A whole lota' bidiness.

Whew! Helloooooo  blog friends! 
Boy have I missed y'all! 
You wouldn't believe me if I said this but I'VE BEEN BUSY!


Surprise, right? Psh!


So what have I been doing you ask? 
Simple: p h o t o g r a p h y!


Let me work this into numbers for you:


Each day I receive at least 2 inquires about doing a shoot, a wedding (today it was 3: 2 shoots, 1 wedding)
Each week I edit at least 300 photos (minimum!).
First year of business and I have 6 contracts for weddings this year, 4 pending contracts, and 2 set in stone for next year. 
       Speaking of pending things....need to email those that I'm waiting for response, note to self.
I get 0 days off a week. Yikes. 
And possibly 5 hours of sleep a night.
And I had my 1st turn down on pricing for a wedding yesterday. 


It's a lot of work that I never expected. But I find myself becoming more and more passionate not only about photography but about my business. I guess its because it's my business and nobody can change that or take it away from me. I'm responsible for the turn out of it and the success and failure. And I like that. It's such a intense feeling.


Well anyways, let's take a look into what I've been photographing these days: 

Engagement photos! (Who's wedding I shot tonight as well!)

Graduation photos!

Prom photos

Prom!

SRM Makeup Shoot

Makeup shoot! 

Makeup shoot (which is also now creating a huge following of boudoir photos!)

Makeup shoot!

Does she not look like Miley Cyrus a little?!
Makeup shoot!

Makeup shoot!

Still editing Padgett wedding photos!

Yes, that's a lot of work! But I sure am enjoying it when it's all said and done :) 
Besides, I like to think I have the best clients!




Xoxo, 
Amy

You knew this was coming!

Lucky for you, I have not yet had the opportunity to watch the Royal Wedding in entirety...(not so lucky for me!)
I know you're all probably sick of it by now...but I like the other girls of Ashley Rhodes Events are wedding snobs! We take pride in calling ourselves that too!
With this weekend being the busiest wedding weekend of the year, I wasn't given much time to watch it with work and my sister's prom taking place. Oh and did I mention finals? Yep, those too!

So the Royal Wedding and I have a date on Tuesday.
Just me and the wedding, all to ourselves ;)

But anyways, the hype has been too much for me and I couldn't resist but to look at some pictures! Here are my favorite!

Program photo....what an incredibly beautiful couple.



My favorite photo so far.





Such beautiful people! Pippa & Kate are both so incredibly gorgeous! And Kate is so classic and just perfect! I can't wait to see the wedding in its entirety and hear the vows and see the kiss! Ahhhh.

Swoon.

A Little Sneaker ;)

Sneak Peek 

that is!

Today I had the privilege of photographing one of the sweetest couples I've ever seen. 

Love was just pouring out of their smiles the whole time we were shooting. 

Granted, they had just gotten married, but you could tell that their love was one for the story books. The way the looked at each other and they were just so smitten. 

Here are some of my favorites from the day! 

Like I said, a completely beautiful, wonderful couple. 

They had a small ceremony in a little square in Savannah, Georgia with only a minister and their best friends, Megan & Brian. Unfortunately, due to a fatal accident on the Savannah Bridge and ridiculous traffic delays, I missed the whole ceremony! And I was even running 45 minutes EARLY! But when life hands you lemons, you make lemonade, right? Well, I think these make this lemonade look pretty delicious! 

I love weddings! 

Xoxo,

Amy

Inspiration.

Hi friends! 
Today started out very, very rough. I woke up and lost my very last contact lens and have an eye appointment set for next Friday, so I had to wear my broken glasses around all day today. Then I hit my knee on the coffee table right after I dropped my cordless house phone in my wastebasket right before I dumped it in the big bag of trash from the kitchen. Yikes! That was an interesting morning. 
My day got better once Justin and I went to lunch. After lunch, mom and I went to the business office in town and yes, I, Amy Daring got a business license. 
After much debate, my mother talked me into. I needed to cover my bases and make sure that there was no chance of me getting into any trouble. 


So there I was, in the courthouse, a mere 20  years old, signing my name onto a business license application. After signing, there was a blank with the word "title". Um, title? 
The man noticed my puzzled face and he said, "that would make you the owner."
Gracious!
OWNER? Me?!
No way! Never did I ever imagine that at this early in my life, still a sophomore in college studying hospitality management, would see myself as an owner of a photography business. 
And that I am now. Wow! 
Champagne was opened, tears were shed (my poor mother!) and the bad day had turned into GREAT!


