katie day photography - wedding photography - springfield - branson - missouri

aja & rhett

kdp — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 05:18:00 +0000

sarah & nick engaged

kdp — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 18:58:25 +0000

They met at the Potter’s House while playing chess. How cute!

callie eats an apple

kdp — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 19:18:50 +0000

It’s snowy and cold outside, yet Callie loves running around the house in just her diaper. She’s 17 months old now and THIS IS SUCH A FUN AGE. I think I laugh all day long. She is a character. I need to get more of her shenanigans on video. Today she kept singing “HEY GRRR! WHACHADOIN??” which is the theme song from New Girl. I pulled it up on Hulu and she made me replay it over and over and over again. When she’s not singing, she’s dancing. She is the best dancer I’ve ever known. When she’s not dancing, she’s wanting to play every toy instrument in the house. If anyone is performing live on TV, she sprints to it and stares at it. Amazed. She came to one of my improv shows for the first time, and after the initial shock of seeing “MOMMY!!!” up on stage, she started to mimic any movement I’d do and she’d laugh whenever the audience laughed.

I think we might have a performer on our hands.

Katie Day at the Metro Bride Expo!

kdp — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 00:33:30 +0000

I did my first ever Bridal Expo last Sunday. Designing the booth was a blast. The day itself was crazy, overwhelming and I think I might have blacked out for most of it. I do vaguely remember telling someone after learning of their 2013 wedding date, “Well, I hope you enjoy your wedding because we’ll all be dead. The world is ending this year.” That may have not been the best sales technique. I also recall someone saying, “Can I book with you today?” And I said something like, “Go home! Think it over! No pressure!”. Yikes. In conclusion, I’m not a salesman. But, I do hope if you like my photos and it’s in your budget, then book! If it’s not, then we can still be friends. Please? Seriously, I really need some friends.

Now for photos of the booth! My hot husband built the background. My besties, Bre and Allison helped work the show. KDP also had the honor of being a featured vendor in the lobby. Woohoo!

Also, to stay up-date-to-date on the latest blog posts, you can “like” KDP on the facebook.

Janna & Evan – Gorgeous, Sunny, Farm Wedding at Mildale Farms- KS

kdp — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 14:00:03 +0000

I love this wedding. I love this wedding. I love this wedding. Janna and Evan are just as sweet and hilarious as they are super hot.

Raegan & Scott – Crafty, Witty, Hilarious Wedding with KNITTED flowers

kdp — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 18:03:57 +0000

Get ready for simply the most unique wedding I have ever shot.

Here’s what you need to know: They met working for Lover’s Lane Church in Dallas, TX and got married less than 6 months later. (Awesome.) They are both brilliantly sarcastic, witty, and amazing writers. If I had a copy of their vows, I’d post it. Hilarious and sweet simultaneously. Please try to read everything I posted and know that it was a tiny sampling. They must have written over a million words for this thing. The reception was a museum of their lives leading up to this point. Each table with a theme of some part that defines them. A childhood table, theatre table, san diego table, chik-fil-a table…etc. They really really love Chick-fil-A. They also really love Jesus and can somehow be superbly sarcastic one second and deeply spiritual the next. Later, history books will try to define them and how they do this effortlessly.

What’s with the blindfold, you ask? They did not want to see eachother beforehand but they did want to take pictures. So you will see a series of blindfolded photos, photos where there is something in between them, and some where he is just blatantly closing his eyes. It was such a creative challenge, and sometimes I would just freak out. “Ah!!! I’m so nervous you are going to open your eyes right now!!!!!Ahhhh!!”

My favorite part is the journal Raegan gave Scott. You need to know Raegan. I could write an entire post about how great she is. Her heart is SO beautiful, Raegan has been patiently single for a long time. Instead of being a desperate single, discouraged, cat lady, she has been keeping a journal to her future husband for over 8 years. Letters & prayers. She has been dedicated to Scott before she ever knew his name or what he looked like. Mind blown? Then she gave the journal to him on their wedding day and he had no knowledge of it beforehand. BOOM. That’s Raegan.

Jared testing to make sure they wouldn’t be able to see eachother.

train to chicago

kdp — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 18:00:40 +0000

My husband rocks. We swore we weren’t exchanging gift this Christmas. The day after he hands me an envelope with a ‘clue’ in it. It rhymed. It ended up being one of seven envelopes that revealed an intricately planned trip to Chicago via a train!! He had everything planned. Hotel, dinner, theatre. He said he had a budget in mind and we could either spend three frugal days or one stupidly expensive 24 hours. He chose one amazing day. It included dinner on top of the Hancock building overlooking the skyline 95 stories up. I loved it. I love him. Who says romance has to die down in marriage? Here’s a few photos. I only managed to take about 5 photos and record only the train ride itself (on 8mm video). Whoops. I guess when you’re really enjoying yourself you tend to forget to document it. By the way, I apparently LOVE train rides. Never done it before, but it was a blast and definitely my new favorite spot to daydream.

