Whew, it’s been awhile since I posted ACTUAL photography projects! Sorry guys, hope you’re not getting too sick of my personal projects. 
To tide you over until I get started here in Cleveland, I thought I’d share a few photos from a Covington wedding I second shot with Amanda Donaho Photography back in JULY! Yeah, that’s how behind I am. Wedding planning took over my life!
Enjoy this sweet couple!
OK, I admit. When I was writing my 101 list, I knew I was going to accomplish some of the goals. Like I already had plans to do them. Is that cheating? I like to think I’m making up the rules here, so we’re NOT going to call it cheating.
It has been one of my goals to see Jon McLaughlin in concert again ever since I first saw him four years ago in Cincinnati. As a slightly “rootsy” (his word, not mine), piano-rock kinda musician, he’s so entertaining to see live. And the fact that he’s not super huge makes him that much more likable.
If you haven’t heard his music before, check it out here. I’m a huge fan.
There was a beautiful arrangement of flowers sitting on my porch step yesterday. The card said they were for me. Me. The one who’s been a complete grouch lately. If someone deserved them, it sure wasn’t me.
You see, I don’t always deal well with change. I usually adapt OK … somewhere down the line. But at the beginning? When things have just changed? Watch out world, Lane will complain about almost everything.
So, the fact that, despite all my complaining, Nathan thought I deserved flowers shows me that I’m actually one of the luckiest girls in the world. And I have everything I absolutely need.
Halfway through our honeymoon, Nathan and I flew to Oahu to begin our next adventure (see part 1 here). We visited Waikiki and stayed at the Hale Koa, a military hotel. At that point, Nathan was still in the Air Force (he’s out now, working in the “real world” as we say), so it worked out well.
Then we drove all the way around the island to the North Shore, where we stayed at Turtle Bay Resort. It was around this time that we got extremely lazy. Like all we could make ourselves do was sit at the pool and shove food in our mouths. Seriously, you don’t want to see the breakfast buffet we were eating off of each morning … SO MUCH FOOD. It was quite [deliciously] disgusting looking back on it, but at the time, after months and months of job searching, wedding planning, and preparing to move, it. was. glorious!
Hawaii sounds pretty good right now, especially considering this rainy, gray, cold weather we’ve been having lately. I hope these pictures cheer you up a bit if the weather’s less than par where you are. And, if you’ve been super busy, I hope you get an extremely lazy day soon. Tons of food and all!
If you’d rather WATCH the pictures instead of LOOK at them (did that even make sense?), I made a video with all our pictures and video clips at the bottom.
The view of Honolulu from our hotel!
And the view of Waikiki the other way!
Oh, you’re wondering what I’m doing? Just grilling my dinner!
Nathan became a pro paddle boarder. I did not. I was much better at sitting on the board and riding.
OK, you guys. I’m really putting myself out there with this absurd snorkeling picture. My mask was too big! I had to downsize to a kids mask.
This was the most amazing beach I have ever been on. We got to go to Bellows Air Force Base because, again, Nathan was in the military. Floury white sand on an Air Force Base?? A-MAZING!
Yes, that sand is as pristine as it looks.
THIS PICTURE CRACKS ME UP! It was too ridiculous not to post. The hair, the floating hand, the cheesy smile. Hahaha! This was one of many attempts at a self-timer picture. The problem was that after setting my camera, I had to [very carefully] run over tons of pointy rocks to get in place.
We had to do the obligatory visit to the Dole Pineapple Plant. I’ve never seen so many pineapple products in my life.
Our last hotel had a restaurant where you could eat on the sand. Like a dream come true!
Haha! We had to get a touristy picture. Aloha!
And, here’s the video! The song is Good Life by OneRepublic. My favorite!
Apples are so much better when you pick them yourself. For real. Nathan and I visited Eddy Fruit Farm a couple weekends ago to pick apples and grapes, and it was a perfect fall activity.
The weather was GORGEOUS, we picked about 25 apples and 324 pounds of grapes, and we got a 45-pound pumpkin to carve. Go big or go home, we say!
