Cardboard Testimonies

Posted by Liana at 6:56 PM

My friend forwarded this to me today and WOW is this powerful. It's set to a song "He Loves Us" by John Mark McMillan (played at Hillside) that I heard earlier this year for the first time and my friend Tony plays for us often on the guitar. LOVE this song :)

Where in the World should we get married ??

Posted by Liana at 9:59 AM

WOW this planning stuff is difficult!!

I have a WHOLE new respect for my clients and what they've had to go through with research, planning, setting budgets with family, all the pressure and stress this world puts on us to have this perfect wedding. Or wait, maybe that pressure is self-induced from me being spoiled as a wedding photographer and having been to some pretty darn amazing weddings all over the world.

So here's the dilemma: We cannot officially set the date until we figure out Where in the WORLD are we going to get married??

Mike and I both love to travel and neither of us (nor our families) are originally from Georgia so we've known for a while that we'd like to have a destination wedding. We would still consider a local one but we're about 95% sure now that it's going to be a destination hopefully in February, March, or April next year.

I already am aware of quite a few amazing, unique, fun locations that we are considering... but I KNOW there has to be soooo many more out there that we're not finding that fellow industry professionals and others know about.

So below I've quickly thrown out some of the ideas we're having and we'd SOOO LOVE to hear of any places you'd recommend!!

Some ideas:

A super small wedding with just family and a few close friends in a Castle in Italy!!
(unlikely because of the Euro but yes it's an option)



A big wedding in Atlanta
(also unlikely because neither of us want a huge wedding nor want to stay local really)



An intimate destination wedding in a Vineyard in Napa or Sonoma


On some posh estate in Southern California



At a Luxury Villa in Turks and Caicos, Cabo, or Puerta Vallerta







At a resort in the lush Dominican Republic


In a crazy, unique hacienda in Yucatan Mexico




Of course these are just a FEW of our ideas and you can see we're realistically looking at California, the Caribbean, and Mexico and will probably make it a vacation and celebration for family and close friends.... BUT haven't decided anything... and are looking for more ideas :) :)

Thank you in advance for any ideas/suggestions/recommendations. When we eventually figure this out and pick the date then it's on to something even MORE difficult... determining the photographer!! LOL

More Pics of Me and My Fiancé :)

Posted by Liana at 2:06 AM

It's soooo weird to not call Mikey "boyfriend" anymore but fiancé. Fiancé, fiancé, fiancé. There I'm practicing :)

I totally missed a few hidden candid-camera pics including these two from Greece last summer and then the one of him giving me a hang-ten driving us around Mexico in January. He and our friend Susan (who is the one we can most thank for being the cupid in our story!!) came to Greece with me last summer to shoot Farrah and Nick's wedding and then tour around.

This one is from the Island south of where the wedding was, Zante, on this wicked cliff we found when driving up to the top of the Island to photograph shipwreck beach. He's pretty good at holding the 5d and taking a self-portrait of us, eh?



In Santorini, Greece in Oia town. SOOOOO freaking beautiful there!!!



Sweeeeeeeeeeet!!

The PURfect Proposal ( I'm Engaged!!! )

Posted by Liana at 11:41 PM

It's officially been over 24 hours now... so on to the juicy details!! Considering it may take a good week to dish out all the important stuff like how we met (many thanks to Delta canceling my flight two years ago and mutual friends from church for connecting us), the dating details, and all the fun stuff like ring shopping, and him asking my dad for my hand in marriage over 4th of July weekend... I'll save more in-depth recaps for future posts and get on to the PERFECT PROPOSAL details for now :)



I knew something MIGHT be up since he took me back to Tiffany's on Sunday after church and to the store where I found MY ring that I liked best... just to "make sure I really like it the best." Little did I know that he'd already purchased THE ring days earlier and this shopping trip was great for throwing-me-for-a-loop and adding to my confusion. Later that day he mentions it's time for us to celebrate our 1-year Anny on the 15th. I don't ask too many questions because I'm thinking this MIGHT just be THE occasion...but doubtful since he probably hasn't even picked the ring since we just went looking again.

