Rebekah Tozer Photography

I LOOOOOVVEEE our new everything!  New blog, new logo, new website, and for me (JennyP) new baby!

This is my first official post to our new blog and I’m just feeling beyond blessed these days!  This gorgeous new style and these beautiful new sites are the work of our amazingly talented staff at shoot.send.breathe:  Brooke, Melissa, and Erica.  I am not someone who is artistically inclined at all so it just amazes me how they took words I used like, “clean” and “stuff with gray” and “something I would like” and created all this!  I couldn’t be happier and I feel very excited to have this new look which I feel reflects our style and vibe so perfectly.  In case I didn’t thank them privately enough, here’s a giant thank you to Brooke, Melissa, and Erica publicly: you’re GENIUSES!  Check out our new website below to see more of their handiwork:

Concierges Website

So, besides making all of these style changes and new sites, I was also busy making the world’s most beautiful baby (in my very unbiased opinion)!  We were lucky enough to have one of my first clients, and now dearest friends, the amazing Rebekah Tozer come to our home and do her newborn pictures, so if you’d like to check out the littlest Concierges family member, here is our darling Piper Jane!

Newborn Photos with Rebekah Tozer 

So in short, I think 2013 is our best year yet!

xoxoxo

Jenny

2013 = New Look!

Ok I am not solely to blame for the lack of blogging for the last couple months!  We had a HUGE server crash here at The Concierges, and everything on our blog back to February of 2012 was lost, so our blog got stunted and the recent posts all disappeared somewhere in blog heaven.   So my apologies, but it’s all better now!  Moving to new server, current server fixed, upward and onward!

Let’s talk about 2013!

We are getting a few new looks over here at The Concierges, both personally and professionally!

1.  Babies!

I (Jenny) am pregnant (along with about half of our client roster having/or about to have new babies)!  Since I last posted I had a wedding and two baby showers and in April there will be a little bitty girl named Piper Jane that I hope has red hair, but that I more than hope sleeps as well as her daddy  So my body has taken on a new shape, mostly bulbous and leading to moving slowly as I enter my 8th month in a week.   We are THRILLED to be having this little girl, and we have been busy bees in my house getting her nursery ready and putting away her mountain of clothing (she has more than a Kardashian at this point, and is more spoiled than Veruca Salt, from gifts being sent to us from so many fabulous friends, colleagues, and family members).   Exciting!!

Check out our 7 months maternity session with Erica Velasco HERE!

2.  New Branding, Logo, and Site!

Let me give you a brief history on our business and site:  We opened in 12 days.  Literally.  From idea to application, we opened in 12 days.  In those 12 days, my two AMAZING friends and colleagues, Kim B. and Laura E., got this blog up and made everything you see now, it was incredible.  Laura helped me design a logo I liked and get this blog up, as Kim Bee set it up on her server and helped with the web work.  IN TWELVE DAYS!  We decided a blog would be enough, initially, to see if people liked the idea and if I got any clients.  Well, it DID work and I got lots of clients!

……then because of the lots of clients, I haven’t had one spare moment to do anything else!  I’ve wanted to do a style and branding makeover with some more thought and time put into it, and I’ve wanted a real website in addition to the blog for as long as we were open, but again, when you’re blessed with lots of work, my clients come first. This project could wait.

That’s all changing and we will have a legitimate website up and running with shiny new logos soon!  YAY!  We have our amazing shoot.send.breathe staff, the amazing Brooke on logo/branding and the fabulous Erica on web, working on it now and we’re so eager!

3.  New Team Members!

Oh I can’t describe the love I have for the two women who joined our Concierges family and my adoration list, and who have made having a baby and having any time possible: Tiffany and Erica!

I cannot say enough nice things about Tiffany, she’s honestly a God-sent blessing to my life and has been an incredible asset to us professionally and personally.  To be frank, she does my job better than I do.  She worked as an intern for a few months and made my life so wonderful that I wished I never had to promote her, but of course, when someone is that great, they deserve a million promotions!  She started taking her own clients in December and they’re incredibly lucky people!

