Now, for my family and friends that weren’t able to be there, here is your virtual tour. Dad: This is for you! I love you and missed you more than ever last night. I can’t wait to hold your hand and walk you through the studio this winter.

The front entrance…a big thank you going out to Shawn Bright at Signs in One Day for rocking our sign and window decals! You guys are the best!

We are looking forward to having this area landscaped by our friends, Beth & Mike, so stay tuned!

Here I am with the kiddos…this was approximately 30 minutes after my nervous breakdown. I pulled it together, but on the way to the opening I was sweating bullets and silencing my children after the boy karate chopped the girl in the neck “on accident.” The screaming in the car sent me over the edge…I almost came undone…but thankfully they could see that I was literally teetering on the edge of sanity and we had a nice, quiet ride to the studio with lots of deep breathing exercises.

I didn’t like the light there, so I asked Brandon to take another shot. Please excuse this picture…I included this for one person, and one person alone: Tashia Webber: “Does my hair look okay?” Gosh, I missed you last night!

Back to the tour (sorry!)

Here is the view from the entrance:

Another angle, showing our awesome dividers from Ikea that separate the shooting area:

Here’s a view of our sitting area & packaging station, where orders are boxed up & ribbon-tied:

My favorite chair ever…and the bathroom, which I named “the detail room.” All of the pictures in there are wedding details: shoes, dresses, flowers, rings…my favorite things!

Shooting area…not the best picture I’ve ever taken, but I wanted my Dad to have a full view of the place!

This is the viewing area, where clients come and comfortably view the photos from their session. I love offering the capability to view pictures in a large format, rather than being limited to the computer screen!

Here is our office…it is adjacent to the viewing area. Now that we put yellow accents in the viewing area, I am determined to find yellow office chairs. If you see any, please let me know!

Before everyone arrived, our dear friend Jeff presented us with the MOST amazing gift ever. EVER. It’s a Dave Matthews Band gold record, framed, engraved and dedicated to us. The lyrical quote is absolute perfection: “Turns out not where, but who you’re with that really matters.” The thoughtfulness of the gift was overwhelming…I cried…and Brandon got choked up too, you can see it in his eyes in this picture:

Thank you, Jeff & all the folks at Way FM. We are extraordinarily blessed to know you. And we love you!

I couldn’t believe the generosity of my friends, my heart was bursting last night. Here are some of the gifts we received:

Thank you to: Karen Cubler for the gorgeous (& functional!) silk bouquet from Jan at www.rentyourflowers.com. Thank you, Sharon Brotherton for the fabulous purple bouquet…Patty’s Flower Shop made a gorgeous design! And to Patty herself: thank you for such a sweet, fragrant bouquet…you are so generous, and of course…I love your work. Shout out to Bonnie! Thank you going out to Jennifer and David Rodriguez of Jaz-Mar Photography for the flowers and for being there to snap a family picture! Your grace is an inspiration, we love you guys! Thank you to Glen & Lizette…you have encouraged us from the beginning and we will always treasure your wedding memories. We love you! And finally, thank you Donlyn Turnbull for the treasure find…a vintage camera…something I have been wanting but never thought I would find! You have no idea how special that camera is to me–I can’t wait to use it for an engagement session!

p.s. you know I had to write on the cork and add it to our collection…if you don’t know about our collection, click here: corks

Thank you to Elba Plaza, of Jewels by Park Lane and to Kristen Pell of WAY FM for contributing giveaways…they were fabulous!

I am still floating on cloud nine from all of the loving support lavished upon us last night. I truly can’t express my grateful heart, I am so emotionally overwhelmed by the encouragement and kindness of you all! There are just no words to describe how blessed I feel…if I could wrap my arms around you all and give you a great big bear hug right now, I totally would! Here is a virtual one: (((hug)))

Here’s my favorite new family picture from last night, courtesy of Jaz-mar Photography:

Phew.

After things cleared out, Brandon and I took some time for a little dancing…and the kids snapped some pictures. These images are blurry and precious, kind of like the entire day!

