Stefanie, April and I had the chance to photograph in beautiful St. Augustine last month. I love St. Augustine and it’s old streets. Stefanie and I had the chance to take a few shots around town for her bio page, which is coming soon. You can see the blog post from our session here.

Megan and Garrett tied the knot at the gorgeous Casa Monica. Everything about Megan and Garrett’s wedding was planned out… even down to what the guests would wear on their feet at the reception! Megan had stunning details ranging from the monogram on her shoes to the napkin holders at each place setting. Let’s just say it was the smoothest wedding we have ever photographed, we were early for everything!

You might remember Megan and Garrett from their Engagement Session in April. Take a look at some photographs from their wedding:

I woke up in the middle of the night before the big event with a worrisome feeling. Usually the night before I photograph anything I am a bit uptight. I double check my gear and make sure that the batteries are in their chargers ready to go for the next morning. I woke up that night worried because: a. I had to wake up at 6 am ( I am so not a morning person) b. I had no idea what to expect from the event c. It was to be my first time photographing at the huge Amway Arena

I got to the Amway Arena bright and early at 7:00 am. The last time I had been up and ready to go that early was right for an early flight out of Key West to San Francisco to photograph Rachel’s wedding. It was a strange feeling being ready to go at 7am… at least I had coffee!

Audrey who is the PR director for A Gift For Teaching asked me to photograph their birthday bash at the Amway Arena. One thing that most people don’t know about me is that I love volunteering… you don’t really have to twist my arm to get me to do something photography related while helping out the community at the same time. Oh no… the secret is out.

A gift for teaching is a nonprofit organization that provides classroom supplies to teachers and students in underprivledged schools. The school supplies that they distribute goes to help students have the ability to learn without worrying about not having adequate tools.

A Gift For Teaching invited public school teachers in Central Florida to enjoy a day of celebration before the busy school season starts. They brought in the wonderful Ron Clark an amazing speaker to inspire local teachers. Ron Clark was hilarious and very inspiring. He told his story about going up to Harlem and his experiences as a teacher there. I am so glad that I had the chance to hear him speak.

I had the pleasure of photographing Janaye and James a few weeks ago. They are getting married in November... of next year. They are early planners! I can't wait to photograph their wedding as I am sure that it will be a blast.

James is actually the brother of a good friend of mine. Thanks Alexis for the referral!

Janaye and James are also in the creative field. Janaye is currently in school for Graphic Design while James is going to school for Digital Media. They were so trusting during the engagement session because of their creative backgrounds... it was so cool to have that kind of trust from them.

Take a look at some photos:

Jackie and Chris were married on a rainy day at Leu Gardens on July 12th. The day started out rainy but turned out beautiful just in time to do their portraits after their ceremony. The father of one of my closest friends officiated Chris and Jackie's ceremony.

We had so much fun going around Winter Park taking photos. It was such a perfect wedding! Everything went off without a hitch. It did rain a bit but that didn't spoil the day at all. In fact, I am sure Jackie and Chris will have good luck because it rained :)

Jackie and her girls got ready at Dawcher's which is right upstairs from one of my hangout spots, Cup O' Soul. I am so glad they got ready there because now I hang out at Cup O' Soul all the time. It is a great place to work :)

This is a pretty one of Amy, who was in my own wedding two years ago.

I think this might be my favorite image from the day...

...or this one...

... or this one...

...or maybe I just love them all...

You gotta love those crazy best man speeches.

Jackie and Chris had their reception at the Winter Park Farmer's Market, which is right in the heart of historic Winter Park.

I am so glad to introduce our associate photographer, Stefanie!

She sent me over her intro to this blog post today, and I was floored. She is such a sweetheart. She is a beautiful person inside and out. Stefanie has been such a great part of HA! Photography for over the past year, and I am so excited that she will be taking on her own weddings through HA!

Here is her intro :

"It is an incredible honor to introduce myself as an Associate Photographer for Heather Ahrens and HA Photography. It's hard to believe it has been over a year since Heather and I first met at Zack Arias' OneLight Workshop in Orlando. We bonded over F-stop's and Off-Camera Lighting, and by the end of the day I knew she was the kind of person I wanted to have as an influence in my life. Not to mention that I was just a tad bit jealous that she had been able to make a living by staying true to her passion- and she is younger than me!! But when she called last year out of the blue to ask if I could assist her on a wedding, I jumped at the chance and haven't looked back.

The knowledge and experience I have gained in my time with Heather is priceless. She has taught me to see people for who they are and shown me how to make that come through the lens. Thank you Heather for believing in the work I do and for making such a grand impact on my life! I am so excited to be able to expand the work of HA Photography to a larger market and to be a part of a business that makes you smile." -Stefanie

Here is some of her amazing work:

Two weeks ago I had the pleasure of photographing Jackie and Curtis' wedding in Celebration. Celebration is such a cute town! If you haven't been there you should check it out.

Jackie and Curtis had a beautiful reception at the Buena Vista Palace, one of my favorite places to photograph. I absolutely love Angela the wedding event specialist over at the Buena Vista Palace.

