Spring Mini Sessions - Dayton Photographer

Emily's Session Sneak Peek - Columbus Photographer

Emily was a really great model. She just so happens to be my cousin so sometimes I ask her to do crazy things like, "hey Em, can you lay upside down on these stairs, and look up here at me?" or "I know it is freezing cold but can you just think warm thoughts and take off your coat?" and even the "jump in the air, spin in circles, and don't forget to look like you are enjoying every second." And you cannot forget the "laugh for no reason at all please..."

We had a great time hanging out and running around all over the place. It was about 40 degrees outside so I did treat her to some hot chocolate to make up for the craziness. She did a great job and I think next time I will visit in the spring or summer and do this again when it is warm outside. Many then we can talk her little brother into some pictures too. :-)

I have several more that I will be posting soon, "like" me on Facebook to know when more are posted:

www.facebook.com/cmariesphoto

Taylor & Seth Engagement Sneak Peeks - Dayton Wedding Photographer

So I have so many favorite shots from Taylor and Seth's session yesterday. I will have to post more just as soon as I get a chance. They are so in love that I swear the pictures just show their love. They were brave and a ton of fun, exploring Downtown Dayton. Which honestly is so cool, I really hope that someday it can come back to life, I can just imagine how crazy awesome it was back in its time.

So many more to come of Seth and Taylor so if you want to see when more are posted "like" www.facebook.com/cmariesphoto and/or follow me on twitter at cmariesphotos

Couple's Contest - People's Choice Voting OPEN.

Ok everyone.....the entries are in and now its time to vote on your favorite couple. 

How do you vote?

1) You may comment on this blog post with the couple's number and/or names 

{NOTE: When posting comment, PLEASE select (Name/URL) and type your name.}

2)Find my Facebook page, "like" it please, and then comment or like the couple's picture

Winner will receive a couple's session and a $200 purchasing credit!!

Couple #1 - Kayla & Jordan

They are getting married May of 2013. 

"We met my sophomore year of high school because of mutual friends and from being in the Brass. I had wanted to ask Jordan to Homecoming because I thought he was a cute Junior, but he ended up asking another girl, so I was salty, but at Homecoming we ended up dancing together and I was pumped. Then a week later he asked me out after band practice and we became boyfriend and girlfriend, that was 5 years ago."

Couple #2 - Ellie & Jeremy

"My name is Ellie, and my Fiances name is Jeremy. We first started talking in July of 2010. We had a mutual friend on Facebook, and I saw his picture and couldnt resist. I added him as a friend. The next day he was online and my friend dared me to Instant Message him with a corny pick-up line. Not wanting to be a coward, I wrote him and said

"Do I know you? If I do, I'd like to better. And if I dont, I'd like to" His reply was " I dont think you do, but your smile is beautiful." We started texting, but I left for a missions trip in August, and when I got back the very first thing I did was text him. Much to my surprise he didnt know who I was. I was so embarrased that I didnt text him back when he asked who I was. I should have known then he was going to be stubborn because he kept texting me until I replied. Come to find out he had gotten a new phone while I was gone and lost all his contacts.

We quickly hit it off, but we live an hour and a half away from each other. So we'd flirt via text messaged, but we both knew we'd never meet.

One night I was supposed to go on a double date with some friends and this guy I'd liked for 3 years. Unfortunately, but yet so fortunately, he stood me up. My friend I was with saw how upset I was, grabbed my phone and called Jeremy. We got directions to his house and made our way out there. It was only and hour and a half away, but I was so nervous it took me almost 3 hours to get there.

We just clicked. We watched movies all night, but we were so caught up in eachother that we cant even begin to tell you what we watched. I went down to his house a couple times that week, and he'd ask me every night to be his girlfriend. I didnt think it'd work because of the distance, but after him asking four times I said yes.

I didnt think we'd make it a month, because of the distance, and we had both just gotten out of bad relationships. His ex had cheated on him... with his best friend. And my ex broke up with me and said I wasnt special enough.

Much to my surprise, we made it past our first month, and our second. We've been together a year and a half, and are getting married in May:)

He truely is better than Prince Charming. He's my one and only. So whether you pick us or not, I love sharing our story, and I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed living it."

