Tara Lilly Design + Photography

Moved!

noreply@blogger.com (Tara Lilly Design + Photography) — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 02:11:00 +0000

I finally finished the design of my new beautiful blogsite that's full of fun features. Check out My New Blogsite to keep up with all my new work, and well, of course...me!

taralilly.com

Why Our Dog Loves Memorial Day...

noreply@blogger.com (Tara Lilly Design + Photography) — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 02:26:00 +0000

...or well, any holiday at that. Not only do we spoil our Boxer, Bubba, but our parents spoil him as well. All holidays are pretty typical for Bubba they first start out with a ride...

"C'mon guys! I'm ready to go!"

He then gets to run....

And play...

And when it's time to eat...

He gets dinner too :)

Hope you and yours had a wonderful Memorial Day, just like Bubba did!

Wedding Bliss

noreply@blogger.com (Tara Lilly Design + Photography) — Mon, 24 May 2010 21:06:00 +0000

It's crazy to think that all the months of planning, all the hours working / creating, the daydreaming of how the wedding would work out is all complete. On 5.15 I married my sweetheart :)

I must admit, I feel a little weird not rushing around in the evenings or weekends working on wedding stuff. I do kind of miss it but I was soo happy with how everything turned out for our wedding day. We were surrounded by wonderful friends and family and the abundance of love and support we received on our wedding day (as well as up to) was overwhelming. The day was perfect and it honestly worked out wonderfully and everything went smoothy. Honestly, it was a bride's dream...or mine anyways :)

While I wait (very anxiously) to get pictures back from our wonderful photographer, I'll share with you all the details leading up to the big day starting with our Save the Dates.

Our Save the Dates really mean something special to me because I put a lot of thought into them, from the design (of course) to the process it'd be printed to the paper.

I wanted to use letterpress printing for the STD's - I love the rustic look you get from the final result. So I turned to John at Roanoke Valley Printworks. He hooked me up with an amazing paper company in NYC were I ordered handmade watercolor paper with uncut edges. I was in love.

I used one of our engagement pictures by Your Life Photography and turned it into an illustration that would print well on letterpress.

And it wouldn't be my wedding if there wasn't a custom designed logo for the bride and groom :) I wanted something fairly simple but yet, literally, flourishing.

I used the logo design to create little STD stickers that were attached to the STDs w/ metallic string and vintage buttons. And let me tell you, my mom spent many hours on ebay trying to find the right buttons (thanks mom!).

The finishing touches were added to the envelopes made of recycled paper and wrapped in handmade embellished paper with calligraphy done by no other, but my mom (I tell ya, that lady is talented and is available for hire to decorate your wedding)!

They turned out exactly as I pictured, don't you just love it when that happens?! It's too bad I'm bad at math and had waaay to many printed! I supposed that's more for the scrapbook though.... :)

More wedding details coming soon!

A Bridal Shower Fit For....Me!

noreply@blogger.com (Tara Lilly Design + Photography) — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 01:09:00 +0000

A couple weekends ago was my amazing, beautiful bridal shower put on by my mom, sister and b*maids. I got to see a lot of people that I don't see nearly enough and was touched by such a wonderful day. Before I show you the awesomeness of the day, I've gotta start with invitations. I wanted some unique ones and pink! I decide to make them look like fancy cut tags and secured them with a brad at the top. On the back I glued black and pink patterned fabric and sealed them in hot pink shimmer envelopes. Ah, simply perfect.

Now, on to the bridal shower. I was greeted by two of my bridesmaids when I arrived, they covered my eyes and "led" me to the shower, torture I tell you, torture!

{Pictures by my mom and Tara Burgess}

Of course, once they uncovered my eyes and I saw the beautiful decor my mom did and some beautiful faces staring back at me, I was in tears. Yes, I'm a sucker.

Check out the decor that brought me to tears...my mom is amazing (and she's for hire!).

Old medicine bottles embellished in patterned fabric and buttons that held pink and white flowers.

My mom MADE candles with CUSTOM scents for each guest! And of course those name tags....love it!

