Amy, Who Loved Bowling

(As far as I know, Amy does not, in fact, love bowling. However, we did just go see a midnight showing of The Big Lebowski this weekend, which should either explain everything or nothing.)

I occasionally mention Amy on my blog and I know that everyone in my normal life (as opposed to my photography life) who reads this knows her, but in case you don't, Amy is my soulmate. Whereas Billy and I are sort of one of those "opposites attract" situations, Amy and I are ... well, loud. And we both laugh at the same things, maniacally, and can agree that we are, both individually and collectively, hilarious. And this is important in a good friendship.

Plus, she plans activities for my dog when he comes to visit.



Immediately after this picture, Billy told Amy that she looked awesome--like an In Living Color fly girl. Which led to her laughing, which led to an awesome picture that I loved and she hated so I didn't post it. It also led to many variations on the fly girl pose, with a "gang symbol" that means absolutely nothing ... but the first one was best.



This one is now Amy's Facebook picture, which is awesome and makes me feel a little famous. Also, I don't think I ever mentioned that I've been drinking the Facebook Kool-Aid (oooohhhh yeah!) for awhile now, but if anyone wants to be my friend ... that would be awesome!



I love this. The only thing about it is that I wish you could see it huge because the eyes are really fantastic. It's weird, people in pictures sometimes cease to be people to me and they become elements. Does that make sense? I know it used to happen to me in art class when I'd have to draw people too. Anyway, the mood of this is perfect to me.



Awww, and here's Amy at brunch! She was chatting with Billy and he's entertaining enough to keep her distracted, and I really liked this ... looks so natural.

These shots were fun for me ... we didn't really do that many and I pretty much just hauled my camera along as we went to the midnight movie and then the next morning for brunch. And it was nice of Amy to humor me. Plus ... everybody needs pictures of themselves, you know? I mean, it's 2008, everyone does everything on the internet--like I said, one of these has already migrated to Facebook, which is great. And besides that ... you get pictures taken when you're 18, and then not again until you're married. And in that time, you might forget how gorgeous you are. Nothing like foxy pictures to remind you.

Everybody be sure to comment. It keeps me motivated to keep blogging. :)

These sneak peeks are KILLING me!

Yeah, that's right, KILLING me, and I'll tell you why--it's because I want to just share a few to get you excited for the main event, but then I can't decide which ones to share because I want to show my favorites, but then I also want to save my favorites and let the suspense build. What is a girl to DOOOOOO? And I'm like, the most indecisive person ever. You should see me in the cereal isle.

But it's a good dilemma, right? Right! So on with it. :)

Okay, Lacey & Branson are ... AMAZING. And I am so serious and so sincere about that, and I am bursting at the seams with things to say about their wedding, but I really am going to hold onto those thoughts for the big blog post. So in the meantime, this is what you get ... and let me tell you ... when you see the ceremony and the bubbles and the first dance ... you will just DIE. It's glorious. I can't wait to share it.









SERIOUSLY!!!! Aren't you just falling out of your chair, waiting to see more? Luckily, I'm just as excited to share so as soon as they're ready, they're up! In the meantime, I've set up the gallery (with no pictures in it) on my Instaproofs site, so if you want to go over there and put your e-mail address in under Lacey & Branson's wedding so you can be notified when the gallery actually goes live ... now you can!

Dawn Marie & Brian at The After Party! (And later ... the hotel lobby? You decide.)

Is everybody ready for the what-for? Because it is this. I am tired of the old format of titling my blogs. It seems totally lifeless and tired, and that is so not me. Well, okay, sometimes it's me, but then I take a nap on the couch and get over it. And my blog just woke up to its phone alarm and MAYBE tried to go back to sleep but then got sucked into Wheel of Fortune, because hello, it KNOWS it could beat those people, the answers are SO obvious ... wait, what? Anyway, I think me and the blog are done with the Name: Event format.

Also, I've decided to call the pictures that we take in the dress, wherever they may be, whoever they may involve, and whatever the dress ends up looking like The After Party. I think it does appropriate justice to the absolute ball that we always have taking these pictures, and it has the added bonus of reminding me of that R. Kelly song. So yes, while it was never really that great of a song to begin with and it's gotta be like ... a half a decade old now, I still enjoyed it, okay? And I get the added little perk of humming to myself about "running her hands through my fro" while I blog.

