All I can say about this shoot is OMG!!! This bride is the greatest! I remember her wedding day last year, it was absolutely fabulous….amazing flowers, gorgeous gown (she wore her mothers wedding gown), hilarious wedding party and perfect calm personality with both her and her now husband. I knew from the beginning we would be doing a Trash the Dress session, I just wasn’t sure when. A couple months ago we started planning her trash the dress session and I knew from the first conversation it was be fabulous! Her sister (whom I’ve also photographed a zillion times, wedding included) and her were planning the session and cc’ing me in all the emails they were sending back and forth….I read, painting, riding a bike with her husband, coffee shop, walking through the woods, next to the pond and the list goes on and on! As we got close to the day I was getting super excited about all of Elyssa’s ideas. We met at the new Vecino’s coffee shop downtown Muncie (check out that blog too~ they’ve got amazing coffee and a ridiculously friendly bar staff). Elyssa walks in the door in her dress, Erynne (maid of honor/sister) walks in behind her in her dress, Lisa (mother of the bride) is also wearing her dress from the wedding day! Wow, three gorgeous women ready and willing for me to get creative! We photographed around the coffee shop, photographed outside (not for long since it was 90 degrees out) and headed out to Elyssa’s parents home for the rest. As we’re driving along I see a little ways up a carnival on the side of the road~ oh that would be so fun!!! My mind is racing for all the cool ideas that are running through my mind. All of the sudden I see their turn signal flip on~ YEAH!!! She’s reading my mind!! We’re going to the carnival! So, we race out, buy tickets and try to figure out what are the best rides to go on. First, the Scrambler! I will add, for the record, I WAS ON the scrambler with the girls when taking all the images! Flying around, camera in a death grip, hair flipping all over crazy! We had a blast and honestly when the ride stopped and we got off, I had no idea if I was even getting images worth anything! I couldn’t even see what I was doing, just laughing clicking away…holding on for dear life! Elyssa and I ran through the fun house as well, letting all the little kids go ahead of us (who were thoroughly confused as to why there was a girl in a wedding dress getting pictures taken in a Funhouse)! After we were all laughed out and sweating from the heat we decided to head out to the farm for the last half of the shoot. Elyssa’s a painter~ so we photographed her painting a portrait of her husband, Josh’s a biker~ so we photographed Josh biking along with Elyssa on the handlebars! Check out the video to get a glimpse of all the amazing ideas we came up with!

I met Jamie and Andy last year at Samantha and Ryan's wedding.  Jamie was a bridesmaid and was a super fun girl to work with (actually all of Samantha's girls were pretty great~ we did an impromptu quick photoshoot for Juicy rock band...since all 3 members were in the wedding party).  Anyways, moving on....Jamie, Andy and I had already met and discussed their wedding so it was fun to get to work with them before their actual wedding day.  The next time we met was for their engagement session.  They met each other in Sbarro's on Ball State campus, so we found it only fitting to photograph their engagement pictures on campus and since it was about 90 degrees outside we stopped in Sbarro's for a quick cold drinkable prop  :)  After running around Ball State for an hour or so they changed clothes and we headed off to a downtown Muncie alley.   We photographed in the alley and beyond for a bit longer before the heat helped finish off the session~ gotta love Muncie in July~ either sweltering hot or raining~ I guess we got the better of the two that day for an outdoor photo session!  Hope you enjoy the video below!  After shooting their engagement session I know we'll get some fabulous images on their wedding day!  I'll see you two in October!

I remember the day I met Allison and her mother.  I feel like it was just a few weeks ago...even though there was snow on the ground. :)  They came out to my office to discuss the possibility of Kishel Photography shooting Allison’s wedding.  After a few minutes of talking to Allison I could tell every detail of this wedding was extremely important to her.  She has been dreaming of the fairy tale princess wedding and everything that goes with it.  I don’t know how to describe Allison exactly, in the few moments I was with her I could tell she’s a soft soul, she’s loyal, she’s devoted, she’s passionate and she’s committed.  After emotionally discussing her ideas, expectations and wedding dreams I stepped out of the room for her and her mother to discuss things.  To this day, remember the words and the inflection in her voice when she said to me after I walked back into the room…”I would love to have you photograph my wedding.”  Those words were so flattering to me~ I realized this wedding was the most important thing to her and the idea of being welcomed into such a special day was more emotional for me than I was expecting (yes, I was blinking really really fast to hide back a little tear).  So, fast forward a few months and now we’re getting ready to shoot their engagement session.  Steve is meeting us at the Fickle Peach, downtown Muncie.  It’s threatening rain~ which stinks since the biggest prop we’re using is his Harley motorcycle!  He’s not sure if he’ll be riding it, obviously worried that he’ll get stuck in the pouring rain.  As we sit waiting outside the Fickle Peach the thunder is rumbling in the distance, sprinkles are hitting us just barely and we’re seriously talking about rescheduling the shoot.  Just then, Steve pulls up, Harley (and the thunder) is rumbling so we stand up to make our final decision.  Another important place we were going is the Reservoir, which is where Steve proposed (it is already raining there).  Allison decides we’re all here, let’s just start and see what happens.  Actually it turned out really fun, we shot on the Harley, against an alley, near a couple cool old buildings downtown Muncie then headed out the take some pictures at the Reservoir.  We got out there just as the sun was setting.  The water was calm, there were clouds in the sky giving us a soft pretty glow across the water.  After a couple pictures out at the resevoir we called it a day and Allison and Steve road off on his bike.  I hope you two love your engagement images!!!  ’m  very excited for this wedding day to get here.  I know it’s going to be a gorgeous, romantic day!

Jackie, Ryan and I met out at Minnetrista for their engagement session.  Since their wedding is also at Minnetrista, the plan was to shoot the engagement session at Minnetrista and downtown Muncie.  I was somewhat aware of Minnetrista’s remodeling that is going on, but not too prepared for the amount of orange gates and cones all over.  Talk about a photography buzz kill trying to shoot around orange construction cones and construction equipment!  They could be very cool for a Trash the Dress shoot, but an lovely, emotional engagement shoot~ not so much!  We worked it out, they were both awesome sports while I was dodging cones and posing them around them while also trying to not let them show in the background of their images.  They were a fun couple, very sweet and very much in a fun, spunky way.  They met at work…classic story….he worked in loss prevention she worked on the sales floor… he ‘watched’ her from the sky and finally asked her out and they’ve been together ever since!  They were both amazing during the shoot~ he was very courteous and helped Jackie hop down from all the crazy places I asked them to go.   Just watch the video and you’ll see what I mean!

Last week I had the opportunity to photograph the best family.  I knew mom was a stylish fun girl so I couldn't wait to meet her husband and little girl...knowing they were going to be just like her.  The biggest thing I was looking forward to were the clothes!  I’ve been hearing all about these pillowcase dresses for little girls.  There’s some crazy patterned pillowcases that a talented seamstress….  Can transform into the cutest dress for little girls~ also available are the matching flip flops and matching hair bands, ties and barettees.  What a fun idea!  Reuse=Recycle right?   The little girl has one of these pillowcase dresses, white and black zebra pattern accented with hot pink!  The most stinkin’ cute dress I’ve ever seen.  I would totally wear on, if the pillowcase were big enough J.  Check out her four year old session (plus a few with mom and dad too).  Too fun!!  Makes me want a girl….sorta J  (not really yet, but maybe in a few years).