Couple #3 - Lauren & Cory

"My Fiance, Cory Allen, and I have known each other for a long time. When we were two Cory moved in across the street from my family's house in Lebanon. Our moms became good friends, so Cory and I were always outside and over to each other's houses playing. Unfortunately, when we were five, Cory's mom passed away suddenly, and Cory, his dad, and brother moved to a different city; i truly thought that I had lost my best friend. For the next twelve years of my life, I would think about how he was, where he was, and what he was like. And after twelve, long years, we saw each other at a marching band competition our senior year of high school. We started talking over the computer and phone, and then started meeting in person. After the start of both of our freshman year of college, we started dating and he proposed on October 21, 2011; in my favorite season, by carving "marry me?" into a pumpkin. We have our date set to be married in Lebanon, down the street from where we first met as kids, on August 10, 2013."

Couple #4 - Courtney & Levi

"Levi's cousin invited me (Courtney) to play volleyball at Bluffton college on a Sunday afternoon. It was odd because I hadn't talked to Levi's cousin Luke since I was in highschool but decided it sounded like fun so I attended. Levi happened to be there but we were put on opposite teams. He was being incredibly loud and obnoxious and I was being very quiet. My first impression of him.....good looking but if he's gonna yell and carry on like he is I'm not interested. His first impression of me......holy cow she's good lookin (Levi's words), but there's no way she's ever going to talk to me. As you now know, we were both very wrong about eachother....and thankfully so ; ). 

First Date: Levi came over to my house and we washed our cars. We had some good conversation and laughs and the event ended in both of us soaked and drowning in bubbles from spraying eachother with the garden hose and throwing buckets of soap on one another."

Couple #5 - Harley & Christian

"We were both church kids. Christian was a preacher's son and I was a Sunday School teacher at fourteen. As fate would have it, his father's ministry and mine intersected one summer for a Vacation Bible School program. The church was swarming with kids - kids I would end up teaching. It was terribly hot, we were short on volunteers, and I'd never been more busy in my life. The volunteers that had shown up were strangers to me. I was working beside people I had never spoken to in my life, but help was what I needed as overwhelmed as I felt.

My frustration was reaching its peak at the end of the Tuesday service and I thought I was gonna have to take a Wednesday break, when Mr. Phil - a stranger whom I had heard of before - asked me a simple question. This question changed the course of history. As I was walking out the door and I heard, "How old are you?" I replied with a smile, "Fourteen." He explained, "My son is fourteen too and he has a BIG crush on you." 

I walked out those doors in a shocked state of being. Who WAS this man's son? In the back of my mind I hoped it was Christian... I had seen pictures of Christian, my friends talked about him quite often, and I knew he was a trouble maker, but I had been very rarely working with him for the first couple days of VBS and had taken a shying to him. He wasn't bad on the eyes and worked really, really well with the kids - my kids. That meant something.

Two blocks and a conversation with Rebecca Whetstone later, I had IDed the Pastor's son - it was Christian. He liked me. I liked him. So, for the next two days, I had my eyes on him. I looked forward to that Friday. It was the Family Night -  a relaxed part of the VBS week where fellowship and fun took place. All I could think of was finally talking to that boy, however, that Friday I didn't show up. My best friend, family, and I went to King's Island that night. 

Although Christian and I had mutual crushes, Becca told me that he lived in Indiana and I didn't expect to see him ever again. That weekend and the next week, I started hanging out with an italian boy named Gezeppi (aka Joey.) I guess you could say he was my boyfriend although we never really called it that.

That Friday there was a lock-in at my church. A lock-in is a fun, Christ-centered allnighter for teens. All of my best friends were going, so I wanted Gezeppi to go too. He waltzed into that church with me, but because of a bad choice of music for the night and his all-around bad attitude, we were miserable. When the real fun was about to begin, Gezeppi was done. He was bored and wanted to take me on a road trip to Southern Michigan that night. I, of course, said no or this story would be completely irrelevant. I told him we were over if he left... and he did.

The couches were full and I didn't have a seat, so my youth pastor Greg assigned me one next to this really cute boy - Christian. We hit it off talking during the games and kicking butt at charades. When it came time for hide and seek lock-in edition - he asked to be my partner. While hiding in an upstairs room from the seekers (whoever they were,) he confessed his feelings and asked to kiss me. 

We have never been the same since. <3 

After the lock-in, we "dated" like middleschoolers do. We rarely talked. We saw each other once. It was long distance and pathetic - but we TRIED. After three months, we ended it and after three and a half years, we've began again. 

Christian and I met up with a group of my girlfriends to go watch a scary movie. Inching closer and closer together, eventually we were holding hands. It seemed awkward as we had been friends for the last three years, but it just felt right. Christian and I began a fast paced courtship and absolutely fell in love with one another. He is my best friend, my life partner, and my helpmate. I know that God created him for me in every detail. He is everything I need - my support, my strength, my encouragement, my accountability, my comfort, my lover. He is everything to me.