Are you guys starting to wonder if you'll ever see any actual pictures? Yeah. Sorry 'bout that. Anyway, we've got Brian and Dawn Marie (DM), friends of mine and Billy's that you may remember from their engagement session at the art museum, or from the more recent story about the beta fish that I heroically rescued.



Okay, so here we are at one of the zillion fountains in their neighborhood (which I know the locals will recognize). The gray day was awesome for lighting, and I really love the sky in this one.



Gazebo, also in their hood. I love how Brian & DM are always playing around, and this session was super fun because they kind of knew what was up, since we'd done this once before and I think they were pretty comfortable, which I love and is so important.



Okay, I'm going to stop saying that things were in their neighborhood. EVERYTHING is in that neighborhood, which is why everyone loves it so much. It's a local treasure. Anyway, most importantly, I LOVE that look that girls get when they're amused by their boyfriends' goofy antics, which is clearly the look on display here. :)



DANCING IN THE STREETS! Who sings that anyway? Michael MacDonald? Did someone slip a terrible music pill into my afternoon coffee? (Answer: They did not. It's always like this. But I SWEAR I also like good music. I make a mean mellow mix, ask anyone.)

Back from the land of tangents, I loved this one for the cheekbones. :)



I went OUT OF MY WAY to get that incredible yellow car in this picture. I mean, it is just magnificent. Not quite as magnificent as Brian & DM, you know, but pretty freakin' fab.

Meanwhile, this is a good time to discuss how when I got to their place, they had made a bunch of little storyboard cards (Brian's in TV production, so this didn't shock me--maybe it should, though. I really have no idea what a producer does.) laid out on the ottoman of various poses that they wanted, and this one was totally on there. They were about the size and shape of Monopoly property cards, and I would just carry them around in my pocket and shuffle through, and this was actually really fun and totally cracked me up. :)



This is one of my absolute FAVORITES. In the words of Rachel Zoe ... "Die. I just died for this." Yeah, that's right, now that Billy's at school in the evenings, my penchant for trashy TV has been allowed to go wild. Dude. I am realizing that this post makes me sound like a person of no taste, but ... COME ON! Everybody has their things! And this glorious picture, I think, is proof that I have AWESOME taste, because I know some hotness when I see it!



DM likes to talk about how one of the engagement pictures I took will be the cover of her and Brian's country music album (a la Johnny and June). This time, we had a little more punk bride look going on, so I'm hoping this will be their Sid and Nancy cover. :) Minus all the lunacy and drugs and violence, of course.



So, so, so, so, so, so, SO freaking cute. SO CUTE! And you know what else I love? I love that the rain on the windows of the car just really adds something. Now, consider that I don't really think this picture even NEEDED a little "extra something", but it got it anyway, and I think that makes it special!



These pictures belong together. Like Brian & DM. It all comes full circle.



I LOVE this. It's incredible, I would love to see it huge, it's going on my website, and I want to show it off. I am so proud of this shot. :)



Dawn Marie is in law school right now, so this is kind of her life. I'm hoping she'll frame this and stick it on her desk when she's a fancypants lawyer. :)



This is also her life! Studying while Brian plays video games (and I bet she watches a little). They're so cute! I love this little slice of life (he was actually playing).



OMG. This beast was a labor of love. I've never put together one of these collages, but I should have known it would take forever, since I didn't really know what I was doing (shhh, don't tell), and I'm a total perfectionist (which is a nice way of saying OCD). But I think it turned out really good! They wanted pictures in their kitchen, kind of spoofing on domestic life, and I was so excited about the end result, and hopefully they were too. And I got to learn a new skill from it, so I'll be quicker next time I tackle the challenge. :)

Thanks again for playing with me, guys! I love this kind of shoot, and it was fun to get to experiment and be creative. Thanks for picking me! :)

Mindy & Chris: Wedding!

