An engagement session

Some photos from my recent engagement session with my good friend Eva and her fiance Tim. I will be shooting their wedding in October, and I am so honored and excited! Pictures were all taken at this great little park practically across from our downtown Durham, NC office.

It was actually their idea to do a gum-kissing shot but I love how it came out.

You can see the full session over at flyingmermaid.zenfolio.com under Engagements.

Dream growing, new site, portfolio pics

Photography has become such a strong passion of mine. I love it. I love sharing how I view the world. And I want to start making photography more than just a passion. I want to grow a business. Put myself out there. Take the risk because to pursue something I love so much means pursuing joy as work, and I love that.

Before the wedding, I created a craigslist ad, looking for wedding dress models and kids for portraits. In exchange for them helping me to build my portfolio, I would give them a few free prints and a few photos for free.

I had my first portfolio session yesterday with a girl who is getting married in November and wanted pictures in her wedding dress. She brought her maid of honor, and they were great to work with. Fun. Open to being silly. Not self-conscious around the camera.

I am very very happy with the photos I got, these will be great to add to my portfolio. I spent today creating a new professional photography site, and I would like to introduce you to Flying Mermaid Photography I am very, very excited about it!!

And I wanted to share some of my favorite photos from my first ever bridal session. I had so much fun on this photo shoot.

She was very sassy in a great way

I asked them if they would mind getting silly. “It’s what we do!”

I bought a parasol from this great vintage store, and she was great with playing with it.

Love the sass.

My FAVORITE from the session

Love the boots with the dress

How fun is this??

Ahh, girlfriends

Nice detail

Cut off my mermaid curls!

When I was in high school and college, I had short hair, but since then, I haven’t had it really short again. I have curly hair, and when it grows out, it tends to grow up and sideways and afro-like before it grows down.

But I’ve been wanting to do it for a while, and I was finally ready to deal with the growing out stage when I get sick of it being short (enter lots of cute scarves and headbands!)

So yesterday I cut off ALL My hair, all my curls, and have a very sassy, spunky pixie cut that I absolutely love. I can wear it funky with gel or wax, I can wear it straight, I get to play around with it.This is the shortest it has ever been!

This was last week in Belize on my honeymoon (those pictures and stories will be coming likely this weekend).

And this was me yesterday when I got home from cutting off the curls.

Announcing…

Mr. and Mrs. Flying Mermaid!!

The day was perfect and magical and filled with lots of laughter and dancing on the beach. I couldn’t be happier.

Some happy moments from this weekend

B’s wedding ring came in yesterday. It fits perfectly, and looks incredible on his hand. Very him. I love seeing it on him.

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We bought a dining room table today, so now all of the rooms will be complete, furniture-wise. It will be delivered next weekend, and it is perfect for us. Not formal, a great place to gather and have dinner with friends or family, play games, talk and laugh.

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Getting to talk to my wonderful friend RM today, on her first mother’s day

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Standing out in the backyard, rubbing my puppy’s belly, while she rolled around in the grass and sunshine.

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Read Coraline by Neil Gaiman. Very creepy, but a really fun read, great lead character, and completely engaging.

I’ve been feeling very blah and frustrated and rather disgruntled today, so it was good to do this, stop and reflect on the moments of joy and light and fun this weekend.

Scenes from a Saturday

Lovely day yesterday, wandering around in Wake Forest. We both needed to get out, and away from the house, and not think about wedding stuff or work stuff, and just be back in our lives for a bit.

Lovely flowers at the farmers’ market

More flower love

We stopped at this lovely little coffee shop, that had this fabulous ceiling moose (deer?)

Although he seems a little frazzled, confused and overwhelmed. Kind of like me lately.

COFFEE!!

Fun, cheery walkway up to a fun, cheery studio co-op we visited.

How swoony is this?? This is the classroom in the studio, and they have painting parties once a month. I am definitely going to go to one next month!

In this awesome little bookstore we found. Seriously, a cat in the hat that plays piano and trombone? It might be the one of the best bookstores ever.

Some more happiness from the bookstore.

Family

My soon-to-be husband (less than two weeks!) and my WonderPup. I love how they both have the same expression on their face.

More photos? Really? Do I gotta?

Wedding photos, brighter

*I am trying to build up my photography portfolio and posted on Craigslist that I was looking for women to get into their wedding dresses for some fun photoshoots, and in exchange, I would print and matte up 2 free portraits for them. I was able to link directly to other photos in the craigslist ad, but these photos for some reason would not let me link directly. I created a post just for these pictures that I wanted to highlight in the ad.  So, in other words, not a real blog post per se, and more a not-shameless-at all plug as I work on moving to photography more seriously!

Permission

Me, and my wonderful friend Maggie, getting ready for my bachelorette tea party.

Everyone needs permission for something.

For me, I have never been one who needs permission to be silly or kooky or kid-like. I dance in grocery stores. I conduct Christmas Eve Sarajevo in coffee shops (while holding a latte…the song came on, I had to conduct, it’s required…). I go on swings or start twirling around for no reason. I talk to trees and give them big hugs. I am quick to tell strangers I am a mermaid. If a store has a little kid door, you can bet I’m going in it. I fly in the wind all the time. I often use my super-secret James Bond sneak walk with finger guns when I am walking into random buildings. I believe I magically open automatic doors when I make a big “open sesame” gesture. I will wear fruit stickers on my face while out in public. I have to stick my tongue out at every video camera I see.

And of course…playing dress up. I am a huge fan of playing dress up. So having a tea party with boas and fancy hats and crazy glasses was the natural way for me to have a bachelorette party.

After the tea party, I kept my boa and glasses on as we wandered around a street festival. I love watching reactions to stuff like this. Some people try not to stare. Some people look and smile a little. And then there are the ones I love the most, the people who just light up and grin, and say I love what you wearing, I would love to wear something like that. I should do that!

I encourage these people as much as possible. Well, why don’t you? Of course you should! Have fun! Celebrate your inner crazy, let yourself play!

I think a lot of people need permission to be silly. As “grown ups,” people feel like they are supposed to be serious. They have a fear of, what will people think of me? They feel too self-conscious. They think, what if I look silly and people laugh at me?

My answer here is….so what? So what if people look at you? I can guarantee a lot of them are admiring your guts to do something silly. I bet more are wishing “they could do that, too.” And I can guarantee you this too…being silly isn’t going to have you wind up in jail (I’ll assume you will keep your silliness in legal limits!). Being silly and crazy and celebrating your inner five-year-old isn’t going to make it so that the bank cancels your loan or you lose your prime parking spot at work. But I bet that it will make you feel lighter. Freer. Happier. Even if it is just for a few minutes. Go on. Try it. I double dog dare you.

So, this right here is me giving you the permission you are waiting for, for whatever you need permission for. You have permission to be silly. You have permission to *gasp* not be perfect. You have permission do something you have always thought to yourself, I wish I could do that. You have permission to try something new. You have permission to not be so hard on yourself. You have permission to make time for YOU, no matter how busy you are, even if it only five minutes. You have permission, it’s ok.

Now go and do it.

The wedding beach and the plantation

Wanna see where I am getting married in just a few Saturdays from now?

The dunes at Sunset Beach

Beach access ramp, great for pictures, no?

Coming on to the beach

The pier and the beach

The pier. We are getting married at the other end of the beach, where it is more private, as the pier is the main beach access point, but I think I will want to go down there for some pictures!

We are staying on the grounds here the night before. I want to come back and get some Southern Belle wedding pictures.

Path on the grounds

Steps at the plantation house