Erica has just joined our staff as an intern this month, readying herself to take on her own clients in April (and help me take some maternity leave!) and so far she’s been prompt, resourceful, quick to learn, and incredibly likable! I am so thankful she came our way, and had the gumption to send me an email one day with a referral from Laura, and tell me I needed her.  She was very right!

So, all in all, we are so happy over here!

Continually blessed and awed by the amazing people who come to us to work with us,the amazing work we get to do, and as we approach our two year mark, I am beyond proud and thankful of how far we’ve come.

Proud and in constant surprise:  if you’d have told me two years ago I’d be writing a post about our new logo, new employees, and new baby on the way, I’d have laughed at you and told you I drive a Beetle, no room for carseats.

(Man I miss that car) Â

xoxoxo

Oh my goodness I am so excited….and a bit nervous!

Today we launched our sister company, all devoted to post-production and design needs for photographers and businesses! I am so proud of the work our designers and editors have done, and so in awe of their skill, that is makes me extremely excited to offer it up to more and more people!

shoot.send.breathe is a concept we’ve been forming for awhile, all about custom editing services, design services, and everything else you could need once your images are done, or your company is forming it’s look.  Please check out the site and it’s services, and we hope to hear from you soon!

shoot.send.breathe site

info@shootsendbreathe.com

Services include:

• Sorting/Culling
• Color-correction
• Editing for flaws (flyaway hairs, blemishes, object removal, etc)
• Wedding album design
• Portrait album design
• Logo creation and design
• Company branding
• Marketing materials (pricing guides, form emails, what to wear guides, etc)
• Blog design
• Web design

Also…Concierges clients get perks for using both companies!  Inquire for more info!  So very proud and excited today!

xoxoxo

photography editing post-production outsource color correction color correcting album design wedding album design portrait album design The Concierges shoot.send.breathe lightroom photoshop photography management studio management outsourcing marketing materials logo design branding design branding materials graphic design web design blog design

“You are running a discriminatory business!  It’s all WOMEN!”– a very good (male) friend of mine.

“Well…yes….but not on purpose!!” — me.

DISCLAIMER:  I would love to have male clients, I just don’t have any male clients yet!  So since I have none, please view the following post as pulled from my experience….of all women!!  I’d love to make a post just like this about male photographers….but alas, I work with none!

Dude, I think women photographers are just about the greatest thing on earth.  I really do.  Here’s my little *hat’s off post* to the amazing ladies I work with, to remind them that I think they are just phenoms.

5 Reasons Women Make Amazing Photogaphers

1.  Women can get gushy without feeling self-conscious, and how do you photograph a newborn baby without gush?? How do you catch those sweet, romantic, we’re-all-teary moments at weddings without the gush??  How do you not ooh and ahh and get giddy over those little things that make a photograph so wonderful?

2.  A woman is used to juggling.  No woman in the world, be her married/single/mom/childless, who doesn’t juggle and wear a hundred thousand hats a day.  In a week a woman is usually all of these Supermom, Career Woman, Sexy Hot Thing, Polite Lady, Angry Cat Fighter, Eye Batting Girl, House Project Manager, Disciplinarian Iron Fist, Chef of Many Meals, Best Girlfriend Shoulder to Cry On, Kitchen Table Comedian, and the list goes on and on and on.  So when it comes to organizing a family outdoors, coaxing a child to be happy, helping a couple get more romantic, or just the person who has to get all that gear set up while simultaneously organizing the bride’s family while also reminding your second shooter to go get details….it comes natural.  We are born with many roles in us, so the dancing act that goes into photography is just another day.

3.  We love pretty things.  No little girl in the world doesn’t want a pretty room, pretty hair, a pretty baby doll, a pretty dress.  No teenage girl isn’t striving to be pretty through clothes/makeup/magic hair products.  No grown woman doesn’t want the prettiest house possible.  I mean, it’s the reason Pinterest is thriving!  So of course, when photographing anything, a women is  seeking the pretty. Oh, and we know pretty when we see it, we’re pulling from decades of pretty hunting and creating. We can see when your face is at it’s prettiest angle, we can see what that light does to your hair, and we can catch the moment he’s looking at you as if you’re the prettiest girl in the world.

