In the beginning I was the floor sweep and flower cleaner but eventually, I taught myself design. It involved a lot of trial and error – much like photography. Designing served me well until I moved back to Florida where I just couldn’t find a quality florist to work for. If I had met Chloe Lawry, the owner of Supposey Wedding Florals back then, my photography business would still be part time. I would have moved to Pensacola to work for her. Everything she creates literally fills my heart with joy.

It is rare to see someone tap into that much raw talent so early in life. She is already a huge success and her business is flourishing. I’ve been dying for a chance to get my hands on her bouquets for quite some time now, so when Chloe said pretty poseys heading to Bentleys on the Bay, I jumped at the chance to be there. I swooned when I saw what she created.

If you are searching for a florist for your wedding, you now know who to call. Chloe. Call Chloe. Please call Chloe. 850-776-0553. Just imagine how happy I’ll be on your wedding day when you have cupcakes and Supposey flowers! I may need a defibrillator.

But wait, there’s more! You can also download ALL your high resolution images to your computer with one button. By the end of the summer, you will also be able to order professional prints to be delivered straight to your door. Guests can log on, star their favorite images and brag about their dance floor skilz in the guestbook.

Below is a guide to how it works and if you want to play around with it from your ipad or iphone or desktop, check out my portfolio. Happy Sharing!

Amy Little Photography Portfolio PASS Gallery

Dude. How is this even possible? I’m beyond honored. And giddy with excitement! Apart from the fact that I was able to learn from industry leaders, we raised a ton of money to provide clean water for thousands of people!

Please check out the entire Wed Society series here: Wed Society Thirst Relief Benefit Shoot

Here’s a few behind the scene shots of our day. If you are wondering what the gun is for…click here.

Brittany & Brandon’s wedding at the White House in St. Andrews was no different. This time, I joined Robert Hill  and his assistant Nathan that day. And I’m so glad I did. Not only did Brittany give me a cupcake for breakfast, but she had cupcakes tattooed on her feet. Call me crazy, but that seems like destiny to me. FYI – she made all the cupcakes. They were awesome. There was even a rice crispy treat wedding cake. Yes, I had officially died and gone to heaven.

The whole wedding was stuffed full of awesome details, a lot of happy tears and a wickedly fun wedding party. I’m so honored I was able to be a part of it! On a side note, I’m also thrilled we didn’t set fire to the trees when the wish lanterns were released at the end of the night. But I did have my phone handy just in case we had to call some cute firemen to the rescue. 

But Thirst Relief is fighting this epidemic by raising money, $5 at a time. They can turn that half mocha double latte you just bought into 25 years of clean water for one person. 100% of public donations go to water projects. Check out their website and see the amazing projects in progress all over the world. Maybe it will inspire you to skip the trip to Starbucks once a week and use that cash to change someone’s life forever.

This year’s benefit shoot was organized by Luke Edmonson and took place in the Jean Dry Lake Beds outside of Las Vegas. It was styled by the insanely talented gals at Wed Society. This years instructors were Mike Colon, Rocco Ancora, CM Leung, Ryan Schembri, Jen Hudson and Corinne Alavekois. Just the fact that I was able to shoot with these photographers was amazing enough for me, but it blew my mind that I helped raise enough money to provide clean drinking water for eight thousand people.   

Below are some of my favorite images from the shoot. They are honestly some of my favorite images I’ve ever taken. It’s hard to believe that having fun and honing one’s skills could benefit someone on the other side of the world. But it did. And I can’t wait to do it again.

A huge debt of gratitude goes out to everyone involved in making it a day to remember!

Thirst Relief International

Styling: WedSociety

Models: Brink Model Management

Hair & Makeup: Jennifer McLaughlin and Moriah Wampler

Post Processing: Photographers Edit & Shoot Dot Edit

Turns out, we were blog stalking each other. After checking our calenders, it was decided that I would second shoot Mohamad & Elizabeth’s wedding at the Destin Bay House with Brett. I was pretty stoked. And for good reason. It was just as epic as I imagined it would be. For Brett it was a reunion with his fav vendor friends Destin Bay House owner Erin & Culinary Catering 365 owner, Heyward.