Cupcake table with of course, icing and goodies for guests to top their own.

These signs may or may not be seen at our wedding also :)

My mom made the flower on the left out of painted burlap, she made a lot of them and used them for the center pieces. I like how she did our picture, simple and sweet.

Me and my future nephew, he's a big boy, my arms were sore the next day!

Ahh, the sock game. I totally lost, we were supposed to feel for things in our sock with our toes....I obviously can't feel anything with my toes!

We got a lot of fun stuff that made me :)

My bridesmaid, Ashley, made these cute little candy cocktails for prizes....I wanted one so bad. Oh well, guess she'll just have to make one for me for our wedding!

So, if you ever wonder why I'm not updating my blog more...it's the wedding. It's consumed my life!
But the countdown is on....less then a month until wedding bliss!

Lost Photographs

noreply@blogger.com (Tara Lilly Design + Photography) — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 01:26:00 +0000

Besides taking a lot of pictures of clients throughout the year, I take lots of personal pictures. Family, friends, animals, nature, whatever...I just shoot away. Sometimes I take so many, I forget about some that I have taken, like these. I found these deep in my hard drive from last summer, mostly of my dog, Bubba, and my mom. They make me happy and I can't wait to see summer again.

Kendra & Chris: Married

noreply@blogger.com (Tara Lilly Design + Photography) — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 00:17:00 +0000

Meet Kendra and Chris, they were married on 1.1.10 in gorgeous Florida surrounded by close family and friends. And since everyone couldn't come with them to Florida to celebrate, they decided to bring the celebration back here to Virginia.

The morning of the reception we all woke up to the second biggest snow fall of the past few months. There's no way anyone would be able to make it to the Woodland Place with several inches of snow on the ground and more coming down. But hey, if rain is supposably good luck then surely snow is like gold!

So, the reception was moved to the following day. And friends and family came to celebrate with the happy couple. And the snow? It just added a little bit of extra sparkle to the celebration :)

Coloring: It's good for the soul

noreply@blogger.com (Tara Lilly Design + Photography) — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 02:43:00 +0000

It was a few years ago that one of my co-workers let me in on a little secret. While she was going through graduate school she would pull out a coloring book and crayons when she needed to take a break from all the stress. Coloring to de-stress? Brilliant! After she told me I went out and bought one of those big boxes of crayons with 100 and some colors as well as several coloring books. I pulled out the coloring books several times through out college and packed them up and carried them with me through three moves. I've since then lost them in one of my moves and totally forgot what a good friend a box of crayons and a coloring book has been to me when I'm about to pull out all of my hair.

This weekend while visiting Chris' (my fiance) family I walked into his mom's kitchen at one point in the day to find all of his nieces sitting around the kitchen table coloring! Kids still color?! Thank God kids still color! In my opinion, coloring is good for the soul, whether you're young or old. It's fun. It doesn't take much concentration and there really are no rules. You can get a little crazy and color outside the lines or you can use lime green on the sky. My advice if you're stressed, or not: Just color.

Even my fiance knows the value in coloring :)

White As Snow

noreply@blogger.com (Tara Lilly Design + Photography) — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 04:48:00 +0000

Do you ever feel like you're on a roller coaster? Up and down, up and down. And like a roller coaster, you think you're going somewhere and fast at that, but end up in the same place you were. That's been the last couple of weeks for me. I've had really good days!...followed by really bad days. This week, I did something I swore I'd never do again, I got my hopes up about something that was really important to me. And of course, as you can guess, the outcome wasn't what I was expecting, or hoping. The past day and a half I've been searching for the positive and trying to find motivation to keep going, even though, I'd think it'd be easier to just give up. Then, the snow came.

I know, I know, some people are cussing the snow for coming, but it's really been a blessing for me. A stress-free day to hang out with the dogs and fiance is exactly what I needed. Even though today's snow didn't solve my problems, it at least gave me a break from the roller coaster ride I was on. So, for all of you on a roller coaster ride too, I hope your snow day comes soon :)

An Ashley, An Alison & A LouLou

noreply@blogger.com (Tara Lilly Design + Photography) — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 02:17:00 +0000

Wow...it's been a while. I can't wait to show you all the fun stuff I've been working on, including my wedding stuff! But that will have to wait, until then, let me catch up on last year's work.