Tuesday rolls around and after an hugely successful trip to Lenox mall's BCBG (can you say 70% off RUNWAY fashion!?? LUV me some BCBG!!) I land home in time with new work outfit, dress for my sister's rehearsal dinner, and a flowing summery white sheath perfect for a special date. He's running late but arrives looking more handsome than ever in my favorite color blue with a blue bag in tote.

We have this joke about Hello Kitty because I pretend to like it more than I do because I know it bugs him and he'll tease me about it and it's this constant goofy game we play... me being the annoying kitty-lover and him enabling me! LOL. Well, my anniversary gift is a 3-pack of Hello Kitty candy charm bracelets and I put one on immediately and proceed to bite pieces off as we race through Buckhead towards our dinner destination.


Look what I got on our 1-year anniversary: adorable Hello Kitty candy bracelets when he came to pick me up... and then a diamond engagement ring when he dropped me off :) I'll wear both with pride and joy! :)



Dinner and dessert was just as perfect as our first date... if not more so... because it's a replay of the same places we went for our first date minus the first-date jitters, plus lots of reminiscing about the past year and joking about how Mike grows sillier every day (indeed I'm rubbing off on him). Hahaha. We moved from our outdoor dinner at Horseradish Grill to the Grape in Vinings for chocolate dessert and champagne. I notice he has his phone very close by and start to wonder why he keeps telling me not to have too much Champaigne because he knows I'm tired (hey... I've been like a kid on Christmas eve not sleeping for 2+ weeks now!!) and he 'wants my attention' when we get back to my place. Hmmmm....

On the way home and a train holds up traffic and suddenly he's going 90 on the highway like we're in a hurry to get home for some reason. He's got that phone nearby still. I wonder if there's a ring hidden in his suit jacket that he hasn't brought out of the car all evening because that's the only place he could possibly hide it. We get out of the car and he walks me to the door empty-handed. Darn. Disappointment that I'm left with that little-kid-on-Chritsmas-eve feeling for who-knows-how-much-longer. Then I walk in the door and call out to Charlie and Grace.

All is dark in the house but there's music and lights coming from the back. Someone has been here! In a bout of nervousness I hop into the restroom and emerge minutes later to be escorted to my own back deck. On our first date we spent 5+ hours talking out there after dinner by the light of the tiki torches... it's my favorite place to be with him even to this day. I know by the flowers and candles and champaign though that this is more than a re-enactment of a first date... this is a start of something completely new to both of us... something we've been talking about and praying about for months and it's finally here.






He pulls me into a slowdance for a song or two. I marvel over his shoulder on my tip-toes to admire the twinkle lights, flowers, linens, and the transformation that has been made. The moon is almost-full over the opening in the trees... in perfect position and moving quickly to the right. "Who did all this!??" I wonder out loud, knowing one of my best of friends, Kimberly, obviously was in on it from her signature flower arrangements she always made for me when Mikey brought me flowers in the past. They were all over the deck now in different pretty colors. "My mom and Kimberly" Mike let me know. "Your mom!!" I had NO idea how many people he'd gotten in on the surprise. They'd obviously all put a lot of thought into everything... Mike leading the way of course.






The dance is over and I know what's coming and his sweet, poetic words start the tears a pourin. He's got a handkerchief in his back pocket... a REAL one... not kleenex... and through my tears I object for a second not wanting to ruin it. He talks about the past, the present, and our future together. He prays for us. The tears really come then. I try my best not to choke on them... oh Lord what am I going to do when I'm actually saying vows if I can hardly hold it together now?? LOL. Then it's up on our feet again and now everything is a blur but then he's on his knees with a box in his hand and the next thing the pretty PURfect beautiful diamond engagement ring is on my finger... "no, honey, not the right hand... the left hand" and he finally admits his nervousness. There's more dancing and finally the Asti is opened and then the calls to mom and dad and Kimberly because I know she's up still and she HAS to hear from me ASAP :)






I try my best to not turn instantly into bridezilla pretty-princess-planning mode and instead savor the last few minutes we have together on the transformed deck before it's time to say good night. I find the pictures from Greece of his that I picked up from the lab today and bid him good night and hop into bed. I wonder if you're supposed to wear diamond rings to bed and figure I will... at least for the first night...until I figure that out... and fall asleep quickly with a smile in my heart...