Back at home, we made a completely apple-inspired meal: apple and turkey paninis, roasted cinnamon apples and carrots, and apple crisp. I’m not a huge fan of apple crisp (or any cooked fruit for that matter–I’m a texture person), but this was delish. Here’s the recipe in case you’re interested:
Old Fashioned Apple Crisp (from foodnetwork.com)
Ingredients
5 pounds McIntosh or Macoun apples (we used Jonathan)
Grated zest of 1 orange
Grated zest of 1 lemon
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed orange juice
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
For the topping
1 1/2 cups flour
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup oatmeal
1/2 pound cold unsalted butter, diced
Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter a 9 by 14 by 2-inch oval baking dish.
Peel, core, and cut the apples into large wedges. Combine the apples with the zests, juices, sugar, and spices. Pour into the dish.
To make the topping, combine the flour, sugars, salt, oatmeal, and cold butter in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on low speed until the mixture is crumbly and the butter is the size of peas. Scatter evenly over the apples.
Place the crisp on a sheet pan and bake for 1 hour until the top is brown and the apples are bubbly. Serve warm.
(And here is my original 101 in 1001 list, in case you’re interested.)
The finished product!
Well, it’s about time I showed you our wedding pictures! 9.3.11 was such a great day (and so beautiful in Oxford, Ohio, where we got married!), and I’m so thankful to have such beautiful images to remember it by! To be completely honest, that whole day was a blur. Everyone says your wedding day will go by in the blink of an eye, and it’s true.
The most important thing though is that I got to marry my best friend and now we get to start a life together. I can tell you one thing, living an hour apart for four years makes you really appreciate being in the same house. I know this is the “honeymoon phase,” but even washing dishes together is a novelty (and I HATE washing dishes … by hand … because we don’t have a dishwasher!)
I’m so, so thankful for all the support of our family and friends, too. Our wedding day reminded me how blessed we are to have each and every one of you in our lives. It means so much to the both of us that you were there sharing in our vows, our first dance, our cake cutting. We love you all.
And without further ado, I present to you … OUR WEDDING! Thank you, thank you, thank you Amanda Donaho for capturing the day so beautifully. You’re the best.
(This is a looooooong post! I just couldn’t narrow down the images because I love them all! If you get through the whole thing, you get a cookie!)
My dress was handmade by one of my mom’s friends, Kathy Guidone. After looking at dresses in the stores, I just couldn’t find anything that went with the picture I had in my mind. I didn’t want fluff and beading and sequins, so getting my dress made was the BEST thing for me.
A big thank you to Nancy of BRIDEface for doing a fabulous job on my makeup and Amanda Smith for my hair.
This was right about the time I thought my dress wasn’t going to zip. Haha!
First look!
This is totally going to be a big canvas. Amanda, you did an outstanding job on our portraits!
I absolutely LOVED our flowers. I wanted a wildflower, garden look, and Kim Peterka did an unbelievable job. Wait till you see the centerpieces she did!
Oh boys.
Love my bridesmaids.
I was absolutely blown away by how good the centerpieces looked. I had the idea in my head forever, but when other people are bringing it together, you get a little nervous! I didn’t even set these up and they look better than I could have done! Also, huge thanks to Sara Rabin for designing all our paper products. I should probably mention here too that our reception was held at the Oxford Community Arts Center. Such a cool, old building that used to be part of Miami University when it was a women’s college!
Most of my details were handmade or came from Etsy.
Our lovely families. Definitely couldn’t have done this without them! We got married in Oxford Presbyterian Church, where I went to church when I was in college!
One of Nathan’s requirements of our reception was that we have a lot of dessert. If you know him, you know he has the biggest sweet tooth ever! So, we did a dessert table with sweets from The Cakery. And Funky’s did our amazing food. We wanted a brunch that was fairly healthy and not too heavy. It.was.delicious. My mouth is watering just thinking about it!
This was probably right around the time Mark Zuckerberg was mentioned.
The Paul Otten Band provided the music. They’re awesome! Check them out!
We had such a blast with the photobooth, provided by SPROUT Squared Photography.
Hahahaha. And I will leave you with this image. If you made it through this entire thing, I’m impressed. And I owe you a cookie.
Etsy is a fabulous thing. When I was planning our wedding, I found about 80% of my details and inspiration on that site.
