2016 has been a rough year for a lot of people. Regardless of your side of politics, it kind of just sucked and so many celebrities that we’ve loved are gone. My personal was Alan Rickman, I grew up with Harry Potter and it was so sad. Still I think most of us on a personal level had a pretty decent year.

My year started with being oh so pregnant, miserable pregnant, but in May I welcomed my beautiful daughter Olivia Aveline. She is amazing and perfect; she has a great personality and overall she is just a super chill baby. Some of you have met her at the studio this year as she was my little assistant tagging along in her backpack carrier, she even attended a few weddings with me. As long as she’s attached to momma she’s so good!

In March I was able to return to New Orleans and photography my good friend Shelby’s wedding while 7 months pregnant! NOLA is a beautiful city and I am so lucky I got to photograph my friend Shelby’s wedding there this year under the Tree of Life in Audubon Park.

In early April we had a little scare with Miss Olivia trying to make her grand entrance early, so I was stuck on 2 weeks of bed rest. I was lifted off bed rest the day before I was to photography Emily and Jesse’s wedding here locally. It was perfect timing and they are such an amazing couple, such understanding clients too! I am blessed!

After Olivia’s arrival I returned to work only to photography my June clients Amy and Jared at the Izaak Walton Lodge in South Bend. I’m friends with Jared’s twin sister Danielle and their mom is like my bonus mom, so what a great way to return to work 4 weeks after having a baby but surrounded by awesome people!

I took a nice long gap after that and just spent my summer enjoying my new daughter, being with my kids and learning what it was like to have a summer break as it’s been a long time. We did baseball for the second summer in a row and I was able to attend all the games without rushing off to work, it was amazing! I did fill some spots here and there with studio clients, but no weddings until September where I had Beth and Cary’s weddings (blog post next week!).

I wrapped the 2016 wedding season by shooting an elopement in Las Vegas, where I took the whole family and had a mini vacation. The kids loved Las Vegas, Olivia did well flying and the wedding was perfect. Look for that blog post in a few weeks!

Beyond weddings, my studio has taken off even more as I am about to wrap my 2nd year with a space. I have found a strong passion in Boudoir Photography and helping women understand that they are beautiful and their flaws are to be embraced not shunned.

I looking forward to 2017 not because 2016 was horrible, but because it taught me so much more about who I am, what I love and what I want to do. In 2017 I hope to grow my boudoir business even more, so you will find me at the Bridal Spectacular on January 8th with a booth dedicated just to boudoir.

Makeup Provided by Makeup by Keria

In 2017 my weddings will change as well. I have already booked a few at my old collections, but moving forward I will only be offering intimate wedding collections for 5-8 hours. My goal is to connect with my clients more and to do that I want to move away from the large and over the top, grand events.

Don’t get me wrong those types of weddings are amazing, they are gorgeous but I’m ready to work on smaller affairs. The intimate backyard wedding, the elopement on a mountain in Colorado, the bohemian wedding in the woods. Sometimes quality is better then quantity and I am becoming simpler in my personal life, I want to translate that into my work as well.

I do hope your 2016 was amazing, that it helped your grow and find yourself and that 2017 is even better. Here are some of my favorite images and moments of 2016, so many to choose from!