Pinehurst, Southern Pines Engagement Photographer | Pinehurst Wedding Photographer | {A & M Military Engagement Session}

I knew this session was going to be a hit during mine & Mallory's pre-session consultation at Jumpin' Java Coffee Shop [my favorite place!]. She mentioned her fiance Andrew had a classic Ford pickup truck, and I. was. STOKED. I love everything about classic vehicles, and ESPECIALLY love engagement photography, so there was no way this one wasn't going to be fabulous. Lake Rim in Fayetteville is gorgeous year-round, so I'm glad we stopped there for a few shots. And the grassy location is one of my special places here in Fayetteville :) It's especially great for outdoorsy, romantic couples' sessions, which are right up my alley.

These two are getting married this summer in Oak Island, NC [where my family photos were taken!] so it's sure to be a BEAUTIFUL wedding. They were so so sweet together, and I kind of melted every time they did one of my favorite 'look each other in the eye like you love each other' poses. Classic. Romantic. My favorite things EVER.

You guys....he opened the truck door for her. SWOON! I hope y'all enjoy this session's beautiful photos as much as I enjoyed taking them! <3

until next time! <3

MD Photography - Romantic Engagement Photography, Fayetteville NC

Wedding Photography, Fayetteville NC

5 Things You NEED on Your Wedding To-Do List | North Carolina Wedding Photographer | Fayetteville, North Carolina Lifestyle Photographer

It's wedding season! Well...almost. But it's coming! I'm so excited to be booking weddings for this summer...I think I've found my calling :) There's just something magical about two people committing to each other for the rest of their lives. I love it. From the flowers to the dresses, to the cake and the food and the candles...everything! Love it all. I've been to several weddings in the last few years [mine included ;)] and learned something new at literally every single one. It's crazy the little things you don't think about when you're stressing about your big day. These 5 things may already be on your list, or may be far from it...either way, you'll be glad you took care of these things when the big day rolls around.

1) MAKE A LIST OF SONGS YOU DO NOT WANT PLAYED AT YOUR RECEPTION. Or if it's easier, make a list of songs you DO want played. Either way, if there are certain songs that are off limits, make sure the person in charge of the music knows them. The last thing you want is to see your mother in law out there shaking it to "I Like Big Butts" after one too many glasses of champagne. Or maybe you do...again, totally up to you :)

2) MAKE A LIST OF PHOTOS YOU WANT OF YOUR WEDDING DAY. Give this to your photographer. Make a list of FAMILY photos you want from the photographer. Give this to him/her. Give this to your mother, your bridesmaids, your grandma. Give this to your uncle. Give this to EVERYONE who will be involved in the family photo portion of the evening. These two things will make your photographer's life a whole lot easier, AND you will be thankful for this. One less thing for you to stress about on the big day. Make the list a few weeks in advance so you can go over it and make sure you haven't left anyone/thing off. For the family photo part, try to group them by whoever will be in the photos. Like if you need your brother in 5 photos, group those 5 photos together, so he can get in, smile 5 times, and get out. I promise, it will make everyone happy. Mostly you and your photographer.

3) WRITE YOUR LETTER TO YOUR FIANCE THE NIGHT BEFORE. Why not write it the day of your wedding? Because if you're anything like me, you're going to cry like a little baby before the wedding if you wait and write something an hour before the ceremony and then go out to hold your future husband's hand without being able to see him. And while waterproof mascara works wonders, crying does a number on those bags under your eyes you've covered with a pound of concealer. They WILL make a comeback after a few tears. Just do it ;)

4) HAVE EMPTY VASES OF WATER ON THE HEAD TABLE. Bear with me on this....if you're using live flowers for the bouquets [yours and your bridesmaids] those suckers will only last so long. Especially if you're having your wedding at peak wedding season, when it's warmer. If you set a vase [that will fit the bouquet/flowers] in front of each bridesmaid's chair, the flowers will add to the decoration AND not die on you. If you don't want them cluttering the head table, set them on a table next to the sign-in book, or on the gift table, by the cake table, on the guest tables, etc.