Now, did I think I may have been jinxing myself as I ran home to order cutesy business cards, YES! There's no way this is actually going to be worth all of this work and fun that I'm actually getting out of imagining something good coming out of this. 
But YES! Surely enough, so far it has! I've gotten tons of surprising support from a lot of wonderful people. 
And may I say....


I, TONIGHT, HAVE BEEN ASKED TO PHOTOGRAPH MY FIRST REAL WEDDING! 
Like, I am the contracted photographer for once! Holy moley! 
I cannot contain my excitement. When I was asked, I gave a huge sigh, and I almost teared up. My mom turned and looked at me and said "What's wrong!?" 
"I have been asked to photograph a wedding!"
You see, I study wedding pictures. Like obsess over them. I was actually doing it earlier today while "cleaning" my room. Weddings are my most favorite. I have the greatest job on Earth working for a wedding planner and that's where my heart is, event planning. But I've always loved wedding photos and all that they entail. I never thought of myself as a photographer, nontheless, a wedding photographer. 
The date is set (April 16th) and blocked out on my website. Sorry if I'm being boisterous, but please understand my excitement. 


Anyways, I know that the wedding is a few months away and her bridal portraits are in a little less than that! So I've been stalking wedding photos tonight instead of editing the family photos I'm supposed to be. Oops! 
Here are a few of my favorite. 

How fun is that last one?! 

I'm just overwhelmed with excitement. 

But in the back of my head, I'm wondering, how am I going to pull this off? 

The week before the wedding, I'll be in Atlanta for a vacation|gift that I gave Justin for Christmas. And I'll be battling against time before finals...maybe? I'm not exactly sure when they are yet, but I have a feeling it may be around the same time.

Nonetheless, I'm excited and ready! 

Weddings are my absolute fav! And the bride is an old friend that mentioned to tell me to make sure that I need to have a good time. So it sounds like a win win situation to me. 

Sorry for the boastful post, I'll ease up on these! 

Love to all of you! 

Getting back to y'all now!

all photos were searched on google images! sorry for the no source :(

Christmas, Christmas time is here

Boy, it's been some time since I've been in such a cheery Christmas spirit! 

Tomorrow, my sister and I both have the day off, so what better way to celebrate other than baking cookies together! Pictures shall follow, I hope! Along with some pinecone painting, and other things of that nature. Last week, I made my first print delivery for some family pictures I did a while ago. It was such a great feeling knowing that I was about to give a family something so dear to me, a ton of pictures that I put my heart into. So I figured, what better way to celebrate than to wrap up the pictures and present them almost as a gift if you will. 

Weird, I felt so established. Like here I am. It was such a wonderful feeling. And it was so fun seeing tissue paper thrown out across the floor as they were unwrapping their pictures! 

It's been quite the busy time of the year for me and I've missed writing each and every one of you! Hopefully this week, I'll be able to reach out a little more. Thank you all for following me! I broke 60 followers! 

Hooray!!!!

So thank you so much! I might get a little generous here soon and maybe do a Christmas giveaway or something. Thoughts?

On Saturday, I worked a gorgeous, and not to mention, freezing, wedding at Cyprus Bay Plantation. I wish I had more time to take pictures of all that went on. It was a slightly rainy day with lots of Christmas cheer. The party started in the family's beautiful home where they were walked in by a gospel choir and into the warm house where they were served apple cider until it was time to go to the Chapel in the Woods where they waited for the ceremony. The bride came in on a horse drawn carriage. Not to mention, she was wearing a great pair of boots. After walking down the isle carrying a bouquet made of black magic roses, the ceremony began. The rings were brought in by their black lab named Guess. The reception was made of lots of fun elements, including a homemade desert cookie bar and a great firework display and an 8 piece swing band. Yup, I kind of loved it, except for the cold. Here are a few pictures. 

And some from the actual wedding photographer, just so you get to see all of this wonderfulness!

Via Katie Sharp Photography

Friends, enjoy! 

I'm working diligently to respond to you all! 

Love, peace, &  chicken grease ;)