When you can't forget someone, when you compare everyone else to that person, when no one ever measures up... you should find out why. The reason why Christian was my first true love and the one I never forgot was because he was supposed to be my husband.

Now, thanks in part to bad boyfriends and in whole to God, I am engaged to Christian Phillip Raiford Powers and couldn't be any happier. He is the love of my life and the reason I was created - to be his."

Couple #6 - Ashley & Joseph

"We're goofy and love to make each other laugh and smile. We met during my 5th and his 4th year at Wright State University. We were both involved on campus as members of our Greek organizations (Delta Zeta and Delta Tau Delta). After participating in my sorority's biggest philanthropy event, I added him on Facebook, although I didn't really know him. He posted a status, "I don't believe in fairies..." I almost didn't, thinking it would be weird, but I commented on it saying he needed to watch Pan's Labyrinth again. From there, we started commenting about our favorite movies and it just kept going and going! Over 100 comments later, we began talking everyday. We ended up going in the same 13 person group for our spring break trip to Orange Beach, Alabama. Halfway through the week, we had our first date at a small steakhouse and went to putt-putt. We also had our first kiss this night while watching the stars on the Gulf beach that night. Almost two years later, we're engaged and extremely happy!"

Couple #7 - Kelley & Dustin

"{We met when} I was 14 years old and he was 15 years old. Since then we have had two amazing smart beautiful daughters who keep us going strong each day! We got pregnant with our first daughter in high school when I was 16 years old and he joined the military. He is currently deployed in Afganistan helping the wounded. He is a Respiratory Therapist and I can't even begin to imagine what he is seeing over there. Our first date was going to the movie rental store and renting movies to watch at the house. I wasn't too sure about him and I have this wierd foot fetish (lol) wierd I know.. So I made him show me his feet to make sure they were decent. Later that night he turned to me and licked the side of my face on my cheek and I looked at him and said you are gross..couple of days went by and I couldn't stop thinking about him and ever since then we haven't been apart except for time due to the military like now.. he has been gone since October and is due home in April. We got married in a court house and never had pictures or a wedding. I would love to do that one day for our girls to see!"

Couple #8 - Megan & Christopher 

"When I graduated from high school my mom had just died, I was going to the last university on my list of colleges, all of my friends were moving away, and I had just broken up from a bad relationship. I was alone and hurt, but did not want anyone’s help. I was very determined to get my bachelor’s degree, move onto becoming a molecular geneticist, not let anyone past my shields, and find a husband after receiving my doctorate. Males in general were not in my field of vision at this time and I did not want them to be, but I did pray to God for a best friend. In my eyes this would be another girl friend that I could share my hopes and dreams with, but God had a different idea for my life.

Beginning in September of 2008 one of my friends got me to start regularly attending swing dance club meetings. At first I could not even hold any guy’s hand fully during a dance, but over time God softened my heart to let me know that I could go back to being my usual happy self. Still, I did not want to dance with any guys. I was much more content to teach other people how to swing dance.

In November of 2008 Christopher came to a swing dance club meeting with our mutual friend Josh. At this particular meeting there were more guys than girls, so I was needed to dance with guys. When I was open to dance in the middle of the meeting I had finally unwound. Covered in sweat and grime I went over to the three guys standing by the wall and asked which of them would like to dance next. Christopher put his hand forward with a smile and said that he would love to. I did not dance with any other guy that night. We were the last to leave and I created a facebook account just so that I could instant message him until 3 am the next morning. We both needed a friend and that was all that we saw each other as until about a week later when all of our friends bailed on coming with us to see the Dark Knight in the university center and we were all alone talking through the entire movie. We discovered that we both love Jesus, loved to dance, quoted movies in every day conversation, and had the same goals in life. The rest was history.

Throughout our relationship we have had our ups and downs, just like any couple, but the ups and downs have not been with us so much as the circumstances around us. We have helped each other through my diagnosis of PTSD and OCD and through his diagnosis of narcolepsy. God has truly fused us together and our wedding will be a celebration of the blessings God has given us."

Couple #9 - Sonja & Bobby

"Bobby and I first met at the skating rink in the 7th grade. He was my first boyfriend, first kiss, first love! He moved away before we entered high school and I didnt see or hear from him till Facebook came to be. We reconnected thanks to facebook, had a few inbox conversations then an actual date. We've been together ever since! And on Christmas day he proposed. The first boy I kissed as a little girl, will now be the only boy I kiss for the rest of my life."