Third Time's A Charm

The older (and supposedly wiser) I get, the more I realize how many times in life things come full circle. It's a strange but comforting phenomenon.

I have decided to go back to school to get my Masters in Teaching.

You are probably thinking to yourself, "Wait, haven't I read this post before?" To answer your question, yes, you have. Maybe twice. Like I said, life has come full circle.

There's the short version. If you want the long version, keep reading.

I was originally going to start the Masters in Teaching program at Whitworth in June 2008. Yes, I realize that is a whopping three years ago. Full circle, I tell you! I deferred my acceptance when we decided to live in London because I obviously couldn't do both... and who chooses school over living in London for five months? Maybe some scholarly, responsible, goal-oriented person. In other words, not me. :) The plan was to begin when we got back just in time for June 2009. I actually applied to Gonzaga's MIT program that spring because I found out it was a part-time program, allowing me to still work full-time. At that point my income was our only income with Jordan still in law school. It was the perfect plan until Gonzaga decided to completely change the schedule, making it impossible to work while doing the program. I just didn't feel comfortable having both of us in school without any income (responsible, right?!); so alas, I deferred my acceptance to BOTH Whitworth and Gonzaga that year... again.

At that point, my confidence in my plan to get my Masters in Teaching was completely shaken. Was this really what I was supposed to do? Too many things just weren't falling into place. About a month or two later, I had the epiphany of starting our photography business and I ran with it while the school idea fell by the wayside. Little did I know it would actually be pretty successful... and then came the Photo Booth... and, well, let's just say we haven't really come up for air until now.

It was at some point late this last summer when I realized that I just could not make wedding photography my full-time career. And let's be honest, besides the Photo Booth, that's the only thing around this area you can make money doing in the photography world. Logistically I could do it, but emotionally and physically I was hanging on by a thread. It got easier and I began to really enjoy it, but the thought of doing it FOREVER as my career was daunting. And not to mention my summers and weekends would be gone and I would be on a completely opposite schedule than Jordan.

That's when it all came full circle...

The Masters in Teaching programs that had fallen through twice led us to start Flat 4 Photography, which has opened up so many doors for us and really been a huge blessing in so many ways. At the same time, the stress of photographing ten weddings this year while working full-time and running the Photo Booth too... well, it brought me right back to square one.

I will be starting Whitworth's Masters in Teaching program in June. I am so confident God has led me back to this starting block for a reason and this is where I'm supposed to be. Third time's a charm, right?! :)

Does this mean I'm done with photography? Absolutely NOT. But I will be limiting myself quite a bit. I am only allowing myself to shoot one wedding per month this summer and fall, and I will be outsourcing most of my editing (which is the most time-consuming part of photography anyway.) We are still rocking the Photo Booth and will continue to do so as long as we possibly can! I will definitely have to be more selective with photography sessions due to my schedule, at least until I'm done with school. And that's the beauty of being a teacher -- I will be free every summer and weekends to pick and choose what I want to do with photography. :)

Oh yeah, the details of the MIT program. In case you're interested...

The program is a 14-month, full-time, intensive program that starts this June. I have kicked around the idea of continuing to work at Home Environments (my dad's business, where I work now) on Sundays only, but other than that possibility, I will not be working at all. My goal is to ultimately teach high school English and possibly coach volleyball if it works out that way. I have one class I still have to take to complete my English endorsement before school starts and I have to retake the West-E endorsement test I already took (and already passed) since the state requirements have all changed since 2008. Annoying, but to be expected. After all, Murphy's Law still knows my maiden name. ;)

As much as I'm not looking forward to the "school" part of going back to school, I think it will be worth it in the end and I am finally starting to get excited about it. If you have any advice for me (or tips on how to land a teaching job in Spokane...), please let me know!

Joe + Megan 10.8-9.10

I always get asked if I like photographing weddings. To be honest, there are goods and bads to the job, just like anything else. It wasn't until Joe and Megan's wedding, my last scheduled wedding for 2010, that I realized just how cool it really is...

Not only are you a large part of the biggest day of two peoples' lives, you get to witness so many profoundly emotional moments -- laughter, tears, joy, and above all else, love at its finest. Joe and Megan's wedding captured all of these emotions and was just so intimate, personal, and real. Their two-day wedding celebration began at Beacon Hill and consisted of only their closest friends and family (probably no more than 50 people.) The day was so relaxed and the evening ended with a gourmet, plated dinner for all the guests around one big table with wine pairings for each course. How often can all the guests at a wedding sit around one big table? See, I told you, intimate and beautiful. Besides being two of the kindest people on the planet, Megan and Joe's wedding had so many stand-out features in my mind -- Megan's lovely vintage wedding dress (with pockets!) and her awesome fish net veil, how every detail of this wedding lived and breathed "vintage fall", the perfect Beacon Hill sunset during their ceremony... I could go on and on.

