Every year, we travel to St. Augustine, Florida for some time at my grandmother’s beach house. This house is near and dear to me, as it’s been in my mom’s family since she was in college. We grew up making memories there, my husband and I held our rehearsal dinner there, and now we visit every year with our little family. It’s been such a joy to share this special place with family and friends for so many years, and now with our little girl!
For the first time ever, I scheduled family photos to take place during our vacation. We had our photographer, Megan of Upon Waves, come right to the beach house, because that’s the most special place to us. It started out as a bright and sunny afternoon, but the sky turned dark with rain clouds as we approached sunset, and we got the most beautiful images in return. She let us just be ourselves, so with an almost 3yr old, that meant running, playing, splashing, and collecting sea shells. Leighton is not exactly a “sit and smile” kind of girl, and as a photographer, I should have been ok with that from the beginning (meaning since she was about a year old and able to move), because I really do love the more candid, authentic images anyway. Learning to accept that has helped me to be so much happier and in the moment during our personal photo sessions, and it’s also helped me with relaying that sentiment to my clients. I know that as parents, we all tend to want the “Christmas card shot” where everyone is smiling at the camera, and I do always aim to get that for my clients. But the rest of the images I want to capture… they’re shots like these below that speak to my mama heart and help me remember exactly what my baby girl and our family were like in this way-too-short phase of life.
In addition to our family photos, I requested that we get some anniversary photos of just the two of us. It couldn’t have been more fitting, as we got married just down the beach from this house 9 years ago, almost to the day of our session. We may have felt a little silly in the midst of shooting these, but I love that we trusted her and just went with it. I am absolutely in love with the collection of images that Megan gave us, and as I told her, I wish I could wallpaper our house with them. These photos will always hold a very special place in my heart. I hope you enjoy them. There’s a pretty cool story behind the house, too — you can also read the full blog post from Megan here!