4.  We are emotional.  Some actually would say we’re insane, as a mass society, because we are so emotional.  But I know from experience of being photographed many times, you want an emotional being behind the lens. A woman is going to shoot with real feeling.  It’s never going to be a rational look at composition and scale and grids in her mind, it’s going to be the feeling she’s getting while looking at you, and directing that emotion behind the lens.  Your baby looks loved in those images because she know how to love a baby, your new husband looks hot in those pictures because she can capture the emotion a hot guy gives, and your family looks like they’re happy because she know what a happy family feels like.  We may drive our loved ones nuts with out emotional range, but it only helps in this profession!

5.  We are trendy-aware.  It’s just a fact.  We read the popular magazines and books, buy the household goods, watch the shows on E!, and scope out other women’s clothes/houses/shoes/hair all the time.  Unconsciously, we’re always forming a picture of what’s “in” right now.  What looks good, what is on the way out, and so on.  Well, this helps with photography because it means a woman’s eye is always being shaped and changed with the times.  You’re less likely to have dated images when you are working with a woman, as she is always shaping her style and aware, even if she’s just wearing old jeans to shoot you, she knows what’s up in the world!

So there you have it, from my fascist, women only regime (but not on purpose!) to you, the reasons I think in this field, women are killing it.

Bottom line: Ansel Adams can shoot a mean mountain scene, but as I’m not a mountain, I would pick Annie Leibovitz.

xoxoxo

photography editing post-production outsource color correction color correcting album design wedding album design portrait album design The Concierges shoot.send.breathe lightroom photoshop photography management studio management outsourcing marketing materials logo design branding design branding materials graphic design web design blog design

Oh my goodness I am the worst blogger ever! I fully, 100% intended to always blog because my background is in writing and I love to write, so of course I would be an amazing blogger that never slacked off!

And then I got busy. Sigh. So unoriginal.

Anyway, 2012 is here….which is completely insane!  Is everyone else looking around in shock like I am???  I cannot believe 2011 is gone and we’re in a new year already, I feel like I need a moment to catch my breath! There are so many exciting things on the horizon that I will definitely NOT be getting that breath-catching moment, but that is not a complaint, it’s a blessing (as I remind myself at 3am while I’m answering emails).

Here are some things 2012 is bringing our way at The Concierges:

#1 The Branch Off

I am so excited and terrified of this event that I have sort of been ignoring the fact that it’s happening….but as I activated new email addresses today, I had to sort of accept the event. The Concierges is opening a branch off side business for all of our outsourced post-production projects (album design, logos and branding, color correction, artistic photo editing) because we’ve just gotten too many to manage without a new structure to manage it all.  It’s going to be live and unveiled by the end of this month and as majorly exciting as that is it’s also so overwhelming to think in two years we’ll have opened two businesses!  Thankfully, I have no time to be overwhelmed, so I won’t think about that, I’ll think about that tomorrow (Scarlett O’Hara was brilliant in my opinion).

More info to come on that later…

#2 The Staff

With the increase of business and the branch off I am finally going to need to hire and train more people, or I am going to be bald and cross-eyed from stress, unless we find a way to grow me a couple more hands in a month. This makes me so happy and so nervous all at once!  I am a bit of a control freak (I hate agreeing with my boyfriend on such points, but it’s true) and the thought of handing things over to people I don’t know personally makes me a little bit aprehensive, but I know there are people out there who can probably do this job better than me, and I hope I find them!

#3 The Travel Site

The top secret travel site I have been staffing with writers and sales people is going to launching in the next month or so and it’s going to be huge and potentially life-changing and once again, whenever I think about it, I do something like clean my closet or paint my bedroom, anything to ignore the fact that IT’S COMING! I will be so excited, though, when I can finally promote it publicly and get to work on all the exciting facets it will delve into! Even if it does make me bite my nails down into nubs…

#4 The Convention

I have been forced and dragged into WPPI in Vegas by Brooke Rainey and Kim Bee and I am terrified of attending!!  I am terrified because while I am so confident in the (two!) businesses now, there are a LOT of photographers at WPPI and I am worried that putting our name out there takes us from an underground-word-of-mouth-best-kept-secret organization to a flooded email inbox that makes me sob at night in fear.  But.  I’m doing it, I’m going, I have my MGM room and my badge all ready so, here goes nothing in February! Yikes!

