Brooke Turner Photography

CLICK HERE  for Amanda and Brent’s Slideshow.   ENJOY!

Amanda and Brent got married in the Dominican Republic in July, and had a huge reception back home in Lexington.  The reception was held at a family home in Brent’s family.  Everything about this reception was breath-taking, from the incredible food, to the band, everything! I really like how Amanda and Brent had tons of pictures from their destintation wedding out for all to see, and even a video with highlights from the event.  I have to give a shout out to Dupree’s Catering.  Oh.my.goodness.  The food was AWESOME!!!! Also Angela Cocker - wedding planner extraordinaire from Vista Events held everything together perfectly!   

Here are just a few sneak peek images -

The sweet couple before the guests arrived. 

The home where this fun party took place.  This was only a part of it though - the best part were the grounds behind the home with all the big tents set up!  I love white tent receptions!

Back behind the house - one of the food tents in the ‘backyard’ of the house.

A sweet moment when Amanda’s parents arrived.  Here is the new bride with her father.  I don’t think I saw him without a smile on his face for one minute the whole night!

The centerpieces -

This cake topper was very special to the couple. One of Amanda’s aunts made it for them.

Now on to the fun!  Amanda and Brent’s first dance - At Last…..

So happy…

Father Daughter Dance: "Daddy’s Hands".  That brought a tear to my eye!

Mother/Son Dance:

We also got some hillarious dancing pics! I know things look pretty tame here, but the party got started a little later!  You’ll have to wait for the slideshow to see those, though.  That will be posted soon!

Last week I photographed the cutest couple!  Robin and Nathan are getting married in February at the fabulous Columbia Museum of Art.  I say it is fabulous because I had my wedding reception there!  I’m’ lucky enough to be shooting there twice next year (so far). 

Here are a few faves from their engagement session.

The ever-popular red door shot:

Down by the Gervais St. Bridge-

I’m really excited for their wedding in February! 

Today, I had the pleasure of photographing adorable baby Ayden at Folly Beach.  He looks exactly like a little boy version of Suri Cruise I think!  I just couldn’t get over all of that hair!  He’s about three and a half months old and is just too adorable. 

How in the world could I ever possibly describe this past weekend?   There are so many words that come to mind when I reflect.  Friendship, growth, worship, laughter, fun, learning, honesty, vulnerablity, truth. 

I had been anticipating this past weekend for about eight months and I was not disappointed!  As soon as I heard that Beth Moore would be joining 2 other incredible teachers (Pricilla Shirer and Kay Arthur)for one awesome event, I knew there was no way I could pass it up.  Beth Moore is a huge role model of mine, and her bible studies have been such a catalyst in my spiritual growth.  As soon as I heard about the Deeper Still event, which was in Nashville, I called my friend Amanda and we started making our plans to go (a lot of y’all know Amanda from weddings she’s helped me with).  Its a good thing we jumped on it too, because it sold out so quickly! Mandisa (remember, from American Idol?) even made an appearance and sang a few songs!  Mandisa was actually on the worship team that travels with Beth Moore before she auditioned for A.I. 

Anthony Evans was also part of the worship, and he sang this beautiful song which pretty much sums up my testimony.  I was sitting among the other 20,000+ Christian ladies with tears in my eyes as he sang it.  It is as if he got in my mind and wrote the lyrics perfectly describing my spiritual journey.    For so long I "chased the winds" of money, acceptance, physical appearance, and success.  After years of chasing I realized once I achieved a few of these, that I was still empty.  My favorite part of the song is "with intimate insistence, you overwhelm my senses, all I need is before me now". The ‘meaningless treasures’ that I possess are more than just the material things that God has blessed me with in this world, but also all of the talents, gifts, relationships, everything.  All of these ‘treasures’ are meaningless to me without Him.   Only He can fill the void.  Here are the lyrics-

Meaningless  - Anthony Evans

Chasing a dream, so many things, capture my affection.

Running ahead, I’ve been a mess, Loosing my perspective.

This is my obsession; always chasing the wind, left with nothing in the end.

(chorus):

Its Meaningless without you.

Meaningless, these treasures I possess.