It was the last warmest day of 2009. My friend Ashley (whom I've known since elementary school!) and her sister (I remember when she was in kindergarten!) contacted me for sister portraits. Of course, I have a special place for sisters, since I have one - check out her portraits here.

Anyways, Ashley has a child, she's very hairy and likes to talk back but has the cutest little ways. For Christmas, Ashley and Alison wanted to update their portraits to give to their parents. And why not throw LouLou in the pictures to make things really fun?

Aren't they three beautiful ladies?

I loved that Ashley used this picture in her Christmas cards.

LouLou wanted off that leash bad!

No photoshopping on those eyes...all natural!

So, when Ashley first told me about LouLou's "hat", I didn't believe it. She really did buy a hat to keep her ears warm and the first time I saw LouLou with her little pink hat, I died, laughed for a good 20 minutes. We decided to make this one fun, and Ashley and Alison wore hats too. Soo cute! But before we finally got to this picture, it took some work. Check out the out takes...

haha...isn't that great?!

This one was specially done for a christmas gift to their mom and dad.

I absolutely love this one. I caught them in the middle of a laugh...just being themselves. Makes me smile :)

Check back for a sneak peek of the first wedding I shot for 2010! Annnd if you're looking for a photographer for your summer or fall wedding for 2010, shoot me an email: tara@taralilly.com - My pricing will really surprise you!....in a good way of course ;o)

New Year -- New Products!

noreply@blogger.com (Tara Lilly Design + Photography) — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 02:08:00 +0000

Why, hello 2010. I've been waiting for you. And I'm ready to go.

This year, I'll be introducing a ton new products. Trusty prints of your photos are good but there's soo much more that you can do with your pictures now. And leave it to me to find creative ways to showcase your favorite photos.

Welcome the new custom designed CD Case! Now, with any package purchase you receive a custom designed CD Case that houses your copyright free CD of photos (yep - all my packages include a copy of your edited photos on CD - copyright free!). The case is designed with photos from your session and is designed to fit your personality. And the quality....amazing. Really. No more cheap plastic jewel cases for me! I'm in love with these. Check them out:

Like A Vapor

noreply@blogger.com (Tara Lilly Design + Photography) — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 02:31:00 +0000

Last month I got to photograph a group of Cousins! Fun! I was told it had been several years since the last time they had their Family...er...Cousin Portraits done, so it was much needed.

It was a beautiful day, lovely light, amazing people, but more so then any, I would soon find out later how special that day really was. Because it wasn't any ordinary day, that day was truly a blessing that would later on mean soo much more. But before I can get to that, I want to share the Cousin Portraits with you. They were a great group of ladies to work with and didn't take long before they relaxed and were posing beautifully in front of the camera. Here are a few of my favs from the day:

I did two sessions in one that day, the cousins and a mini family session w/ Erin, Ben and their son Ryan. I've know Erin and Ben for several years through my fiance, and well of course, Ryan I've know for 4 years :) Erin, Ben and Chris (my fiance) go way back and have been friends way before I even came into the picture. So it was pretty awesome to get to spend some time with them while updating their family portraits. At the time, it just felt like a regular (photography) day, I had no idea I was blessed with capturing such a very special moment.

A couple weeks after taking their family portraits Ben had a massive stroke. It was one of those moments that didn't seem real, how could the man we just saw a few days ago be in the hospital in serious condition?? Ben's health worsened over the next few days and on Dec. 20th, he peacefully passed away.

That day was a really hard day as well as those that followed and continue to follow, for my fiance, his friends and especially for his family. I don't think I'll ever, ever forget what Erin said to us that day. During her grieving she took a moment to console those around her -- Life is short, just because were young doesn't mean we're promised tomorrow. Don't wait to do the things you want to do. Do them now and cherish the time you have together. --

So, this post is dedicated to Ben, someone I know, who will always be remembered by many.