If you missed the event, it would be my pleasure to give you personal tour! Thank you for stopping by the blog today.
Love, Stacy
www.setfreephotography.com

Here she is: Welcome to the world, sweet girl!

I had to rock the white chair again. And the orange scarf…hey! it’s a new combination!

I think I commented on Rielyn’s eyelashes a bit much during the shoot. Okay, I went overboard…I just couldn’t get over how long they are. Is it wrong to be jealous of a newborn? It just doesn’t feel right.

The awesome hat and diaper cover above were made by the very fabulous Braidy Joy! She has a display in the studio and is now accepting custom orders…check her out!

This was our last pose and I love it. La-la-love it in color, in the vintage style, and the black and white versions. You might recognize the suitcases…I can’t stop loving them. THANK YOU, Josh Comer. I will return them someday.

Congratulations to Mike, Jaime, Payton and Averie Love. (I instill on calling Averie by her first and middle name. It has such a ring to it!) Your family just couldn’t get any cuter…how blessed you are! Thank you for letting me spend time with baby Rielyn, she is pure perfection.
Much Love and Affection,
Stacy

ps. be sure to become a fan of Braidy Joy here: facebook
have a great weekend, everyone!

www.setfreephotography.com

Erin & Brian,
Congratulations…it is such a pleasure watching you become parents. Erin, you are a beautiful mother; the joy was all over your smiling face! Thanks to all three of you for letting me be a part of your lives!
Love, Stacy

I thought some reflection was appropriate today, so I am posting about our summer time fun. I’m reflecting on the time we spent together, the sleeping in and the fact that time flies. I have never wanted a pause button for life more than I do right now.

We played the game of Sorry alot–did you know that Sorry is “The Classic Game of Sweet Revenge?” Aka: Brandon and Stacy forget all strategy and ruthlessly try to knock each other out, even if it means handing the game to one of the kids!

We have this fun vintage box version, it’s the second in our collection of vintage games. Brandon has hopes and dreams of filling a shelf with every vintage version he can find.

Here are the sweetest hands and feet ever…oh how I already miss them running around the house. It’s so quiet here. And serene. And there is no fighting. No whining or constant requests for snacks. hmmm why was I crying this morning?

And finally, after weeks of defeat, victory is mine:

Welp, thanks for humoring me this morning as I wallow. I just never thought time would go so fast, even though I would be rich if I had a penny for every time a complete stranger in the grocery store would see me holding my babies on my hip and say “enjoy that, it goes so fast!”

Love,
the sad, reflective, sorry-winning Stacy

www.setfreephotography.com

Go Seahawks. There, now I feel better. Holla!

This next photo features the handiwork of Braidy Joy. Her hat & cocoon sets are divine!

My favorite image from the whole entire session…baby Madison asleep on one of my chairs in the studio’s sitting area. These chairs have quite a history…but first…just…look:

I am still squealing with excitment when I see that shot…I ran next door and borrowed some fishing line from Seatow to tie to the hat while Mom (Abby) held it up for that awesome elf-ish look. L-o-v-e it!

So…the chair story:
Well, we (B, the kids and I) had been in a studio-decor funk until we spotted these chairs at Home Goods. They are white, leather, they swivel, and they are comfortable. Like, put-your-feet-up-and-take-a-nap-comfortable. The price made me a little UN-comfortable so we just visited the chairs on weekends until one day they were gone! We ran to the other Home Goods and found the set (phew!) but one of the chairs was stained. It was marked down which was good…but the stain was not coming out no matter what…we were indecisive. So again…we visited the chairs. About three visits later and several chair-shopping-trips, we found ourselves back in Home Goods watching another couple check out the chairs. The woman said “I want this, but we need a set of two.” Well, the other one was in the clearance section because of the stain. When that realization hit, I’ve never seen Brandon move so fast. He straight RAN to the clearance section (didn’t stop for a flatbed cart), picked up that (read: heavy) chair in a barrel hug and high-tailed it to the cash register. boo-yah! Decision made. Funny how it takes almost losing something to realize that you can’t live without it.