Brett is very laid back. He’s totally calm and doesn’t stress about anything. Thanks to a 5 Hour Energy drink, I was the antithesis, running around like a chicken without a head. But it worked beautifully for us since we had a ton of fun. And maybe a shot of cinnamon whiskey. At least I think thats what it was. Mo, Elle, Brett & I decided to end our night on a high note in a short glass. Mo & Elle had the kind of wedding you wished would never end. I seriously can’t believe this is my job. I get paid to eat cake and hang out with awesome people on the best day of their life.

The second shooter at a wedding usually photographs the Grooms preparations. So I headed down the road to meet Mo and his posse at the Beachside Inn. It took a while for Mo to show up, but I was kept company by a super friendly dog, who sadly, wasn’t invited to the ceremony. Mo’s groomsmen were mainly made up of his family members. I don’t know when and where we’ve met, but I know this family. Which is probably why Mo’s dad, Yousef, kept accusing me of being trouble – he’s obviously met me before. I didn’t disagree with him but I did promise if he did what I asked him to, then he could boss me around tomorrow. It seemed like a fair deal to me.

I’ll fast forward here past the part where Mo & Elle had their First Look on the dock, past the part when they made faces at each other during their portraits, past the hilarious ceremony when I couldn’t stop laughing and crying and I’ll go straight to the reception where the wedding party made their grand entrance by dancing in to their own tunes. It was a bit chilly that day so the First Dance was held in the sunroom where we left a tiny circle for the happy couple. No soft romantic glances here, it was laughter all the way.

By the time the reception was in full swing, Yousef had pulled out a drum and elaborate scarf dancing ensued. I’m sure there is a special name for it, but I don’t know what it is. Yousef tried to get me to dance, but I grabbed my camera and ran the other direction. That type of dancing is best reserved for post sangri consumption. At some point in the evening, Mo and his brothers broke out the human table trick, which eventually lead to all attendee’s under the age of 16 attempting feats of strength – both on and off the dance floor. It was seriously entertaining stuff. There were bridesmaids gansta rappin inside, bridesmaids bobbing for beer outside and non stop hilarity until the very end. Thats when they broke out the bubbles. A lot of bubbles. Elle trying to eat bubbles. Like I said earlier, epic.

This was one of my top ten funniest weddings I’ve had the honor of attending. By the end of the night, my face hurt from smiling. Needless to say, Brett and I are already planning our next joint photography adventure…which will include wheat thins and a Macklemore & Lewis soundtrack. I can’t wait!

My second, third and fourth stop was Draper Lake. I confess, I pretty much just drove around in circles here trying to find the ceremony site of Bethany and Johns wedding this fall. I’ll have to revisit this place armed with a GPS and a second pair of eyes. And time to eat since I passed Goatfeathers restaurant and shamefully didn’t have time to go in.

The next stop was to meet Renee Amour, the owner of Ceremony Design Company. Rhonda Rockwell from the Knot told me about her when I was whining about the seemingly endless supply of bamboo arbors. I immediately checked her out. Apparently Renee and I both believe the same thing: anyone can afford a gorgeous unique beach wedding. I love her fresh ceremony designs! By the way, to celebrate the launch of her new business they are giving away a free Ceremony and Reception decor package. How cool is that?! Bonus score, while I was there, I also met makeup artist Lanna Bloodworth, who is as nice as she is talented.

Somehow I managed to carve out enough time for a quick stop to see my photog friends David and Courtney Craver of Sublime Studios. I haven’t been able to hang out with them for ages. Not since they had only two children. I finally met Landon, the newest member of their family. He’s 16 months old. He’s walking. He’s flirting. And at the rate I’m going, he’ll be entering high school before I make time to visit again!

The last stop on my Tour de Panhandle was Gulf Breeze to see Teresa, the mother of one of my brides. She has been handling the planning for Sarah and Joe’s wedding since they live absolutely no where near here and are insanely busy working on their ed-u-makay-shuns. It was great to sit down and just catch up on the happenings of the past few months. But here’s the kicker…SHE MADE ME LEMON CAKE POPS.  Fo shizzel. I just died and went to sugar heaven.

