This is the second outdoor session for Carley from Brighton High School. On day one, for the first session, we traveled to the Howell Opera House and beyond. For this session, we went to the Ann Arbor area to create these images.

I always have fun photographing there. This alley always has ever changing graffiti and the well known Fleetwood Diner is one of Carley’s favorite places to stop. We did end up grabbing a bite to eat there as it marked the end of our session.

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Danielle is an honor student from Marian High School in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. Her indoor and outdoor photo sessions were created just before she generously donated her long tresses to Locks of Love, a public non-profit organization helping young children in the United States and Canada who suffer from long term medical hair loss.

It was also requested that the color red be incorporated into the theme and that the family dog be included as well. Magic, the very much loved family Yorkie, did a great job hamming it up for the camera!

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The historic cigar town of Ybor, Florida was the first location for this recent destination engagement session and provided a nice break from Brighton, Michigan’s cooler weather. Sarah and Chris, the bride and groom to be, are a very fun loving couple and we had a great time during their photo session. But keep in mind, engagement sessions are meant to be fun and playful. They were both very relaxed and eager to get some great images.

An engagement session that has been professionally photographed serves more than one purpose. The most obvious, of course, is having properly retouched photos that can be proudly displayed for decades.

It also provides the opportunity to build rapport between you and your photographer with whom you will be spending an ample but comfortable amount of time on your wedding day. The communication door is also a little wider when it comes to expressing those little details which are of special importance.

Aside from building rapport, this is a great practice run of what to expect on your wedding day. You will feel more at ease during those times when you find yourself looking down the barrel of what may appear to be a rather large lens even though it may be some distance away. At the same time, you will become familiar with the way your photographer may guide you if needed.

Your wedding day is a joyous celebration. Dawn Havrelock Photography can capture your beautiful day in a relaxed and unobtrusive way. Enjoy

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Hearing this couple’s story was, unfortunately, not unlike many others I’ve heard these days. “Our friend had this really good professional camera so we let him take our wedding pictures.” Needless to say, their story took a downward spiral from there.

As can be imagined, this one very special day in the lives of this bride and groom was not captured as it would have been by a qualified professional wedding photographer. So, be careful who you entrust to capture the special moments in your life. Not all “photographers” are created equal and what may appear to be a good deal isn’t always the case, as this couple found out a little to late. Remember, after all the expense that goes into a wedding, it’s mostly your investment in photographs that will provide you with that beautiful heirloom for generations to come.

At least this story has a much better ending after we did an “I Do” retake session to create beautiful images that were not captured on their wedding day.

Although this couple has been married for a while now, their excitement was quite evident especially after appearing before one another with the bride in her beautiful gown and the groom in his sharp newly rented tux. The jewelry was in place as well as the fresh bridal bouquet, headdress flowers and boutonniere. They looked great!

So off we went to some of the locations that we had planned to visit a few weeks earlier around the area of Ann Arbor and Brighton. We had a great time and I felt good knowing they were going to have some great images that they deserved to have.

It was nice being able to work at a more relaxed pace than what you normally have on an actual wedding day so we were able to make a stop at Starbuck’s plus grab a bite to eat afterward at a waterfront eatery versus the usual ballroom venue.

If you know of anyone else that would benefit from a redo, have them look into it. But, the best way is still, like most things, get it done right the first time. Congratulations to all of the future bride and grooms out there!

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Nicole is very athletic and enjoys running. As a member of the Whitmore Lake High School track team, she was really able to excel and the team went on to have a great season during her senior year.

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