Trash the Dress - Prom Style

Remember that dress you thought would be perfect for that special occassion? Remember how good you felt when you wore it? When was the last time you put it on? Isn't it sad that you search for so long for THE dress, wear it for a few hours and then never do anything with it again?

'Trash the Dress' is the PERFECT solution to this problem! :) After all the stress of the special day is over, why not put that dress on again and have a little fun? 'Trash the Dress' does NOT by any means have to mean that you actually TRASH the dress. Have a look at some of the images in this post for some ideas and contact me for your prom, wedding, special occassion 'Trash the Dress' shoot today!

A little about my models in the pictures you see here... My sister, Rachel, and her friends just graduated high school. A lot of them have been in school together for many years and in just a few short weeks they will be driving in all different directions across the country to attend schools miles (I know we live in Canada, but kilometers just doesn't sound right. lol!) away from each other. I wanted to give them some fun little memories of their time before heading off on this next part of their journey so I suggested that we do a 'Trash the Dress' shoot. I made sure to bring along Leah with her flower girl dress and the dress that I wore to my hubby's cousin's wedding recently so that we could get some nice pictures with Rache. I'm so excited about these pictures! :)

Thank you to Jenn, Zoe, Rachel and of course, my Leah, for being my willing (despite the not so pleasant rain at the end!), enthusiastic and creative models for this shoot! For more shots, check out the fan page in the next day or so! http://www.facebook.com/pages/Tara-Collyer-Photography/125613657465024?ref=ts

Waiting

A warning right from the get-go...this blog post is slightly 'wordy', but worth the read :)

For a lot of people, the waiting involved in having a baby happens between the moments during pregnancy. Waiting to hear the heartbeat for the first time, to see the baby's first images on the screen at the ultrasound and for people like me who's babies like to be stubborn....waiting extra long at the end for that baby to be born. But for some people, like our friends Andrea and Matt, there is so much more waiting involved.

Andrea and Matt wanted to start a family pretty soon after they got married. For months, nothing happened. Months turned into years and years of emotional roller coasters, specialists appointments, testing and things that you and I would never want to go through. For a lot of couples, going through very trying times like this can put a real strain on a marriage. But not with Andrea and Matt. These guys are incredible! Each step along the way they opened up and shared with friends about what they were going through, continued to ask for prayer as well as seeking God's direction.

Later in 2009, after nearly 4 years of issues with fertility, Andrea was presented with an option that might not only help with her overall health, but trying to get pregnant as well. After a few months of these treatments, Andrea and Matt's mom had a dream right around the same time (and hadn't told each other) that Andrea would find out that she was pregnant, due in September and have a boy. A little while later, I got a phone call from Andrea telling me that she had amazing news - she was pregnant and due in September!

A little while later, they found out that they were having a boy! They shared with us that they would call their little boy Isaac. I'm sure a lot of people would recognize that it was a Biblical name, but knowing the story behind the name makes it SO much more meaningful. I have taken a little snippit from the book of Genesis where Isaac is mentioned to fill you in.

Genesis 17: 15-22 (New International Version)

15 God also said to Abraham, "As for Sarai your wife, you are no longer to call her Sarai; her name will be Sarah. 16 I will bless her and will surely give you a son by her. I will bless her so that she will be the mother of nations; kings of peoples will come from her."

17 Abraham fell facedown; he laughed and said to himself, "Will a son be born to a man a hundred years old? Will Sarah bear a child at the age of ninety?" 18 And Abraham said to God, "If only Ishmael might live under your blessing!"

19 Then God said, "Yes, but your wife Sarah will bear you a son, and you will call him Isaac. [d] I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him. 20 And as for Ishmael, I have heard you: I will surely bless him; I will make him fruitful and will greatly increase his numbers. He will be the father of twelve rulers, and I will make him into a great nation. 21 But my covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you by this time next year." 22 When he had finished speaking with Abraham, God went up from him.

Ok, so I'm not saying that Andrea and Matt are old...and neither are they. But what better way to honour God for His love and faithfulness to them than to name their son Isaac!

I am SO thrilled for these guys and I CANNOT wait to meet this little miracle, Isaac! Oh...did I mention that I had the priveledge of doing maternity pictures for Andrea?? I've posted just a few below. For more, please check out my fan page on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Tara-Collyer-Photography/125613657465024?ref=ts Andrea and Matt have done enough waiting for this moment and if you've reached this point in the post, you have too...go ahead and have a look!