I photographed the entire wedding day and a short part of the reception dinner and then headed out to Lake Coeur d'Alene the next day for the big reception on the Mish-an-Nock boat cruise with all of Megan and Joe's friends and family! It was such a fun celebration with food, drinks, and even some trivia about Megan and Joe. :) Without further ado, check out the slideshow below of Megan and Joe's gorgeous fall wedding and reception...

Ryan + Alli 9.18.10

Planning a wedding can be hard, especially when you're trying to decide on an overall theme for the big event. Classic Bavarian? Rustic farm? In rare cases, a bride can have both...

I think Alli and Ryan chose me as their photographer partly because I'm willing to do just about anything but also because we have a similar love for a certain photo location: Knapps Farm up at Green Bluff. Of course there were other details involved, but from the minute Alli told me she wanted to have her wedding photos taken up at Knapps Farm after seeing some of my previous photo shoots at that location, it was all downhill from there. ;)

Ryan and Alli had their ceremony and reception at the beautiful Bozarth Mansion in north Spokane. We started their "getting ready" pictures at the mansion, then headed up to Green Bluff for Alli and Ryan's first look, their bride & groom pictures, and their wedding party photos. It was a gorgeous fall day and, as always, the owners of Knapps Farm were so gracious and friendly. As a side note, if you haven't been to Knapps Farm, you should take your family and friends and go up there in the summer to pick your own berries -- it's so much fun! From there, we headed back to Bozarth just in time for Alli and Ryan to get hitched! These two were so laid back and down-to-earth and it was such a fun day to be a part of! And I have to give props to my fabulous second shooter, the one and only Jordan Tampien... believe it or not, a lot of these featured shots are his. He's so great! :)

Without further ado, check out the slideshow below of some Flat 4 favorites from Alli and Ryan's beautiful wedding! If you can't tell, we had a hard time narrowing it down...

Happy. Merry. Joyful.

We love our Christmas cards this year... partly because I didn't have to make them, but mostly because we have been wanting to do our Christmas cards through Mango Ink for a long time and we finally did! If you've never checked out this awesome, boutique card company, check out their website here. Trust me, you will not regret it!

If you didn't get a Christmas card, I promise we still love you... our bank account, on the other hand, does not. ;)

We wish you all a joyful Christmas and a happy 2011!

xoxo

Jordan, Whitney, Maggie & Max

Ross + Marlene 9.12.10

If you've ever seen the movie 27 Dresses, you will remember the scene where Jane (Katherine Heigl) tells Kevin (James Marsden) that she always looks at the groom as the bride is walking down the aisle to see the look on his face. Where most people look at the bride, they both agree that the look on the groom's face tells a better story.

The way that Ross looked at Marlene on their wedding day was unlike anything I've ever seen. And it wasn't just the first time he saw her that day when she walked down the aisle; it was the whole day. There were countless pictures where Marlene was looking at the camera and smiling, and Ross was looking at her. I'm not typically a very sentimental person, but the adoration he showed for his new bride was simply beautiful. And I didn't even mention the toast Ross gave to Marlene at their reception... let's just say there were very few dry eyes in the room!

Ross and Marlene's wedding was at Elkins Resort on Priest Lake. There were so many things I loved about this wedding... how their guests all arrived on boats, the ceremony being held on a secluded beach, Marlene's gorgeous J. Crew wedding dress, the live music by Neva during the cocktail hour, the rustic elegance of the setting at Elkins, and just how intimate and personal the entire wedding was. Ross and Marlene decided they didn't want to see each other before the ceremony, so we did most of their pictures during the cocktail hour. Check out the slideshow below to see some Flat 4 favorites of Ross and Marlene's beautiful wedding!

4 Years

Four years ago today I married the coolest human I know. He also happens to be the sexiest, funniest, craziest, most patient, hardest working, most fun, down-to-earth guy out there.