..... and now on to the pictures....

So pretty! Mikey brought me carnations on one of our first dates and explained, no he isn't cheap... it's the Ohio state flower (where I'm from!) So thoughtful!!




The Ring. It's on a REAL handkerchief that he had stored in his back pocket and pulled out when I started to sniffle/cry. I was like "I don't want to ruin this it's too nice!!"



The Ring is a Scott Kay Crown Vintage Setting... beaaauuuutiful, IMHO. He took me to look at Tiffany's (and other stores too) to look but this was the ONE I knew is PERFECT despite my Tiffany-blue-box-luv :) Hehe.



Flowers and Candles Kimberly put together for us when she and Jason snuck in to help Mikey's parents set everything up.



Ooooh how cute/purfect are these linens?? Mikey's mom picked them out and set them up and Kimberly did the arrangements just like she did with the ones Mike originally got me.




I just couldn't decide what I liked to photograph the ring on best.. so I tried it all :)









And of course like anyone who does it for a living, I forget to take many pictures of ourselves so most of the pics I have of us are self-portraits on a tiny point and shoot camera.

Here's a bunch of us from this past holiday season... New Years Eve, my birthday last year....


....getting all muddy ATVing in the jungle in Belize...


....floating down a river in Belize after cave tubing...


...being goofy on that trip (Lehman family vacation cruise in January)....




...him looking super handsome all dressed up for dinner...


...and us hanging on the back deck during his surprise birthday luau we had here last month...
.

A day later I don't think the full reality has set in yet because today was such a whirlwind but I'm so at peace and excited for the future and tonight I rest again thanking God for this amazing man He's put in my life to share and grow with... together soon as husband and wife :)

Look What Else I Got Last Night !!!

Posted by Liana at 1:34 PM

Look what else I got last night on mine and Mikey's 1-Year Anniversary date (besides Hello-Kitty candy charm bracelets)...



Yes, I know I'm a blog-tease. I have to run out to meet up with my Fiancé for lunch though and run some errands then I'll be back to blog all the romantic details and juicy gossip :)

Look what I got!!

Posted by Liana at 10:34 PM

Mikey took me out for our 1-year anny tonight and look what I got
(yes, the adorable hello kitty candy bracelet!!) sooo cute! Right now
we are about to head out after having chocolate and champagne just
like on our first date :)

Announcing Photo Biz Boot Camp in 9 Cities :)

Posted by Liana at 12:56 AM

I'm so excited for this up-coming "tour" as I like to call it of Photo Biz Boot Camps!!! There are so many gracious studios out there helping me make this happen so we can make it easy for photographers all across America and even in AUSTRALIA able to attend a Boot Camp.

We're introducing a new program too this month that gives studios wanting to attend a Boot Camp an AWESOME deal and hooks them up with lots of extras so they can continue with change and info-year round. Only $99/month and that includes a Boot Camp!! Click the picture below for more info.



NEW DATES ANNOUNCED:
September 23-25, 2008 : Chicago, IL
October 19-21, 2008 : Phoenix, AZ
October 22-24, 2008 : Fort Worth, TX
November 11-13, 2008 : Lancaster, PA
December 2-4, 2008 : Hickory, NC (Charlotte/Ashville/Winston-Salem)
January 25-27, 2009 : Norcal, CA (San Francisco)
January 28-30, 2009 : Vancouver, WA (Portland)

April/May 2009 : Melbourne, Australia (exact dates TBD/posted no later than 9/1/08)
April/May 2009 : Sydney, Australia (exact dates TBD/posted no later than 9/1/08)


You can ***CLICK HERE*** to find out more and sign up ASAP as they are super duper small (intense) classes and are already booking up!!

I can't wait to meet all of you out there and get a taste of some places I've yet to be in the US and abroad!!

