Melissa & Peter had a contemporary wedding at the lovely Doolan’s Shore Club in Spring Lake, NJ!

I met Melissa & Peter earlier in the year for their engagement session. They decided to go to Laurita Winery! You can view their session here. It was a perfect day then, and I am still in love with their session. They are so in love and it shows in the photos. I was so excited for their day, we even chatted about it at the winery. She had everything planned out and was excited and ready for it to finally be here.

When I arrived at the venue I was instantly blown away by the gorgeous lobby! I knew I would be incorporating the iron stair case with Melissa’s dress! Her details were so pretty, and that veil! I love a gorgeous veil! Fast forward to their ceremony, a skylight Atruim! It was just stunning! The sun was shining, and it felt so nice on our skin (with the air conditioner of course!) Their day could not have turned out any better. Blue sky’s and beautiful weather. They truly on their engagement session AND were lucky newlyweds on their big day!

Doolan’s Shore Club was a fastastic venue. Everyone there was amazingly kind, and I could tell they really cared about their couples. I love talking about venue’s when they just do it right, and let me tell you – they do it right! The night was, nothing short of AMAZING, like a dance club, where everyone knew eachother! Melissa sure does know how to party! She was on the dance floor for most of the night! All in all it was an amazing night, and I was so happy to be a part of it!

If you’re looking for a fun venue, check out Doolan’s Shore Club! They will be sure to impress, and definitly give me a call! I would be honored to shoot your wedding and would LOVE the oppourtunity to visit Doolon’s again!

I love Fridal Kahlo + The New York Botanical Garden, so playing dress up was a definite!

My daughter keeps me inspired. Not only is she gorgeous, but she loved to plays dress-up. Today we played Frida Dress-up, in honor of my favorite artist, Frida Kahlo! Many of you do not know, that I originally went to school for Studio Art. I studied many amazing artists, but the one that stuck was Frida. Maybe it was the vibrant colors, or the fact that she was a rebel. Maybe it was because she made the most out of what she had, or had a super imaginative mind. Or maybe, looking in the mirror, she felt like I sometimes felt. She was as much as a realist as she was imaginative. Drawing what she saw and elaborating on it. Frida is a true inspiration, and I will forever admire her art.

I attended the Frida Al Fresco nights, and exhibit at The New York Botanical Garden in The Bronx, NY! I was beyond excited to be able to experience life in her world, and get up close and personal with her artwork! I  even dressed up like Frida herself, with one of my best friends from college! So I guess you could say, that playing Frida Dress-up with my daughter, was a test run for the real thing! We had so much fun and my daughter was able to capture the true essence of Frida, I think! Luckily, my parent’s back yard is full of really amazing vines and overgrown bushes! Behold, the amazing images I took of my daughter, myself, my bestie Reine and .. Fridal Kahlo + The New York Botanical Garden!

She enjoyed doing this so much, I think we may do it again very soon with another artist. Now just to figure out who…

Going to Frida al Fresco was an amazing experience. I couldn’t take photos of the actual artwork, because as an artist I understand that devalues the work. There was only a handful of her artwork, because most of it is not permitted to leave Mexico. Her artwork is at El Museo The Museum of Frida Kahlo. I hope to one day be able to go there and see all of her beautiful work, La Casa Azul, and get a feel for what her life was truly like. Until then, I was able to get a glimpse of it, at the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx, NY! WOW, they did an amazing job, and it was GORGEOUS! Getting up close and personal with some of her artwork, was phenomenal. Take a look at how much fun we had below, and don’t forget to follow me on InstaGram to see the things I posted there:

 

 

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!

I hope you were all able to gather around your table and give thanks for family and friends. Sharing these moments with your family may sometimes be difficult, but I wouldn’t trade these memories for the world! I love my family, and I love hearing them bicker and laugh and eat! They see me coming and know that photos will be taken, and then make fun of me when I show up with cookies! (Because everyone knows, I can’t cook to save my life! Seriously, just ask them about my brownie disaster!)

Anyway, I want to share something HUGE with all of you. This is the first year I am really offering some amazing Black Friday deals, but what’s even more exciting is they will be up and available until Dec. 2nd! With all of the days.. Turkey Thursday, Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, Cyber Monday… jeez, let’s just say I have thrown together a week of savings and I want you all to scream, get excited, tell your friends, and email me with your orders! So are ya ready? Here we go!!!

1. 20% OFF – ANY Wedding Collection! (Available to New bookings only for 2015 weddings, must be booked from Nov 27-Dec 2)

2. 30% OFF – ANY Bridal Album or Parent Album! (Available to EVERYONE); Includes leather OR linen.

