Dayton Weddings | Echo by Design | Wedding + Portrait Photography

..Jakob | A New Little Brother..

We had just gotten home from Christmas and began to settle back into our house after the long time away. It wasn’t more than a few days later that we got the notification from Nick + Laura that Lukas, their first born son, was going to be a BIG BROTHER!!! We were thrilled and couldn’t wait until this babe’s September arrival!

August came and we knew there were many hurdles that were about to ensue in these last couple of weeks. One month until Baby Sauber #2 was to arrive and Laura’s blood count was proving too low to have an epidural. With Lukas, she had a labor spanned over three days and thirty hours!! Let me repeat. THIRTY HOURS!! {..Luke’s Birth Story..} So needless to say, an epidural was very much in her vocabulary. Mid August came and there wasn’t much progress. She was scheduled to be induced on August 30th, if the baby didn’t arrive. After another blood count, her levels were still too low. She was called to rest.

It was Labor Day weekend and still nothing. After heading to the hospital for more testing, they decided to keep her. The next day they had great news and found out that her blood count rose just enough to have the epidural take place. They induced her at 10:30 in the morning of September 2nd and by 5:33 p.m. we added another doting baby to our family!! {I would take 7 hours over 30 any day!} Since we weren’t able to be there, we received word that the baby had arrived safely!

A precious baby. We were so excited to hear what it was and after notifying the grandparents who were waiting there at the hospital, we received word that Baby #2 was a BOY!!! Jakob Benjamin weighed in at 8 lbs. 6 ozs. and 21.5 inches long. With Nick entering into a medical background he decided to scrub up and deliver Jake all by himself. It was deemed a last minute decision, but Laura said, I was a little surprised that he wanted to deliver Jakob. It was fun to see him him all scrubbed in and ready to catch him! And because Nick + Laura chose to wait to find out the baby’s gender they were surprised for it to be a boy. I was convinced he was a girl because the pregnancy was so different from Lukas. We were purely hoping for a healthy, happy baby . It was almost a relief that he was a boy, we knew what we were doing with a boy and had all the stuff! I would go broke if I had to buy girl clothes!

Knowing that I am heading into the same season of adjusting to having two kids, I had to ask how it was all going! They explained, We’ve gone from focusing all our attention on each other, to the dogs…to Lukas, and now with Jakob we’ve learn to embrace the chaos and enjoy the little things. I know we both feel like our family is a little more complete. We’ve said lots of prayers and have been truly blessed with our little family. We try to thank God everyday for our little family and the wonderful support from our extended family and friends.

He is such a super sweet baby, and looks practically identical to Lukas when he came home from the hospital! Meet Jakob at 6 days old!

Nick, Laura, Lukas, + Jakob! I couldn’t be more blessed to call you family and I can’t wait for all three boys to be such great friends!! Here is to the next two on the way in our family. This next year is sure going to be fun and a learning curve for all of us to embrace the chaos! Love you all so much!!

..EMBRACE THE CHAOS..

love, echo

Comments

echoes of love

..Jesse + Alex | A Snow Hill Wedding..

It was one of those days that just seemed to be a perfect day for a wedding! With the mugginess of the day set aside, the sky shown blue with the occasional cloud. The sun was out in full force and it was going to be a hot one. Jesse + Alex had planned for an outdoor wedding, but decided that they wanted their guests to be comfortable and hosted it in. It was a wonderful setting, with the back drop of Snow Hill Country Club.

The cake was being delivered, the finishing touches being put on all of the tables, and sound check were taking place. But downstairs was a different realm of hustle and bustle. Downstairs was excitement topped with a relaxed atmosphere. In adjacent rooms, Jesse + Alex prepared. They prepared for each other. She had her hair and makeup finished and as she slipped into her dress, he was with his guys rolling up his sleeves and tying his dress shoes. As Jesse finished up we grabbed a few images of the guys before the couple’s first look. Then everyone headed out on the course for the rest of portraits. Alex was the last one out and the time for Jesse to see his bride for the first time had come.

