 This stunning bride is my dear friend Katherine. She married her love, Boz, on Saturday night, and I had the extreme pleasure of just being a guest at their perfect wedding! I really loved it. For the vast majority of weddings I’ve been at, I was either in the wedding or working as the photographer. So it was very nice to get to just relax and be there to celebrate Katherine and Boz and their commitment to each other. They got married at Tony’s Tree Plantation, which was a really beautiful location I had never been to here in OKC. Seriously, if you are looking for a gorgeous outdoor setting for an intimate wedding, check out this place! I am really looking forward to seeing the photos her wedding photographer captured, because I am sure they will be amazing!
And since her wedding has now taken place, I can finally share some favorite photos from her bridal session we did last month. {You can also check out Katherine and Boz’s engagement photos here.}
I absolutely adored Katherine’s long-sleeved, lace wedding gown. And I am a sucker for a long veil. We had fun playing with her lace-trimmed veil during our session.
   Love the timelessness of this next black and white image!A little framing from some tree branches never hurt anyone.This last image makes me really happy. The light, the veil, the dress, the beautiful bride – love it all!Katherine~
You’re married! Ahhh!! Congrats! Your wedding was so perfect. Thank you for letting me enjoy it as a guest. And thank you for having me do these photos of you. I loved capturing your bridal look on camera!
Love you so much, and I’m so happy for you and Boz!
~abi~
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Tuesday, September 27, 2016
This is my dear friend Steph and her beautiful family. A couple of months ago, in mid-July, they took a family vacation to Myrtle Beach. Steph and Mike flew me out to take some family photos while they were there soaking up the sun. Steph’s favorite color is purple, so she coordinated their outfits perfectly for our sunrise photo session on the beach. I have to give huge props to the whole group for cooperating so nicely after we got up super early in the morning. We started at the break of dawn, and I love the photos we got! Here are some of my favorites.Steph and Mike are celebrating 26 years of marriage! So we had to do some extra photos of just the two of them.On a photography side note, I will say shooting a sunrise session at the beach was more challenging than I expected. For one thing, the wind kicked up pretty good during our session. Since I’m from Oklahoma, I deal with wind during sessions constantly, so I’m used to that. But the shifting light was more of a challenge for me. Not so much while shooting, as I’m constantly adjusting my settings anyway. But during the editing, there was a lot more color shifting than I am used to. It makes sense, because the sun was just coming up and the light was several different colors while we were shooting, and on top of that, clouds were constantly covering the sun and then blowing away. So it was a learning experience for me. Which is awesome to say, since I’ve been doing this since 2001. I love that I still can have learning experiences in photography. After all, it’s not like I ever get to sunrise beach shoots here in Oklahoma! :) In the end, I had to let go of having all the skin tones match in each photo, and instead go with the different colors that were reflecting from the water and the beach throughout the morning. And you know what? I love it! It’s true to life and it makes me happy.Sami and Adam will be celebrating their 1 year anniversary this October. {See their engagement photos here and beautiful fall wedding here.}We saw various sea creatures during and after our shoot. This little guy was especially feisty.Steph and Mike are such a great example of committed love. I’m happy to know couples who live out the meaning of true love and are there for each other through it all, the good and and the bad, the fun times and the hard times.At the end of the session, Mike and Steph walked down the shore a little. Of course I followed with my camera. These weren’t posed or directed at all, and they’re some of my favorite captures from the day.Steph~
You have been a wonderful example to me in so many ways over the years. I am so thankful God brought our paths together during photography school! You are such a wonderful wife to Mike and mother to your children. And you’re a great friend. Thank you so much for bringing me out to capture these photos. Love you!
