I have to get my wisdom teeth removed next month so I made an appointment with my orthodontist last week to meet him and get a better understanding of the procedure.  When I arrived they sat me down in the lounge with a patient questionnaire for me to fill out.  I quickly read through it and had a mini anxiety attack I think.  My breathing got a little heavier and faster.

I had to answer questions like:

• Last Name: …what is my last name?!  Having just gotten married I haven’t officially changed my name over, but, I did say I was going to take Adam’s last name. Since it was a medical form, do I say Tetlow, or Stefanski?  I didn’t know what to put down so my heart started beating a little heavier. I wrote down Stefanski since I figured I’d be coming back to the office and would eventually be using that name…but then I confused the assistant when she looked up my benifits package and she saw Tetlow.  I guess I should have just stuck with Tetlow.
• Employer: Ack!  I work for myself…and have never really said it before.  Faster my heart went…I’m self employed!
• Occupation: Photographer right?  I take pictures of people and that is what I do for work…so photographer…yes photographer.

I haven’t really had to answer any questions like that all summer, and considering the changes that have happened and getting all the questions at once, it was a little overwhelming.  But I’m happy to say:

I’m married to an amazing and fabulous man, and I’m excited to take his name…it’s quite an honour to be offered an opportunity to take on one’s name.  I don’t take it lightly.

I’m self employed and I love the opportunities, joy, and freedom it gives me.

I’m a Photographer, and a professional one, thank you very much!

Here is a photo from my office window when the sun was going down and the sky just looked amazing!  And the other photo is from a walk around Vancouver with a new friend.

Every once in awhile (like every week) you need to take some time to yourself and just be.  And lately I’ve been doing just that and have been loving every moment of it.  I’ve been reading, cooking, sitting and meditating, taking pictures for pleasure, and often staring out the windows towards the North Shore mountains.

I’ve found recently that taking photos for pleasure and taking the time to really think about what I’m putting the lens in front of is helping me grow with my photography skills that I feel like I hardly ever put the camera down anymore.  I love the feeling of thinking and clicking instead of clicking then thinking…if you understand what I mean.

So combining taking time for myself through cooking and taking photos I sometimes really like what I come up with.  Adam has been working some late nights making sure his project is top notch so I am usually making dinners for one.  At first it was a challenge but now I really enjoy making stuff up and it doesn’t matter if it tastes bad cause I have no one to impress with it.

This is what I made a few days ago, and I have to say it was DELICIOUS!  It’s a plum, feta cheese, and raspberry wrap!

I have some things that I want to tell you all about in the coming weeks so stay tuned for some maternity, newborn, and children photography!

This has been in the works for quite some time now. After getting everything together, budgeting, shopping for the perfect frames, sourcing a printer, and dealing with print issues it’s finally up!

It went from this.

To this.

To THIS!

So come and visit Vive Clothing in Port Moody!

I selected some of my favorite images, but working with such a small space (actually it’s not that small) and having so many favorites that I think picking out the photos took the most time!  Thank you to everyone for making this happen….which is you!  My wonderful and awesome clients!

I woke up this morning and as usual my eyes refused to open.  I threw my feet onto the floor and willed them to walk me to the shower so I could try to wake up.  I trudged around the house, mentally going through my closet to find something appropriate to wear for my scheduled session that was happening all the way out in Abbotsford for some RBC bankers.

I sipped my coffee feeling the caffeine starting to flow through my veins but knowing it would be awhile before I would feel the true effects of it.  I finally felt a little bit more put together once I got my stilettos on; it had been awhile since I had put on a pencil skirt and dress shirt for work – it felt good.  I pulled all the equipment into the car and drove down the road a short distance to pick up one of my best friends and assistant for the day.

Chris and I have been friends for awhile now and have been pretty much inseparable since we met.  He is the one who understands my need to make an impact in the world, who initially gave me the travel bug, who brings out the caring and compassionate heart in me, and understands my need to have a deep and fruitful conversation and distaste for surface topics.  Once again, on our ride out to Abbotsford he showed me again why he’s such a good friend to me.  It might have been 7am in the morning and both of us not totally ‘with it’ but we both started getting at the heart of each other with questions of our maturity levels, how we see ourselves making an impact in the world, and the life changing decisions we long to make.  Everyone should have friends like this – it’s like a great smooth cup of coffee in a laid back but snazzy designed coffee shop.