The Faces of Christmas

noreply@blogger.com (Tara Lilly Design + Photography) — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 22:02:00 +0000

So, as I mentioned in my last post, one of my favorite things about Christmas is the excitement on other's faces. I love it, absolutely. I wanted to share with you what I got to see on Christmas...it's pretty good stuff.

This is my sister, I surprised her w/ standout prints of her two kitties, Holly and Goat.

Even Bubba, our dog, had a good Christmas. Here he is sporting his new bandana.

My mom, oh my mom. She had the best facial expression of the day, she usually does every year. She had a pretty good Christmas as you can tell, my dad got her very first DSLR camera.

That's a robe, apparently my mom loves robes. :)

My dad had a good Christmas too, lots of "toys" for him to play with.

I was really excited to give my aunt her gift. She has a cat, Teddy, also know as The Spawn of Satan by my sister bc he's a pretty grumpy cat. BUT my aunt loves him to death and back so I took some pictures of him while she was up for Thanksgiving, did some quick editing and had a 24x36 Gallery Wrap printed of him. I think it made her day.

Here's my mom again, with another great look. We surprised her with a desk and bookshelf...that took my fiance and his friend Billy 2 hours to put together. It was all worth it for that face though :)

My sister got me and the fiance a Wii - yippie! Here she is boxing or dancing?? Not sure...

And at the end of the day, smiling faces was a good thing to see :)

And A Very Happy To You...

noreply@blogger.com (Tara Lilly Design + Photography) — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 03:46:00 +0000

I truly love, love, love Christmas and everything about it. The music, movies, sights, smells, yummy eats, the excitement on others face but most importantly enjoying my blessings.

Life is crazy enough every day, but tomorrow I just want to enjoy life. Because all and all life is pretty darn good.

So, a very Merry Merry Christmas from my crazy family to yours :)

My aunt, sister, mom and me.

Someone thinks Christmas Eve dinner looks pretty good, even if it's just the butter!

And for those of you who aren't located in Roanoke, here's the beautiful and bountyful snow we got last week. And it's still here, it'll def. be a white Christmas this year.

November, where did you go?

noreply@blogger.com (Tara Lilly Design + Photography) — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 00:07:00 +0000

And October, September, August, July, June! I swear, I think this year has been one of the fastest of my life. Maybe it's because I've been so busy, maybe it's because I'm older or maybe it's because Father Time has decided to become my enemy. Whatever the reason is, I'm sure I'm not the only one that feels like they're constantly fighting with time.

I also can't help but to have a mini panic attack when I remember that in just a few days will be 5 months left until our wedding! How much stuff do I left to get done? TONS! I haven't even sent out our Save the Dates yet...eek!

But, with all the stuff I have left to get done before the end of the year or in the next 6 months, it'll get done. One way or another, it'll get done. And as I enjoy the last few weeks we have left of the year, when I look back, I can honestly say, it's been a fast one, but man has it been a great one. I'll miss it for sure.

And to end such a great year I did two REALLY awesome family portraits last weekend. Here's a sneak peak:

Family Portraits...Hokie Style

noreply@blogger.com (Tara Lilly Design + Photography) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 01:10:00 +0000

Family portraits should be fun, a memorable experience in itself and most importantly, show your family's personality. And that's exactly how I would describe these family portraits - a bunch of Hokie fans photographed at VT and to top it off...with the Hokie bird. Such a great family to photograph and they were up for just about anything so I really got to let my creative juices flow!

With Camera In Hand

noreply@blogger.com (Tara Lilly Design + Photography) — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 01:13:00 +0000

It's just about every weekend I look forward to spending a couple hours with my face behind the camera. Sometimes it's a slow weekend, photography gig speaking and if I'm dying to take portraits I usually buy / borrow / beg / steal friends and family. Lucky me I'm surrounded by beautiful family & friends, who are full of life and personality.