Jesse stood, ready and waiting. Fixing his sleeves nervously one last time. She walked up to him as an ever so slight breeze rustled through the willow trees. It was such a wonderful meeting place for them as some of their guests had began to arrive at the club house. They were away from the busyness, away from the noise. He heard her dress swish back and forth and his smile became more apparent as she came closer. And then she touched his arm. He turned around and didn’t quite know where to begin. He leaned in for a kiss and as he became teary eyed, she wiped them off his cheek. They spent a few moments together, and then their party joined them!

Amongst their friends, they laughed and had a good time during portraits, but wedding time was upon them. Everyone headed towards the clubhouse and while they were waiting for guests to arrive, Jesse + Alex were joined by their sweet daughter Emeline. She was absolutely a doll!

Before long, the ceremony was under way and Jesse + Alex became husband and wife on the dance floor. They looked around in awe of the members who had made it. Smiles, tears, and thoughts of loved ones filled the room as they exchanged rings and said their vows. Sealed with a kiss they solidified their relationship and became Mr. + Mrs. Hickey! After dinner they took to the dance floor as their daughter slept in grandma’s arms. The entirety of the night was filled with music and conversation, not to mention a good time!

Jesse + Alex! Thank you so much for allowing me to be with you on your wedding day! What a beautiful day you put together and I hope that throughout the years you put together many of the same! I wish you all the best together and your journey with Emeline!

..RELAXED..

love, echo

Comments

echoes of love

..Brad + Morganne | An Ohio State Rendezvous..

She started school at ..The Ohio State University.. in the Fall of 2008 and little did she know that her future love walked the same pathways she did. Little did she know she could have easily passed him by and not even known. But in her first quarter she quickly realized, although a fabulous school, it just wasn’t for her. So with that she decided to make the move to ..Bowling Green State University.. to continue her education in nursing.

Rewind to three years later, Morganne describes it as a random chance that her friend and his roommate from OSU were coming to visit her and her friends in Bowling Green. Can you guess who the roommate was? Brad!! They hit it off over the weekend and really enjoyed each other’s company. Morganne went on to say, Our love began to blossom over long texts and a long distance romance had formed!

As more frequent trips happened between BG and Columbus, they bonded over movies, board games, walks, and time with their families. Luckily, their home towns are only about an hour apart so that made it fairly convenient with celebrated holidays. Just about a year after they met they both graduated college with their respected degrees, and because Brad’s career in biomedical engineering was so specific it took them all the way to North Carolina!

It was there, after they were finally able to be together, that Brad felt that it was time to buy the ring. And he did. He decided to take her out to his favorite restaurant so as not to raise any red flags. He had pre-arranged for a dessert to come after dinner, baring the question! THE. Question. Will you Marry Me inscribed in chocolate sauce. In all of her excited-ness, Morganne said yes and they shared in the goodness together!

So although their relationship did’t technically begin at Ohio State, it is by far the one place that rules both of their hearts. We were very lucky and had an afternoon game slot, which left the evening light up for grabs! We couldn’t help but have some fun throughout campus!

Brad + Morganne! It was such a pleasure joining you on such a lovely evening on OSU’s campus! Thank you for allowing me to capture this time in your lives, as well as making the drive all the way from NC for your favorite spot! It was well worth it! I had such a blast with you both and Zoey! I can’t wait for your nautical May wedding that is quickly approaching!

A special thanks to Morganne’s parents for watching Zoey while we were taking portraits. Gary + Kim {who are English teachers,} pay no attention to any of my grammar or random use of capitalization, punctuation, or italics 😉

..O-H-I-O..

love, echo

Comments

echoes of love

..Challenges + An Announcement..