That’s my story and I’m stickin’ to it. The kids love telling (and re-inacting) that story.

Dear Abby,
Your daughter is a beautiful, sweet little gift! It was a pleasure to photograph her…such a sleepy head! She made our session a joy, and I thank you for letting me steal a few kisses!
Love, Stacy

Set Free Photography™
www.setfreephotography.com

Mya reminded me of my daughter so much…maybe it was the hair…or the cheeks. Or, it could just be that baby fever that keeps coming ’round. Either way, I would have loved a picture of my daughter rocking the orange scarf…Mya pulled it off quite nicely!

There just are no words to introduce this next shot. I won’t even try:

*sigh* I just wanted to hold her and hold her and pretend that my babies aren’t so old. I mentioned the baby thing to Brandon again. Not. gonna. happen.

Max & Sam: Congratulations on such a perfect little one. I’m so happy that I got to meet her!

Suzy: I am so happy to have met you and that you were a part of our shoot. I hope these pictures help cheer you up while you are missing sweet Mya. Have a safe trip home!

Love, Stacy

Set Free Photography

Baby Zoe was peacefully sleeping and as I watched her from behind my lens, I almost jumped for joy when she went from this:

to this. It was in the blink of an eye…and I caught it just in time. Babies really do smile, don’t they?

See the vintage shirt that Zoe is wearing here? Well, when I say vintage, I mean the real deal…this was worn by Zoe’s Daddy. His Mom saved it after all these years. Since 1979, to be exact. I love, love, love that they brought this to be included in our session…I hope Zoe saves it for her baby someday!

Safe. In Daddy’s arms. I love the peaceful look on Zoe’s face and how her little fingers are showing.

Congratulations, Elizabeth & Gilberto. I loved meeting Zoe and having her be the very first newborn photographed in our studio. She really is angel. God Bless your family!

Love,
Stacy | Set Free Photography ®

www.setfreephotography.com

This is one of my favorite shots…this lamp is the FIRST thing that I bought for the studio. The color pallette started with the lamp shades, and everything fell into place after that…if you look closely, you can see the entire place.

Thank you for reading the blog today and for all of the support we have received in our latest adventure! We are very excited to share our new digs with you and who knows? maybe you will find a picture of you (or your baby) on the walls!

Lots of Love,
Stacy
Set Free Photography ®

www.setfreephotography.com

Oh, and can I just say that I was also thrilled to shoot at Liam’s house? His mom & dad are great artists, and I was inspired as soon as I saw the decor in there! Wahoo for yellow walls! (I really hope this color displays properly on your screen…it looks fab on mine but yellow is kinda tricky from screen to screen)

In keeping with the maternity/family photo shoot style, I went for a vintage vibe and whipped up some digital polaroids. *loving it*

Sharayah and Kyle: Congratulations to you and the girls! Liam was such a joy to photograph, I am so very thankful to be included in this special time in your lives! I am looking forward to watching Liam grow!

Thanks for reading the blog today, I am so glad you stopped by this Saturday! By the the way, you might have noticed the new “DO NOT COPY” verbage on my pictures…this is for the protection my clients, their families, and my work. If you would like to show ideas to someone, I don’t mind at all if you post my blog link on facebook or elsewhere!

Love, Stacy
Set Free Photography™

She is such a natural beauty, full of great smiles…Taylor: you rock! I love your easy going personality and I just want to know you more! I know that God has great things in store for you!

I couldn’t stop laughing when Taylor broke out these animated facial expressions! Priceless! We found a couch sitting outside some apartments…the “no trespassing” sign was all I needed; I was inspired. To have my girl trespass. But it was worth it! Downtown Ft. Myers can be so random, I love finding new things every time I shoot there!

Thank you for a fantastic session, Taylor & Sue. I loved spending time with you and I sure hope that Subway got the AC working! Phew, that was hot!
Love, Stacy

www.setfreephotography.com