We had a fun and busy day shooting Kimmi and Jimmy’s wedding that we photographed as part of Fox 61’s I Do. It was the first time we shot a wedding while the whole thing was being shot on video so that was exciting. The wedding was beautiful, Kimmi was a gorgeous bride, and being with this couple who are so in love just makes me smile. They have so much energy and excitement for each other and their future…I’m so happy for them.
How did the two of you meet?
Me and Jimmy actually met online. One of those social networking sites similar to Facebook, etc. He noticed that I was from Cleveland and sent me an e-mail. We talked online for a few weeks and then exchanged numbers. We talked for probably 2 months via phone and IM, and kept trying to get together, but something would always happen and one of us would have to cancel. So one day I was at work and he texted to find out what I was doing. I told him I was on lunch and he was like Awesome…well I’m here. And that was the first time we met face-to-face. It was an instant connection. We made a date for the following night and the rest is history. We’ve been inseperable ever since!
Describe the proposal.
Jimmy proposed to me on Christmas morning 2009. We had opened presents on Christmas Eve, but he told me there was one present I had to wait until Christmas morning to open. So of course I was really excited to find out what it was, but I had no idea that it was going to be an engagement ring. I woke him up about 6 am Christmas morning, we went downstairs all groggy-eyed and in our pajamas. There was a really big box, so I unwrap it, and there’s a smaller box in it. All in all, I unwrapped about 4 boxes. I’d unwrap a layer and throw it on the floor in front of me and he’d push it out of the way and scoot a little closer. Finally I got to the last box, a jewelry box. At this point I kind of had an idea what it was, but didn’t want to get my hopes up. As I opened the box, Jimmy got down on one knee in front of me. He had this whole speech planned and it was so sweet. By this time we were both crying! Then he asked me to spend the rest of my life with him and I said Yes!
What was your favorite detail of the wedding?
I don’t think I can pinpoint just one detail that was my favorite. I enjoyed everything! Everything turned out so beautiful and exactly the way I imagined it! It was one of the happiest days of my life and I will remember everything forever!
How did you decide on your dress?
I tried on about 4 dresses before I found The One. I felt so beautiful the minute I put it on. Everything about it was perfect. I was looking in the mirror and someone asked me what I thought Jimmy’s reaction would be if he saw me in that dress, and I started tearing up. There were just so many emotions running through me and I could just picture him standing there, watching me walk down the aisle in this amazing dress and I just knew that it was the one.
What was your most memorable moment about your wedding day?
I’d definitely have to say my most memorable moment was when I was walking down the aisle. My mom walked me down and I could tell it was an emotional moment for her, giving away her baby. Then I looked at Jimmy and there was so much love and emotion shining in his eyes. I knew that this was exactly where I was supposed to be in my life.
What’s next for you as a couple?
I would say the next step for us is to just start our lives together. The past few months have been crazy and now we really get to enjoy each other as things start to calm down. I’m most looking forward to seeing how our lives grow together. We’ve decided that we definitely want kids, but not right now. We are concentrating on building a stable foundation for the future. I’m going into my second year of college to become a medical assistant and Jimmy is planning on starting back in the fall for business management. What I am certain of is that the future is going to be wonderful because I’m going to be spending it with my best friend. The years to come are going to be some of the happiest of my life!
Congratulations to Kimmi and Jimmy. We know you have a happy and exciting future ahead of you!
We met up with Juli and Justin at Clumpies on a busy Saturday. We enjoyed talking with Juli and Justin, hearing about their wedding plans and how they met…they are a fun couple and we knew this was going to be a fun shoot. We started shooting outside of Clumpies and then did a few shots on Fraizer Avenue. Then we headed over to Renaissance Park and got a few more shots of them before heading over the bridge to the Aquarium.
As part of our new blog format I sent Juli some questions about how her and Justin met and so forth and was brought to tears when I read her response. Love is so powerful and I love every story I hear. We are so honored to share the story of Juli & Justin.
When/how did you meet?
Justin and I met at a restaurant while going to visit with my good friend and he was going to meet up with his best friend who was on a semi/informal date, little did they know they would be the ones to introduce me to the future love of my life.
