Beautiful Day Photography’s Weblog

SO I HAVE to blog about Melanee, because sometimes I feel like she is the ONLY person who reads my blogs…LOL. I first met Melanee when she was working with the Doubletree Hotel in San Pedro. Gloria, Mel and I would “Schmooze” and have lunch and I had the pleasure of getting to know her during the time of her getting engaged. SHORTLY thereafter, she got pregnant so our dreams of boozing it up at her wedding were now over (well, at least TOGETHER…her dad PROMPTLY got me drunk the night before:) So I had the honor of joining her party and her wedding and taking photos at the GORGEOUS Convict Lake, where she and her husband go all of the time. I remember I went into that weekend sad, because I was going through a mini-breakup and usually being around SUCH love and wonderful support is NOT the best remedy for a broken heart, but in this case it was THE BEST medicine. I had SUCH an amazing weekend being a part of this wedding, that I didn’t want to leave and I feel forever attached to “The Chapman’s” AND the Seguras:) They felt like family to me and treated me as such.

I remember I brought a book on how to find the local hot springs (Something Mel had told me to buy and I had NO idea about all of these hot springs all over California). So the day before the wedding I went off by myself with my camera and went on a scavenger hunt looking for hotsprings. At the second one I found, I met an ENTIRE cross country team and they invited me to join them on this long amazing run around Convict Lake. That was my first TRUE introduction to the lake and it’s beauty. It was the most beautiful run I have been on. If I wasn’t SO concerned about twisting my ankle, or keeping up with the team I had just befriended, I would have been able to take in the view even more! That night we all partied with the parents and friends and the next day was the wedding. Although little Ryder wasn’t born yet, we all SPOKE about him as if he were there (well he technically WAS) and I felt like I had already met him….

So this is ALL background, to my first inspiration for the iron-on onesy’s. Once Ryder was born, I went down to the OC to meet him and brought my camera. I took one of my FAVORITE shots from the wedding and had it made into an iron-on onesy for little Ryder. It was a moment RIGHT after they kissed and were pronounced husband and wife and they were beaming out at their families and he instinctively was holding her belly…SO CUTE! So I used THAT photo with the line” I WAS THERE” and their wedding date at the bottom for little Ryder. I reminisce about this now, because I JUST got a photo from Melanee with little Ryder wearing my gift…He’s going to be a STUD just like his Dad!!