Yay! The event we've all been waiting for! I was excited from the get-go to shoot Mindy & Chris's wedding at Fountain Square Theater, because it was close to my house (before I moved, obviously), and I love Fountain Square in general, and I knew it was going to be a neat venue. As it turned out, it was also the hottest wedding in town ... LITERALLY. I mean, don't get me wrong, the FST made up for it in awesomeness, but it was sweltering in there, and that was with the AC going full blast. Sometimes these things happen with old buildings, you know? I really would have put it at 120 degrees, but Billy said it was probably more like 100 because if it was 120, old people would be dropping dead. And that did NOT happen, thank God. Also, if there are any old people reading this, sorry if you feel that was stereotyping you but I just really want to say how glad I am that you're still with us. :)

Anyway, all that to say that it was also one of the figuratively hottest weddings ever! I loved this one and loved the two shades of bridesmaid dresses, Mindy and Chris's AMAZING families (they were SO fun), and all the charm of the Fountain Square Theater. It was a good time. :)



I will never get sick of the shots of brides diving headfirst through their dresses, and the triumphant follow up when they make it out with hair and makeup in tact.



One of the things that I've really learned from doing so many weddings is that bridesmaids have a lot of jobs, but one of the most important ones is fussing over the bride, especially when she first gets dressed. I also never get sick of friends gathering around and admiring the bride and fluffing the dress. :)



OMG, she was SUCH a pretty bride.



It wouldn't be a Sarah Brown Downtown blog post without some sort of silhouette, now would it? Ha! But I liked this one of the bridesmaids heading down the stairs, this one holding her shoes.



The bridesmaids each carried one lily, which I thought looked really classy and pretty, and I loved the card box behind these. This wedding really had a lot of nice little details, which are always fun to photograph.



Like I said, it was hot! The groomsmen were keeping it cool and giving their jackets a little break before picture time.



The flower girls being ADORABLE!



Don't you just LOVE this? I thought those steps were one of the best features of the theater. This looks like a badass 30's movie to me.



Before the reception started, we took Mindy and Chris around for some pictures of just the two of them, and an obvious choice was the Fountain Square Diner, which I absolutely love. Also, as a sidenote, the cheese sauce there is to DIE for. It's like the kind you get from a concession stand, which may not sound that exciting until you realize how hard it is to come by in real life. And I should know--I am a nacho cheese CONNOISSEUR. Billy knew how much I love cheese sauce by the end of our FIRST DATE, people. It was so serious. We went out the next weekend and ended up at Steak 'n' Shake where I got some cheese to dip my fries in, and he told me that the first week is the nacho cheese anniversary, which I thought was hilarious and totally endeared him to me.



I LOVE the retro decor in there. I also love how when you take brides (and grooms, of course) to a public place, they get oohed and aahed and cheered. It's so fun and awesome and it's really like once in a lifetime. Although, I've gotta say I think the world might be a little bit better place if more often, someone walked into a room and the whole place cheered for no real reason. I mean, wouldn't that make you feel good?



I don't know if you guys remember Chris being a little camera shy during his engagement session, but he was a LITTLE nervous about the whole thing. But for the wedding, as Billy pointed out, he was like a different dude! He was hamming it up, requesting pictures of just him and Mindy, looking happy and comfortable ... he did GREAT, and he looks so handsome in all his pics! I was so proud. I mean, you could say that maybe he was just so happy to be marrying beautiful Mindy that he didn't have time to worry about having his picture taken, or that the bubbly champagne helped, or whatever, but if you ask me, it was because he saw how hot the engagement pics turned out and knew he had nothing to worry about! I would say that's my story and I'm stickin' to it, except that it reminds me of that country song that I never really was a fan of, so I'll just skip that.



Oh man! These fish crack me up! But okay, first of all, I love the pink fish. I think they're so fabulously gorgeous. Secondly, there were maybe only four or five of these centerpieces and I think they all went on the head table. But anyway, if you see the beta in there ... yeah, those like to fight, and I for sure before the reception started saw at least one pink "floater" fish, if you know what I mean. There were a few still swimming when I left, so I don't know, maybe they got more merciful betas.

Meanwhile, this is not the only beta fish wedding story of the year. Billy and I were at our friends Brian & Dawn Marie's wedding, and they had a few beta centerpieces. Our table had one, and these were in bowls by themselves. But the bowls were pretty shallow, and our fish was FREAKING the eff OUT. So I'm like all concerned for the well-being of this fish, like ... does it not have enough water, is it having a seizure, WHAT THE HECK? Well, finally I realized that the caterer had set the bowls on mirrors and the beta had seen itself and was trying to fight the "other" fish. I picked him up and put a napkin between him and his nemesis and all was well again. But I developed like a SERIOUS bond with this fish, because hello, I just saved his life!

