Summer Bridal Show

We will be at the Wedding Planner and Guide summer bridal show this week. The summer show is on Thursday, June 7th, at the Marriott Madison West. The show runs from 4:00pm to 9:00pm. Ticket information and details can be found on the WP&G website, wedplan.com. Come see us at our booths #202, by the front entrance, or at #417, near the fashion show. We would love to meet you and chat about your upcoming wedding! We will have albums to show the style of work that we do and will be offering an incentive to those that book their wedding date on Thursday. If you have already chosen Appleby Photography to capture your day, feel free to stop by and say hi!

Madison Half Marathon

Chris and our friend Tim have been wanting to do the Madison Half Marathon since "the wives" did it in 2004. This was their year to do the 13.1 mile trek around town while we cheered them on. The weather was great for their first race, mild and sunny. Both say they are willing to do another in the future. And, that was even after they counted the number of blisters they had on their feet! Here they are, showing off their shirts before the race. They read "Will run for beer, cheese and brats..."

Espresso Royale

We are excited to share our photographs at the upper State Street Espresso Royale during the month of May. Our collection just went up last night, so stop in at 208 State Street to take a look. Espresso Royale is across the street from The Overture Center for the Arts and is open 7am - midnight, Monday through Friday, and 8am - midnight, Saturday and Sunday. Have a great cup of coffee and enjoy the view!

Apple Pie

My grandmother is an amazing baker. There have been plenty of blue ribbons at the local fair. She often doesn't even use a recipe, just going by "feel." Her apple pie is no different.

Chris has declared her pie as the best he's ever had. And since there is no one else that knows how to make it, it was decided that I needed to learn how to carry on her tradition.

This weekend, I learned how to make Grandma Appleby's homemade apple pie. (Of course, the true test will be making it at home, alone!) Grandma has been making, and perfecting, her pie and pie crust for 60 years. There is no recipe and Grandma does not use measuring cups or spoons. When Grandma says, "a smidge," she means a "coffee cup full." It is all done by feel and by memory. I tried to write down the "recipe" as we prepped and baked, but there will probably need to be adjustments.

We will be having a lot of dessert as practice!

Ballroom Showing

We will be displaying our wedding photography this Friday, April 20th, at Quality Inn & Suites in Madison for their ballroom showing. From 6:00pm-7:30pm, brides and grooms that are interested in having their wedding receptions at Quality Inn & Suites may come and see the ballroom, as well as meet with select wedding professionals.

Baby Reagan

Amy brought her new baby in for Reagan's first session. She was just one week old! We captured lots of cute little "bits & pieces", and we made some really cute birth announcements.

Jocelyn's session

Jocelyn was a fun almost-three year old. She had so much personality that showed through in her session. Here are a few of our favorites.

Lydia's One Year session

For Lydia's One Year session, we had to start with "the blue dress", as we call it in our family. Becky's mother, all of her sister's and our oldest daughter have all worn this dress for their One Year sessions, so it's been a tradition for a while. We also chose a fun dress, as a change from the tradtional look of the blue velvet.

Meeting Ida

Today, Appleby Photography had the honor of photographing Ida Wyman. Ida is a photographer, herself, having started in the craft when she was a teenager back in the 1940's. I think she could be described as a photojournalist, as many of her images captured Americana. Ida shared some of her fantastic black & white photographs with me today, including many that dated to the beginning of her career in the 40's and 50's. At our session today, we captured Ida with her daughter, Nancy, and her granddaughter, Heather. I'm sure Ida has many wonderful stories that I hope to hear someday!

Lydia is Walking!

Finally! Lydia started pulling up and cruising on furniture when she was 6 1/2 months old. We thought for sure that she would be an early walker. This just goes to prove that children do not care about impressing their parents or about bragging rights. Now that she turned a year old yesterday, Lydia took 11 steps. I wish I could share the video clip for proof! Our peanut weighed in at 17 pounds and 7 ounces (4thth percentile) at her one year well-check today, but she is 29.25 inches tall (50th percentile), so she is "long and lean". We will be doing her birthday portrait session soon, but we wanted to share a couple of images from her February session. Look how big she is getting!