3. B1G1 FREE CANVAS!!! (May be pre-purchased and redeemed after you receive your images)

4. FREE Secret Gift with EACH canvas order! (Valued at $50-$75)

5. 20% OFF SnapBooth! (4 Hour Wedding Reception only. Available to new SnapBooth bookings only)

ALSO, Gift Certificates are now available and we are so excited to offer them to our clients. These are a great way to show someone you care. They start at $50 and can be purchased at any price point from there up. Gift Certificates can be used for print products, sessions, engagements, or weddings! Please see image below for what they look like. They are a 5×7 double-sided cardstock and include an envelope for your convenience.

For more information on ordering, please email: lauren@bokehlovephotography.net

HAPPY SHOPPING EVERYONE!!!

Xoxo,
Lauren

When a Bride tells me she would like her engagement session to be at two different locations, I get so excited! Engagement sessions are so much fun when they have two totally different looks. The beach is always hard though, especially when it is hours before sunset. There is nowhere to hide from the sun, it’s bright, and it’s really a huge challange. Luckily for us, we went to the Brigantine Jetty, where there are some bulk heads to hide behind. (Believe it or not, when I was a child, there was water all the way up to these bulk heads, but since then, the water has moved out, and the Jetty is now accessable on one side all the way out!) It’s definitly different from when I was a kid, but it made it a great place to take pictures when the sun is super bright! The next location was none other than the Historic Smithville Village! I mean, you can’t go wrong here! When Krista showed up with this adorable green floral skirt, it was perfection! These two are such cuties! The one thing they said was, please – no corney photos! I think they were executed pretty darn well if you ask me – and I see no “corney” photos here, just 120% cuteness!

Krista & Alek – I hope you love these photos! I sure do!!!

xoxo,
Lauren
Bokeh Love Photography

Oh, Mother’s Day. Mother’s Day is that one-day that we get to reflect on how amazing we are! We created LIFE! We raise these children, and never get a break. We get up, get them ready for school, feed them, feed ourselves if we are lucky, change their diapers, help them brush their teeth, drop them off at school, get to work, pick them up from school, feel them dinner, play with them, love them, talk to them, listen to them, brush their teeth, get them in bed, hope they stay in bed, then lull them to sleep when they get out of bed… and finally, we are aloud to, we try to go to sleep, just to get up and do it all over again! (Ya know, or how ever your schedule is). I love being a Mom. I love that I am able to stay home and be a Mom. I love that I am able to work from home, and be there where they need me, whenever they need me, whatever TIME they need me. I love it, and I wouldn’t and couldn’t change it, ever.

I take beautiful photos of children, all the time. I take pictures on the beach, in a park, in the woods, in people’s backyard, and even at the zoo and on playgrounds! I make these beautiful images for everyone (and trust me I LOVE doing it) but It’s so difficult to get pictures of my own kids! “The Shoemakers kids have no shoes?” Yep, that’s me. It takes so much time to get my kids ready, get them to behave, get them to stop crying, hitting each other, yelling at each other, and stand still long enough for me to snap a few photos. Well, until I learned how to use my camera of course. It’s still difficult but now, I know how to set my camera correctly, to not get a hand of blur, or a jumping child’s face in motion. It really did just one day click in my head, “oh. Duh. THATS what I’m doing wrong?” Yes. That simple. (And Yes, I shoot FULL manual, no modes for me, I control exactly how I want my pictures to turn out, because my camera is just a tool, and I am the artist that drives it).

Anyway, Today I set out to get pictures of my babies. You won’t believe the location. It’s gorgeous; it’s lush, overgrown and fun. It’s my parent’s backyard. The place I grew up. It was a lot more maintained back then, but I love that you can’t see the fence, and there is all of this earthy green everywhere. It’s really neat and makes for amazing photos! I tell everyone not to worry what the background in a photo looks like, because it’s really focused on the person IN the photo, and not the background. The background is just extra anyway. It’s for fun, and it’s just for color. So after my parent’s backyard, I went to the campground, because seriously, the campground has the BEST scenery. There is this amazing strip of dirt called the landing. It’s great, it takes you out by the river, which is fabulous for photos – and how lucky we were that it was high tide! Like, super high tide!

So, Happy Mothers Day to me! I succeeded and got AMAZING photos of my babies. Their Daddy is definitely going to be happy and I’m just so proud. By the time we got home, the baby was knocked out, and our big girl, well, she thought she deserved an Oreo, so we had some Oreo’s together before she got tucked into her warm bed.

Love these photos SO MUCH – check them out!

XOXO,
Lauren
Bokeh Love Photography