Only you can satisfy, only you sustain my life,

without you, its meaningless.

Feeling you near, its coming clear, you’ve got my attention.

Filling the void, killing the noise, focus my direction.

With intimate insistence, You overwhelm my senses,  All I need is before me now

CHORUS

I’m breathing but I can’t survive; Living but I’m not alive, without you.

CHORUS

Here are a few pics from the weekend.

In front of the coliseum ready to go in:

The packed coliseum:

Elvis couldn’t help but jump in a pic with us!

Last week, I met Lake and his mom, Jenna, at the Hammond School’s playground for some fun, candid portraits.  We had already re-scheduled a time or two due to the terrible heat lately, and thought for SURE by 2nd week of Sept it would have cooled off a bit.  Well I guess it did - from 100 to 95! Despite the heat I got some good shots while chasing Lake around.

Here a few of my faves-

The last month has been amazing as I’ve booked several more weddings for 2008.  I realize the importance of keeping my availability updated online so that potential brides can anticipate whether or not I am available.  Even if I’m booked, feel free to give me a call or email. I can make some suggestions of other photographers that have a similar style.   

I will continue to update this and put a link on the right side of the blog:

Here is my schedule for 2007 (remaining) and 2008:   (as of 12/18/07)

Oh, and this is just the weekends - it would get WAY too complicated to start listing all of my weekly portrait sessions.

2008:

January

5 - wedding, Columbia

26 - wedding, Columbia

February

1 - 3 - Boone, NC

23 - wedding, Columbia

March

8 - wedding, Columbia

15 - wedding, Columbia

22 - Unavailable

April

5 - wedding, Charleston

12 - wedding, Charleston

19 - wedding, North Augusta

May

3- wedding, Charleston

16-17 - wedding, Boone, NC

24 - wedding, North Augusta

31 - wedding, Charlotte, NC

June

7 - wedding, Columbia

14 - wedding, Lexington

15-22 - vacation

27-29 - Deeper Still Conference, Atlanta

July

12 - wedding, Columbia

September

6 - wedding, Savannah, GA

October

4 - wedding, Columbia

11 - wedding, Stone Mountain, GA

This past Monday (the day after the Tigers beat FSU- Whoo Hoo!!!)  I photographed yet another Clemson engagement session.  Mandy and Warren are Clemson alums - and now reside in Tampa.  I was thrilled when Mandy called me to set this session up - I love any excuse to spend time in Clemson…plus I was already going to be in town for Ashley & Clint’s engagement session.   

Here are a few faves:

We started at the Carrillion Gardens because of the awesome view of Tillman Hall-

Some fun on the cannons-

Sikes Hall-

Now, on to the football field!   

How cute are they? Mandy and Warren wanted to throw the football around a bit-

We ended up in downtown Clemson -

Funny story- right as we were finishing up I kept feeling this itching up and down my leg.  Somehow (I guess at the stadium) not one but TWO ants crawled up my jeans!!!! I literally had ants in my  pants. It is funny now that I think about it, but SO embarrassing at the time! I had to stop at a gas station to get them out when we finished the session. I still have bites up and down my left leg.   Just thought y’all blog readers might get a kick out of that. ;) 

Boy, do I have a lot to catch the blog up on!  I’ve had two really fun ‘first time’ experiences this past week which deserve their own blog posts, but for now I will blog about my engagement session from yesterday.  Ashley and Clint are two Clemson grads, so of course Clemson was the perfect spot for their engagement pics, especially this weekend.  The campus was alive with energy and excitement for the first game of the season, which of course is tonight vs. FSU.  The First Friday parade, for the first time ever was on a Sunday this year, and was just finishing up as we started our session.  It really took me back to my college days and made me a bit sentimental.  Ashley was a ZTA sorority sister of mine at Clemson.  It was so nice to get to know her fiance, Clint, a little bit better!

We started off at the Carrilion Gardens - and look who we found!

Ashley and Clint also wanted some with their cute puppy -

I love this shot with the fountain in the background-

Then we decided to go to the stadium-the field was set to go for the big game tonight. 

Hope everyone has a fabulous Labor Day…and Go Tigers!