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January 12, 2017January 10, 2017

| Smith Family Portraits | Decatur IL Limited Edition Sessions | Sarah Jane Photography |

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It’s time to show off the Smith family today! We fit this gorgeous family into an EARLY morning Limited Edition session this fall and I’m so glad we did. We were working to find time to fit them in before a day full of activities/games and it came together perfectly with this beautiful sunrise light.

While I loved this session, I’m most excited about how this family decided to display their images! This was the first time this family had worked with us and Aimee was excited to not only have professional images created but also to display them in their home. She came in with a number of wall images so we could design something perfect for their space (one that already featured a gorgeous shabby chic door hung right on their wall – real statement piece!). While she wasn’t opposed to moving that large piece to replace it with a portrait similar in size (60″ +) we instead decided to design with it in mind and create a smaller series of images that could be hung together or moved around as they like.

Doing a number of canvases also allowed us to feature each of the kids’ favorite portraits of themselves and a couple different family poses for different spaces in the house.

By far my favorite thing to create for families are their personal home galleries! We wake up to 3 of our wedding images each day, and walk down stairs past 60 inches of portraits of ourselves (which will soon be growing with the addition of at least 5 new wall art pieces in our gallery to show off BabyB). And while writing this it seems a bit narcissistic, in reality it doesn’t feel that way at all. It instead fills my heart with love and joy for my family each day when I get to see us happy, loving and together on our walls. And the best part is little BabyB points and says ‘mommy, daddy, bear, lily’ when she sees them too!

Full family sessions are often tough to fit into your busy schedules (I know, scheduling acrobatics is a bit part of my job!) but imagine what we can create for your family and for your home with just 15/30 minutes… just a single Limited Edition in 2017 could add a little love and light to your home and I’d love to be a part of creating that for you.

Booking is open NOW for our 2017 Limited Edition Session dates and full sessions are already filling fast (sunset spaces in for fall especially!). You can book your Limited Edition Session right HERE right NOW!

January 10, 2017January 10, 2017

| The Allen Gals Annual Family Portrait | Decatur IL | Christmas Photos |

I absolutely LOVE working with this beautiful family! I get to work with Melanie every year for the senior yearbook, dances and organizational photos for Warrensburg-Latham High School. And for the last couple years I’ve had the chance to photograph both Melanie and her lovely girls, Savannah & Sophie.

This year we did an in-studio session for a little change and created a Christmas look on our fireplace, something a little traditional and classic and then finished up with a little personality with our very own BoxDropsbySJP Sweet Scarves backdrop (a personal favorite).

I think this family image below ended up being my favorite. The laughs and cuddles with just a tiny hint of tween ‘ew do I have to’ mixed in made that one the most genuine to me and I just love it!

Head on over to our Facebook Page to give this family some love with your likes & comments!

January 6, 2017January 5, 2017

| Beery Family Portraits | Christmas 2016 | Decatur IL |

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BONUS Friday blog post, whoop whoop! Ya’ll kept me BUSY the last quarter of 2016 and I wouldn’t have it any other way… but that means I have so many sessions waiting in the wings for their moment in the sun here on the blog. Doing our usual 2 a week features we’d be still posting fall photos come summer (seriously I have them scheduled out to APRIL already)…. so it’s time to amp up the blog with some bonus post Fridays (and heck we might get real crazy for a few weeks with a Monday or two).

And I can’t think of a better way to end your week than with this adorable family! How cute is Mila?!?!? She is just a year or so older that our very own BabyB and I see my future in this gal who is 100% energy and giggles (with maybe a dash of sas). I had a blast photographing, playing (and chasing) her around for their fall Limited Edition Session.

This was part of our Christmas Limited Edition event so we, of course, created some curated holiday images but with such beautiful fall color on the ground we couldn’t pass up the chance to create a few more timeless images for them.

