The Root Photography Blog

Lindsey + Derrick : Wedding Part 1

January 20, 2011 by Jensey 8 Comments

Oh, how I loved this wedding.

I’ve known Lindsey since the 5th grade. 6th, perhaps? Either way, she was truly one of the sweetest, nicest girls. One of those people who you always wanted to be friends with, because she just seemed like she’d be good at it. Every single memory of Lindsey in my mind has her with this giant grin across her freckled face, and that makes me happy. :)

Lindsey was about to send a retainer check to a Memphis wedding photographer, when she suddenly had the urge to check and see if we were booked on her wedding her day. As luck would have it, we were not only available, but moving to Nashville the week before her wedding! Timing could not have worked out better, as 4 days after moving into our new place, we drove to Memphis to shoot what turned out being one of our favorite weddings of the year. :)

Lindsey and Derrick met each other when neither of them were looking for a relationship. Their first meeting was the ideal blind date- They were set up through two mutual friends who convinced them to come to a group hang out – No pressure, and they were each secretly told that their friends thought the other would be a great match. Sure enough, sparks flew, and a year later, Derrick was whisking Lindsey off for a surprise trip to New York over Christmas where he popped the question… In Rockefeller Center, one minute before the tree lighting! I don’t think it gets much more romantic than that. :)

They truly had my second favorite First Look, ever… Second only to my own wedding day. :)

Lindsey and Derrick put so much trust in us – We were able to make their time line from scratch and carve out 45 minutes for portraits of just the two of them, plus all of their group photos before the ceremony. It was the easiest wedding day ever – After the wedding, the hard work was “done” and we all moved on to the cocktail hour and reception. :)

Lindsey was so darn gorgeous on her wedding day, I felt like I was shooting a celebrity!

Of course, Derrick isn’t hard to look at, either. ;)

I was so excited when Lindsey told me they were getting married at the Dixon Art Gallery in Memphis. I’d been on countless school field trips there, but had no idea how expansive the gardens were. It proved to be a giant playground for us and our cameras. :)

I loved how close Lindsey was with her daddy.

Have I mentioned that Lindsey and Derrick have the most adorable baby girl in the universe? Meet the most adorable baby girl in the universe, Grayson!

Cutest little family ever. :)

Click here to visit Lindsey and Derrick Wedding II. :)

Holiday Recap Part 1

January 18, 2011 by Jensey 10 Comments

I’m probably a little late in the game to tell you all about our holiday adventures, but it’s my blog, so I’m doing it anyway. :)

Our holiday season kicked off with our first trip to Hogsmeade. (The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios, for the rest of you Muggles!) I was beyond impressed.

There’s this moment when you walk through the entrance where your heart stops and for a second, you honestly think you’re there. Or, maybe that’s just me. :)

Many of our friends insisted we’d love the Forbidden Journey ride. Well, we went, and all I had to say afterwards was, “Do our friends know me? Have we met?” Because, seriously, Jenseys should never be allowed on such things. I pretty much thought I was going to die and was left feeling terrified and wanting to crawl into a hole and cry! (Nate loved it, but couldn’t shake the “fact” that some of the visuals were poorly focused.) I will give it another go at some point because it was an incredible attraction, but it’s gonna be a while. :) Flight of the Hippograph was much more my speed, sadly enough! I could have ridden it all day – It reminded me of Goofy’s Barnstormer. :)

We checked out Hog’s Head and tried our first Butterbeer, which we loved – For those of you that haven’t been yet, try the frozen kind, too! We didn’t think to and kinda regret it.

Nerds. :)

My favorite thing about Hogsmeade were all of the shops; I often feel like Disney World could be so much cooler if every building facade had an actual shop you could walk into, or at least doors that would open! (For example, I always hate the Streets of America at Disney’s Hollywood Studios and all the wasted space they have with the buildings there.) Anyway, Universal did a great job with this in Hogsmeade. We even almost missed a shop or two, not realizing the doors went to ‘real’ places. :)

Mythos, I love you!

Somehow we missed peeking into this restaurant on our last visit:

We made a quick trip to visit Nate’s wonderful family in South Florida –

Giving the little ladies their Christmas gifts early – I don’t think Gaby was thrilled at the fact that we gave her an American Girls’ Guide to Manners book as one of her gifts. I guess not all girls are into that kinda thing like I was when I was 11 – Whoops!

After almost 8 years of completely avoiding calling Nate’s dad by name (much harder than one would think!), I’ve finally settled on Dad. It just feels right. :)

I think someone shops for trees at the same place! The tree on the left is in Epcot, the one on the right was taken during our visit to Nashville’s Gaylord Opryland Hotel. It was our first time going there, and when we walked in, I thought meh? Pretty much just like Orlando’s Gaylord Palms… Then I realized we were only in one of the 6 wings. Crazy!

Our first Nashville guests came to stay for a bit – Surely you all remember Jessie & Nick!

Jessie is Huck’s BFF. Not that you can tell or anything… ;)

Sadly enough, I don’t have any photos of the most exciting / terrifying part of our whole entire year – The drive we took from Nashville to Gatlinburg. What should have taken 3.5 hours took close to 9. We drove our PT Cruiser on the iciest roads I’ve ever driven on… After however many hours of hydroplaning and honestly thinking we just weren’t gonna make it, we somehow did. I’ve never been so happy to reach a destination as I was when we finally pulled up to our cabin. It made the view that much more impressive after being so close to death!

The next day, we went s l e d d i n g! A first for both of us. :) Yes, that’s Nate sledding with a Flip Camera in his hat. ;)

Part Two is up next! :)

Rebecca + Matias : Wedding

January 14, 2011 by Jensey 8 Comments

Can we just take a minute and talk here? Where the heck did last week go?! I mean, I know it was just here- with me. I was sitting with it at my desk and telling it my big plans for the year, one which very specifically included me promising four blog posts per week and then- Wha?! It’s Friday? Of NEXT week?! 2011, you need to s l o w do w n!

I am sorry for being MIA. I wish I had a better excuse, but I was busy getting a jump on birthday gifts for the year, soaking up the Oprah Winfrey Network, and catching up on the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. :)

So, as you should remember from their engagement session, Rebecca and Matias flew us to Chicago to capture their wedding day in Geneva, Illinois. We started the day around Rebecca’s parent’s home, where we were met with a very sweet videographer, Jen Moon of Northernlight Filmworks, and a very pretty wedding dress. :)