravely climbed over rocks and even got in the water, my kinda couple! Then, we hiked 30 minutes to the highest point of a trail and found a gorgeous clearing where the sun started to shine! They brought a picnic complete with bubbly, cheese, grapes, crackers, and of course finger-hands. Note to all reading, weird, plastic, tiny, finger-hands make all romantic picnics better. Please see below. Also, my drone Scottie made an appearance to catch some stunning rolling hill views that give the Blue Ridge and Smokey Mountains their name. I am so excited to share this quirky, vibrant, full of joy, energy, and love day!

Lidija & Arend met for coffee on their first date and talked and chatted until the cafe closed. That spark of connecting on a common interest level as well as something deeper fanned into a flame that fueled trips around the world together. On a blizzarding day in Iceland overlooking gorges and waterfalls, Arend set up his camera for a photo and dropped down on his knee.

Fast forward, we met one sunrise in downtown Raleigh for engagement photos and had the greatest time taking photos on their Vespa on the cobble stone streets for the perfect Italian vibe. As Drew and I took off on our own adventure around the world we kept up over Instagram and email and I knew I couldn't wait to celebrate their wedding day back in Raleigh.

The details were perfect, romantic, and so personal to them! I loved their world seating chart, the airy blooms, the too beautiful to eat cake, and of course their forever adorable and infectious love. I can always tell how the day will go when we arrive, and both bride and groom were chill and laughing with their wedding party and family. I treasured Lidija's first look with her bridesmaids and her father. I love how much the guys clearly love Arend from their jokes and constant cheersing. Drew and I photographed more than ever on this day because we didn't want to miss a moment!! The way she looks up at him and how he looks at her makes my heart stop! Dancing was a blast; it was so neat following them around and never have a moment because a guest was always excited to hug them and talk with them. That's a true sign of having just the best hearts! The night ended with joyful sparklers and the party continued downtown. It was an amazing day seeing family and friends from all over the world come together and celebrate these two pure souls! A million congratulations to the Kloosters! 

Thank you to these awesome vendors who helped make the day amazing! 
Venue- Merrimon-Wynne House
Wedding Planner & Designer- Viva L’Event
Catering- Beau Catering
Flowers- Plume Events
Photography- Laura Memory Photography
Videography- Yours Truly Media
Hair/Makeup- Alexis & Morgan (friends of bride)
Ceremony Music- Family Friend
Reception Music- Night Years Band
Wedding Cake- Ashley Cakes
Officiate- Kevin Holland
Rentals- Party Reflections
Specialty Rentals- Greenhouse Picker Sisters
Guest Transportation- Raleigh Trolley
Dress: Tara Lauren from Gilded Bridal