So with all of these things happening at what feels like the exact same time, my New Year’s Resolutions are:

• Get the branch off up and running with minimal effort on my part (aka hand it over for management by someone else)
• Enjoy WPPI
• Expand our client base and our staff
• Do all I can for the travel site to be a hit
• Meet every single one of my photographers from this past year and thank them personally for their support and faith in year 1!

Happy New Year everyone, and I hope your resolutions and goals all get met this year! Set your sights HIGH!

xoxoxo

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This image is from zafu.com and I love it

Oh my goodness, remember the days when I wrote a fashion post every single Friday at the Kimberly Jarman Studio?  Those were the most fun things I ever wrote, and I never have time now!

But…it’s Friday people, let’s talk clothing!

I am someone who is OBSESSED with jeans: finding the perfect ones, finding new brands, unearthing that one pair that only exists in my mind with a 21′ leg opening and invisisble piping in the darkest dark color and an ultra-low rise….sigh. One day.

Anyway, this fall it hit me:  I finally have the exact combination of the four jeans every single girl needs to get through the cold weather!!!!   I need to share it!!

1.  The Booty-Fabulous Boot Cut Pair

Ok, ignore ALL trends if you don’t own these and make this your investment piece.  I don’t care if you get in a time machine and hit 1983, 1994, 2002, and 2045, you will look exactly right in these jeans.  Take time picking them, don’t buy a cheap “fall apart after two washes” pair, or anything else, because this will be the one pair of jeans you can wear for the next decade and not look out of style.

Go with a dark rinse, a rise you feel comfortable with (but no mom jeans), pockets places for your particular booty size (high small pockets on a rounder tush, large spaced pockets on small hips, detailed pockets with flaps for a flat booty) and a slight boot cut (not flare).   These jeans will always make you feel good, they will always look stylish, and they will be your go-to pair.

True Religions are my Booty Fabulous jeans of choice

2.  The Skinny Jean

Ok, I know some of you are still not on this badnwagon, but with the prevalence of knee and thigh-high boots being the main fall accessory, you need at least ONE pair of skinnies!  I promise you, you don’t look …er…curvier in them when the bottom is balanced out with boots or high heels.  I realize not everyone can rock skinnies and flats, and not everyoen should, but every woman needs one pair that you’re not shoving into boots.

Go with black if you’re really nervous, or a really dark rinse, and a trick is to get boots that gap at the opening on your calf or thigh, this makes your leg look thinner in the boot, as opposed to painted on, skin tight boots and jeans.  That’s when squish happens.

My skinny of choice:  American Eagle Skinny Jean

3.  The Wide Leg Trouser Jean

These look so good on people that every single body type can rock these (except the very short girls, in which case, put on your sky-high heels).  With a wide leg from hip to ankle, your booty still looks good and the shape gives you a silhouette that takes off 10 pounds.

Don’t get fancy embellishments on these, as they have a classic vibe going, and make sure they are long enough to touch the floor or you look like you’re possible joined the Navy.  When I wear my wide-legs, my boyfriend always checks me out more than usual.

My choice for wide-leg: Gap.  They’re phenomenal

4.  The Relaxed Boyfriend Jean

These are for Sunday afternoons, running to the grocery store, and everything else you can think of in a day.  They have enough shape to avoid looking sloppy, but they’re not giving you red marks on your hips from a tight waist band.

Mine has a straight, relaxed leg, low-rise and are a little lighter than my plethora of dark rinses.  I love them ,and at the end of the day they’re a little baggy.  They make me happy and I can even do an airplane ride all day in them.