So, with that said, I've been begging my sister for months to photograph her. Not just because she's absolutely beautiful but she's my partner in crime to cut up with. We truly have the same sense of humor and spend most of our time together just simply laughing....lots. I feel very blessed to have a sister like her and even more blessed we are such good friends.

So to all you sisters out there - let me introduce you to mine, Amanda.

I Do : Mike & Tiffany Style

noreply@blogger.com (Tara Lilly Design + Photography) — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 01:43:00 +0000

Mike and Tiffany said I do on a beautiful September day here in Roanoke. The sweetest thing about their wedding was that their kids were very much apart of the special day. It was a true family celebration (as well as fun)!

I've known Tiffany for years through her sister. Therefore, I did a little bit more with this wedding then photography. I designed the bouquets / boutonnieres / corsages - which you'll see in a bit. Tiffany wanted something simple since she was only using Calla Lilys and her colors were black and white. It was really fun to do and amazingly, not that difficult (hint: Bride on a Budget tip #32 - make your own bouquets - if you don't have a complex design in mind). Her mother and sister helped make the bouquets / boutonnieres / corsages which made the process go by a lot easier. Even though the designs were fairly simple - it was pretty time consuming, so if you do decide to make your own - recruit help!

On to their wedding day...

Tiffany's bouquet was designed with black and pearl accents around the center of the bow on the front of her wrap.

You can really do a lot with these suckers besides use them to pin corsages and boutonnieres to clothing (hint: the accents on Tiffany's bouquet).

The groomsman boutonnieres were designed w/ a black wrap and white ribbon finished off with a black gem accent.

The bridesmaids wore these sweet little rhinestone barrettes in their hair.

I love this series of photos - they were acting silly with Tiffany's hair bc it was "hot"!

Just like her mom....

Tristyn loves to have her hair done too!

And just like her mom...

Tristyn loves lip gloss too!

I love this moment of Mike right before Tiffany's dad handed her over.

Sweet little Tristyn fixing mommy's dress.

One of the best family pictures ever.

Tiffany's Maid of Honor, Taylor, her oldest daughter is such a sweetheart and very photogenic.

Such a sweet moment.

I love this picture. A glass of champaign and a bottle of Wild Turkey in the back pocket.

I asked Mike to turn and look back at the camera and I got this oh so very nice pose.

I love the way Tiffany is looking at Mike here.

...and I love how she just has the "glow" brides have on their wedding day.

Isn't she just adorable?

What you're seeing is Maple Syrup dripping off their getaway car...and rice...and we won't say what else was placed on their car.

Second best family picture ever.

Little Man's Big Birthday

noreply@blogger.com (Tara Lilly Design + Photography) — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 01:14:00 +0000

You may remember a couple weeks ago seeing a sneak peek of Hunter's first birthday (if not, just take a scroll down). Here's some of my favorites from the day. I must say, I'm a bit jealous of his party I would love to have a whole cake just for me and spend the rest of the day laying in the pool...too bad my birthday is in October. Here's my favs:

Big ol' 1

Look how he's holding up his new gift so proudly! Too cute!

Duhn Duuuuhn Nuuuu - Here comes the cake....

A big fist full in the face...yum.

Haha...I can't help it...it's too cute.

Arrrgggh! The little pirate man.

And a nice refreshing swim to take off all that cake.

Little girls in pigtails makes my heart melt!

This is one of my top favorites of the day...notice where the little lady's hand is...haha!

Upgraded!

noreply@blogger.com (Tara Lilly Design + Photography) — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 00:57:00 +0000

The great thing about my birthday being next month is being able to celebrate it super early. I decided it's time for an upgrade - new camera / new lenses / new flash / all around new gear - so a Happy Early Birthday to me! A brand new shiny Nikon arrived my way recently and I've been blown away by the amazing things it can do w/ my other new gear. And, well, new stuff is fun to have but only if you get to use it. Check out some of my testers below...

