Welcome

I always forget how much colder it is only an hour and a half north of here. This weather was definitely making it a winter engagement session in Delaware. Despite the cold chills I had the pleasure of meeting two very cool people and chasing light in downtown Wilmington with them. I always joke that the engagement sessions are really for the guys to get them comfortable with being in front of the camera. What's amazing about this groom-to-be was that I could see the transformation right before my lens. I knew I struck gold when he cleverly said, "I'm so happy this {photoshoot} was my idea!" I LOVE it!

I'm SO happy to finally be sharing this beautiful DIY fall wedding at Terrain at Styer's just outside of Philadelphia! Everything about the day was a perfect fit for this Delaware couple. They stayed true to their taste and chose a venue that complimented their vintage chic-ness. I was truly honored to meet such a cool, down-to-earth couple and document all of the love and excitement that their day was. 

Venue: Terrain at Styers

Photographer: Maria DeForrest Photography

Hair/Makeup: Joseph Anthony

Caterer: Terrain at Styers-Garden Cafe

I'm honored to say this wedding is featured on Ruffled Blog. Read more details here.

Winter is here and I'm going to keep my lips shut about wanting to be on a beach somewhere. I promised myself this year that I will remember that the grass is green right here.

Last week I finished editing the last wedding from 2011 and had a moment to remember the promise I made to myself one year ago to be more ME and stay in tune with myself.  I absolutely did that, but of course life wanted to throw me for another loop and take me on a roller coaster ride to make sure that I really knew myself and my family. The roller coaster ride began when we realized that we were going to have to move across town and relocate for the start of kindergarten one month before school started! Thinking back it seems like the last time I was able to catch my breath (besides the trip we just took to NOLA, I'll tell you about that soon) was somewhere back in July. After our move we ironically had to evacuate for Hurricane Irene, since we relocated closer to the shore. Then Kindergarten started and then the busiest Fall wedding season EVER was upon us!! All I can say is I'm glad I am able to look back and smile because during it all it was not a pretty sight. Well, it all was good but somedays the glass was half empty and other days half full. One of the biggest adjustments for our family during all of this was that Cameron, our 5-year-old spent the summer preparing for a nap-free full-day in Kindergarten (saying he was grumpy is just being nice). Then when school started the entire family had to adjust to a 6.15am wake up call, something we were not used to, (we're more of a 7.30am kind of family, not anymore though!). The positive side of it of course were the tears of joy on the first day of school and the amazing sense of reward that I got from having sent my first baby off to school. The other half-full days were full of joy and happiness. I was able to document, alongside my partner Rich, some of the most beautiful weddings. We worked our butts off and you will soon see that on the Blog. I also started freelancing for a couple local magazines as an event photographer and have found it to be greatly rewarding and a nice change of pace from MY photography.

I know there are no regrets in life just lessons and boy did I get a schooling! My biggest "regret" was not writing as much as I would like on the Blog and that is going to change this year. In my recent downtime I was actually able to pick up on some reading and there was a particular lesson that I walked away with...

Sometimes you need to live a little before you can move to the next phase in your life.

Sometimes you need to experience, taste, smell and breathe instead of the normal everyday race that it seems like my life has become.

With a booming business, a partner, small children and a home to take care of sometimes I don't have a chance to stop and take a breath.

So I am not going to be so hard on myself because I know that while I wasn't necessarily blogging as much as I would have liked, I was living. I do know that life is good and it's only getting better and I grew so much this year that I am so excited to see what the new year brings! It was only appropriate that 2011 ended and the New Year started in such an amazing way. We, for the first time as a family, were blessed to be able fly to New Orleans to visit my little sister who has been away from the East coast for far too long. I will be soon be blogging about this and don't want to spill all the beans, because FIRST I badly need to post some of the weddings from from the fall season. 

To add to the amazingness that was the start of this year in NOLA, just when I thought reality was starting to sink back in I had my first session of the year in New York City. I am still pinching myself because it was truly a blessing and I just feel so lucky to be going into 2012 knowing that I have some very awesome clients whom I was lucky enough to have received the official tour of NYC from since I hadn't really visited the city since college.

I met Summer and Nkosi for the first time at a coffee shop in Delaware after they already booked me for their 2012 Delaware wedding. It always feels like a blind date the first time I meet my clients and I have a feeling we are thinking the same thing, "please let them/her be cool, nice, and down-to-earth people". And that they were. We ended up chatting for two hours and set the date for their engagement session for the ewek after I returned from New Orleans. Since they are both in separate medical residencies in different states, this trip was quite an orchestration. I drove up to meet Summer and we caught the train to NYC and met Nkosi. We completely lucked out with nearly 60 degree weather on a January day and had such an amazing time talking, getting to know each other and having an adventure finding cool, meaningful spots for them across the city. Not only did I gain two new very cool people as friends and clients but I for the first time in my life feel like I could travel to NYC on my own, now that they have given me the insiders tour. Here's to the start of a great New Year starting out with an engagement photography session in Manhattan.