Laurel's Bridal Shower in Ohio

Posted by Liana at 6:05 PM

My little sister Laurel is getting married next month! In true-Laurel fashion, we brought out everything PINK and BLACK and Karen (matron of honor) and my sis Lissa hosted an awesome Bridal shower for her two Sundays ago while I was visiting in Ohio.

We had lots of yummy treats to eat and played "bridal mad libs" which had us all tearing up from laughing too hard while Karen and Lissa read them to the rather large group before Laurel endured about an hour of gift-opening in front of all of us!

Here are some details and pics from the festivities.

A fun gift-bow and Laurel's flower that went perfect with her dress we picked for her at Anne Taylor earlier in the weekend.


My mom ordered these super cool flower arrangements that they did up in martini glasses


While the kids stayed upstairs and played, we had the grown-up fun downstairs :)


There were a BUNCH of people there I hadn't seen in ages... including my godmother, Carol (green), who is here with my mom (pink). She was also my mom's maid-of-honor in her own wedding.



Another portrait of my niece Sophia I just can't help but sneak in here



Here's Lissa (with Chloe sitting nearby) and Karen reading the mad libs with Laurel as the main audience


Then it was on to the gift-giving. I was sure to tie LOTS of ribbons onto my gifts to her so she'd be sure to break them (supposedly it's bridal-superstition that every time the bride breaks a bow/tie at the shower then it indicates how many kids the couple will have in the future). My sister and Jim should have 5 or 6 I think was the final count - including twins!! LOL.




Grandma Lehman was brought by just in time for the gift-opening





We saved my more-personal and somewhat-embarrassing-to-open-in-front-of-grandma gifts for last for a good laugh... including something extra special I got her at the Victoria's Secret in NYC that you can only get at that location :)



I'll be heading up to Ohio again next month to do my MOH and sister duties as I'm actually IN the wedding so I won't be taking (as many) pics of course :)

***CLICK HERE*** to view more pics of the shower in the slideshow

Travel Schedule

Posted by Liana at 2:22 PM

This schedule will be updated as new travel dates are added throughout the year and can be referenced on the top navigation of the blog anytime. This however is not a complete schedule... Atlanta meetings, photo shoots, etc are not on here so please contact us to see about scheduling things :) Cheers!


July
19th: Athens, GA - Ashley and Brant's Wedding

August
20-25: Medina, OH - My little sister's Wedding


September
9-11: Los Angeles, CA - Speaking at the Pictage Partner Conference
23-25: Chicago, IL - Photo Biz Boot Camp
27th: North GA - Becky and Todd's Wedding

October
19-21: Phoenix, AZ - Photo Biz Boot Camp
22-24: Fort Worth, TX - Photo Biz Boot Camp
24-26: New Orleans, LA - Lisa and Cale's French Quarter Wedding


November
11-13, 2008 : Lancaster, PA - Photo Biz Boot Camp


December
2-4: Hickory, NC - Photo Biz Boot Camp


January 2009
18-23: Southern CA / Mexico - Annual Charity project/retreat
25-27: Norcal, CA (San Francisco) - Photo Biz Boot Camp
28-30: Vancouver, WA (Portland) - Photo Biz Boot Camp

February 2009
16-19: Las Vegas, NV - WPPI Convention

April/May 2009
Melbourne, Australia - Photo Biz Boot Camp
Sydney, Australia - Photo Biz Boot Camp

Blue Cupcake Face Picnic

Posted by Liana at 11:20 AM

Yesterday my little sister Laurel had a family picnic/reunion here at her and her fiance, Jim's, new house. We had over 30 people show up and 4 dogs here so it got quite crowded!

At one point I was relaxing in the hammock in the back yard while the guys were playing badminton and the little gals were building sand castles in the horseshoe sand. It was so relaxing and I was thinking about taking a bit of a nap when my sister and Jim came out with three bins of water ballons and called all the kiddos over to load up on ammunition. All of a sudden I hear Jim say "aim for the gal in the blue dress" (me) and about 5 seconds later I was soaking wet on top of my dress and I declared WAR on the 2- and 6- year olds. Muahahahaha.

They managed to get my grandma up a bunch of stairs and when she made it inside the first thing she requested was a cold frosty one!!