Whole Lotta Shooting Goin' On

Things have been busy biz wise since my last post. In the span of just a few days, I photographed a grade 8 graduation (along with my amazing 2nd shooter, Andrea!), did a newborn shoot of 2 sweet, tiny little twin girls and did a family shoot. Of course this was on top of all the craziness we had going on in our lives with my hubby's cousin getting married tomorrow (our daughter is the flower girl) and all the normal family stuff. Crazy? Yes. But fun? Absolutely!

The grade 8 grad brought me back to my pre-high school years (the non-air conditioned, over crowded gym helped with that. haha!). I was so glad to have Andrea helping me out that night. I went from sort of squatting in the aisle to kneeling to fully sitting on the floor. My feet were a tad sore, but my hand and fingers....oh my! Honestly, I didn't get feeling back in my 'clicking' finger until about 4 days later and my hand is still slightly sore. With 64 grads and countless awards, the ceremony went for just over 2 hours and we were shooting pretty much the entire time. Here is a picture of one of the grads as well as a picture of him posing after the grad.



Doing the twins shoot was SO much fun! It was the first time that I had held either one of them and I couldn't believe how tiny they were in my arms. They were about half the size of my kids when they were first born and man it makes a HUGE difference! Posing them and getting them to go to sleep was interesting, but rewarding too. They were both such good sports about the whole process and I was really pleased with the pictures.

I still can't get over how tiny their feet are!


I had so much fun working with the family below doing their shoot. We started the shoot at their house and took some pictures of the kids with their favourite puppies (their dog just had 9 puppies!). Then we drove to a very versatile spot that provided a few different backdrops for some family and individual shots. I had a lot of fun working with each of the kids and figuring out how we could get each one to give us that 'real' smile. Here are just a few of my faves from their shoot.



As I mentioned earlier, we have a big wedding to attend tomorrow. It's been so busy with different events to do with the wedding lately that I almost feel like it's my wedding again! Tomorrow morning I'm going to get my hair done (which...when I think about it, hasn't been done since my wedding) and then I have to get Leah ready and to the bride's house to get her hair done. I am SO excited to see my little girl all prettied up and walk down the aisle as a flower girl. There will definitely be tears and lots of pictures of course! :)

Don't forget to become a fan of Tara Collyer Photography on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Tara-Collyer-Photography/125613657465024?ref=ts) to stay up to date with new pictures, giveaways, etc! You can refer your friends to using the Suggest to Friends tool underneath the logo in the top left corner of the page. Enjoy the rest of Canada Day!

Busy-ness & Business

The blog has been slightly neglected over the past few weeks. To say that things in my life have been busy would be a bit of an understatement. Every moment of the day it seems like there's always more than one thing on the go. As a prime example...right now, not only am I blogging, but I'm also watching Cake Boss on the Ultimate Cake Off (can you say YUMMY?!?), waiting for hubby to bring me some delish chocolate cake and I just got off the phone with hubby's aunt about her son's upcoming wedding. Phew! I'm SO glad that I've somewhat got myself organized (at least better than I was before) by using the calendar and reminders on my iPhone ALL the time. It has REALLY helped!

On top of life being busy, business stuff has been busy too. Recently I did pictures for a family of 11. Wow, that was a BIG shoot! And the biggest complication? It POOOOURED rain the day of the shoot. Thankfully the girl that organized the shoot is a church secretary and we sort of pulled together a 'living room' look in the gym. I was impressed that we were able to make it look like it wasn't so much of a gym. I've also been prepping recently for a big gig that's coming up in just a couple of days. On Thursday I'll be doing some 'before' pictures for my sister and some of her friends while they get ready for their high school prom. I honestly can't believe that my little sister is done high school and leaving me to go to school in Alberta! In addition to the prom pictures, I'll be dragging along a 2nd shooter to do pictures at a local grade 8 grad. It's definitely going to be an afternoon of non-stop running around, but I'm SO looking forward to it!

