Monthly Archives: April 2015

Hi everyone, I am Ashley from Words About Waverly.  I am married to my high school boyfriend, we met in Math class at Cox High School fifteen years ago!  We have a daughter, Waverly Maye, who is as sweet & spunky as they come.  She is the absolute love & center of our lives, and we are thrilled to be adding to our family again, we are expecting baby girl #2 in early June!  I work as a Fashion Marketing teacher and love all things style, design, & any kind of celebration.
Brooke Tucker Photography
First, I am truly honored to be guest posting for Brooke & so thankful to be working with her!  Brooke has certainly become a special part of our lives as she has captured so many special moments with our family & will continue to with our maternity, birth, & newborn pictures in the months to come!  We absolutely adore her, not only is she beyond talented as a photographer but also truly cares about her clients, something that means so much to us.
Brooke asked me to share some tips on dressing for family photos today, one of my very favorite things to talk about!! 🙂  I majored in Fashion at Radford & have loved style for as long as I can remember.  I believe that no matter what your personal style is, you should own it & be proud of it, it really is such a great reflection of you.  Personally, I do my best when I feel my best, & that’s when I
 am wearing clothes that truly feel like me.  With that being said, I have always shopped on a budget, I don’t feel that you have to spend thousands of dollars to look fashionable.  I invest in a few pieces that I know won’t go out of style & that will grow with me, and try to do the same when shopping for my daughters.  Of course, all of this applies when it comes to family photos, the moments when you undoubtedly want to feel your absolute best!  I thought it would be fun to pick some outfits for a spring shoot, the perfect time of year for pops of bold, bright colors.
When choosing outfits for any family shoot, I always try to coordinate rather than dress us all exactly alike.  This can obviously be done easiest with color, I think a great guideline to stick to is no more than three!  I usually will pick one piece I love as a starting point for inspiration & then go from there, it’s usually a piece for either me or my daughter since my husband tends to like classics & neutrals.  I love prints but usually will only pick two, stripes & florals can be fun paired together in a shoot but can also get overwhelming really quickly.  Remember, you want the people to be the focus of shoot rather than the clothes, the fashion will simply enhance it all! 🙂
As I mentioned before, your choices in clothing should reflect you, & that truly is the case when it comes to family photos that will hang on your walls or that you will back on for years to come.  I chose a couple trendy pieces for me & my daughter because that’s what we would wear in our real lives, but I know never to do that for my husband because simply put, he never would any of that. 😉  Being comfortable is the key to beautiful photos, especially family ones since they represent your true relationships with each other & all sides of your personalities. 
I hope this is helpful to someone, & that choosing clothes for any shoot is a fun process rather than an overwhelming one.  I am always happy to help or answer questions about styling (for anything!), my email is akwright@vbschools.com.  Thanks again to Brooke for having me & giving me an opportunity to talk about one of my passions!
XO

Sometimes we ALL get caught up in our daily lives!  I am guilty of this in the WORST way ya’ll!

Case in point:  I’m a photographer, I capture stories for a living!  I tell people ALL the time that Perfection is better than perfect and to just LIVE YOUR STORY!  Capture it because it is our legacy.

Then what happens… this past weekend we took Linc to our little farmer’s market state fair and Tuck asks me as we are walking to purchase tickets..why I didn’t bring my camera with me!

Serious mom fail!  Serious photographer fail!  Serious practice what you preach fail!

BUT this is the other thing I have to remember… give myself some grace and do better next time~!

What happened to me this weekend was what happens to ALL of us most of the time these days.  Life just happens as it does these days in it’s rapid pace, especially for us as moms!  (Amen sista friends right?!)

I know there are 24 hours in each day but goodness sometimes I don’t know where those hours, especially on the weekends!

I want to pack in so many meaningful minutes when we have all of our family together that somewhere in between making my boys eggs and a family breakfast, to playing cars and trucks and getting everyone ready for the day and out the door to actually enjoy our plans somehow it’s already late afternoon and evening!

