A few days ago I shared a few photos of Lorelai, who just turned one. I thought I would share a little bit more of her session…. and her 1st Birthday Party!  Lorelai is a super cutie, and if you hadn’t seen the previous post, she came 2 months early…. and so it is such a blessing that she is healthy and doing so well. Her parents Meg and Steve are great friends of ours, and it has been fun to watch them on their new journey of parenthood…. Soon we won’t just be watching though… as we will be joining them! Crazy how time flies and how life seems to move at such a fast pace. I know we are old enough to start our family… but sometimes I think, “are we really that old already???”

Anyways, back to Lorelai. I met Meg when I was teaching in the Baltimore City Public School System. I taught Kindergarten, and she was the speech pathologist. We figured we were destined to be friends for a number of reasons…

1. We were both named Meaghan, and both spelled Meaghan. She was the first person that I met who spelled her name the same way as me.

2. I cried at one (really many) of our staff meetings because I was so frustrated about the school and the school system, and how there were a lot of people at our school who really didn’t have the best interest of the kids in mind. So, Meg decided that I must be nice since I was so stinkin’ sensitive. We both loved the kids and wanted the best for them… so we had that in common too…We came from suburbia hoping to make a difference and felt completely powerless to do so

3. We both went to Penn State (major points for anybody)

Those were the 3 main things… but it turns out that there are so many more things that we have in common…. and we have grown to be great friends. Meg stood beside me as a bridesmaid when I married Josh, and I am sure that we will have so many fun memories ahead of us…

So, on with the post! I headed to Leesburg, VA (Meg and Steve moved away…) for Lorelai’s 1st Birthday Party…. Below is the cookie cake that Meg made. Her chocolate chip cookies are AMAZING! So, so good, and it had been way too long since I had had one!

And Lorelai’s piece of cake to get messy in!

There were a lot of people… not sure if Lorelai knew what to make of all of the people watching her.

Especially when I was there with a camera in her face…. Lorelai liked her cake….but this was the messiest she got. If I were her… I would have been all over that! Just sayin’

Opening presents…

Not sure what to say about this one….  She looks pretty happy with that bottle of wine. Where are her parents for goodness sake?!?  ;)  Just teasing Meg.

The Happy Family.

The following weekend Meg and Steve came up to visit and I had a little photoshoot with Meg and Lorelai…

It was her first time on the swings and she loved it!

Lorelai was almost walking without any help…. and it turns out that I saw them again about a week and half ago, and she has mastered it! She can walk without any help now. It is so crazy how fast kids grow and change.

Thought this was so cute! Go Lorelai Go! Watch out Meg and Steve….

Thanks for being such great friends!! I love you guys so much!!!

m.e.

Last weekend I had the honor to photography Patrick and Kat’s wedding. They got married at St. Thomas the Apostle Catholic Church in DC, and had their reception at the Strathmore Mansion in Bethesda. It was gorgeous and they had guests travel from ALL OVER to celebrate their day with them. Love this photo of them…. If you want to see their engagement session, you can click here.

Isn’t Kat gorgeous?!?

And her beautiful ladies…..

And the fireman stopped by the venue….(not sure why), but we got a few quick photos with it… they are so cute!

And some of the details of their day….

The Florist: York Flowers

Cake: Sweet

DJ: Debbie Bulles

To view more images from the day you can click here to view the slideshow: http://meaghanelliott.myshowit.com/hussman_wdg_6_19_10

Thanks Kat and Patrick for an awesome day!!! Congrats on your new life together and I hope that you had an amazing honeymoon!

m.e.

Just wanted to share a few pics from a little cutie that I shot a few weeks ago! This is Lorelai… and she just turned 1! I took some photos at her birthday… and then did a session with her for some 1 year portraits. Love the colors of her outfit to bring out her pretty blue eyes and they look so fun against the green grass. I have more photos to share from this session, but didn’t want to be a “non-blogger” today.

I am still working on a few things for a wedding post of last weekend… and plan to share those goodies with you tomorrow.

Hope Lorelai’s smily brightens up your day!

TThis was her first time on the swings and she L-O-V-E-D it!