American Eagle gets my vote again!  AE Boyfriend Jean

There you have it.  Grab your 4 pairs and conquer the world ladies, you’re prepared for anything.

xoxoxo

Reality Bites

It’s my favorite movie and I understand that quote so much tonight, as I fall asleep 30 and wake up 31 tomorrow. I am realizing, in my life, 30 has freaking ROCKED.  If I’m looking at my life in it’s entirety at this moment, I can honestly say that aside from the year I got the Barbie mansion on Christmas from Santa (age 9) and the year I made my first cheerleading team (age 15 and little did I know I would remain dancing and cheering until NOW!), that 30 has been epic.  It’s been incandescent.  It has been the most life-changing year of my life and I am downright heartbroken to say goodbye to it.

Here’s what 30 has meant to my life:

1. The Company
I started this business and it’s changed my entire life.  That is not an exaggeration.  Kim Bee and Melissa Koehler and Laura Ellerbroek and my beloved boyfriend all pushed me, pulled me, and convinced me I could do this one day in April and by May, The Concierges existed.  It was terrifying, it was exciting, and in the end, it’s been the best decision I think I have ever made.  It’s meant that I get to live my life the way I want to, and just sitting with that thought is huge.  I get to live my life the way I want to.  I always wanted a life where I could jump on a plane and go off to somewhere great, where I would meet fun and creative people, where I could answer to myself alone, where I would be passionate about my work.

30– thank you for the gift of living on my terms and these FABULOUS people I get to work with

2.  The Travel

In 30 Year, a combination of events led me to not spend more than 3 weeks in any one city for the entire year.  I wrote for Haute Living Magazine and got to review and experience the absolute finest resorts and restaurants imaginable…and be paid for it!  My boyfriend has a job that sends him all over the map, and he was sweet enough to book me passage along the way.  And lastly, with the creation of this company, my “office” is an internet connection and a telephone, meaning I can (and have!) work from anywhere.   When you add all of this up, my suitcase got some bumps and I got see a lot of people, places and things.

To quote Dr. Seuss, “It’s opener there
in the wide open air.”

30- thank you for all the places I go’d.

3.  The Love

I didn’t think love, or men, like this existed.  I try to keep this part of my life a little bit off of my blog, but it’s an important part of my 30 Year.  If it weren’t for this man, I wouldn’t have all the other parts of this year.  Because of him, I have been taken to so many places across this country.  Because of him, I needed a job that was flexible and I started this company.  Because of him, I have had a huge smile on my face (mostly!) for an entire year (and a half before that!)  I am a bit of a skeptic about relationships, and he has even changed my whole outlook there.  If we’re talking about life-changing year, we’re talking about him.

30- thank you for changing my mind on love.

So, as you can see, I am reluctant to go to sleep tonight.  How will 31 ever compare?   I tend to be a pathological optimist, but even I am left shaking my head tonight.  30, you were legendary.

And to all of you who don’t feel like you’ve had your 30 yet (at 45, or 27, or 63), go get it.  It’s as awesome as you think it could be.  It’s better.

xoxoxo

I’ve now been asked four times, by four different people, how exactly my days work and how I keep track of everything/everyone/everywhowhichwaywhywhen.  My usual answer is, “Not very well.”

Well, I kept track of my activities for one day this week, and here’s how it goes in a Jenny-day. Mind you, every day is so different this isn’t especially representative of my life as a whole, but here’s a snapshot!

4:30am:  Cell phone vibrating wakes me up.  My boyfriend is training in Kentucky so it’s 7:30am to him.  I bury my head in my pillow.

6:00am:  I wake up and tell myself to sleep, I have no reason to be up at 6.

6:15am:  I tell myself NOT to open my laptop and start working as it’s 6:15am and that’s insane.

6:30am:  Answering my third work email in bed.

8:00am:  Nothing marked unread in my email, turn computer to MTV.com and tell myself I can watch one Teen Mom episode until 9am and then “start working” officially.

8:32am:  Open an extra window on my computer, listening to Teen Mom as I answer some east coast clients that have started working and sending me things.

8:45am:  Tell myself not to open my west coast email until this episode is over (meanwhile updating Facebook on my cell phone)

8:57am:  Call confirming my volunteer shift tomorrow at Salvation Army for their Christmas Angel tag writing.  Mark it down in phone calendar.