The only thing was, the guests were supposed to take the fish home and I loved this fish but I didn't really want one because I hate having to care for fish. They just smell ... fishy. But I wanted to make sure he had a secure future. I'm pretty sure their friend Johnny ended up taking him home, but at least I know that DM is a serious animal lover, so I'm sure it's having a happy life SOMEWHERE. Somewhere hopefully not on top of a mirror.



Chris and the flower girls, which I just thought was BEYOND cute.



On their way to being announced! The bridal party waited it out for a little bit in the duckpin bowling alley, which is so completely cute and which, if you are ever bored in Indianapolis, I TOTALLY recommend checking out. They didn't actually bowl though, because they had more pressing things to do like, oh, I don't know ... THEIR WEDDING.



The cake! Soak up its prettiness now, because the next picture is ...



SMASHING! Seriously, it happened this fast. Look at how Chris and Mindy are a blur while EVERYTHING ELSE is in focus. (Seriously, I am all about the caps today.) And look at the look of pure joy on that boy's face! Downright devilish!



Ha! Don't you just wish you knew what was being said there?



Awww, and I love the fan in the background! It really came to the rescue. :)



Bouquet in the air! That's always such a feat and I was so proud of myself. :)



Oh oh oh! This picture cracked me up so much, and yes, I know it was of a kid crying, and no, I don't want kids to be upset or cry, but come on ... the look on that little boy's face is PRICELESS, and I just want to tell him how many more times in his life he's going to be standing there with a hysterical girl and not having a clue what is going on.

And poor Kendall, she was a trooper for most of the night, but she was SO sick of having her picture taken that by the end of the night, she would see me coming and just start crying. And it's just like ... I know, girl, and I wonder how many adults have that feeling on the inside when they see me headed toward them. :)



This kid made my LIFE! Look at all the trails of his arms and legs going as he absolutely BUSTED a move! He is a future heartbreaker in the making. You know how girls love a guy who can dance!



Me and Billy were packed up and out the door but the view of the sign all lit up against the night sky was too much, so I stopped and busted my camera out of the bag one more time, and it was so worth it. The sign is easily one of the highlights of the theater. :)

If you want to look at all of Mindy & Chris's pictures, go check out the gallery at http://sarahbrownphotography.instaproofs.com. As always, online ordering is available!

Alright, stick with me, folks! There's more coming soon!

Rachel & John: Engagement

Alright, everybody, get ready, because Rachel & John are HOTT. With two T's. Very, very hott.



We went to Eagle Creek for these, which was so great because I'd never shot there (LOVE new places to go), and I had no idea how many fabulous places there would be for pictures. I mean, any time you've got sand, you're off to a good start, I'd say.



Rachel and her mom are faithful blog readers (yay!) and as soon as I suggested a shadow picture, she was excited, which made ME excited! And don't you just love this little boat house? It was perfect with her dress and eyes (not that you can see those here, but it really was).



John is completely comfortable with the camera, which is awesome in a groom. You just never really know how it's going to go, and I think girls are just way more used to posing for the camera. But I can SO already tell their wedding pictures are going to be amazing.



Rachel has perfect Jennifer Aniston hair, which I'm not jealous of at all ... except I am, a little bit. :) But mostly I'm just happy for her that she has such perfect hair.



Not to even mention her perfect face! I'd be getting jealous again, except that I reminded myself that I get to take pictures of her again, and she's making me look good. :)



Oh, yay! I had so much fun with this one, and I love how even with the high contrast you can still see the cloud on the water. :) (I am very smiley-facey tonight. Maybe it's because I finally discovered a store up here that has my favorite sweet tea--it's Dean's, in case you're wondering, and if you're ever in Naperville and need some, Meijer is the place. Now I can stop dragging it back from Indy five gallons at a time, yay!)



Okay, so here John was skipping rocks, and it was so funny and cute because whenever he'd get one, Rachel would get totally excited and give him a hug and kiss. I laughed about how girls are pretty much always impressed by the same things at any age, and then lamented a little bit about how I could never skip rocks.