Here's a few pics.... from left top clockwise around. #1 My grandma having a beer with my dad. #2 Cousin Andy with his son Hudson. #3 My niece Sophia chowing on a hot dog. #4 Little Chloe (girl) with Chloe (dog) and Lydia playing in the sand. #5 Two of the other bridesmaids Ashley and Karen with sister Laurel. #6 The kiddos arming up for water-ballon wars.



Little Paige had a thing for the blue cupcakes and started quite a trend here yesterday. Even Chloe (dog) partook! Here's Paige, Paige with Laurel, Mikey, and Chloe with their blue-cupcake faces :)

Hometown Date

Posted by Liana at 3:01 PM

On Wednesday, Mike and I flew up to my hometown where we are for the 4th of July weekend for what I am referring to as the "hometown date" !! LOL

It's a big weekend for the Lehman clan this weekend as we're having my sister's bridal shower on Sunday and have family GTGs on Friday and Saturday.

Here a few pics from yesterday. We went over my sister Lissa's house for a while for the 4th and it had been 2 years since I'd seen them or the kiddos and they got SOOO big!! I grew up working in my brother-in-law's Italian restaurant where most of his family works too so it was a ton of people there I hadn't seen in forever.

My big sis Lissa with my niece Sophia



Another addition to the Carrino clan - so cute!!


On the way home we stopped by my aunt and uncle's house (My dad's brother) to see my grandma. Mike's met my immediate family and grandmas before but not my extended family so he got to meet a TON of folks yesterday. Here he is when my grandma claimed to remember him because of "his big brown eyes" :) She also thought I was my sister and said she was really excited for "my wedding" and had her outfit all picked out, etc. Hahaha.



My cousin Andy and his wife Cara were there too and I got to meet my baby second-cousins for the first time. Here's Lydia



and the oh-so-adorable (and quite the ham) Hudson:



My grandma made a point of asking to say goodbye to Hudson before they took her home



Here's Uncle Roy and Aunt Aileen



Mom and Mike




The guys (Mike, Dad, Uncle Roy) feeding the fish bread so my Uncle can go catch them later for dinner!



Okay... the next picnic is starting soon so I better get off the computer and help with the BBQ...

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!!!

Heather and John's Big Fat Greek Wedding

Posted by Liana at 8:26 PM

Last month Sara and I flew up the the NYC/NJ area to photography Heather and John's wedding. I actually met the two of them about a year ago in Greece at Farrah and Nick's wedding in Kefalonia.

Farrah and Nick were both in the wedding and it was really like a reunion because so many of the same people from last summer were there!

The rings :)



I was a bit interested to see how driving in Jersey would go since there was a lot of it between the hotel, mom's house, church, and reception... it really was a lot less crazy then Atlanta.... but we somehow got stuck behind a funeral procession AND a student driver! LOL.

When we finally got to the Rockleigh Country Club and walked into the reception we were greeted by cool air and some GORGEOUS details. Everything was clean and crisp and went quite well with the already elegant background of the ballrooms.



But the absolute BEST part of course was the Dancing! And boy could they dance!! EVERYONE danced... young, old, non-dancers I think were even joining in on the fun.





John and many others performed for Heather and a rather large audience...




Which means that a large amount of cash was not far from the picture...



... and the little guys helped gather it all up :)


Congratulations Heather and John and THANK you so much for having us be a part of your amazing day!!

Back to Blogging

Posted by Liana at 8:01 AM

As many have noticed, while my sites and emails have been working great on the new servers, it took a weee bit longer to get this blog up and running again on LianasBananas.com :)

Many thanks to Mikey who used his super-techi-ninja skillz to hack in and find out what was wrong and get it all fixed for me. I was about ready to throw in the towel at that point too! LOL

Well... back to blogging... SOOOO much to update... where to start!??