These are definitely not our best wedding photos, but I like them anyway. And it was easier to post these than dig through our wedding photo disc that is still somehow not on my computer. I know, it's weird, seeing as I am a photographer and all... ;)

We are going to a little wine bar that we've been wanting to try out tonight for dinner and then we're headed out to the Coeur d'Alene Resort tomorrow to stay the night and have dinner at Beverly's! I'll be honest, we are doing a Photo Booth event for a company holiday party at the resort on Saturday night and the company offered to let us take advantage of their corporate room rate -- the rates were just too good to pass up! So we decided to make the most of it. :) We have always been more into doing a nice dinner and evening rather than getting each other gifts for our anniversary.

Jordan and I constantly talk about how many big things we have been able to do together in the last 4 years of our marriage...

YEAR 1: Bought our first house! Didn't kill each other within the first four months. ;) Got Maggie! Jordan started law school at GU.

YEAR 2: Hmmmmm... okay, maybe this wasn't a big year. We did work a TON to save up for London. :)

YEAR 3: Lived in London and traveled around Europe for 5 months! Went skydiving! Started our photography business. Got Max!

YEAR 4: Got the Photo Booth and grew our business into something! Bought our 10-acre property in Chattaroy! Didn't kill Max. ;) Jordan graduated law school AND passed the Bar Exam!

The funny part is, four years seems like a long time but doesn't seem very long all at the same time. As cheesy at it sounds, I love Jordan so much more now than I did when we got married. Without a doubt. I look forward to going home from work even when we have absolutely nothing to do that night. I love that he will let me rant and rave about things that fire me up and still love me at the end of the day. I feel blessed to have a husband who will help cook dinner, not care what I spend on clothes or coffee (which, really, is not very much), and is intentional in our marriage. After four years, I can honestly say I am more happy now than I've ever been. And the crazy part? I only see it getting better...

Snow Shoeing Adventures

I grew up snow-skiing every weekend as a kid. We were the perfect definition of "ski bums," that is, until volleyball came along. It turns out Jordan skied a lot as a kid too -- perfect, right? A couple years ago we looked into starting back up with our old hobby, but the idea died abruptly when we found out the cost of a season pass these days is more than our monthly mortgage payment. And to our dismay, our ski gear from when we were 12 wasn't really going to work out either. End of discussion.

We had been dying to get up to our property after the first big snow to see how the views looked when everything was covered in snow. We also wanted to make sure we'd be able to make it up the hill in our car, which thankfully we did! So my Mom suggested we borrow her and Dad's snow shoes...

To be honest, I wasn't too thrilled and secretly thought snow shoes were kinda dorky. Sorry, Mom. But I am pleased to announce that I was completely WRONG! Not only is snow shoeing a lot of fun, it's also a great workout and such a fun way to take advantage of being outside and actually enjoying the snow! I know, I just said "enjoying" and "snow" in the same sentence. It's a Christmas miracle...

So we bundled up, took the pups with us and hiked all around our property! Here is Max getting ready to go. :)

Jordan blazing a trail for the pups on our future driveway... I love how the pups are both looking at me for the picture. We've trained them well. ;)

Little did we know, snow shoeing is a great workout, especially when the snow is powder! We ended up shedding some layers not long after we got started...

Ummmmm... we also didn't realize how bad the powder snow would stick to the dogs! They were such troopers and were having so much fun, but the longer we went, the more snow got stuck to them. Max got it the worst! Jordan was being the responsible one trying to help him while I was screaming/laughing and taking pictures...

I'm sorry, but is that not the funniest thing you've ever seen?! Poor guy! We couldn't get the snowballs off him so we had to wait until they melted on the way home.

Since we had so much fun snow shoeing the first time, we decided to go again the following weekend. This time we brought friends! :) Nicole, Marc, Steve, and Cassie (and their pups, Wrigley and Banks) came with us.

This time around it was super sunny and clear skies so we could actually see the views. The snow was also a lot more compact so it was much easier for the pups since they could walk on top of the snow instead of falling through it!

Our future home site view... LOVE IT!

The ladies...

The gents...

One of many wipeouts! For the record, I was the only one who didn't wipeout during our trip. Just sayin'... ;)

Jordan taking a little break and checking out the view...

I think snow shoeing has become one of our favorite winter activities! Even though we've only done it twice... ha! It is such a fun way to use our property in the winter, and it is so much more affordable than skiing. You really can't beat the seclusion of being up in the mountains with no one else around you... well, unless you invite your friends. :)

FYI: You can rent snow shoes and poles for really cheap at REI if you don't have some! And a brand new set is way cheaper than you might think if you decide you like it.

I'm pretty sure snow shoes and gear got bumped up to the top of Jordan and my Christmas list this year... hint, hint. ;)