These last few weeks have been some of the most challenging weeks I’ve had in a looooonnnggg while. Brad and I knew that when we moved from home and started a family that we wouldn’t have any family around to help us with babysitting, date nights, or can you watch the kids for a few hours so we can go do xyz. We knew it would be tough, but we didn’t expect it to be as challenging as it was. Elijah has surprised us in many ways over the last two years, from being a ‘spirited’ child, to being on the go literally all. day. long., to already having 2 dental visits and 4 ER visits. Yeah, it’s been tough!

BUT I say all of that to say that we absolutely love our son. Like to pieces! We wouldn’t trade him for the world and we know with continued strength and prayers that things will gradually get better. {We hope!} Everyone always tells us not to blink because before we know it they are teenagers and graduating high school and leaving for college, and I CAN’T think of that right now!! Because I want to live in this moment. No matter how tough it is. No matter how challenging it is. No matter how much I wish we lived closer to home and had our family + friends to watch our kids for xyz.

Brad and I knew though that we didn’t want Elijah to grow up alone, even though he is our crazy little monster. So with that we bring you our big announcement…

Yep! That’s right, baby #2 is on the way!

The reason I say that these last few weeks have been some of the longest weeks of my life, is because I had been pretty much bone dry on energy. What little I did have I was barely prying myself off the couch to take care of my son. His energy was so high and mine so little that it was extremely difficult to keep up. I admittedly took a long time on some business things and began to fall behind. I’m still trying to catch up, but I’m thankful that the clients I have, have been so gracious and understanding!

When they told me at my doctor’s appointment that #2 took more energy out of you than the first, I didn’t know what to expect. It pretty much boils down to, no kids in the house you rest when you need rest. With kids in the house you still have to run things as normal. Which is where it fell into place with me, just amplify that about 20 times. So needless to say, I’m still trying to gain my energy back and working as feverishly as possible to get back on track!

Lastly, I would like to thank my friend ..Andrea Dozier.. for grabbing these sweet shots of me and my family. We were doing a headshot swap for our websites and just a few days before found out our announcement. We were then able to get this one picture of Elijah with all of us before his attention span went to bigger and better things…running off!

I’ve gotten so many questions over the last week or so since we announced our new little bundle, and because of your excitement I have answered the most common here:

When did you find out?

We actually found out July 26th, but had chosen to keep it under wraps for a little longer than we did with Elijah!

What was our reaction?

Unlike Elijah, this baby was completely planned! I had been waiting for the day that I could finally test, and although it took a little while for the results to come back, it was positive! It was pretty surreal. When I showed Brad the test, he too was elated and we celebrated together, followed by telling Bubby he was going to be a big brother!

When are we due?

We are due April 6th. I’m officially 13 weeks and 2 days along.

How have I been feeling?

I can tell you that this baby is much different from Eli, within the first couple of days I craved jalapeño poppers and now they don’t sound so good. It’s funny, one thing will sound awesome one day, but the next I don’t want anything to do with it. Makes grocery shopping pretty tough! With Elijah I felt I could eat almost anything in sight, this baby however has me eating in much smaller portions. Thankfully I still haven’t had any morning sickness, but some headaches and fatigue have definitely entered into my life. It makes daily routines and running my business pretty hard with being so sleepy! {I’m hoping this ends SOON!}

How did we tell our families?

Crazy enough, Brad’s parents were coming into town the day we found out! Brad was so excited he said, I won’t be able to keep it a secret. We have to tell them! So with not much time to prepare anything, we wrote on a piece of paper, ONLY CHILD expiring April 2014. Eli colored on it and we told Nana + Papa that Eli had colored them a picture! They were thrilled!!

When we shared with my parents, we had Eli hand Grandpa + Grandma the ultrasound picture! My mom had been waiting for news for MONTHS, like begging for another grandchild. So they were very excited to hear another one was on the way!

The rest of our family found out at Elijah’s second birthday party, he opened a t-shirt I made that said ONLY CHILD expiring April 2014 on it! Although they weren’t totally shocked, everyone was really happy for us! {And then we told them they all had to move south!}

Will we find out the Baby’s gender?