9:00am:  Open west coast email.  Bounce back and forth between east and west coast emails mailboxes.  (“Brides are Nuts” is the theme of this day)

9:45am:  Debate unpacking my suitcase or not.  I just got home.  I leave again in 10 days.  Do I unpack?  It’s such a mess over there with clothes pouring out of my suitcase.

10:00am:  My messy bedroom is making me crazy as I work and I’m trying to ignore but I can’t.  Dial new photography client that has a call scheduled as I lug laundry to the laundry room.

10:30:  Realize I’m mopping my kitchen floor like a lunatic as I quote color correction prices to potential client (I clean when I’m stressed out)

11:00am:  I need to get dressed.  I turn Teen Mom on in my bathroom while I wash up and put on makeup.  Two photographers call.

11:30am:  Mid-mascara swipe I decide to quickly check my east coast email. (Mental check:  it’s 2:30pm on the east coast)

12:15pm:  Still only have mascara on one eye and still on emails. Bride calls my cell phone and asks about adding another hour to her package. Send her invoice and mark it on the timeline.

12:30pm:  Tell myself to STOP LOOKING AT MY EMAIL and finish this makeup and put clothing on my body.

12:45pm:  Reminder in phone to send flowers to photographer with ill father.  Do online order (1800flowers.com!).  Still naked.

1:00pm:  Out the door to meet friend for lunch.  Checking work email while driving. Hate the jeans I’m wearing but all my clothes are either still in my suitcase from just getting home Friday or in the washer)

1:17pm:  Photographer call, confused about a timeline, sitting in parking lot sorting it out.  Wave at friend to go in without me.

1:30pm:  Lunch with a real live human!!!

2:00pm:  Planning my birthday dinner with friend at lunch.  It’s already my birthday next week????  She’s asking me my upcoming flights.  I get tired hearing myself go over it.

2:37pm:  Friend goes to the bathroom.  Tell myself not to look at my work email on my phone.  Don’t look at it.  I’m at lunch, don’t look at it.

2:39pm:  Check west coast emails.  There’s 9 unread.  My stomach jolts.  NINE?!?! (Mental check: it’s 5:30 on the east coast, emails will be rolling in as people get off work.)

2:45pm:  In car headed to work at my mom’s house as she called and wanted to spend some time.

2:49pm:  Photographer phone call but turns into personal call and laughing together about her kids.

3:05pm:  Call dentist and reschedule filling appointment.

3:15pm:  On my mom’s couch watching the new Real Housewives with her while working on my laptop.  Answering west coast emails.

3:32pm:  Call from color corrector.  Give specifics on the wedding she’s working on.  Talk album design. Note to self:  send her the link to dropbox file when I hang up.

3:45pm:  Phone alarm reminds me I have a phone ordering session in 15 minutes.  Head to back bedroom with notebook and laptop

4:00pm:  Call phone ordering session in Raleigh (reminding myself it’s 7pm there)

4:45pm:  Still on phone ordering session.  Talking about canvas clusters above a sofa

5:15pm:  Off phone, open east coast emails.  12 unread.

6:00pm:  Eat dinner with mom and leave her house

6:30pm:  Home.  Joke with my roommate and hang out with her for a few minutes.

6:45pm:  Do sweep through west coast and east coast inboxes and answer the new ones.  Call two clients about upcoming sessions tomorrow.  Send adapt wedding contract for bride in Reno.

7:30pm:  Boyfriend calls and we chat about his horrible day briefly and he goes to bed (Mental check: it’s 10:30pm east coast)

8:10pm:  Open travel writing inbox.  46 new emails.  Fight the urge to cry and/or close it.  Open first one.

10:30pm:  Stop reading travel writer resumes and star the ones I need to review tomorrow.  Send update to travel site owner.

11:00pm:  Tell myself to stop working and read my new book.  Photographer text conversation about downloading color corrected images.

11:15pm:  Remember I never switched my laundry to the dryer!  Go switch it.

11:20pm:  Back to book.  Focus.  Focus on the book.  Queen Elizabeth I bio and I love it.  FOCUS ON THIS BOOK.

