Studio Noveau Blog

I adore this engagement session. It took a while to schedule it and pick out a location (Viroqua vs Madison), but we made it happen! After starting out at The Union, we walked all the way up State Street, and ended at The Capitol building. Love love love these photos!

This one is one of my favorite engagement photos of the entire year!

Renee and Justin had a beautiful wedding and a seriously awesome wedding party. I think I laughed more at this wedding that I have in an extremely long time! In my opinion, this wedding needs little explanation… I’ll let the pictures do the talking!

While the girls were beautifying, the guys were hanging out. It’s safe to say that they make looking good, look easy. Ha!

I loved Justin’s face as he watched Renee make her way down the aisle…

This next photo deserves an explanation. But… sorry! You should have been there! Hahahaha!

I think this couple has been married for over 50 years! They won the “Anniversary Dance”. How sweet are they?

Let me tell you something you may not know about me.  I’m a veteran.  Yup, I spent 5 years in the good ol’ US Navy and it was a fantastic time of my life.  I met some wonderful people and saw a lot of the world.  During that time, I spent months and years at a time away from family and friends,  so I relied on pictures to help get me through those lonely stretches of time.

Some of you know that my husband is currently in Iraq and has been there since May.  When I met him, he was home on leave from his first Iraq deployment.  We kept in touch with emails, phone calls, letters, and photos.  It’s safe to say that we fell in love during that deployment.

So, long story short, when I first heard of a volunteer organization called OpLove, or Operation Love Reunited, I knew I had to take part with this group as a veteran, a military wife, and someone who feels that family is such an important part of anyone’s life, especially those service members that  sacrifice so much.  What is OpLove, you ask?  Basically, volunteer photographers donate their time to give a deploying or deployed service member a free photo session.  It can be taken of the entire family prior to departure, of the family while their service member is deployed (and a copy of the photos are sent to the deployed person right away), or the photographer can capture the highly emotional homecoming when the family sees their soldier for the first time in months or even years.

When Stephanie contacted me, I instantly knew I wanted to work with her and Brian.  Their story was so much like mine and Ben’s.  They had been married a year (exactly) by the time our session rolled around, and they’d been apart for most of that year.  It’s safe to say this was a very emotional session for me: I got a little weepy just taking their pictures.  When I started editing them, I definitely had tears in my eyes!  Part of the reason this affected me so much is that Brian’s leave coincided very closely with Ben’s first visit home in months, so we knew we had to make this session happen in our one day window or it wouldn’t happen.  One thing she said that I absolutely relate to is “Our vacation is most peoples’ every day life”.  That is such a profound statement as most of us take so many things for granted.  Stephanie and Brian have both made so many sacrifices in their short married life.

Stephanie and Brian, I hope these last few months fly by for you!  Thank you for letting me share such a precious time during your vacation together.

Jess and Zeke are, in a single word, wonderful.  Jess has been a good friend of mine since we were in college, working for UW Learning Innovations.  That was five years ago, but we’ve remained close ever since.  When she first mentioned a guy named Zeke who started working there, I wasn’t sure what to think.  But when I met him, I knew that they were perfect for each other!

When it was time for them to get married, they chose to have a small, intimate family affair.  So it was great for all of their friends and extended family that they chose to renew their vows on their EXACT one year anniversary!  It’s not often that I have the honor of being a both the personal attendant AND the photographer.  :)  But it was fun, and I was so thrilled to be a part of their big day!

Okay, enough talk.  On to the pictures!

We started off at a salon right on University Avenue.

Then, off to the hotel to finish getting ready!

Then, off to Deerfield for formal portraits and the Vow Renewal Ceremony:

This next picture is why I adore Jess and Zeke.  They really are this happy.  All the time.  I promise.

Then off to the church…

Then, off to a Madison landmark: Ella’s Deli and the carousel!

Off to the reception.  I love that they had tables numbered with significant places and the corresponding story from their relationship!

Usually I’m not a fan of “DJ games”.  But this game was actually pretty fun.  :)

They had a beautiful first dance.

Well, actually it was about 30 seconds of a beautiful first dance.  Then there were some “technical dificulties”.  Apparently technical difficulties = choreographed dance to “Cotton-Eyed Joe”.  Loved it!

Meet Mike and Tracy… you’ll be seeing their wedding here on the blog next year.  :)  I love seeing clients at weddings other than their own!

One fun thing after this wedding?  I was able to put the cameras down and do a little dancing myself.  :) So I’ll leave you with one final picture because this post is already waaaaay too long.  Here’s a (very rare) picture of me with Ron and B-Rad!  I look a little rough after having all that fun, but I figured it was time to post one of me!

I love big families.  Specifically, big families with lots of cousins getting married in 2010.  Yes, Toni is the third cousin in a single family to contact me about photographing a wedding next year.  Fun!

Anyway, Toni and Brandon… what an awesome couple!  These two were so natural in front of a camera with fantastic smiles. And check out Toni’s amazing hair!  I’m so jealous.   We met in Spring Green and drove out to the family land.  What a great backdrop for pictures!  I love fall pictures, even after the leaves are falling from the trees: it really makes the subjects “pop”.  Did I mention that fields of weeds are a dream come true for me?  Yeah, it’s true… I’m easy to please.