Jackie's Father gave a wonderful speech thanking his wife for all of the hard work that went into planning this wedding.

As we drove to St. Augustine on April 26th I remember thinking, "so why exactly did Katie bring her mom?" I knew Katie and Bryan have a very close relationship with her mom, I just never had anyone ask to bring their mom on an engagement session. Later I found out the reason.

On the way home from Katie and Bryan's engagement session, Katie's mom and I sat in the back seat talking about life and where Katie and Bryan were going to live after their Winter Park wedding in November. That's when I found out she was a real estate agent, and the wheels started turning in my head. We spent the rest of the 2 hour car ride home talking about the housing market and what the prices looked like around Orlando. It dawned on me, 'maybe we can actually afford a house'.

That evening I came home and told Dave, "I think we should go look at houses tomorrow." After telling him about the discussion that had taken place on the ride home from St. Augustine he agreed that it would be a good idea to start looking at houses. Little did we know what the next few days would bring!

We made a slight change to our usual Sunday routine consisting of late morning and lazy afternoons, and took a look at houses in the Lake Nona area. We knew that there were several townhouse communities in the process of building and thought it would be our best bet to get a feel for what was out there. We were right! We must have looked at about 10 model townhouses that day. We left feeling very excited as there were several places that we liked in our price range.

Monday I spent the whole day looking at townhouse communities online and found some very close to Dave's office in Winter Park. We decided to check out one of these communities that evening. I didn't expect that this would be the day that we would find our house.

We walked into the leasing office and met Josh the sales associate. He took us through the model house then over to the newly built townhouses down the street, they were so new that they didn't even have carpet yet. After walking through all of them, we narrowed it down to one that we really liked. Dave and I both felt it as we walked out of the office and to our car, 'this could be the one'.

Two days later we signed the contract for our house! Only a month later we moved in!

Two weeks ago we had an open house for our wonderful friends to come and see our new digs. Here are some photos from the party :

Thanks Stefanie for taking those first few!

mmm... Puerto Rican Cigars

Thanks Becka and Nate for these photos!

"I dare you to eat all of these crackers without drinking any water"

I just got these super cute Brag Books in this week! I can't wait to order more for our gallery. I made this one to put on display at The Courtyard at Lake Lucerne, which is my favorite place to photograph weddings.

These Brag Books make perfect gifts for parents. If you would like to order one from your wedding or engagement session you can do so here: www.heatherahrens.com/photocart

They are 5"x5" and hold 30 of your favorite images. They are small enough to keep in your purse and take with you.

Jackie and Chris are so completely in love. I can't wait to photograph their wedding in just 10 days! Ever since their engagement session last week I have been counting down the days until I can see them next. :)

Jackie is a good friend with Amy, who is a very close friend of mine, but somehow we didn't meet until she decided to book me for her wedding. It's cool how connected we are in the world.

Here are some of my favorites from that day:

I usually like to get my day started with a cup of starbucks coffee that I brew at home. I was so excited to use my new tea cups, yes tea cups, for coffee this morning. We had an awesome housewarming party last night at our new townhouse. Post to follow later today :) Thanks for all who came out! It was so much fun!

Alexis gave me a set of these fabulous teacups from Anthropologie. Oh how I love orange.

HA! Photography is excited to bring you new options for presenting your collection of images.

We are now offering frames! Each frame comes in black with a white matt. Framed pieces start at $125.

Are you looking for something great to hang on your bare walls? HA! Photography will help you create a custom gallery from your wedding images to hang in your home. Each collection can come either framed or as wrapped canvases. Collections begin at $1000.

Since we just moved into our new Residential Gallery, we are also in the process of creating our own custom collections to hang on our walls, and let me tell you it is so much fun! We just created a new collection to hang in our gallery that will be installed on Thursday! I will post photos when we get it up.

What's all this talk about our residential gallery? Well, you will find out soon enough. We have some big things coming to HA! Photography that I am bursting at the seams to tell you about. Soon enough you will know :)

Want to have your own collection? Set up an appointment with Heather to go over your options. You can call her to set up an appointment at 407.493.8211. Collections are only available in our gallery and can't be ordered online.

Karlene and Micah had their ceremony at the same church that Dave and I go to, Summit. I cannot say enough good things about this church. We absolutely love going there. It was so cool to finally photograph a wedding at the church that we go to. They had their reception at the Historic Dubsdread, the same place my parents had their reception 27 years ago.

Micah and Karlene are the sweetest people. Their genuine love for each other comes out beautifully in the images I was able to capture for them. They had their first look at their collection this afternoon in our new 'Residential Gallery' (aka townhouse). It was very cool to witness their reactions when certain photos popped up on the screen.

Here are my favorites from their wedding:

I had the opportunity to photograph Jamie and Bryan's engagement session a couple weeks ago in Sarasota. Jamie is an amazingly talented photographer in Fort Myers. You can check out her awesome website at: www.jamieleephotography.com I feel very honored to be photographing their wedding early next year.

Jamie and Bryan are so cute... and so in love!