I am super behind in posting this AMAZING styled anniversary shoot that I photographed back in late May with our great friends Clint and Abigail at E Carroll Joyner Park in Wake Forest! When I planned and photographed this spring anniversary session, I was newly pregnant…I just didn’t know it yet. About 2 weeks after this session, my morning (pretty much all day) sickness started to kick in. Thankfully, I didn’t have any weddings or portraits during that time, but I also wasn’t able to look at a computer screen very long either to get my work done. My morning sickness consisted of dizziness and migraine symptoms without the headache. So, sensitivity to light and sound was a big part of that.

Long story short…by the time my sickness finally subsided in late July, it was time to start wedding season back up again and unfortunately this Anniversary shoot was put on the back burner for a little while. Now that I am completely finished with weddings for 2018 and am in full nesting mode with this pregnancy, I can share this session with you!

When I was planning this styled shoot at the beginning of this year, I knew I wanted it to be in the spring and for it to incorporate a picnic theme with lemonade somehow. Choosing the props for this session was so much fun and I am in love with how it all turned out! Most of my props came from Target (mason jars, straws, picnic blanket). I ordered an adorable picnic basket from Bed, Bath & Beyond and it went perfectly with the color scheme and theme of the shoot. I also knew I wanted to add a small bouquet for Abigail and for some of the picnic shots as well to add in a little more of a spring element. So, I ended up purchasing three different colors of spider mum flowers from a local grocery store and created the bouquet myself. I also asked a wonderful makeup artist in the area to do Abigail’s makeup: Tiffany Carnes. If you live in the Raleigh, North Carolina area, she is amazing to work with!

Unfortunately on the day of the shoot, it was calling for rain all day but I had already made the bouquet and everything was ready to go. So, rain or shine I was bound and determined to do this shoot. It lightly rained all the way up until we were supposed to leave for our session location and then stopped! When we arrived at the park, I worked as quickly as I could to set the picnic up so we could at least get that part finished in case it started raining again. Thankfully the rain held off until we were taking our last few images for the picnic shots and it opened up and poured. Hunter and I, Clint and Abigail ran to the car and sat for about 10 minutes before we realized it wasn’t going to let up anytime soon. We were about 5 minutes from our house, so we went back for about an hour until the rain let up again. When we came back, everything was pretty wet, but Clint and Abigail were so great with everything and went with the flow.

Honestly, I think all of the clouds made this entire session so soft and pretty and I am in love with all of these images! This was one of my favorite shoots of the year, despite the craziness and uncertainty of this day. I hope you enjoy this Wake Forest Anniversary Session!

If you want to see a few behind the scenes photos, those are at the very end of this blog post 🙂