This is the question everyone always asks when they encounter a pregnant woman, and with so many people finding out these days I can understand why. We chose not to find out with Elijah {who is now 2,} and Brad and I believe although it was hard, it was the best decision we ever made. I worked hard to make that little body and I knew I couldn’t wait to meet whatever “it” was. But seeing the pure joy in my husband’s face in the delivery room was more than priceless. Like I will never forget it!! Needless to say, I can’t wait for that same joy and the wanting of another surprise. Here is to waiting another 27ish weeks 🙂

..BABY NUMBER TWO..

love, echo

Comments

echoes of love

..Adam + Kala | A Simply Perfect Evening for Love..

Warning!! You are going to fall for this couple just as hard as I did! I mean, who can resist the absolute goodness that screams THEY. ARE. IN. LOVE!! I know I can’t!

It all began in the fall of 2006 at Mount Vernon Nazarene University, Kala was moving into her apartment with her roommate, Lindsay. Her roommate, just so happened to be Adam’s sister! You would think with Adam’s charm and adorable humor that Kala would have fallen in love right then and there. But she didn’t.

After years of friendship and the lingering of ‘what if,’ it finally clicked! They decided they were going to give it a try, and it worked! Better than Kala ever thought it would. They had a long distance relationship ahead of them and even though they say there were ups and downs, they made it work! I watched their journey begin to unfold, slowly pictures of Adam made it to her news feed on fb and instagram. And then her blog. Kala mentioned in one of her blog posts {..So There’s This Guy..}, This man has pursued me intentionally, sweetly, and with sheer determination. He has treated me to nights out and cared for me so well. He celebrates me. The adjectives he uses to describe my personality, my heart… it’s flattering, humbling, and simply amazing.

So after Kala finally confessed in April that she was seeing Adam, he didn’t take long to turn around and buy her a ring. He had known all along, and when she finally realized it, he knew it was time! Since Kala is a fellow blogger, I will let her tell her side of the story which is taken from ..The Moment that Changed My Life..{definitely pop over to read the whole blog, you won’t be disappointed!} It was a moment like I’ve never experienced before in my life. It was quiet. It was simple. It was an excited he-couldn’t-wait-another-minute kind of a moment. It was perfect. They were having dinner with their families and a friend and afterwards they decided to take a walk. Pretty common for them. When everyone else refused to join, Kala became slightly suspicious. That was my first clue (detective Kala, reporting for duty).

Several funny moments later, a rambling and somewhat shaky Adam and I started out on our walk (I’ll be honest, it took every curious bone in my body to put aside my suspicions and enjoy our walk together). We made it to the bridge, the spot that overlooks both sides of the lake. It was at that moment Adam told me the many ways I’ve changed his life, how he loved me and couldn’t imagine life without me, and how he wanted to spend the rest of his life chasing after me. He got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. It was like waves crashing over me. All the wonderful moments that lead up to that one came rushing back into my heart. It was like our whole relationship flashed before my eyes in a slideshow of heartbeats and wonder. I was overwhelmed with joy. Not just any man, but MY man was down on one knee asking me to be his wife. To spend my life loving him and dreaming with him and traveling with him and arguing with him and learning to argue less with him and growing with him and starting a family with him.

I’M FALLING. IN. LOVE. over here. I mean seriously. Who doesn’t want to just gush for days over this sweet, sweet story! Come to find out, Adam asked for Kala’s hand on Tuesday, bought the ring on Wednesday, and decided on Friday that he was going to propose on Saturday! He was wasting no time! Who could blame him? Kala is gorgeous inside and out! All in all, I had one enjoyable evening watching these two love birds swoon over one another.

Adam + Kala! I know you will be having a short engagement, and to tell you the truth I’m pretty excited about it! I can’t wait to spend the day with you in November and I know if it’s anything like what our time was together during this session, that you two are about to even further melt my heart! Congrats again, and I am ever so thrilled to have been asked to cover your day! Gushing out of pure joy!

..HE COULDN’T WAIT ANOTHER MINUTE..

love, echo

Comments

echoes of love