Merry Christmas from Us!

//If you're looking for my most recent wedding or engagement work, click here!!\\

Happy Friday! And more importantly.... Merry Christmas from Wil and I :-)

I can't send out cards to all of you, but I wanted to share our holiday cheer!

I hope you all have an amazing holiday weekend and find joy with your families and dear friends.

Many thanks to the beautiful Lauren Wakefield for taking our Christmas pictures :-)

I'll be back next week.....drumroll please....on the NEW BLOG!!!!! With my 2011 wrap-up posts!

Would you like to have me take pictures with the love of your life? Please use my super awesome new contact page :-)

How to Survive Winter in Chicago or other Tundra-like Locations

//If you're looking for my most recent wedding or engagement work, click here!!\\

Today is officially the first day of Winter so I want to tell you how to survive.

I love Chicago. I really do. Mostly I love Chicago in the summer, but I have learned how to make it through the winter as well. Sadly no one told me what steps I needed to take to take to prepare my first winter here so I blindly layered thinking it would help. It didn't really.

So I'm going to fix this problem and share what I've learned with you. Please note, I have invested in these pieces one at a time and so they aren't all currently available online anymore. What I have pictured below are the most similar options I could find.

First and foremost, the longest coat Northface makes for women. This is crucial. You need it.

Next step, boots you could brave the arctic in. I can't find mine online anymore, but these are really similar.

With these two items I can wear dresses out in two degree weather.

Next step is when it's slightly warmer, when I'm shooting, or going out. You want a jacket that still covers your butt but cinches in the middle to give you a waist, preferably something with a taller collar so you can get away without a scarf. I got mine from Gap two years ago, but this is the most similar thing they have now. Mine isn't shiny like this, but it's puffy and super lightweight. This is a great jacket for stuffing behind you in a seat and honestly it fits rolled up in the front pocket of my suitcase for when we travel to warmer climates but are coming in and out of Chicago.

You also want to find a pair of rain boots that you can wear in light snow that don't necessarily look like rain boots. These are also great for shooting in or just running errands and you can wear them all day! I found mine at Banana Republic but they don't have them anymore. These are from JCrew and very similar. Aren't they sooo pretty?

And then the most basic step, under everything, all winter, I wear HeatTech turtlenecks from Uniqlo and fleece lined leggings.

You're welcome! Now go and be warm.

Would you like to have me take pictures with the love of your life? Please use my super awesome new contact page :-)

Violet Hour Wall

//If you're looking for my most recent wedding or engagement work, click here!!\\

I have raved about the Violet Hour to you all on countless occasions. It's my absolute favorite cocktail bar in the city. Beyond having amazing drinks (which obviously they do) it feels a little bit like Alice in Wonderland inside with super tall backed chairs, and velvet curtains from floor to ceiling. What's more is that it's a speak easy! Literally no sign. It's a door in a wall. And to make things even more fun, the wall changes every season. That's right every 3-4 months a different local artist comes along and completely rehabs the whole thing.

I'm so sad to be posting this after they just took it down... but at least you can see it here...

Most recently, Keith Skogstrom of Geodesic Designs spent months hand cutting wooden panels and drawing on them with black sharpie to create puzzle piece gear shifts that all perfectly fit together. I honestly cannot really imagine the level of brilliance it takes to not only come up with this, but also to execute it. So of course, I took pictures of it and I absolutely had to share with you.








all images taken with the 5d mark ii and 35L

Needless to say, I can't wait to see what's next!!

Interested in having me take pictures with you and the love of your life? Please use my super awesome new contact page :-)

Necessary Breaks

//If you're looking for my most recent wedding or engagement work, click here!!\\

This summer at Justin & Mary's Walk through a Wedding here in Chicago I had the joy of meeting Christy Tyler and Amanda Megan in person! Lauren recruited me to be a Style Assistant for the day and we all have stayed in contact online.

We decided to get together last week for a few cocktails and catch up. Of course this was the perfect excuse for us to pull out our glitter and "fur." It is too easy to get sucked into working all day, and all night, every weekend, and completely forgetting to socialize and spend time out! We're also all going to Vegas for WPPI in February! So we had to start planning what to wear, of course.

You all are the best!! XOXO

Interested in having me take pictures with you and the love of your life? Please use my super awesome new contact page :-)

Nerd Boyfriend

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I interrupt my regular programming to share the most hilarious/awesome website I've seen this week.

Meet, nerdboyfriend.com for the men and nerdgirlfriend.com for the ladies.

Featuring funny and fabulous pictures and where to find similar outfits!

Who doesn't love a little Rob Lowe? You can find his outfit here coat/sweater/scarf
Okay LOVE this picture! Albert Finney ladies and gentlemen.
I am in love with this ASOS skirt similar to Gilda Radner's here.