~abi~
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Thursday, September 15, 2016
I’m finally getting ahead of my editing again, so I have some time to go back and post some of the lovely photo shoots I did over the summer. This gorgeous girl who is sporting the cutest baby belly now has a perfect baby boy, so it’s high time I got these pretty maternity portraits on the blog. Noel was so stunning during her pregnancy! And how cute are their fur babies?!Boots for the whole fam! #Oklahoma :)Noel didn’t reveal her baby’s name until he was born, so I was sworn to secrecy when we took these photos. Dash is such a cute name! How could you not end up being a cool kid if your name is Dash?The light was really coming through for us that evening!Funny story: I had posed Noel here, and she looked over at their car and just died laughing. When I turned to see why, it was her little dog posted up in front of the AC vent inside the car cooling off, his fur flapping in the stream of air. So funny!Weird optical illusion with the skirt here, but I just loved how her hair was catching the wind, looking all supermodel-y. :)I love this last set, where they just snuggled up in the grass at the end of the session. So sweet!It seems like sometimes certain types of photo shoots come in waves. It had been forever since I had done any maternity sessions, and then I did two within a few weeks of each other. I was reminded how much I enjoy this type of session, documenting a little family on the verge of adding a baby. It’s such a sweet time. And the two I did this summer {see Rachel’s maternity session here} were both first babies for these families, so capturing the couples’ excitement and love was really cool.
Jarod & Noel~
Thank you for having me take these photos. I loved getting to be a small part of such a big thing for you guys! Congrats on the arrival of Dash. He’s so handsome and I can’t wait to meet him in person. :)
~abi~
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Wednesday, August 31, 2016
I found this pale pistachio green Marciano dress at a thrift store ages ago. As you can see, the tag was still on it. I think I paid $9.99 for it – score! Anyway, I had been saving it forever because honestly I wasn’t sure if I might try to sell it or keep it to wear. It’s a little more showy up top than I usually like these days {now, back in my MySpace days, it was all about some showy-up-top-all-the-time clothes…I’ve changed a lot since then, praise Jesus ;)}. Also, I needed a good, strapless, nude bra to wear under it, and I’ve basically been searching for years for that unicorn. Well, thanks to Caroline over at un-fancy.com, I finally found one! This is reason for celebration, people! Yes, it’s $64.00, which is way more than my cheap self wants to spend on a clothing item, let alone a piece that will never be seen in public; but considering all the money I’ve spent over the years on unsatisfactory strapless bras, I am happy I got it!So enough about what goes under the dress, let’s talk about what I paired with it. These buttery soft, brown leather ankle boots were another thrift store find. My sis spotted them when she was out and sent me a pic asking if I wanted them, and I said, “Uh, yes please and thank you!” They looked like they had never been worn.The circle pendant on the rose gold chain, I borrowed from my Grams {she’s the best roomie!}. The pendant has a greenish holographic tint to it. Love! The shorter necklace I’ve had since way back in the early 2000’s when Y necklaces were “in” the first time! Ha. I added those pretty earrings after I looked at the flat lay above and felt like I needed to add something because obviously more is more. ;) They were a gift a few years ago from my BFF. The gorgeous Kendra Scott bracelet was a gift from my amazing boyfriend, Jonathan, for Valentine’s Day this year. He’s a sweetie. :) The purse was also a gift, from my friend K a few years ago. So, as you can see, this oufit was 100% thrifted, gifted, and borrowed. Kinda makes up for that $64.00 bra, I guess. haha.So, last night was my one year anniversary of dating my incredible boyfriend, Jonathan. We are on a recent kick of trying to be waaaaayyyy better at handling our finances, so we were gonna keep it kinda low key for our anniversary. My only request was that we stop by the place we went on our first date, which was S&B’s Burger Joint in downtown OKC. Then Jonathan got a gift certificate from his boss for Ludivine, which is a place I’ve never been to but wanted to go forever. We had drinks at S&B’s, then enjoyed a truly lovely and delicious dinner at Ludivine.