Inside this beautiful white box wrapped with an organza bow, sat one dozen individually decorated lemon cake pops. These handmade globes of joy are a gorgeous labor of love. Teresa and Sarah just wanted to do something nice for me. They’ve been following all the prettiness on facebook and knew I would love something filled with sugary sweetness. And they were right.

I cherish this gesture. It’s so amazing that I get to become a part of the best day of someone’s life. But when I get to really connect with people, it warms my heart. I love this life I have finally created for myself. I don’t know what took me so long but I’m here now. And I’m having cake pops for breakfast.

I’m so happy that Kyle and Ashley picked me to document their wedding. It’s an honor to be a part of one of the most important days of someone’s life. It doesn’t matter how big or how small it is. Or where it is. It’s the people that make it special and that drives me to be better ever day. You can tell how much they love one another. They spent the whole day laughing. At each other, with each other and making faces. Everyone was making faces. Their baby is going to be born into a fun group of people. I’m excited their family is growing. And kudos to Ashley. I could hardly keep up with her! I heard being pregnant made you tired. Well, she blew that theory.

I’m also very appreciative they took all of my recommendations to heart and hired an amazing team of vendors that I love working with. Thanks to everyone for making Ashley & Kyles wedding a beautiful success! Especially those flower girls! I heart you both so much!!!

Venues: Henderson Park Inn and Henderson Beach State Park

Catering: In Any Event

DJ: Everything and the Wedding, Too

Cakes: A Cupcakery by the Sea

Rentals: Panache Tent & Event

I come from a family of art lovers. The walls are decked out floor to ceiling in family memorabilia, photos from our travels, paintings and anything else that can possible be nailed to the wall. For us, art is a living thing. It’s how we document our lives. It how our future generations come to know us and laugh at our questionable clothing choices.

So for me, it’s important that my clients have a wedding album. I want the memory of their wedding day to live on. I want the walls of their homes to be full of beautiful portraits. Art belongs on our walls. As a bride, if your only intention is to have a screen saver for your computer, then I’m not the photographer for you. And that’s ok, because there are many photographers out there who will be happy to just give you a CD and never think twice about it.

But not me. I’m going to give you art. I want you to have a gorgeous bound album professionally printed on archival papers, mounted on thick acrylic substrate pages and designed specifically for you. So later, when your grand-children’s children are mocking us for a multitude of reasons, at least your album will still be badass.

Speaking of shots, I took some while I was there. Both the liquid kind and the camera kind. The camera kind were much more awesome and left significantly less bruises on the right side of my body. {Thanks Bay Photo for the seemingly endless supply of free cranberry vodkas} On Saturday, before the wicked parties began, I was lucky enough to join nine other photographers for a workshop in Red Rock with Mike Colón. It was a great learning experience for me since Mike insisted we shoot in Kelvin instead of using an expo disk or a predetermined white balance. But the biggest thing I took away from that day were the people I met. I loved our small friendly group of peeps and I have no doubt we’ll stay in touch. And we’ll all be back for more shots next year. Both kinds.

Mike made arrangements for our stunning models below to be decked out in beautiful detail. Everything from the bow in Alona’s hair to the rolled cuffs of Marco’s pants made me giddy with happiness. And when I saw the flowers – I just about swooned! No lie, I seriously wanted to keep them. As soon as I figure out who the vendors were on this shoot, I’ll update this post, but until then, I’d like to say a big thank you to Mike and his team for putting up with me all day and their entertaining dancing at Nao. You’re the man, Edwin. I’d also like to thank the workshop sponsors, Photographers Edit, Lexar and Leather  Craftsmen. Megaprops to Photographers Edit for processing my images from this workshop – love the way they turned out!!! To see more from this workshop, visit my WPPI PASS Gallery. This is my pretty new gallery I’ll be giving all my 2013 brides. Swanky stuff, yo. Check it out!

Update on Vendor Deets:

Hair & Makeup: Lindsey Shea

Bridal Attire: BCBG

Grooms Attire: JCrew

Wardrobe Stylist: Kat Harris

Florals: French Buckets …I have a flower crush on them.

Models: Alona Mitchell & Marco Esparza from Envy Model Management