Interested in having me take pictures with you and the love of your life? Please use my super awesome new contact page :-)

1,051,200 Minutes, 17,520 Hours, 730 Days, 24 Months, 2 Years. Our Story, Part 1.

//If you're looking for my most recent wedding or engagement work, click here!!\\

Wil and I met in July of 2009, a few months after I moved to Chicago. We met at a neighborhood dinner group that was an offshoot of the church we both attended. Every Thursday this group would get together for a pot luck dinner and Bible study. I met Wil casually, he tells me he noticed me, but neither of us jumped right away. Eventually we followed each other on Twitter, I can't remember who initiated this, but it very well could have been either of us. I tweeted about Precepts, an intensive study I was starting, and he @replied me asking if I gchat so he could ask me more about it. I replied of course and with my username.

We talked online that night for hours. Casually about making dinner, what activities we were involved in, I honestly don't remember the details except that it felt super casual, very natural. This was the week of Thanksgiving because he was at home in Texas, but still had work to do. We talked online the entire work day the next day. And the next day. And the next. Then he was flying home, to Chicago, and I realized how much I'd told him. I also realized that even though I'd seen him every week in person for the past couple months I hadn't really gotten to know him and that I wanted to see him again. Mostly just to see him, but also to make sure I hadn't divulged too much information online to a creeper. He was going to a show when he got back and asked for restaurant suggestions. As I had only lived in the city for six months I really only had recommendations around my neighborhood. I casually complained about not wanting to make dinner, and he casually asked if I wanted to join him (please read: this was my plan all along).

I met him at Fifty/50, and we hit it off like old friends. It was one of the easiest conversational meals of my life. When the time for the check came, I told the server I would be joining a table with my roommate tables yards over and could he please just transfer my tab over there. I didn't even allow a conversation about who would pay. Wil was dumbfounded (read: impressed).

We went wine tasting the next day, and to Target afterwards for travel toothpaste and shampoo. The next Friday we went to our first concert and he held my hand :-D

Saturday, December 12, 2009 he asked me to be his girlfriend.

That was two years ago today! These have positively been the best two years of my life so far. And I cannot wait to see what the next years bring.

Because no post is complete without at least one picture. this is from our first concert together that Friday night :-)

Interested in having me take pictures with you and the love of your life? Please use my super awesome new contact page :-)

Pretty Little Things | My Love of BHLDN

//If you're looking for my most recent wedding or engagement work, click here!!\\

While we were in Texas over Thanksgiving I went out shopping with my dear friend Payton to Anthropologie (of course) and when I saw what was next door I nearly jumped out of my skin! BHLDN!!! The only store currently in the US! How could I have forgotten?! (please note, for other readers in Chicago, I have since read that we ARE GETTING A STORE HERE TOO!!!!!!)

I could have spent all day in there. Honestly. Everything was so beautiful. These are just iPhone pictures, but I wanted to share just a glimpse of the pretty!

You may remember a while ago I posted this little lovely and wanted to share again :-)

Party-Ready, by BHLDN from BHLDN on Vimeo.

Have an amazing weekend!! I'll be back on Monday :-)

Interested in having me take pictures with you and the love of your life? Please use my super awesome new contact page :-)

The Great A Practical Wedding Book Buy!

//If you're looking for my most recent wedding or engagement work, click here!!\\

I've been reading A Practical Wedding for a long time. Basically since I got engaged. It is the most balanced, inclusive, awesome wedding blog I've seen, and I am so incredibly blessed on a daily basis to be included in its community! The readers are amazing, the other vendors are so supportive, and the staff is just stellar. Today I'm not just here plugging the blog, but definitely go read it (even for you already-married people) there is so much amazing content, today we're buying the book!

Meg, the original blog author, and CEO of Practical Media, Inc. (which has got to be the most amazing corporation name ever) has written a book! A book which several of us already-marrieds are kind of pissed wasn't written before we got married.

Today we're trying to make the book an Amazon Best Seller! How awesome is this?! (It's already a Hot New Release!!) And at $10.88 I'm sure it's an absolute steal. You can easily buy here from Amazon (free shipping! If you're a Prime addict like myself), Barnes & Noble, or Indie Bound (which helps support local brick and mortar stores near you!)

Maddie says this, which I think perfectly sums up what a wedding book should do for you: "What the APW book does differently from every other wedding book, blog, or magazine out there is it actually removes things from your to-do list rather than adding to it. Meg isn't trying to convince you to buy more, do more, spend more. She just wants to make sure that the things you're buying, doing, and spending on mean something to you. Did you just read that? It's wedding literature that gives a shit that you're a person. Novel."

ps isn't the cover lovely!!

So go buy it for yourself! Or for a loved one planning a wedding :-)

If you'd like to see some of the beautiful APW couple I've had the pleasure of working with... you can see them here!

