Dayton Weddings | Echo by Design | Wedding + Portrait Photography

..Matt & Ami’s Album Design | Album Show Off..

You may remember Matt and Ami from their ..Part I.. and ..Part II.. wedding blogs back at the end of March and early April. If not, be sure to take a look back at their big day, it was a chilly one!

Matt and Ami tied the knot on March 26th and have already been married for 2 months! I can hardly believe how fast the start of this season is already going. June is going to be a busy one and I can’t wait to share everything with you!!!

Mr. & Mrs. Schreiber already had a view of their album, but I wanted to share just a bit of it with you…

Catching up on everything this week, be sure to tune into Friday’s post…it’s going to be a good one! Hope your having a happy Wednesday.

..CATCH UP..

love, echo

Comments

echoes of love

..Sneak Peek to the Shetzer’s| We Said I Do..

I was so excited, nervous, and anxious for this last weekend! Another one of my guy friend’s from high school was tying the knot to one beautiful girl! Not only did I have the wonderful pleasure of photographing their big day, but I also had the opportunity to catch up with a ton of old friends. Something that I don’t have the chance to do very often, now that we don’t live near home anymore. Mr. and Mrs. Shetzer had one beautiful day…..So here is a quick sneak peek to the new happy couple!

I can’t wait to show you more in a couple of days!! Be sure to check back and stay tuned in for what is to come!

..OLD FRIENDS..

love, echo

Comments

echoes of love

..Baby S On The Way | Oh Baby..

Last week you were able to meet my sister-in-law Ashley and her husband-to-be Derek, after I photographed their engagement session in Michigan. This week you get to meet my other sis-in-law Laura and her husband Nick. What a treat for me to photograph each of them within a couple of weeks of each other! Let’s just say the Dearsman family is growing…two babies and a brother-in-law on the way! We are all really excited about this new found growth that we are headed into with lots of preparations to be made!

The day before Halloween, Laura lay wide awake in the early hours of the morning thinking to herself, “Would this be the month?” Month after month of trying to no avail the pregnancy test read negative, but Nick and Laura kept their hopes up! She decided to get up and take yet another test, yet another judgement day for her. Without waking Nick, she decided to go see what her answer was to be that month. A few minutes passed and her answer was there, EXACTLY what they had hoped, wished, and dreamed about for so long! She flew into the bedroom, jumped on the bed waking Nick out of a dead sleep, shaking the home test in his face. He was groggy, confused, and stared at her in disbelief. He had her take another test to be sure, and that test read positive too! THEY WERE PREGNANT!

Weeks went by, a couple of doctors visits, and preparations for baby without telling family. They wanted to be certain that the baby was healthy before they shared the good news. On Thanksgiving morning, I woke up with an inkling. For some reason I just knew! As my husband awoke I asked him, “Do you think Laura is pregnant?” After displaying my ‘evidence’ why I believed so, he got all excited and said, “Well let’s go see if I’m going to become an uncle today.” That statement fluttered the wings in my heart! I could barely wait. We made our way to the Dearsman household, where Nick and Laura were on their way. They got there and suspicious gifts were handed to us. Brad looked at me, and I at him….we knew what it was going to be. Ohio State onesies confirmed my inkling and Nick and Laura revealed that Baby Sauber would be due on Brad’s birthday, July 7th. I danced around the kitchen chanting, “I knew it! I knew it! I knew it!” while tears sprung into my eyes.

This last weekend we had the chance to celebrate Laura AND Nick’s pregnancy with a baby shower. At 34 weeks (8 months) we are closing in on the due date and the chance to meet the first great-grand baby on the Dearsman side! All of our family is ecstatic about what is to come and I know that I personally can’t wait to meet my little one’s cousin! I get all teary-eyed just thinking of it! As part of my gift to Nick and Laura, I had a chance to steal them away on Saturday to capture such a blessed moment in their lives. Something they will truly NEVER forget, and will cherish for days to come!

I absolutely LOVE both of you and this baby that is about to grace our family! This little boy or girl is going to have the most amazing parents, not to mention an Aunt and Uncle or two 🙂 Baby S, I can’t wait to kiss your tiny toes and those chubby cheeks you have. See you soon!