Chris was my assistant today while taking corporate head shots, and this Saturday I will be his assistant/second photographer shooting my first wedding!  I’m so excited….I’ve coordinated so many weddings that I’m excited about being behind the lens!

We took some test shots yesterday which I told him I wouldn’t post…..but I didn’t say anything about not posting these that we taken while waiting for our clients to show up!

Oh, and just in case you’re reading this from a reader or something I’ve updated my blog header and updated my Adley Studio logo a little bit.  Let me know what you think!

My schedule has been put out of wack this past week, so it was nice to get away this weekend to try and ground myself again and do some reorganization.  Although I don’t really know how much grounding I did since all I did was sit in a chair with 5 layers of clothing on, a touque, mittens, and a blanket wrapped around me to keep me warm.  Lets just say that after the 33 degree heat we’ve been getting, dealing with 15 degrees and colder plus a wind chill made my teeth chatter.

Even though we were camping I enjoyed our time away from the phone and internet and got to take some pretty pictures in an area that I think they should tape the next 2 movies of Twilight.

So I’m back now and running full force!

I keep on going back to these over and over again trying to soak it all in.  I’ve been home for a three and a half weeks now and it still feels like I’m walking around in a dream.  None of this feels like it actually happened – or happened to me at least.  I feel truly blessed.

Our wedding was perfect, absolutely perfect!  Everyone kept on telling us to not stress out cause something would most likely not go to plan, but I have to say ours was flawless.  I woke up the morning of our wedding to the most amazing and beautiful women in the world to me, who helped calm me down and fill me with even more with happiness before I went to meet my groom.

I ascended the stairs and I saw him.  I thought my heart was going to burst.  The moment was so precious and beautiful that I wanted to stop time.  I thanked God for giving me something so amazing for me to cherish and I held onto that moment for as long as I possibly could.  I knew we had to keep going to make our way to the church, so I tucked that moment into my heart for safe keeping and invited the rest of our bridal party to join in on the fun.

We ran around Vancouver weaving in and out of people smiling while hooting and hollering “We’re getting Married!”  Our photographer, Jamie, (have I mentioned how much I love her?!  No?!  I’m sure I have….Jamie, I looooooooove you!) was there to document the day, and OH.MY.GOSH – she is fantastic.  No wait, fantastic doesn’t even begin to describe her talent and heart.  Awe inspiring perhaps.  I don’t know, I can never quite find the right words to describe her.

Anyway, after all the smiling for photos, we finally made our way to the church.  Oh, what a beautiful church.  I was so excited to be getting married here.  The music started, my heart fluttered, my dad wrapped my hand around his arm and we made our way towards my groom.  Oh gosh!  You know that moment when you know something good is about to happen so you start to walk faster and your feet start to pick up into a run.  That was me.  All I wanted to do was run down that aisle towards him and just stare.  Thankfully my dad had a hold of me.  And when I finally got there, we became man and wife.  Have you heard this song?  Man and wife?  LOVE IT, it was sung at our wedding and I was beaming with pride.

After we were married we spent a good hour just the two of us with Jamie.  We relaxed and melted into each other, so elated that we were married. Another moment of time that I slipped into my heart to look back on.

We evetually made our way to our reception where our closest family and friends were waiting for us.  We decided to join them during the cocktail hour and we were so excited we chose to do that.  Just a few extra minutes to eat and drink something while talking with everyone….so relaxing.

We asked our family and friends to join us for dinner to feed our famished bodies and heard speeches that were amazing that made us laugh and cry.  After all the eating we needed to dance it all off, so our DJ asked us to take the dance floor, and I stood there once again waiting for my groom.  And then we danced our first dance to a waltz that we had been working on for a good half a year to the surprise of all of our guests to another amazing song.

And we continued to dance the night away until it was announced that it was our last dance together.  We swayed into each other while all of our remaining guests surrounded us, holding hands creating a circle of love.  When the song faded out everyone cheered, created an arch with our hands that we ran through, and ran out the doors to start our life together.

All photos from Jamie’s blog.  Next up….mini honeymoon recap!