So, of course I had to dress up for our fun date! This was the perfect occasion to cut the tag off that dress and wear it out. I had my sis Mandi snap a few pix of me before Jonathan came to pick me up.And of course, had to grab some photos with my handsome man! As part of my gift to him, I decided to leave my phone at home during our date, so it was nice to just have Mandi take some pix of us before we left. And we did also capture some more on his phone while we were out; because, you know, I’m a photographer and I just like to have things well documented! :) But back to the leaving-my-phone-at-home thing: it was actually very relaxing and freeing and I think I will start doing this on date nights more often if not every time!Now, to chat about the one year mark… I was thirty-four when Jonathan and I met just over a year ago. He started following me on Instagram, which is just such a perfect way for this modern love tale to begin! :) I had seen him at church before, but he had never seen me {I mean, he’s easier to spot, I guess.} We actually met face-to-face for the first time on August 30, 2015. As you might have noticed, our one year anniversary is August 30th… We went on our first date that night, and we’ve been together ever since. I did make him officially ask me to be his girlfriend a few weeks after we started dating, but neither of us even remember what day that was, because we both knew from that first date that our lives had been changed. :)I know everyone always says relationships aren’t easy, and a year into this, I have to agree. We’ve had our hard times, our big fights, our difficult conversations, etc. And I’m sure we will face many more tough challenges in the future. But I have to say, my life is so much better with Jonathan than it was before! Honestly. And I liked my life before. :) He just makes me stronger and better in so many ways. It’s amazing to me to see how God uses love to shape us. I am forever thankful!Happy One Year, babe! I love you so much! #moonstruck
~abi~
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Well, this gorgeous girl is my one of my favorite cousin’s babies. I mean, clearly she’s not a baby, but I’m getting old and it’s difficult to wrap my mind around the fact that Chrystal is a senior in high school this year! We did her senior session in early July up in Iowa, where she lives. I adore this part of Iowa. My family roots fun very deep there, so I love it whenever I get to do a session in this pretty part of the country.
We started out in Moravia, Iowa. {Fun fact: my parents both went to school in Moravia, where Chrystal goes.} Small towns have so many great little backdrops for photo shoots! And obviously, Chrystal was working the cam like a supermodel! I freakin’ loved this outfit! The sweet dress with interesting details, plus the fun hat, toughened up by the boots – perfect! Such a “cool girl” look. :)Side note: Chrystal has some killer brows. I experienced a lot of brow envy {and regret for past years of over-tweezing} while editing her photos. Ha.I especially loved the cutout details on the back of this dress.We had to get some photos with Chrystal’s trumpet. I love how these turned out.Album cover much?Chrystal also plays basketball, and we thought the courts at the town park made a rad background for these photos in her uniform.I bet no one messes with her on the court! #fiercePretty sure only really good players get to wear number 23, right??Oh, and not only does she play the trumpet and basketball, she also is a stud softball player. Did I mention she is also practically a genius with stellar good grades?! So proud of her!I need to have a word with whomever farms that field out there, because this would’ve been the most perfect Field of Dreams pic ever if only they had planted corn! ;) {Still love it so much.}{Dirty ball cap because they were on a winning streak and she couldn’t wash it. Obvs.}For the last set and final outfit, we headed to my favorite place on earth: my grandparents farm. It’s absolutely the best place to shoot, with tons of little spots such as this gem……and this….…and a million more…I mean, it was an Iowa senior session — we had to climb a fence and get into a cornfield!Chrystal~
You are flippin’ amazing! Smart, cool, pretty, fun, talented, etc. I am so proud of you! Hope you have the most wonderful senior year, and I can’t wait to see what the future holds for you!
Love you so much!
~abi~
p.s. See more shoots I’ve done at my grandparents’ farm: Becca’s senior pix a couple of years ago here {Becca is Chrystal’s older sis}; my cousin Caleb’s senior pix last year here; and my cousin Justin w/ his then-girlfriend-now-wife Jenna here.
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by Abi Ruth
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