5) DO AN RSVP CHECK UP A WEEK OR TWO BEFORE THE WEDDING. Yes, it will be a pain. But you WILL be thankful you did this. So many times, people will get the wedding invitation and be like 'oh yeah, there's no WAY I'm missing this!' but then things happen, people get busy, and people forget. So the last thing you want to do is pay for food for 200+ people and have 100 show up. That's a lot of wasted food. Not to mention seating charts, if you do that. Save yourself money, space, and stress...just give people who would be travelling a ways a call beforehand just to double check. They'd love to hear from you anyways!

If you're in the planning stages for your wedding, I hope one or more of these things ends up being helpful to you! If your wedding day has come & gone, what are a few things YOU wish you'd remembered to put on your to do list? Let me know, I'd love to hear!

Until next time...
<3

Southern Pines, Pinehurst Family Photographer | Southern Pines Wedding Photographer | {How to take the stress out of family photos}

We've all been through it...the planning stages of having family photos taken. Stress levels can range from "I lost a favorite sock in the dryer" to "Oh my God, my college final is in fifteen minutes and I can't find my keys".  Let's face it, there's a lot that goes into these photos, and they usually only happen once a year [sometimes less]! The clothes, the hair, location, making everyone smile...yikes. All of this pressure can make having family photos done one of those situations no one is happy to see come around. Kind of like tax season. Don't let a photo session be your family's tax season! Everyone just take a deep breath, relax...and smile. Family photos are meant to be fun and memorable. And trust me, I can tell when members of the family are unhappy with one another, even through the lens <3

FIRST: Find a photographer whose style matches your own! Do some leg work, people! I implore you to dig through their website and look at every single family photo in their galleries. Does this work look like something you'd hang in your home? If not, move on, my friend. If so, familiarize yourself with their price list. This way, if needed, you can give yourself enough time to save the money needed to skip over the "Family Portrait Kiosk" in the mall and splurge on these precious keepsakes for your family.



Yes, this is an overly dramatic comparison...I took the top photo from awkwardfamilyphotos.com;
but you get the point, right?

     When you make the jump and choose a fantastic photographer who will capture your family's style with every photo, I'm a huge fan of choosing a time of year that is convenient for each member of your family...EACH YEAR to have your photos taken. If you know your daughter will be going through semester tests in May and December each year, put those on the 'no-go' list. If you know your son has football practice every day each fall, cross that off your list. Not that it's super important to be photographed around the same time each year, it just makes things easier for YOU when it comes time to decide when to get those family portraits taken. Do yourselves a favor. Just pick a month.

Aaaaand THIS is why fall is such a popular time of year for photos. I mean, look at those leaves.

     Since you're being a spectacular person and planning so far in advance, when you've chosen the time frame for having photos taken and confirmed it with a photographer of your choosing, now you can plan around this for family haircuts! This might not seem like a big deal, but if you have already paid a $200 session fee for this Thursday, and you get your hair dyed on Monday but come out looking like a skunk instead of having gorgeous sun-kissed highlights...you're going to wish you'd done things differently. Plan ahead. Please. Just do it for me.

     Outfits are seemingly the most critical part of your family photo session. Everything must coordinate in a good way, but not so much that it looks like you all attend the same boarding school. Pick a color scheme. This can be kind of tricky, but let's say you all like [and look amazing in] yellow. Yellow can be paired with shades of brown. So, for a family of four, you can have two members in yellow, one in khaki-colored-ish, and the other in a darker brown. Coordinated. Blues are easier...navy blue and baby blue pair well with that regular Crayon blue. Red, black & white are great too! My family photos last year were difficult and I was a little worried, to be honest...Kyle wore a blue and white [with a tiiiiiny bit of pink] plaid button-up shirt with khaki shorts; I wore a coral dress; and Emmalyn wore a bluish-purple shirt with coral tights. Up close and in person, I wasn't sold on Kyle's shirt matching Emmalyn's, but in the photos it looked just fine...their non-matchy-matchy business worked. So don't freak out if your blues don't match exactly, or if that yellow and this yellow don't look so right. Sometimes, the mismatching looks better than the perfectly matching.

     Now...about those kids of yours. I'll be quite honest with you...I'm a total brat when I'm hungry. And I know many kids feel the same way. One pain-free, easy way to get your kids to cooperate with you [aside from threatening them to within an inch of their lives - which I've seen work, by the way] is to feed them. Feed them before, brings snacks for during [usually for toddlers & smaller children], and bribe them with a treat afterward [ice cream, anyone?!]. Everyone is happier on a full stomach. Especially me.