I’m in love with the card design we created for this family too. It’s fun classy with just a little love and whimsy! PLUS check out these custom address labels to add a really unique touch:

Our Limited Edition Sessions are a bit different than our full boutique sessions especially in that we do not begin with our design consultation (where we customize/design/plan your session and discuss the final destination for where we want these portraits to land: on the wall, in an album, gifts, card, etc etc). So though we hadn’t pre-planned to create some custom artwork for the Beery’s homes, Lindsay fell in love with the image below (on the left) which is just such a clear depiction of life with a toddler. I love that it shows her and her husband, Robert, walking together and looking lovingly at their beautiful daughter as she runs unbridled through the park (that’s about what our life looks like with a toddler!).

Don’t forget we have already announced and opened out Limited Edition sessions for 2017. These filled very quickly last year and we want to give you plenty of time to plan ahead. These sessions are NOT themed (though we’ll have a Christmas set available in November) but we’ve positioned them to allow for Holiday portraits coinciding with Easter in April and of course our November date is in time for Christmas. May is a great time for some spring color outside and will be PROM time for you high schoolers and our goal for August is to fit in all those extended family portrait sessions ESPECIALLY for any college students who will head back to school.

January 5, 2017January 5, 2017

| Amanda + Tom | Oreana IL Wedding |

Since it’s Decatur Bridal Expo week I thought we better squeeze a wedding feature onto the blog. My newsfeed has been filled with proposals and engagements over the last weeks and that’s SO exciting. So many of your friends/family (maybe even YOU) are headed into this brand new year with BIG things on the horizon… fun things like cake tastings and dress shopping and stressful things like selecting a date, getting invitations out and choosing every vendor from florists to photographers, that will help make the vision of your big day a reality.

Well this weekend (January 6th & 7th) you will have a ton of local vendors to meet and greet at the Decatur Conference Center and Hotel. I hope you stop by our booth (we’ll have a number of fun gifts and giveaways) and say hello!

But before we get to planning next year’s weddings it’s time to check out Amanda & Tom’s big day. We lucked out for their mid-November wedding and not only had beautiful, mild weather but also still had gorgeous color on the leaves outside the church! It was PERFECT.

We started their day at their home which let us add some personal touches including heading out to Tom’s garage to include his other loves (the wheels and engine kind!).

See what I mean about the color. Can you believe we had all this beauty left?!?! And all right outside their church.

A special request of Amanda’s was to create a portrait with everyone of their guests. We don’t do this at every wedding but it’s always fun when we do.

And another fun perk with a late November wedding date is beautiful Christmas lights downtown. We had fun playing around in the park to create these (yes I even made them dance a bit, hahaha).

These two had such a fun party and the details at Infusion Bar and Banquet Center made the reception extra entertaining.

Pop over to our Facebook Page soon to give them some love with your likes!

January 4, 2017January 4, 2017

| Miller Annual Fall Family Portraits | Decatur IL |

Oh my goodness! This week is my first week back in the office and I don’t know about you but after a few weeks off it’s taking me a bit to get settled back into the flow of things SO our usual Tuesday blog is coming to you today, on Wednesday, because I forgot what day it was! I hope you all had a wonderful break and are getting settled into the new year as we are… bear with me as I attempt to get back on schedule and let’s pretend it’s Tuesday. Don’t worry our Thursday blog with be back as usual and maybe even a bonus post or two to show off all the beautiful people we were working with this fall. And NOW, it’s time to check out the Miller family:

I’ve had the chance to photograph this beautiful family nearly every year since Grant was a baby with their first session being one of the first in our home studio on the west side of Decatur! This year these troopers hung in there for a cold snap and super windy evening so we could get their annual portraits updated for their Christmas cards.

I’m hoping we treat these kiddos to warm weather for their next session!

If you’re considering a Limited Edition session in 2017 we’ve now opened these 4 dates: April 8 (in time for Easter), May 6, August 5 and November 4 (in time for Christmas). These are short 15 or 30 minute sessions at a preselected location. You can find out more details and book online HERE! These sessions are first come, first serve and when they’re full, they’re full.