Okay, but then skip forward to a couple weeks ago when Billy, Amy, and I went to the dunes (on Lake Michigan, for those of you unfamiliar), and I found more skipping rocks than I could carry. So I decided to give it a shot and the first few were shaky, but then I TOTALLY got the hang of it, and was so impressed with myself that I spent the entire rest of the afternoon gathering and skipping rocks. It was easily one of the best days of my summer. Also, I have to tell on us and say that we found THE PERFECT ROCK ... it was huge and totally flat on one side and mostly flat on the other, and it would skip at least six times per throw. Well, it was easy to spot in the water, which was SO clear, so we pretty much played with one rock all day, AND THEN I picked it up and took it home so we could play with it again next time! Hahahahaha! I am so easily entertained, and we would all be perfect poor kids (assuming there was a body of water nearby).



This is one of my favorite engagement pictures EVER. It looks like it should be a poster.



Oh, man, and I just loved the simplicity of this one. As soon as I took it, I knew I liked it, and I don't usually know that fast. :)



Oh! I love this picture anyway, but this is probably a good time to point out that I accidentally stumbled across a new post-processing effect (which looks GORGEOUS on these two) that I really like and which I think gives the picture sort of an old-school film look. Like ... it almost makes me feel nostalgic, even though this was only a few weeks ago. Pretty wild!



Okay, now we are venturing REALLY far into the depths of nerddom, which is why I took this picture in the first place. So, I know not everyone is a Star Wars fan, and probably even less are Ewoks fans, but when I was a kid, I wore out my dad's Return of the Jedi tape because I loved the Ewoks so much, so my parents taped the Ewok movies off of TV for me, and I watched THOSE all the time. Eventually, I sort of forgot the details, but I always remembered that snake thing that jumped out of the tree at Mace and scared the holy crap out of me, and this tree TOTALLY reminded me of that.

Sidenote, years later, when the Ewok movies came out on DVD (one DVD for both, actually), my mom got them for me for my birthday. I think I was about 25. Anyway, I put them on one day while I was working on an art project and found myself quoting along with the entire movie, including Ewok language, even though I hadn't seen them in YEARS and remembered nothing about them at all. It was so weird. But isn't it cool what your brain can do?



Back to John and Rachel! In a boat! It wasn't in the water, but I really think you can't even tell, which surprised me.



John really wanted his own senior picture. :)



Oh man, there was a whole great little set of these. I have a feeling you'll be seeing them on my website one day, but this was my favorite. :)



These guys are so CUTE! Can't get over it.



Oh, yes! A little dramatic shot by the boats! Looking through these again, I am still just so amazed by how much variety there was for photos at Eagle Creek. Very fun.



John kept getting phone calls from his friend who was working on a car, asking for his help. Rachel kept yelling at him for answering the phone because they were getting their pictures taken, but I don't think she was really mad, and that's really sweet. :)



We waited around awhile for the sun to set, and we didn't really get much, but Rachel did spot this awesome cloud that we got some mileage out of. :)



This goose cracked me up. It was obviously "special", and kept walking around with its mouth open (which I have never seen a goose do) and drooling (ditto). He also had a foot that was bent backwards, and he would kind of limp and stumble around. The thing was, it was fat, so it clearly wasn't suffering or anything, and if you're going to be a special goose, I would think that Eagle Creek would be the place to do it.

Anyway, Rachel got really concerned about the goose, because while I had just assumed he was born that way, she thought maybe he was recently injured. Well, then I got worried and we had to go because it was making us too sad. This is so typical of me, I get so upset when things happen to animals in movies and Billy always has to tell me, "That _______ (fill in the blank animal) lives on a farm in California! He's a movie star and gets the royal treatment!"

Well, anyway, they dropped me off at my friend Dan and Nicole's house, who lived right across the street from Eagle Creek. I mentioned the goose to Nicole, and she instantly knew which one I was talking about. She said, "Oh, yeah, he comes over here all the time. He was just born that way." So I felt way better and thought about waiting for the blog post to surprise Rachel with the happy goose news, but then I realized I'd want to know sooner so I just went ahead and e-mailed her. And there again, isn't it funny the random things you connect with people about?



And finally, as many of my clients are, Rachel and John were willing to indulge my little "artist" moment while I took this picture, which also reminded me of Erin, because she likes empty chairs and how they're just waiting for butts to come sit on them.

Speaking of butts and sitting, I need to get off mine and go walk Flash and my Netflix to the mailbox across from the Wonder/Hostess outlet. Until next time.