The Root Photography Blog

Father’s Day

June 17, 2011 by Jensey 3 Comments

Happy Father’s Day to our blog readers! An extra special Dad’s Day to our own… :)

And to the love of my life, the father of my unborn children- Huck and I are the luckiest to have you in our lives. We love you to the moon and back times infinity. :)

First Look on the 1st : Jensey + Nathan

June 1, 2011 by Jensey 62 Comments

Welcome to the newest series on the blog: “First Looks on the 1st!” I’ll be featuring some of my favorite First Looks we’ve shot throughout the years along with thoughts from brides and grooms that have done it. :) I’m so excited that at least one out of every three of our couples are trusting us and opting to do this on their wedding day.

I know you often hear me “preaching” the importance of this First Look, but I do it because I LOVE you! There are so many reasons that this is important; it’s something I bring up from our first meeting with couples and gently suggest it at least one more time before working with our brides on their time lines. I take it seriously because it effects our job in so many ways. If you’re a Root bride, seeing your groom before the ceremony might be the best gift you could give to us.

Top reasons why you should see each other before you get married :

– First things first : The only reason this ‘rule’ was created in the first place was back when brides were betrothed to their husbands. The groom wasn’t allowed to see the bride before the ceremony in case she was ugly; waiting until the ceremony meant he couldn’t back out. You can read more about the origin here. Luck has nothing to do with it!

– The happiest, most emotional photos come out of First Looks. It’s just the two of you, Nate and I with long lenses, and you get to spend a few minutes of your wedding day alone. Just the two of you- Fancy that! :)

– I absolutely, cannot imagine walking up to the altar looking my best on my happiest day and not be able to hug, let alone talk to my groom!

– The ugly cry. Let’s be honest, ladies, you know what I’m talking about. If you’re prone to the ugly cry (that awful fighting-back-tears-and-failing-miserably-face), this really may be something you want to consider. You know… Getting it out of your system without 200 people watching. ;)

– It’s your wedding day. Spend it together!

– “Hide the bride” isn’t as fun as it sounds. Especially when we’re on a tight schedule.

– Your time line. Doing a First Look allows us to take care of the portraits of you and your groom ahead of time, along with 75% of your posed family photo list (we save extended family photos for after the ceremony.) With this being the case, instead of the ceremony ending and spending the next hour on photos, followed immediately by your grand entrance into the reception, first dance, toasts, and parent dances, you instead spend 10 minutes on family photos, enjoy your cocktail hour (remember all those drinks you’re paying for?!), and you get time to enjoy every minute of your wedding reception.

Ultimately it’s your choice, and I’ll still love you if you decide to not see each other first. Pinky promise. I mean… I do love our First Look couples a bit more, but we can still be friends. It’s cool. ;) And hey, if you aren’t getting married at sunset and can guarantee us 45 minutes for photos of just the two of you, ignore everything I just said!

Speaking from experience, though, this was my favorite part of our wedding day. I’d just gotten dressed and opened the door to see my handsome groom in the hallway. It wasn’t at all planned, and I had no idea Brian happened to be there with a camera! <3

Photo credit : The amazing Brian Adams!

Triplets, and Rhinos, and Bears (oh my!)

May 16, 2011 by Jensey 10 Comments

Now, before I get your hopes up, there are no bears in this post. :)

You may not know that Nate is the oldest of seven (7!!!!) kids. His half siblings happen to be triplets… The cutest triplets that ever lived! I love them for many reasons, the biggest one being how much of Nate I see in each of them. I mean, look at this face!

On our most recent trip to visit Nate’s family, we had a new adventure- We got the chance to take just the triplets out to dinner! I picked Macaroni Grill so that we could all draw on the table, but Branden would have none of it! It pains me to say this like you wouldn’t believe, but it was almost like he was too… *gulp*… old to draw on the table! :( Maybe it was seeing Nate get into it, but before long, he jumped in the fun as well. :) Natalia drew a spot-on portrait of me and Nate (as if you couldn’t tell!):

Katarina, my mini-me, practiced her long division. No, seriously:

I took advantage of the situation and got some swoon-worthy photos of my love and his siblings!

Not gonna be able to do this much longer!

We’re hoping to make this a tradition- It’s so rare Nate gets 3 on 1 time with the kids, and I know it meant so much to him to make sure they know how much we love them! <3 I can’t believe how fast they’re growing… When I met these little savages, they had just turned four years old!

Nate and I took turns teaching them some of our special talents…

Nate wins. :)

After sibling dinner, it was time for Lion Country Safari with my mom-in-law. For those of you not from Florida, Lion Country Safari is basically a zoo that you can drive your own car through. The animals walk right up to your car, like so:

This was the first zoo-like place Nate and I have been to since our trip to “real” Africa last summer, and well… I was pretty much fighting back tears the whole time. It’s so hard to see animals in captivity vs. their natural habitat. I think it’ll be a while until I’m up for another trip to a zoo. :(