..I KNEW IT..

love, echo

Comments

echoes of love

..Simply Shonna | Talking Business..

This weekend while I was home, my shutter finger sure received a workout! I had FOUR sessions, and can’t wait to show you each of them. These sessions are going to kick off a great summer filled with lots of surprises. It’s going to be an awesome season and ohhh how I can’t wait to share all the goodies with you!

To kick off the week, meet Shonna Cook. She is a wife and a mother of four opening her own photography business. A couple months back she contacted me on facebook and started a mentor-ship between the two of us. I was so flattered that she chose me to confide in about many of her photography related questions. She started out at a Sears portrait studio and soon realized that was no longer for her. She too had a dream, a yearning within her that was too hard to ignore. She came up with a business name and started collecting the tools it took to put it all together. Along the way, she treaded down the path, each little question to fellow beginning photogs brought her closer and closer to her start.

One day Shonna messaged me with this question, “Echo, I’m not yet happy with my overall brand or even my business name. I’m having a really hard time figuring it out, do you have any suggestions?” I sat back for a minute and thought how I would answer that, for a minute I didn’t quite know how to answer. Then I thought back to how I picked out my business name. I went back to my third grade writing days when you had to make those ‘webs’ for ideas to write in paragraphs and topics. I wrote down my name in the middle, then I slowly started to branch out in my head descriptive words for myself and kept branching from there. I suggested she do the same. The next step I told her to take was to interview close friends and family members and have them describe her. By all of the brainstorming and these incoming ideas she was bound to figure herself out. About a day later, Shonna came back to me and said, “Simply Shonna. What do you think?“ PERFECT! After Shonna asked a friend to describe her, her friend responded, “That’s simple, your just Shonna.”

Now that Shonna has her true business name, and a new logo to match. She wanted to start marketing herself with some photos…woohoo, that’s where I came in! She asked me if I would photograph her, and again I was sooo honored. I had the privilege to spend some time with her on Saturday morning and loved our time together! Hope you love them…

Shonna, I LOVE your teachable spirit and your willingness to take advice to do what you need in order to get better. I wish you the best in your future endeavours and I can’t wait to see how you soar through your most desirable dreams as a photographer. Good Luck!

..SIMPLE..

love, echo

Comments

echoes of love

..Facebook Changes & A Contest | Talking Business..

I have mentioned MANY times that I had huge aspirations for myself this last winter. You could say it was impossible to complete a to do list about a mile long on things I need to tweak, change, perfect etc in a three month span. I guess I was reaching for the stars. I still am, but there is still a lot of work to be done. The great part about that is that I have come to realize all of the work is never going to be done. Which is great news for me, because it will help my business to never become stagnant!

One of the many changes I wanted to make was to update my fan page on ..facebook.. If you haven’t discovered that there have been a few changes, take a look. Along with great updates sending you back here for my latest work, I want to start implementing tips and tricks for photogs and keep you up to date on my latest happenings! For first time visitors, I wanted to especially welcome you to my page! I designed a fun little collage of photos and an upfront short explaination on how to get to know me. Not only that, but I have now made it possible to contact me directly through my facebook fan page. This wasn’t possible before, but violaaaa…now you can!

Now on to the CONTEST!!! Who doesn’t like contests?! This is going to start one of many, and I couldn’t be more excited! Anyone who knows me, knows that I love to go out, whether that be for a coffee, a movie, or to an awesome restaurant for dinner. So here is how it is going to work…send people to Echo by Design’s facebook page. You can do this by sending out mass emails, posting something on your facebook status, or use the suggest to your friends tab on the fan page for them to like my business. If you are already a fan, do not be dismayed you can participate too! Once they have liked my page, I have provided a poll to ask the question, “How did you hear about Echo by Design?” The question can then be answered only once. By next Friday May 27th if over 650 fans have been reached, all entered participants will then be placed into the running for a $20 gift card to the place OF THEIR CHOICE! (It must be someplace that I can purchase a gift card here in the Dayton area…aka a popular coffee shop, movie theater chain, or restaurant.) My preferences are Starbucks, Red Robin, Olive Garden, or even Kroger…use your imagination, what do you need?

So here is to running towards new goals…spread the word and GOOD LUCK!!!

..GIFT CARD..

love, echo

Comments

echoes of love