I do - someday!

January has been such a busy month, two very amazing weddings, and many a meeting with new couples for 2011 and 2012 weddings. This past weekend - Verlon (my best mate) & I went down to Bellingham and had a small shopping trip while tending to getting new tires put on my Saab. We were walking around Barnes & Noble and it just clicked - I love, "love"... that's right, I'm a total sapp for Valentines. Not so much the consumerism of the day, or the fact that boyfriends, and husbands feel obligated to do something for it - but something different. 

February, not valentines day so much - everything fills up about couples, love and sweet things involving anything shaped hearts. Okay, a lot of it is incredibly commercial - but deep down you don't need to spend a dime on the materialism. I kind of feel that with busy lives, love is often forgotten or placed by the way side. Those sweet notes left to find when no one is around, or surprises left in your car -- sometimes we forget to keep up with surprises. Love changes through time, and relationships mature - the way we show love changes. We musn't forget to always cherish the love we have. I kind of feel that we/I have in the past gone through the year and February is just that reminder "hey you have a great man or family etc - make sure they know you love and care about them!!"

I was given a book a couple years back called "The 5 Love Languages" it's a Christian author, talking about relationships and how to make them work and why sometimes we feel like something is missing and your partner doesn't. It's an amazing book - seriously read it, instant clarity! Discovering how we need to communicate love to a partner, or receive it - so important so that your "love" cup is always full.

I'm a hopeless romantic, and believe in an old fashioned love - and truly believe it does exist. The kind of love that, they make you want to be better and strive for more (okay sometimes we need that swift kick). All I'm saying is, ladies & gents - try to not forget or procrastinate... tell her/him you love them on a regular basis - life is short, make sure they know you cherish them.

I'll finish my ramblings with a photo from Erin & Larence's wedding. Their holding their niece Celina.


What I'm working on...

Just thought I'd share an image from Erin & Lawrence's January 14, 2011 wedding - working on the images, atm. Just thought I'd share how beautiful this bride is :)

How perspectives change

This past weekend started out just like every other weekend, breakfast with friends at a local restaurant (this week was iHop, I regretted not getting pancakes), and I even won $50 on a lottery ticket. Saturday afternoon was brimming with promise as the plan was to go bowling later that night -- alright it's cold outside, needed an "indoor" activity.... and then I was washing the dishes and a mason jar shattered on my wrist. Yup, it was deep and it was gross. My first thought was "what should i do?" oh right! pressure! So I made sure (while trying to drip on my t-shirt) to grab the dark towel and wrap it around my wrist, off we went to the emergency to get stitches. 

I had remembered getting stitches as a kid, and remembered it being horrifically painful... so i was a little nervous. It wasn't that bad. The worst part was blacking out in the waiting room when the nurse swapped my towel for a real bandage/gauze. Needless to say it made the wait at the Langley Emergency half the time! Score! Mind you when I wouldn't wake up, the nurse pinched me so hard --- i just remember waking up to a crazy pain in my hand. My BPM were low as were my blood pressure, and they were threatening I would need IV if it didn't change.. I did my best to perk up. 

I had a great dr, who stitched me up good as new, and the finally today I can type again without pain in my right hand! Thanks doc! 

And then Sunday Night... (insert "dun, dun dun" - terror sequel music) and the flu hit hard! I had a lack of a hand and the flu. Lucky for me the flu passed yesterday and now I'm good as new, and my hand is back in order without much pain! 

Sometimes I feel I need to be reminded of the little things. Like how much I'm missing out on my little niece growing up in Victoria, I miss her the most now... alright she doesn't know it yet, but I do. It's so hard to be far away from family sometimes and feel out of the loop on their get-togethers. Sometimes it feels so odd going home since your not really there all that often, or hearing about all the fun adventures they have while your gone. But then I plunk myself in my mom's lap and get a back massage and think "oh man, i've been missing out" and I feel right at home! 

Sometimes life gets hectic and over whelming and I feel that I really forget about the little things and get caught up in silly things. This year I'm going to try and make more time for family, because I really want to be there for my little niece as she grows up.


Sneak Peak - Erin & Lawrence

These were already posted onto Facebook but I wanted to repost them to the blog :)

The reception venue was Darvonda Nurseries - Lawrence Jansen, along with the family run this amazing spot. Those Pointsetta's you've seen over the holidays are from the local Langley Greenhouse.

Lawrence is a well known musician and he decided to play "Josh Groban's - You Raise Me up" for Erin



These were the take home - a latest in the Darvonda product, baby cucumbers!




Lawrence's Proud Parents Mr & Mrs. Jansen



Mental Blogging - Note to Self!

Remember that last blog post where I said I was going to update, and post new photos? Alright, so it got postponed. But ta dah! Here it is. I've got some down time while I wait//try and figure out why I'm having issues with the servers I'm using to upload galleries. If your waiting for Kerry & Andrew's January 2, 2011 Wedding Gallery - it should be up shortly!


In other news January has been a very busy month, and very exciting! I had the chance to photograph the first wedding of 2011 on January 2nd -- How cool is that? Bring in New Year's Day and then I get to photograph Kerry & Andrew's Wedding. 


We actually did their "Pre-Wedding" Photos on December 28th, we had some fun and went around downtown Victoria stopping off at various locations the couple had chosen. And the last stop was "Big Bad John's Pub" a small pub in downtown Victoria, well known for it's character.


The sun came out, the clouds parted and off I went to meet Kerry at the Laurell Inn in Victoria, BC. I'm being serious, the clouds really did part - it was a beautiful winter's day. Kerry & her sister had stayed up in the suite watching movies the night previous and were full of smiles when I saw them that afternoon. As always Kerry's make up looked simply stunning, and I adored her pink moccasin slippers she toated around the suite as she was getting ready. 


With much anticipation and after a few family photos we made our way to the ceremony at St. Michael's University School Chapel. It was my first time there and the ambiance was so movie like. Kerry and Andrew had a friend make jars with tea lights inside them with decorative ribbons that gave a warm glow to the inside of the chapel. It was five o'clock when the ceremony commenced - it was dark outside, and warm inside. The chapel was filled on both sides of friends and family.


Andrew stood charmingly at the end of the aisle awaiting Kerry as she made her way into the chapel and down the never-ending aisle (it was really long). After a lovely ceremony and following some family photos inside the chapel the reception was now underway at the Fernwood Inn. 


The Fernwood Inn was such a neat venue, it was my first time there and it fit so perfectly. It was like being first of all in Europe, in a small time- family pub/restaurant. It was still glittered up with christmas lights, and various christmas decor along with the tower of Candy Stand that the couple had made. The highlight was defiantely the cats ontop of the wedding cake.


Thank you both for letting me be apart of your day. I wish you both the best!







To View the Larger Versions of the photos, simply click on them!



I am so very excited finally blogger has fixed the way photos upload! I'm not going to lie, It really ruined my blogging having to go through and code each photo for a blog post... so then I slacked off and decided -- hmm facebook! So today was trial  day. There's more to come, as now I can blog with ease *big thanks to the blogger crew!!!*

Cheers for now,

Ashley





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