Ayla's Sweet 16 party was a blast! The Davenport in downtown Greer was a great place to be to celebrate Alya's birthday!
The Mardi Gras decorations were fabulous and the cake was stunning!
The birthday girl led the dancing party line around the dance floor!
The dancing continued all night long!
The night ended with letting the balloons go, and popping a few!
In a few weeks, I have the wonderful opportunity to shoot Ayla's Sweet 16 party. Back in November I posted a sneak peak for you. Ayla wanted her invitations to be a surprise to everyone when she handed them out after Christmas break. I don't blame her...I love surprises! Anyway, here is a copy of the invitation and some of my favorites from the photo shoot!
Okay, so some things I couldn't post on here before Christmas, due to the fact that they were going to be used as Christmas gifts. However, now I can!
I have to admit, I was a little worried when I got first email from a lady named Teresa wanting some pictures done for gifts. She told me she was a fifty-something year-old who is not very photogenic and wanted something of her with a red rose in the picture. So, of course right off the bat my mind is going crazy trying to think of what I'm going to do. I mean, I'm used to chasing little kids running around....having to lay on my stomach or whatever other positions I need to in order to get a great shot. Needless to say Teresa turned out to be great to work with and the pictures turned out wonderful! There was no need at all for me to worry! I hope that her family treasured their gifts, after all - you can never go wrong with giving pictures!
Here are my favorites...
It was great to meet you Teresa! Thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to create these special memories for you!
Okay, so I let my blog get WAY behind! I was slammed with pictures before Christmas and was busy getting those done so everyone would have their prints back in time to give as gifts.
Anyway, I will be working on posting my favorites from everything I've done since the last blog entry. They will all be below this post because of the dates the pictures were taken, so check back soon and often and look down below! There are a good many sessions I haven't posted on!
I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and a safe, happy New Year!
:0) Mandy
Today I did some head shots for Miss Brianna to enter in the Blue Ridge Middle School Beauty Pageant. Here are my favorites!
And of course, I can't do just head shots....we did some fun ones too! Here are my favorite non-head shots! :0)
Good luck at the pageant Brianna! I'll be there cheering you on!!!!
Today I was able to take some family pictures for the Austin Family. I have known them for about 12 years now, but don't get to see them often enough!!!! 
The "kids" had to have a little bit of fun!
One of these days I'm going to have to realize that I'm getting old. It make feel really old when my friend's younger siblings are grown up and have kids of their own. Creighton's dad and I were really good friends in elementary school. Octavia's mom is his younger sister. While Creighton's parent were home from Florida for Christmas, they came over to get some pics of the kids together. Here are my favorites:
When the kids won't be still on their own - bring the mommies in!
A small snack of Cheerios!!!!
Hey - they are both sitting still!!! :0)
It was great to see Mickey again after all these years! Creighton is so handsome! Meri - thanks for making me feel old!!! Octavia is such a beautiful girl!
It's always fun to take pictures and see how much babies grow in the time you haven't seen them. Irina called me and wanted to do some family pictures while her dad was here visiting from Russia. It was great to be able to finally meet him after hearing so much about him. I know he was overjoyed to be able to meet his granddaughter for the first time! Here are my favorites!
Irina - it was great to meet your dad! Please tell him and your mom hey for me the next time you talk to them! :0)
Although I don't post a lot of personal things on here I did want to share one collage I did in honor of a very special man. Steve, one of my driver's at work, was diagnosed with cancer a while back. He has gone through his ups and downs, being out of work for short periods of time, but not matter what, he never gave up the fight. He was so determined to get better and be back on the road. Unfortunately, God had other plans for Steve.
I wasn't sure whether or not to take my camera to his funeral. I was very hesitant - not wanting to upset the family, but I did want to remember to day and honor Steve in a way that I knew I could. So, trying to stay as inconspicuous as possible, my camera went with me. In the end, I'm so glad I took it. The collage I made is a reflection of who Steve was and I know that he would like it.
Here are just a few more of my favorites from Steve's funeral.
I hope that Ann and the rest of Steve's family find peace in dealing with such a great loss. He will certainly be missed!
Today I had the opportunity to do some portraits on the front porch of a family home. These pictures were done for the grandmother of the kids at her house. Of course the whole time we were worried that she would ride by and see us, but I think it's a wonderful idea....one that I wish my family would have done at my great grandmother's before it was torn down. I had a lot of favorites from this shoot...too many to post all of them!
I also got the opportunity to photograph Mr. D'Angelo Tyrese! He is the beautiful son of one of my co-workers. Here are my favorties of this precious little one.
Today I had the opportunity to shoot John and Julia....my twin cousins (or at least that's what I consider them). I think they are really second or third cousins! Here are my favorites!
I also went to our friends Eric & Amanda's house to do their pictures for their Christmas cards. Amanda's grandmother was also there, so we took one of her and Amanda too! Here are my favorites! 