How long did you date?
We were dating for about 4 months when Justin proposed.
How/when did you get engaged?
Justin flew out to San Diego where I was on my internship one weekend in July. The second night he was there, he took me up to a park on the cliffs of the ocean called “Sunset Cliffs.” We have talked about it before and both agreed that we could spend the rest of our lives with each other, it was just that perfect. After going to a nice dinner that night, we went to watch the sunset with a bottle of wine. I actually thought he was thinking about breaking up with me because of how nervous and unusual he was acting, little did I know he was about to pull out a little blue box. He started talking about how all of this, from day one has been a fairytale and how he wanted to continue that with me and fulfill a happy ending to our lives and to our fairytale. At that point, beside a small campfire overlooking the Pacific Ocean, he got on a knee and asked me if I would like to continue the fairytale with him forever. I was completely clueless on what happened, I broke into tears and grabbed him and held him tight and said I do. I knew we had talked about it but I never knew that it would happen so perfectly and especially on that weekend in California.
What is your ring like?
I have a Tiffany’s Nova style ring. And by the way, Tiffany’s does shine better than the competition…:)
What are some of your wedding plans?
Our wedding will be at the Read House in Chattanooga on October 16th, 2010. My hometown is Ooltewah and both sides of the family are huge college football fans. However my side is ALL VOL, seeing as the majority of my bridesmaids I met while cheerleading at Tennessee, and Justin being from Douglasville, GA is all about Geogia. I’m sure there will be plenty of unplanned excitement and friends and family celebrating!
Juli and Justin have a lot of energy and passion for each other and it made for a really fun shoot. We are really excited to be doing Juli’s Bridal pictures this summer. She has a designer dress and I can’t wait to see it! Their wedding will surely be stunning. Juli has a very specific vision of style and elegance for her wedding…we are honored to be a part of it.
So we are about to make a few changes in the Dotson Studios world that we are really excited about. I wanted to announce these changes as well as explain our reasoning for them.
Change #1 Facebook Page—Yes, we now have a Facebook “Fan” page. We’ve been working on it for a while now but have not finalized it because we wanted to do something unique with it. Since Facebook is everywhere now we felt that it was important to make it meaningful and our hope is that people will enjoy the page and come back often, not just take a look when they first decide to “Like” us. Now that we feel good about how we’ll use our Facebook page we are going public with it.
Change #2 Storyboards—What is a storyboard you ask? Well you’ll have to check our Facebook page and see! We will be taking select images from engagement shoots and weddings and putting them together on a board along with quotes from the couple. Once together we hope you get a sense for not only what the wedding looked like, but how it felt, and an overall sense of color and emotions. For engagement sessions these will focus on the story they share with us as well as a few favorite images. We are really excited about these and hope that our couples and readers will enjoy them as well.
Change #3 Blog Format—When we announced the winners from the Premier Bridal Show and the Formal Affair Show we used the opportunity to tell the story of the winner’s love…how they met, how they got engaged, and so forth. We enjoyed that so much that we have decided to use that type of format going forward. For engagement sessions we’ll tell the story of the couple, and for weddings we’ll have more about the wedding planning and wedding day to share. We love hearing and reading other love stories and it’s a privilege to be able to share so many of those stories with our readers. Every couple is different and every story of how they met and fell in love is different…and we get to share it all with all of you!
We hope you enjoy these changes.
3 Dogs!! Meet Zoe, Macy, and Wilby. I hope I spelled their names correct. :) We had a lot of fun shooting Shannon and Eric’s engagement pictures with their whole family! The weather was beautiful and the dogs had a blast running around and playing.
Zoe loved to play with the tennis ball and loved being in pictures, while it took some coaxing to get Macy to be in a picture. Wilby enjoying being out in a new space and wanted to explore that as much as possible.
I believe this was the first time we had 3 dogs in a shoot so it kept us on our feet and it was a fun change of pace for us. Shannon and Eric’s wedding sounds beautiful and we are really looking forward to that in just a few weeks!
Thanks Shannon & Eric for bringing your little ones to the shoot—we loved it, and thank you for asking us to be a part of your day. We hope you enjoy the pictures.
by Sara Dotson
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