What Can I Say...

noreply@blogger.com (Tara Lilly Design + Photography) — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 00:50:00 +0000

...I really LOVE this commercial. I can't help it, I want to do a little dance when it comes on. Go figure Baskin Robbins was thinking the samething when they decided to do a dance contest to the song. Now my one question is - is the Ice Cream and Cake song a Baskin Robbins custom jingle or is it really a song?

"If you don't have pom-poms just use your hands. You've got to earn pom-poms!"
Here's the website dedicated to the dance contest - check out the video w/ the little animation cheerleaders on the choreography! Ok...who does Baskin Robbins marketing....pretty genius!!

http://www.brvideocontest.com/

Sneak Peak

noreply@blogger.com (Tara Lilly Design + Photography) — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 03:41:00 +0000

A very special someone had a birthday party today. Mr. Hunter, my friend's son, celebrated his 1st birthday and he was just too adorable. He went the whole 9 yards - opened some presents, ate (and wore) some cake and took a little swim afterwards! I think he thoroughly enjoyed the birthday cake part of this party the most - see below for a sneak peak!

The New Fleming

noreply@blogger.com (Tara Lilly Design + Photography) — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 02:05:00 +0000

....is beautiful! I went to see the new William Fleming High School here in Roanoke this week and it looks really good - plus it's HUGE! They've upgraded the classrooms from dry erase boards and Elmo projectors (do you remember those?!) to SMARTBoards. I want one of those! Ok, so I probably wouldn't have as much use for it...but still, very cool. But they do still have the trust ol' lockers...I wonder if anything will be invented to upgrade lockers...I mean lockers have been around for what...ever? Kidding. Anyway...on to the good stuff...

I love the lettering here in silver with tons of shiny windows behind!

I really like how it was designed with lots of windows and light - I think it adds for a more positive atmosphere.

Nice architecture.

Nice size gym with a WHOLE lot more seating then the old one.

How many trophies does WFHS have? A LOT! They were moving the trophies into the 4 or 5 built in cases.

2010 Seniors!

noreply@blogger.com (Tara Lilly Design + Photography) — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 00:40:00 +0000

Senior pictures should be fun and capture who you are...not someone painfully sitting in a studio with a corny backdrop behind them. It's your life and it's your time - so why not make the most out of it. Let's go to your favorite places, bring some of your friends and several of your favorite outfits. Your senior pictures will be personalized to fit YOU - from the photographs themselves to special touches added during the editing process. Everything I do is creative and unique to fit my clients. Email me at tara@taralilly.com for package information.

Fun Times in Floyd

noreply@blogger.com (Tara Lilly Design + Photography) — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 01:19:00 +0000

Ever since my mom, sister and I took a detour through Floyd a few weeks ago on our way home, I've wanted to go back. The ride down there is soo gorgeous and the little downtown of Floyd is soo cute with some fun shops. Friday night was the night I headed back down there, we got a late start so the light went fast but I got a couple of good shots. And the best part and to our surprise was that in downtown Floyd Friday night there was a little bluegrass festival...def. made the trip that much more interesting!

Look Ma - I'm on Google!

noreply@blogger.com (Tara Lilly Design + Photography) — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 00:11:00 +0000

It's the little things that excite me...like showing up on Google in the top and side bar!

I thought I'd do a little bit of advertising and see what happens. And what better place to do advertising then online. I know I personally look at the "sponsored ads" at the top and to the side of the Google results and even check them out, so I'm giving it a try. I've placed my ad under keywords such as "wedding photography roanoke" and "wedding invitations" as well as several more. I first placed my ad under the keyword "roanoke" and had 700+ impressions in an hour! Even though my ad was possibly viewed several hundred times, it won't do much good if someone is looking for a hotel in Roanoke and gives two licks about photography and graphic design, so I changed it. Thank goodness I'm not paying by impressions and just clicks...gees, I would've already met my budget for the whole month! lol

A big part of businesses (or in my case moving in the direction of hopefully starting my own business) is Marketing. Make that HUGE part, so I'm spending a little extra money in making sure my Marketing rocks. If you ever Google for photography or graphic design in Roanoke...look for my ad!