Our theme was green, local, rustic and vintage-y, which included lots and lots of reusing and recycling. The best thing about Etsy for me is that you can support lots of independent artists from your living room. And most of the stuff I got was given a second life in some way shape or form.
The other 20% of my inspiration came from Pinterest, a huge time waster and also a fabulous thing. When I decided I wanted to incorporate paper pinwheels into our rustic theme, I went to Pinterest to figure out how I could use them:
THEN, I went to Etsy to find an artist who could make exactly what I had in mind. Meet Emily of ThePaperedElephant. She designs really, really cute custom pinwheels and banners, and her inspiration came when SHE was a bride and wanted a vintage, DIY wedding.
Emily did an unbelievable job on our pinwheels. In fact, I’m reusing them right now as part of our living room decor. Check it out, and check out ThePaperedElephant on Etsy!
The pinwheels at our wedding (Amanda Donaho Photography gets the photo credit):
And the pinwheels as our current decor:
I still remember the first time I heard Jon McLaughlin in concert. The only reason a couple friends and I went was because we heard an advertisement for his show on the radio (yes, those things really work!) and we were new to Cincinnati and looking for stuff to do. I really had no idea that me seeing him play live would start a semi-obsession with his piano rock music. Think Ben Folds meets John Mayer.
This guy is not super well known, and he plays in pretty intimate venues, but if you have the chance to go and see him–do it! Not only is his music awesome, he’s hilarious and is super entertaining to watch play. Clevelanders, he’ll be in town Oct. 27 at the Beachland Ballroom. I’ll be there, soooo you should probably check it out!
This one’s from his first album, and it was my original favorite:
And this one is from his new album and it’s my new favorite:
I’m super overprotective of my camera when I travel, especially when I’m flying. When we boarded the plane in Indianapolis for Honolulu, Nathan offered to put my camera bag in the overhead compartment. I laughed.
“I don’t want my bag mingling with the other bags!”
Instead I opted to sit [very uncomfortably] with it under the seat in front of me for seven hours.
That’s why, considering how much I baby that thing, it’s kind of amazing that I lost one of my camera’s memory cards during the honeymoon. Yes, you read that correctly. I LOST one of my CF cards in HAWAII. And yes, it had pictures on it. From the honeymoon. It’s a photographer’s worst nightmare.
Over the past week, I’ve been trying to convince myself that it’s not as bad as it seems. At least I only lost three of the 11 days. At least I edited one photo from that card while we were on vacation. At least I have the memories!
It worked a tiny, tiny bit, but you better believe that the next time I travel, I’m DUCT TAPING MY CF CARDS TO MY SIDE.
Anyways, Kauai was absolutely beautiful. If you haven’t been to Hawaii and you have a chance to go, I would definitely recommend this island for how remote and lush and natural it is. Enjoy part 1 of our honeymoon. Oahu is next!
The ONE picture we got of our first hotel. Thank goodness for Nathan's point-and-shoot.
The ONE photo I edited from my lost memory card.
Nathan says I look like Princess Toadstool with that helmet.
We went on a barefoot boat cruise. It rained but they served mai tais soooo we called it even.
I love lists. I love making lists. I love reading lists. I especially love checking things off lists. For some reason, lists motivate me. If I write something on my to do list, you better believe I will do everything in my power to cross it off. It’s kind of like how once I start a book I can’t stop until I’ve read the last word on the last page. And I don’t skip around. Ohhhh no. I go front to back, beginning to end. I guess you could say I’m a rules follower. And weird. You could say that.
So of course I LOVE the idea of a 101 in 1001 list (see the original idea here). Have you heard of this? You make a list of 101 things you want to accomplish in 1,001 days. So almost three years-ish. It’s the perfect length of time because you can include some really big, stretch goals and some small goals that you’re almost sure you’ll complete.
For me, a 101 in 1001 list practically mandates me to accomplish life goals. Yes, please! So I made one. I WILL [do my very best to] cross everything off. And I WILL be jumping around. No front to back, beginning to end here. It’s going to be glorious.
START DATE: Sept. 3, 2011 (Because you’ll notice that #10 happened on this very date.)
END DATE: May 31, 2014
Awww! This made me cry! :*)