     If you've done all of these things, you're sure to have a LOT better time at your family photo session, and spend a lot less time stressing about it and developing some of those monster stress breakouts we all get around important times like this. But just in case you STILL get one of those monster breakouts, just ask the photographer to do a little extra touching up on your chin during the edits ;)

An MD Photography edit from the Eicher family session. Sweet baby Sydney & mama Krystal;
Downtown Fayetteville, North Carolina Photography

     Just remember that this time is one for capturing your family's happiness and love. Make these photos something your grandchildren will ooh and ahh over. No, it's not all up to the photographer to do this. A lot of it is in your hands, too. <3

Melissa Harshbarger

MD Photography & Design

www.md-photographydesign.com

www.facebook.com/mdp.photog

mdphotographydesign@gmail.com

Instagram: @mdphotonc

Twitter: @melabelle8

Pinterest: @melabelle8

my last few sessions! {playing catch up}

amber {college senior}

you'll never find such a beautiful woman, inside & out! amber was fantastic during our shoot, and is going to make a marvelous teacher. so so proud of her accomplishments!

johnston {family photos}

i love my job. i love being a photographer. and i love people who make me being a photographer easy. that's this family. love love love.

oh, hey there! it's me :)

i'm so SO surprised, thankful and just amazed at how fast my fan base has been growing on my photography page. it's such a huge blessing, and i'm thankful for each and every one of you! as an amateur photographer, i follow a lot of really big names in photography on facebook and pinterest, and one thing i've noticed is how well they seem to try and keep their fans connected with their personal lives - like, sharing photos of their family, tidbits about their life, telling them about their day...and i admire that so much. i think it's such a good thing to do, because in all honesty, i would be very wary of choosing a photographer i knew nothing about. so that's why i choose to share photos of my little girl and husband, and now - thanks to katie! - of myself! these are our family photos for this year and i'm 100% in love with each one of them. along with these photos though, i figured i'd share a little bit more about me. :)

kyle and i have been married for about a year and a half now. and it's been beautiful.

my favorite sport to watch is football - but i'm way more of a college football fan than NFL. anddd since i'm from texas, of course my favorite team is a texas one - red raiders! unfortunately, they're not the best, but i'll always be loyal <3 since i've moved to the east coast, i'm probably going to have to pick an SEC team to watch since that's all that show over here. go gamecocks?

it might be old fashioned, but i'm a huge fan of planners, NOT phone calendars. i have 4 calendars in my house, AND a planner. is that weird?

i can honestly say i don't know what we would do in our house without our puppy gunner. he's the biggest turd you'll ever meet, but when i wake up in the mornings to him cuddling up to me, i melt.

emma's 6 month birthday falls exactly on my birthday! 

and i'm not ashamed to say, this year i'll be turning 26. :)

my favorite word is BELIEVE. who has a favorite word?

being a mom is the greatest joy i've ever experienced in my life.

i'm kind of obsessed with taylor swift. like, we would be bff's. seriously.

most of you know, i'm from texas. and i miss it daily, but i have started to love north carolina more and more. it's very beautiful here - especially in the fall. but i'll always miss the mexican food!

my favorite color changes like every single day. seriously, one day it's green, the next it's bright blue. oh, and coral. love me some coral. and yellow.

i met my husband in a bar where i was a waitress. yeah, i know. classy. haha

his chuck norris jokes won me over.

i am addicted to post-it notes and sweet tea. seriously, i put post-its on EVERYTHING. and i drink more tea than i do water. which, in retrospect, probably isn't good for me.

i wish i could paint masterpieces. but since i can't, i'm perfectly content trying to create masterpieces out of my photographs. <3

i'm absolutely terrified of heights, spiders, and basically all creepy-crawly things. no thank you.

i love fishing, but other than that i'd rather be indoors. except for photo sessions of course :)

i ALWAYS try to catch the clock at 11:11, but the AM time is usually when emma finally lays down for a nap so i have time to clean, so i'm super busy. and more often than not, i'm passed out by the time the PM one rolls around. i'll get it eventually...<3