Continued Learning

We like to continue our education when the opportunities are available. Becky was able to attend the Wisconsin Professional Photographer's Association's annual convention, which was February 22-27th in Madison. It was a great chance to see and hear new ideas, as well as get "refreshed" for the year ahead. Watch for new portrait and wedding offerings, including a new line of albums, coming to Appleby Photography this spring!

Busy, Busy, Busy!

The past month has had a lot going on, both professionally and personally. We had a great weekend at the Bridal Show. We met a lot of great people, who were there planning weddings. We even had three couples book their wedding date with us at the show. Since then, we have added some more 2007 wedding dates to our calendar and have couples starting to meet with us about 2008 wedding dates. We are almost filled for 2007 Saturday weddings, with only a few random weekends open yet. Over the past month, we have also met a few new babies, which is always fun! On a personal note, we have been saddened by the passing of Becky's grandfather. It is always hard to say good bye to a loved one. We really appreciate all those that have expressed concern. Thank you!

Wedding Planner & Guide bridal show

The annual bridal show, put on by the Wedding Planner & Guide, is this weekend, January 13 and 14th, at the Alliant Energy Center. We have been displaying at the bridal show since 2002 and love to meet with brides and grooms about their Big Day! Our booth is #1606, near the fashion show. Please stop by our booth to say hello and introduce yourself.
The new 2007 Wedding Planner and Guide book is now available. Our ad is on page 230.

See our Ad

The January issue of Brava Magazine (formally ANEW magazine), a local Madison magazine, will be hitting the newsstands in a few days. See our ad on page 69. We were very pleased to see our client, Erica Meier, featured in an article on page 94. We were also pleasantly surprised to see the great shot of her livingroom wall with all the fun photographs we took of baby Lauren on page 96!

Infant Bereavement Photography

Note: This post contains sensitive subject matter.

Many months ago, when I was pregnant with my second child, I heard about a non-profit organization that offered assistance to families suffering an early infant lose. The services are available for infant lose as early as 20 weeks gestation. Photographers who volunteer their services provide the families with beautiful heirloom portraits of their children to help with the healing process. After many months of consideration, Chris and I signed up with Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep (nilmdts.org).
Yesterday, for the first time, our studio was called upon to produce portraits for a family at the hospital. The hardest part for me, as a mother, was knowing the grief that the parents' must be going through. As I looked at the parents, I was surprised at how ordinary they appeared to me, like any other couple sitting in a hospital room, so loving and strong. And their little angel looked so perfect laying in their arms.
I pray that God will continue to watch over them and that these photographs give them a tangible memory to cherish.

Love At First Sight

Madalyn got glasses last week! She was so excited to see all the details that she had been missing. We got her two pairs and she loves to switch them around. I told her I think she looks so mature in her glasses- that she looks like she is at least eight years old. She loves that!

Sarah and Rich's wedding

We were working on another album today and wanted to share a few photographs. Sarah and Rich were married this summer and we LOVE the dock shot! The one with the flowers in the foreground will be in our Wedding Planer & Guide 2007 ad.

Jennifer and Jason's wedding

Jennifer and Jason, who were married this summer, picked up their wedding album today and we decided to share some images from their wedding. (Jen and Jason- Thank you for the CDs- we especially loved disk 2!)

Katherine

Katherine is a two year old that we photographed yesterday. Her mother wanted to re-create a photograph that was taken of herself when she was a child, with Katherine wearing the same dress and with the same hair style. Katherine did a pretty good job of working with us!

Christmas dresses

I was excited to find matching dresses for our daughters, Madalyn and Lydia, to wear for Christmas! (They will probably hate me for making them wear matching clothes later!) Here are some shots from our Christmas Card session. The photos belie the effort it took to get the girls to both cooperate at the same time.