Let's see the choices are....
- Beach Vacation in May
- Finishing my framing project
- Which ones of the 101 in 1001 have been accomplished
- My guilty pleasure reality TV shows that I've been glued to on Wed PMs
- The real estate class I'm taking this weekend
- Grace Ministries
- My kitties getting their "nails done" (ahhem or being drugged up and de-clawed)
- The Surprise BDAY lua with incriminating pics of men in coconuts
- My NYC trip where I didn't get any pics because I forgot my mini-cam
- Heather and John's BIG FAT Greek wedding in Jersey
- My latest toy (ahem 5D since my original is still in the shop 5 weeks later)
- The three books I've read lately
- Why it's important to discuss finances before you're engaged
- Upcoming trip to Ohio
- My sister's wedding plans
- Kimberly's wedding dress and bridesmaid dress hunt (yes, it was like a 27-dresses reenactment for me!!)

I figured I better start blogging again... I mean when both your mom and boyfriend comment on how you've been slacking and miss reading the blog..I guess that's a clue... LOL.

The "Kids"

Posted by Liana at 3:41 PM

As part of my framing-goal, the "kids" got some valuable master-bath frame real estate. Aren't they precious?? LOL.

No, I'm not officially "cat lady" yet because there are technically more humans than kitties in this household....

Devon and Jonathan's Album

Posted by Liana at 11:44 AM

I love how this details spread turned out:




And of course my all-time favorites... Devon in front of the red door!



Can't forget those boots!!



Last but not least we went up to the rooftop of Rhodes Hall to take some pics against the Atlanta skyline:



To view the whole album, CLICK HERE.

Enjoy!!

Back in Business!!

Posted by Liana at 2:11 PM

WOW what a week!

We arrived home from New York a week ago all ready to conquer all kinds of work and get through enough to reveal some of the new things we're doing behind the scenes... but my Web Service Provider had another idea. Yes, as this always seems to happen, my site and email and blog and everything goes down while I'm out of town... and it took NO less than 1 week, 11 phone calls, 9 IT chat conversations, and about 60 hours working on the issue (mostly on with tech support begging them to do something about the problems they've caused) to remedy it.

The remedy? SWITCHING to a new host!! A new, very-expensive, roll-the-red-carpet-out service-oriented host! I'm happy to report that the new host is everything I was told they would be and somehow ninja-ed their way in to take hold of my files on my old server and got everything up and running again in a matter of 24 hours or so!

Needless to say... the blog, the site, the email, and the shopping cart are all up and running again... yeah!! Thank you for your patience over this past week and please... if you sent an email that has not gotten through/gotten a response.. please resend as it may not have reached us when all of this was going on :)

Now back to fun blogging...

Central Park

Posted by Liana at 5:11 PM

This morning I got up Really early and flew to NY because we are
shooting a wedding up in NJ thus weekend. It's Saras first time here
so I'm giving her the tour and right now we are chilling in Central
Park before heading to Chelsea where I used to live to meet up with a
group of photographers. My iPhone cam is on the fritz so ya all get
the abstract version of Park west :p

Red Hot and Chocolate

Posted by Liana at 12:43 AM

It's been a crazy few weeks... lots and lots going on behind the scenes. I feel like it's all going to be ready at once!! LOL.

My weekend holiday trip got extended a few days and I'm actually leaving in the morning, but wanted to post one of my Absolute FAVORITES from Devon and Jonathan's wedding first....

They've moved to Texas and Devon made sure she had the boots to represent! The red doors worked perfect as a backdrop for a bunch of our pics too...



We can't forget Jonathan working it like a CK model...



Here's a few more moody-chocolate ones I love of Devon too that are a totally different mood than the Red Hot ones...




We'll be back in the office rockin' and a rollin' on TUESDAY. Happy Memorial Day weekend just incase my blogging-from-the-road is limited ;)

Sneak Peak: Devon and Jonathan Married!!

Posted by Liana at 10:05 AM

Congratulations!!

Sneak Peak of #67

Posted by Liana at 6:18 PM

I'm not sure where the day went... I was plowing through emails and work and looked up and it's 5:45PM and I need to be out the door in less than an hour...

Needless to say, I don't have time to gather ALL my proof of accomplishing #67 of my 101... but here's a teaser...



...Of course these are all ones in my Living Room (which has mostly been done for a while)... but there IS one that is new as of yesterday. Can you guess which one?