11:45pm:  Just really quickly going to check east and west coast inboxes.

12:00am:  Still in emails.

12:15am:  Email from brand new photographer about the pricing guides we’re designing her.

12:30am:  Open up pricing guide design for new photographer and mess around with it.  Do I like the banner on top?  Or side vertical banner?  Or corner?  Why am I doing this at midnight?  Tell myself to stop it, close the pricing guides.

12:47am:  Turn on Teen Mom on my laptop (why is Farrah such a brat to her parents?!) while I wash off my makeup and brush teeth.

1:13am:  Repeatedly tell myself to not open my email.  Do not open it.  Do not open it.

1:47am:  Phone vibrating.  Boyfriend is up and on his way to training.  Send him a text to have a good day. (Mental check: it’s 4:47am on east coast)

3:45am:  Wake up in a panic.  Look at time (mental check: 6:45am on east coast).  Close laptop and get in bed.

8:00am:  Alarm goes off:  phone ordering session in Philadelphia in 30 minutes.

(not a joke, I kept a notepad and this was my day)

xoxoxoxo

The incredible Brooke Rainey shot the first Honor Flight a week ago, and she sent me the images to make into a video and I pretty much cried the entire night I edited it and turned it into a little film.

Click the image to watch the video!

This amazing trip, just ONE trip of so many this organization does, out of Nashville, honored 102 WWII veterans by taking them on a trip to the memorials in Washington DC, including the memorial honoring them, the WWII Memorial.  The men and women and their guardians that came along were all flown courtesy of the Honor Flight organization out of Nashville, the Music City Honor Flight division.

As you can see from these images, every single person that came into contact with these amazing heroes was there to applaud, salute, and honor the lives of these great people.  To see these images of the airport patrons lining up to applaud them and wave flags, the military personnel in DC all lined up saluting these brave men and women, and just the entire spirit of being a part of this journey touches my heart on such a level.  I love that people left and right recognized the contribution these WWII veterans gave to our country and the reverence they deserve.

I also just love, love, love Brooke Rainey for being the person who first contacted Honor Flights and then sent me in their direction to open up all of our photographers to their city’s flights.  I am so excited to be a part of this organization in any way possible, and so thankful Brooke showed me the way and went on this first trip and took these incredible pictures!

And though it doesn’t express even one iota of what it should, thank you to these men and women for all they have done for this country.  I am humbled at your images, I am touched by your smiles, and we are at your service.

Music City Honor Flight Highlights Video

xoxoxo

Oh my goodness I haven’t blogged in FOREVER!!!!

I have been literally all over the map, I haven’t been in one city longer than two weeks since this summer, I have 4 upcoming flights through December and my head is SPINNING!

But, I shouldn’t neglect the blog so quick update and I promise to do better this fall!

1.  We have new photographers coming out of our ears!  In the best way More on them soon…

2.  We’ve opened up our editing and album design portions of the company wider and are getting new orders which is exciting, and in turn means we’ve added some new people to The Concierges family!   (again, more to come on that….)

3.  Holiday season and wedding season are upon us and this means we’re all swimming in pictures!  But, this is fabulous, of course!

4.  I have been on so many airplanes lately that I was recognized by a flight attendant.  That’s slightly sad and slightly awesome in my opinion.

5.  We have taken on the staffing and content management of a new travel site that will be unveiled later and this means I’ve been trying to hire travel writers in over 14 countries!  It’s INSANITY!

6.  As incredibly happy and proud as I am of how much we’ve grown in only 6 months, part of me does miss the days when I had one desk, one place to be, and saw other live human beings in the day, not just the bed I’m sleeping in or the kitchen table I’m working on.

7.  …….but I wouldn’t change or trade ONE thing.  This is probably the most amazing year of my life professionally and personally and I want to cling to it with both hands and relive it over and again!

8.  I’m thinking of marketing The Conciegres for the first time……should be interesting….

9.  The idea of filing my business taxes this year is already scaring me.  I hired an accountant, I hope this means it happens right?

10.  I miss the blog!  I will be back!  I love you all!

xoxoxo