Mandy Keel Photography: Anniversary Photos {Western NC Photographer}

I've been meaning to do this blog post for awhile, but I have been so busy that I haven't had a chance to. I'm kinda glad I didn't have time to now because what better day to blog an Anniversary Photo session than on our actual anniversary. :) Be warned, this post is going to be very loooong!

You see, today my husband and I celebrate 6 years of marriage and also my husband's first Father's Day. It has been a wonderful day! I am so thankful for the husband that God has blessed me with. My sweet Eric has stuck with me when I didn't even like myself. He is the most selfless, loving, and patient person I know. Becoming parents last year through foster care/adoption has definitely changed our marriage. Some things have been more challenging while others have been easy. All of it has brought us closer.

This 6th year of marriage has probably been our most difficult, and it's the one I'm most proud of making it through. :) Not pride in myself, but pride in Jesus Christ for seeing us through and giving us the strength to keep on loving each other. I am so thankful that my God doesn't give up on me, and that He gives my husband the same heart that He has. My husband really loves me like Christ loves the church, and I am so blessed. Eric, my darling, I love you!

Now on to the photos. Back in April I was able to meet one of my absolute favorite photographers, Kristen Booth. I emailed Kristen earlier in the year telling her about my dream to kinda re-do my and my husband's wedding photos. We didn't get a ton of photos of just the two of us on our wedding day, and Kristen's style is exactly what I imagined for our wedding photos. I told her how much I wished she could do our photos, but since she lived on the other side of the country (SoCal), I knew that wouldn't happen. To my surprise Kristen had a trip planned to Virginia! I was so excited. We booked our session with Kristen, even though we'd still have to drive 8 hours to Williamsburg, Va, but it was so worth it. Our session with Kristen was more than I could have dreamed. She is described as the "Real Life Fairy Tale Photographer," and she is exactly that. Wait til you see these photos! They are so dreamy! We were blessed with amazing light, an amazing location, horses, a field of buttercups, beautiful woods, just perfect! Seriously a fairy tale! So enjoy our anniversary photos, and while you're at it, check out Kristen's blog post about our session here: Anniversary Session and also go find her on facebook. Thanks so much for the amazing experience and beautiful photos Kristen!

Our session started off in just some regular clothes to ease us in. These were alot of fun!

Then Kristen spotted this AMAZING! spot. She has an incredible eye, and this next photo is probably my favorite photo ever. It's so dramatic.

Then, we headed off into these beautifully lit woods. It was awesome hiking through the woods in my wedding dress. So surreal. :)

Love this photo. It makes me feel so adored by my husband.

Told you we had horses!

So the following pictures in the buttercup field have a funny story. We weren't really supposed to be in this field, but it was too beautiful to pass up, and there were no "No Trespassing" signs, so we climbed through a fence to get into it. The only thing is, inside this fence were several horses. We didn't feel very welcomed by these horses. They followed us around and would stare us down. It almost looked like they were debating trampling us..haha. In the end, we were not harmed, and we got some seriously beautiful photos with fantastic lighting!