Interested in having me take pictures with you and the love of your life? Please use my super awesome new contact page :-)

9 Months

//If you're looking for my most recent wedding or engagement work, click here!!\\

Today I celebrate nine months of being married to the love of my life!

People say the first year is one of the hardest. I have no way of knowing whether this is true or not, since we haven't made it past it yet, but I will say this. Marriage definitely isn't easy. Melding two approaches to anything, no matter how much you have in common or think you have in common, is difficult. Thankfully I have no doubt that we made the right decision. Last night we were curled up on the couch watching a silly chick flick, and it was one of those times for me. I just knew. No two ways about it, we did the right thing. He is the one I want to fight with, and for, forever!

The amazing Lauren Wakefield took these pictures for us when we returned from our honeymoon :-) I really wanted some Chicago pictures since we got married down in Texas! I hope you enjoy these as much as I do.














photo credits all to Lauren Wakefield Photography :-)

31 Days

//If you're looking for my most recent wedding or engagement work, click here!!\\

Today is December 1, 2011. The first day of the last month of the year. We have thirty-one day remaining in 2011. That sure crept up on me! I don't know about you but November feels like an absolute blur. Sadly, I have a feeling it's going to reflect that way below too... let's see how this is going:

1. Stay on top of editing/blogging sessions and real life updates//This is obviously ongoing, but I think it's going well so far!
2. Submit at least two weddings and two engagements for publications/blogs//Baby steps! I have the wording from one of my brides of the story of her day! Now to get it from the other one... I'm also thinking a Two Bright Lights membership is in my future in order to better acommplish these submissions. Any of you readers had success with them? I'm super curious!
3. Build and order sample albums (Oct 22 hard stop on one of these)// I still need to submit the second album. I do have it designed though!
4. Transform our home into a better client meeting space. Or at least the living room/kitchen // Baby steps! I have recently acquired some pretty lamps that better our lighting situation, have purchased new towels from West Elm for the kitchen, and have plans to paint the bathroom a light grey... At least I have more solid plans now?
5. Order big prints to display // Sadly this still needs to be done. I also need to pick which prints... any suggestions would be welcome! Wil feels weird about displaying pictures of other people in our home so I need to find a better option than mounting them on the wall too I think.
6. Launch new branding, website, and blog // New website. Check! New blog.... I have the staging site so we should be live sooner than later. I am SO EXCITED for you to see this!!!!
7. Order and start passing out oodles of my awesome new business cards// Done and done. I absolutely love them! And I've been handing them out right and left.
8. Oh yeah, design said business cards// Aren't they pretty? Please feel free to stop me on the street and ask for one. Or ten.
9. Turn 23 gracefully//Turned 23 ln October! And threw a party :-D
10. Make dinner at home, with groceries, once a week // Ahhhhh... well... we've been out of town a lot so the weeks kind of mesh together... but I've been making a good effort and I think we can call this an ongoing project
11. Photograph at least 5 married couples in preparation of exciting new facet of Emilia Jane Photography that is yet to be announced (yes, you should be getting excited—let me know if you want to be one of these couples) // This is such a rewarding project! I am so excited to launch. You've seen Darcy & Paul, Lindsey & Josh, I juuuust might count Wil's parents, and I have another one to share with you tomorrow..... get excited!!
12. Take at least ONE WEEKEND off for mental health. Yes, an entire weekend with no sessions, AND NO EDITING EMILIA.// We went to Texas for an entire week and I only had three sessions on two days and didn't do any editing. This absolutely counts.
13. Make Lauren’s awesome cake and celebrate her fabulous birthday.// Did that in October, but this month I took new headshots for her! I am so excited about them I just have to post again! Please click here to see :-D
14. Love and serve my husband well// This is ongoing :-) Our week in Texas was so good for both of us!

Well. The upside of this is that I definitely see that I have accomplished a lot in the past couple months... but I also have SO much to get done this month :-/ Since really we have three weeks before being out of town for Christmas, etc. Hmm well we shall see! I would love to hear any thoughts, wise words, suggestions you have :-)

What do you need to get done between now and December 31??????!!! Hmmm??? I'm looking at you!

This is how I really feel... but let's go ahead and pretend I feel collected and forward looking like the second picture. Let's also pretend I'm this tan still ;-)

(A million thanks to Lauren for the pictures of me :-)

Interested in having me take pictures with you and the love of your life? Please use my super awesome new contact page :-)

Wil's Parents

//If you're looking for my most recent wedding or engagement work, click here!!\\

While we were in Texas I insisted on taking a few pictures of Wil's parents. They have images of us plastered all over but I didn't have any good pictures of them! Problem solved.

I love you two :-)











PS isn't her ring beautiful??

Interested in having me take pictures with you and the love of your life? Please use my super awesome new contact page :-)