And…. just so you can see Lorelai as a babe…. She was born about 2 months early… and she was a teeny tiny little cutie…

Here is a pic from her newborn session. What a blessing to watch her grow up to be strong and healthy!

m.e.

So…….. I actually have an announcement to make…. We are preggo!

This post has been a long time coming, and quite honestly, I meant to post it quite awhile ago, but I didn’t (Obviously). At first I was on a quest for the perfect pair of little pink shoes (yes, it is a girl) and I just couldn’t find them…. and then once I found them, I was caught up in other things and didn’t take the time to blog them!!!

Since I am doing a personal post… just thought I would share some of the latest happenings here, since I haven’t been blogging very much even though there is a ton that I can post!!! And still plan to…

So, yup, Number 1. We are with child…..  And she is due to come on September 5th. We found out we were pregnant the week before Christmas…. and it has been an interesting journey. Just going to be honest. I was completely petrified at first…. cried for a couple of days because I was scared out of my mind….  The first trimester, I felt like I was a waste of life because I didn’t feel well… and I was super tired…. but the 2nd trimester was great!! I felt amazing…. and I still do! I feel really blessed to have had such a great pregnancy thus far… and will be shooting until the end of July. I have a few engagement sessions the first week of August, and  then will resume shooting again in October.  Right now, I am growing quickly…. and getting pretty nervous about the delivery end. But, am trusting that I will survive!!!

So, with that said there are a lot of other things going on here that have taken me from the blogging world….

We have been in the process of redoing our branding…. and we are finally in the ending stages. It has been quite a process and started last December, but we are almost there… and I can’t wait for the big launch… This will include website, blog, all materials, logo, etc. I am excited to see it all come to fruition…. and expect it to happen before Baby’s arrival!

With that said…. we have also been redoing a lot of our house…. lots of painting… moving rooms…. My old office is now the nursery… and my office is now downstairs…. And our living area will match our new branding! So we have been doing a lot of painting, organizing, furniture shopping, throwing things out….

Katy has been editing since the beginning of the year…. and she is amazing. And she is also doing all of the albums… and she does an amazing job! Can’t wait to share more about her…. and you will surely see more of her in the future. She is available to make customized baby announcements, save the dates, etc. so if you are interested in information on that, please let me know!

On a different note…. we had to make a hard decision and put our oldest dog down. He wasn’t doing well at all…. and it was a very hard, sad decision to make….. so we were sad to lose a family member…. but are excited to gain our newest member this fall.  Here is one of my favorite photos of Chester from Christmas a couple years ago…

So….. that is just a small update on some of the happenings in our lives….  Because of our new baby, I will be taking a VERY LIMITED number of sessions this fall for the holiday…. So, if you would like to schedule a session, please contact me asap. I will not have many openings to offer.

I have another great wedding to post  tomorrow! So check back!!!

Blessings.

m.e.

This past weekend Toni and Mike got married! You might remember them from their recent engagement session. To view those photos you can click here.

I love that they met at a wedding…. and now their wedding has come. You just never know what each day will bring.

Toni looked GORGEOUS! Here she is getting her makeup done…Look at those lashes!

One of the flower girls watching Toni get ready. Love it! And actually….. she wasn’t really a flower girl, because she brought a pony down the aisle, rather than dropping flower petals! It was ADORABLE!

Toni and her mom…

Some fun little details…. Toni is the most “gartered” bride that I have seen….. The white garter was actually her mom’s and was the only thing left after a house fire… so it was a very significant “something borrowed”

Toni and her horse. Her mom gives riding lessons, so if anyone out there is interested….  :)

I love all of the little details that make each wedding unique…. They had so many cute signs pointing their guests around the property, and their wedding programs were so pretty!!!

Here she is with the pony!!! So cute!

Toni and her dad walking from the house to the ceremony…

LOVE dad’s expression… I think this is one of the sweetest moments of wedding ceremonies…

The new Mr. and Mrs….

One of my favorites…

And a few details from the day…

Thanks Toni and Mike!!! It was a gorgeous wedding!

To view more images for the day click here and a slideshow will play.

m.e.