Somehow the time just flies by and although I know we spent it together, sometimes I wonder where that time went!

These are the moments that I long to have and to savor and spend a little more time IN!  These are the moments when I am thankful I have my camera, heck even my iphone camera will do!

As much as I love those weekend days and those big fun family events that we plan and enjoy and those first moments we have;  I also have to remember that it’s the every day seemingly mundane moments that also have weight to them too!

Those moments… those very real moments also matter!

In fact, some day those moments might even matter MORE than the other moments.  Those moments that are quiet every day moments that might seem silly now or even overlooked.  Those moments where our little ones might play by themselves, color or enjoy the things they love the most.

It’s these every day moments as a mom that we should be taking a time out to enjoy and capture!

I think this is why I love lifestyle photography so much!  It takes these every day moments and turns them into something special!  It takes these every day moments and holds on tightly to them so that some day, when those little ones aren’t quite so little, we can visit those moments again and again!

Those every day moments can turn into traditions passed down from generation to generation!

I thought about this the other morning as Linc was quietly playing in our foyer with his favorite tractor.  I thought about how I have millions of images of him on so many wonderful adventures.  I have images of us together as a family laughing and goofing off and just being us!  I have images of him as a baby just being a baby and I realized somehow along the way I forgot that these real moments of him just playing in his own little world are so incredibly important!

I got caught up in this amazing world of toddler go and do!  It’s so fun that we can take him everywhere now and go and do without the worries of nap time or changing diapers.  It’s amazing that he loves to explore and is pretty much game for anything!

What I will always cherish though as a mom and really need to document though, are these quiet moments of his reflection and his own little imagination.  Moments where it is just him and his favorite toys in the middle of the room!

It doesn’t matter if the image is perfect.

It doesn’t matter if the light is the best or the composition is on spot!  It doesn’t matter if his hair is matted or if the image is slightly crooked.  What matters is that it is documented!

So if you have a moment today, tomorrow or this week… take notice of your little ones!  Take a moment to just capture them in their own little world so that you have it forever!  Take a moment to capture a real moment today because it matters!

This past Friday I had the most wonderful morning!

I had the honor of photographing one of my old friend’s from high school and his family!  I love how this “job” connects me with those that are dear to me both old and new!

I hadn’t seen him since graduation and it was so amazing to catch up with him more than 10 years later!

In fact, it was beyond amazing!

Neither one of us had really changed on the outside.  We both look exactly as we did when we were in high school, which let’s just say that’s something we have been blessed with!  I think you could say (at least I can) that we both ended up doing what we love!  We both ended up in fields that could have been easily predicted based on what we loved in high school and what we were “into” and “good at”.  I think we have both been incredibly blessed!

What was so wonderful for me though was getting to see my friend with his wife (who by the was is just incredible!) and his new son!  I was able to see the life he has built for himself and THAT was a gift that I will always treasure!

These moments.. these tiny snippets and peeks I am able to share with my families are so incredibly special!  It might seem silly  when I talk about it but ya’ll… I can’t ever express it in words how much I value each session and appreciate what a gift you guys are giving me in allowing me to take part in just a portion of your day!

I met my old friend and his family down at the beach for their son’s first beach picnic!  FIRST!  I was able to capture baby’s first smell of the wild ocean air and feel that salty breeze on his face!  I was a part of that family experience when they placed his tiny, perfect, baby toes in that warm sand!

I will never ever forget those moments!  They will always be a story on my friend’s heart and they will always be a story on my heart as well!

This is how we leave our legacy!  Your stories become OUR stories!  Your life leaves an imprint on my life and my heart!

Those stories are then told again and again and they begin to develop such a depth to them and breathe a life of their own!

Let your life breathe stories of truth and beauty and a life well lived!  A life lived in the moment with laughter and grace!  A life with passion and curiosity and adventure!  A life lived from the heart and not for perfection!

This is how my friend lives with is beautiful family!  I am beyond blessed to know him and even more blessed to have shared in some special stories that I can not wait to share when they come back again soon!