Tonight I realized that my little guy is almost 10 months old (on Friday) and because of being back at work now as well as dealing with typical home/life stuff, business stuff, etc. I haven't really taken the time to take pictures of him. He's growing up SO quickly (he stood for about 4 seconds tonight by himself!) and I don't want to forget all these little stages. So...while I was testing out my new little toy tonight (a flash!), I decided to sneak into his room and take a couple of pictures of my sweet boy as he slept. He has such funny sleep positions and I'm glad I was able to capture some of them - especially the way that he holds his blankie up near his face and that makes him fall asleep. Of course I had to sneak into Leah's room too and get some pictures of her sleeping as well. She's definitely a heavier sleeper than Josh. I love both of my 'babies' so much and I'm so glad that we have the technology now to take a ridiculous amount of pictures and remember these special moments. :)


My Leah's 'big' hands with her nail polish quickly fading away and sand in her nails from playing at the park. :)

My sweet Leah fast asleep after a great day with our amazing babysitter.

Joshy waking up in the midst of me taking his picture. Too tired to make a fuss though.

My baby boy sleeping in one of his random sleeping positions.

"Just Go With It"

Ok so maybe this is a bit of a weird blog title...but this has been a phrase that fits well with our family life and the last photo shoot that I did. :)

In our fam life, things have been a bit nuts recently. Back at the end of April we found that we were expecting baby #3 (seriously?!?! yes...I'm still trying to get over the shock). Did I mention that we have a 9 month old?? Hubby thought this was kind of funny because I'm kind of a control freak. He says this is God's way of teaching me that HE is in control and not me. I absolutely agree...I also think it's God's way of showing me that He's got a pretty good sense of humour. So what else can we do but 'just go with it'.

During the most recent family shoot that I did it was hot, hot, HOT! When the fam arrived I was informed that their oldest had spilled chocolate milk down the front of her shirt during the car ride down to meet me. Oh man! What a mess! haha! But...you 'just go with it'! Immediately I started to come up with different ways to hide the stain without it looking super akward. Thankfully their little girl was super good about it. On top of that, with the heat the kids were not so interested in sitting for a ton of pics. So again you 'just go with it'!

With me going back to work this past Monday I'm definitely learning more and more that I have to 'just go with it'. I still can't believe we're having baby #3...but I'm trusting that God's timing and His will are perfect and I'm just waiting (...although probably not so patiently sometimes) to see what He's got in store.


The whole fam jam trying to avoid lying in goose poop.

Big Sis & Little Bro

Thank you Holly & Justin (and of course your 2 cuties!) for the opportunity to photograph your fam!

Bridging the Gap to 100 Members!

A little while ago I had a contest on my Facebook 'fan page' when we hit 100 group members. Jen Temple was the lucky winner of this contest and won herself a FREE photo shoot for her family! Some poor weather had set us back a few times, but we finally got the shoot done - Yeah!!

Jen had seen my post a few weeks ago about the Anne of Green Gables bridge and requested that we go to that spot. I was all for it as I really wanted to check it out in person. All I can say is WOW! How cool to have watched the movies as a child and then to actually be on the bridge where they filmed the proposal scene?? It's definitely an old bridge (and in fact it was re-built a little while ago) but SO rustic and great!! It was definitely 'nostalgic' just being there. :)

Enjoy the pics!

Marketing4Moms Event

Yesterday I had the opportunity to attend an event hosted by Marketing4Moms. There were a few speakers (Leigh Mitchell from Marketing4Moms, Julie Cole from Mabels Labels and Andrew Patricio from BizLaunch) and lots of mompreneurs! What a great event! It was so awesome to hear about all the different marketing tools out there and how we should be using them to help build our businesses. I especially liked hearing from Julie Cole of Mabels Labels. Seriously...that woman is my new hero! 6 kids...1 with autism and she co-founded this AMAZING company! How the heck does she look so well put together, speak so well to a crowd, have a successful company and um...yeah...6 kids?!?! I hope to be just like her one day! Well, minus the 6 kids part. lol! If you haven't heard of these companies and organizations before, I encourage you to check them out:

Marketing4Moms - www.marketing4moms.com

Mabels Labels - www.mabel.ca

BizLaunch - www.bizlaunch.ca

On top of all this wonderfulness yesterday, I got to meet up with a fellow photographer who I have been following on Twitter (@jengphotog). We had lunch together and chatted about biz. Was lovely! :)