Ted and Melissa
A Bachelor proposal leads to a beautiful Detroit wedding.
It all began when one of Melissa's clients, Joann Bidlack, happened to be one of Ted's patients. Joann tried more than once to set Melissa and Ted up. Melissa took a little convincing.
But after their first phone conversation, Melissa and Ted found out they attended the same church and from there a first date was arranged.
As coincidence would have it, on that first date they ran into Melissa's mother and that was how Ted met his future mother in law the very same night he met his future wife!
Fast forward and Ted knew he was in love with Melissa the night she scaled a 10 foot fence at a Michigan game. What's not to love about that?!
When Ted decided to propose he wanted to plan an elaborate occasion but his excitement got the best of him the day he picked up the engagement ring, and so while watching The Bachelor, he popped the big question.
But Melissa actually thought he was joking till she saw the ring!
And who says The Bachelor relationships aren't real?! ;)
Fast forward to May 20th, 2017 and here we all were celebrating the love and marriage of this great couple!
The eventful day started at Detroit Motor City Casino where the bridal party was getting ready. And that's where we also did the first look.
From there we jumped on the party bus and headed to the beautiful DIA.
And just as the rain started to sprinkle it was time for some images in the beautiful Detroit Public Library.
Then the party bus took us to Jefferson Beach Marina for the beautiful outdoor ceremony.
Though the temperature started to drop and the wind began to pick up spirits remained high as Ted and Melissa said their vows.
From there it was on to the the gorgeous Ovation Yacht for a 4 hour cruise.
The water was a admittedly a little rough with a storm moving in but the party rocked on! And the images underneath the Ambassador Bridge while Melissa and Ted danced under the darkening sky were incredible!
I'm not sure who had more fun, Ted and Melissa dancing or everyone who got to watch them. It was pretty great.
And after toasts, and dinner, the party and celebration continued on.
Thank you to Ted and Melissa Paquin for allowing me to share in your special day.
All the world loves a great love story. It gives us hope and fills our hearts with joy.
Here’s to a lifetime filled with joyful moments!
Much love, Nancy Roxanne
Thank you to the following people and vendors:
Second Photographer : Erica Hawley
http://www.infinityandovation.com/
http://jeffersonbeachmarina.com/
https://www.motorcitycasino.com/default.aspx
https://www.dia.org/
http://detroitpubliclibrary.org/branch/main
https://baranvideo.com/
Noa turns One
Recently I was asked to photograph little Noa's very first birthday celebration on June 7th.
It was just a low key day with good food and good friends who joined Noa's mom and dad and her 3 year old brother, Itai, for the happy occasion.
Making the day a little more extraordinary was that Noa's 'yaya' traveled all the way from New Jersey just to celebrate Noa's milestone. From the look of love on grandmother Sally's face you know she would have gone to the moon and back to be there :)
I wish sweet little Noa many more happy birthdays and for her to always be as loved and treasured as she was on this very first commemoration.
I've never seen a smiling face that was not beautiful.
Author Unknown
I had the pleasure of photographing two best friends back to back this weekend, Kate Stanko on Saturday in Chicago, and Nikki Katalinic on Sunday at Whilala Beach in Whiting.
The girls have known each other since kindergarten and they both graduate from Munster High School in just a few weeks.
But come Fall, their paths will go different ways, as the girls head of to different colleges with Nikki going to St. Louis University to study nursing.
With Nikki's bright smile to light the way I am sure she will find much success on her life's journey. She was a pleasure to work with and, like her best friend Kate, she was up for anything!
As you can see I was able to capture so many cool images of her--I hope you love them as much as I do, Nikki!
Good luck at 'SLU' ;)
Jewelry courtesy of: https://www.stelladot.com/sites/nancyroxanne
Big City Girl
Apparently this was Kate's second attempt at Senior images...her first attempt at a local beach at the beginning of her Senior year , according to her best friend Nikki, did not feel like Kate.
Because Kate, is a big city girl at heart!
This tiny girl with her love of the big city is headed to Purdue West Lafayette come Fall, where she will major in Elementary and Special Education. And while West Lafayette may not be a huge metropolis, Kate definitely sees herself finding her dream job in a large city after graduation.
After spending her entire school career in the Munster school system, Kate is just a few weeks away from graduating from Munster High School.
Good luck to you Katelyn as you begin your journey to fulfill all your dreams!
The days are long but the years are short...
My latest session with the Whiting family was a lifestyle session in their beautiful new home in Milford Michigan. In the stage of final touches, it was a definitely a gorgeous setting for an indoor shoot.
According to Wikipedia, lifestyle photography is "a style of portrait / people photography which aims to capture and document real-life events, situations, or milestones in an artistic manner and the art of the everyday."
I am truly starting to love lifestyle photography more and more. And while my passion has been outdoor location sessions, there is definitely something to be said for capturing the beauty of a 'day in the life' of a family in their own environment.
Always one of my favorite families, I have been photographing the Whitings since 2 year old Ashton was just an adorable little baby bump in Kiersten's slim frame.
Fast forward to the last time I photographed the family and it was around this time last year. Ashton was a sweet 16 month old, still very much a baby.
This year I found a little boy, just as sweet and adorable but definitely in the throes of what is commonly referred to as the 'terrible twos' lol!
When he is not mimicking and idolizing big brother Paul, age 7, he is antagonizing him. Of course, Paul, as a typical older brother, antagonizes right back! Such is life with multiple children--you may have 2 minutes of peace followed by 500 minutes of crazy. ;)
The days are long, but the years are short :)
When I first arrived at Paul and Kiersten's new home Ashton was just waking from his nap. So the session began with my documenting the ever so fun task of trying to dress a squirming 2 year old. There should be some type of parenting award for this, just saying!
From there we had our ups and downs, from little Paul wanting to be anywhere but taking photos, to Ashton wanting to run, and throw, and eat, and cry, and yell, and be two years old :D
And yet a couple of days later, when I sat down to go through the images and flag my faves for this blog post, I had an incredibly hard time eliminating photos, I wanted to post so many!
Real life, with it's good and bad moments, is truly a beautiful thing.
(Of course, throw in a gorgeous home filled with natural light and a family that looks like they stepped off the pages of a magazine, doesn't hurt either) ;)
Thank you to Paul and Kiersten for always welcoming me into your home, and lives, and allowing me to witness both the joyous and the not so joyous moments.
You are definitely a photographer's dream :)