I never would have thought that it would take me this long to get back into the swing of things, but slowly it is all coming together.  I’ve been editing like crazy and updating some marketing materials the past few days to help me get my groove back.  I think what makes it even harder is the fact that its so nice and sunny out that I’d rather be outside sitting in a park, by the beach, or even in a cafe then sitting in my hot and muggy office.  Hmmm maybe I should look into getting that laptop of ours updated with my editing applications so that I can leave and experience more of summer.  Hmm….I think I’ll try and do that.

For our honeymoon the plan as to spend a week in Karpathos, Greece and then another week in Munich, Germany, however, when we landed in Munich Adam surprised me with plane tickets to Paris instead!  Of course before he surprised me he told me to not get excited or jump around in the airport, so when he told me we were going to Paris I just stood there in shock.  We visited most major landmarks, but out of most of the photos, this one is my favorite.  This is straight out of the camera too….its all real.

Our wedding was inspired by the latest Marie Antoinette movie so I was elated that we were able to tour the Palace of Versailles, as well as the house of Marie Antoinette.  I’ve been staring at our walls the past couple of days to figure out where to showcase this photo, I want to enlarge it onto a canvas or something.  I have a few places in mind, but considering our place is so small I have to be extra careful not to put it somewhere distracting.

Stay tuned for more updates and photos!

Woah, sorry for the hiatus; totally didn’t intend on doing that!  I guess getting married makes you have ‘wedding brain’ and you’re completely consumed with making sure everything is settled and ready to go, which I had the task of doing.

Our wedding was fantastic, which I hope to write about soon.  But at the moment I’m catching up with reality (read: getting my head out of honeymoon land), editing photos, and putting our house together.  I have a family session in the works as well as a maternity session, so stay tuned.

A post isn’t actually a post without a photo so I’ll leave you with this photo.  We took this when I opened up the box to my nex lens the Canon EF 35mm f/1.4 L USM.  To say we like it would be an understatement, adore is more like it.  Before we jumped on a plane to Karpathos, Greece we stayed one night with our friends in Seattle. Their guest room is one of my favorite rooms ever and this is the chandelier they took from their living room and put into their guest room for us all to admire.

This past weekend I was out of town in Peachland, BC enjoying some R&R with my ladies for my upcoming wedding.  We stayed up late eating veggies and candies, sipping vino, and talking about love and relationships.  The weekend was full of poolside sunbathing, laughter, and a lot of partying.

My ladies are wonderful, absolutely wonderful!  Usually for a stagette they dress their bride up in white and a very ugly fugly veil.  Not my ladies….they were mourning my single life.

Little black short-shorts, red hot shoes, a black birdcage veil, and bright red lipstick was my outfit for the evening.

Thank you Natisha for taking the awesome photos!

Less than 2 weeks and I’ll be dressed in White instead of Black!

Remembering: I used to work with this youth pastor who used to tell us of his days selling alarm systems.  He told us he got used to hearing the word no when he approached people about the alarm system because he knew, one out of the 10 nos there had to be a yes.  Well today I attest to that.  I sent out 10 marketing emails telling some friends about family portraits, and one came back!

Combining Names: Tomkat, Bennifer, Bragalina, or even Speidi from “The Hills“.  I used to laugh at the thought of people combining their names.  *Cough* I take it all back.  Today while I was going through some youtube videos I saw the combined names of a TV couple and thought “how funny and cute, I want one!”.  Wait!  I do have one!! It’s called Adley!  Adam + Lesley = Adley!  Apparently we’re a super couple now!

Reading:  I’m really enjoying the library lately and decided to dig deep and find some interesting subjects to read.  I picked up a book titled “Portrait Photography”.  Wow, is this book old!  Soft focus, glowing edges, hardly any crispness at all!  It’s amazing what is mainstream and what trends come and go.

Listening: I used to be a music junkie.  I would spend hours at a time researching new and up and coming artists and then play their music non stop.  Once I started working in an office that didn’t really allow me to listen to my music I slowly fell away from it, but now that I’m searching for music for our wedding, I’m loving youtube!  I’m currently listening to these two songs over and over.

Sound: Spring Rain!  Can’t get any better then that.  Actually maybe spring rain mixed with freshly cut grass….but ya know.

Little Things: My wooden elephant.  I have a collection of elephants, but this is the only one that has made it with me to my new place.  Eventually, one day, the rest will come with me.