Song: Pack Up by Eliza Doolittle

Baking with Taylor and Callie

kdp — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 06:55:46 +0000

My precious niece, Taylor and I have been planning baking “Ariel Cupcakes” for months now. It ended up being the perfect activity.

Taylor’s obsession: The Little Mermaid.

Brett & Crystal – Married at Savoy Ballroom – Springfield MO

kdp — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 02:47:45 +0000

What’s the number one rule in wedding photography? Don’t fall in love with the groom. Well, it was bound to happen sooner or later. But, I’ll bet by the end of this post, you fall in love with him, too . I also love his redonkulous brother. He’s the one you’ll see slow-dancing with a chair. It’s ok, guys. My husband knows. We’re working out a weird reverse polygamy kind of thing. Everyone’s really okay with it.

Anyway, this was a GORGEOUS vibrant fall wedding at the beautiful Savoy Ballroom on Commercial street. Major Venue crush. Hoping to go back many more times. Also, BEST MOTHER-SON dance EVERRRRR!Tell me not to Cupid Shuffle and I’ll cut you.Those are the owners. Aren’t they cute!?!?!? You should have your wedding here.

Thanks to Christine Kershaw for being hot and for ninja-assisting me.

Callie and her boyfriend, Jude.

kdp — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 18:03:38 +0000

A short about two toddlers in love. Josh Stewart makes beautiful wedding videos too. Check him out: http://www.somethingbluecinema.com/

Jude & Callie from Hook Creative on Vimeo.

Thankful Anyway (DIY:Tree of Thankfulness)

kdp — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 18:24:25 +0000

Callie and I made a Thanksgiving project during the first week of November. (Okay, really Callie ate Cheerios, and watched me make it.)

It’s a Thanksgiving tree and every day in November, we wrote something we’re thankful to God for.

I’ll be honest with you. October was rough on the Days. It was really just….bad. I’d kind of like to delete that month out of my memory.

When things aren’t going your way, it’s so easy to get down in the dumps and throw yourself a pity party. But, I truly believe that you have a choice. You can choose to be sad, bitter, resentful. Or you can choose to be grateful, joyful….happy!

This exercise totally brought me out of my pity party. After about 5 solid minutes of thanking God and writing on leaves, I just burst into tears with gratitude. We have SO MUCH in our lives. Every family member. Every friend. Our jobs. I’m so grateful for our life. As it is. Right now. I won’t say “if only this…or if only that….” We are grateful. Unconditionally. Period.

James 1:2-8: Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

Dear Lord, If this is a test, I’m totally gonna kick ass and ace it…..Amen.

Now onto the craft. This craft is sort of ghetto-fabulous. But, it’s meant to be something you can do with your kids, so i kept it as simple as possible. I’m so excited that Callie is on the brink of being able to do activities with me, and I’m a traditions-freak. Can’t wait to have family traditions for every holiday.

And here it is today! The day before Thanksgiving, full of Gratitude to God. Just look at all those blessings!!!!!

DIY: thanksgiving wreath

kdp — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 18:13:14 +0000

This craft was super easy and a total of $4.00. I really don’t do crafts that take longer than an hour or so.

I bought the stick wreath premade at Hobby Lobby, super cheap. I think like $2.50. The most complicated part was making the little fabric bows. I made these buy cutting a bunch of circles the same size and then folding them into thirds to make a ruffle. But you can even cut one big fabric circle and just keep bunching until it ruffles. It’s amazing how cute it will turn out just by adding a little button in the middle.

Hotglue the bows on, and BOOM! Thanksgiving Wreath in a less than an hour!

mary & matthew – engaged

kdp — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 16:58:24 +0000

these two middle-school-sweethearts are THE cutest!!

The Christmas Card Sessions

kdp — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 21:22:20 +0000

UPDATE: Slots are full! WOW! Thanks for your participation, everyone!!

If you don’t want to shell out the $450 for a big portrait session, you’re in luck! Presenting the Christmas Card Sessions!

Email katiedayphoto@gmail.com to sign up!

Slots!

10:00 Hensley Fmaily
10:30 Perryman Family
11:00 Dodd Family
11:30 Kester Family
1:00 Wallace Family
1:30 Generous/Cannon Family
2:00 Bishop Family
2:30 Wells Family

Note: You can still sign up for a slot even if you have no intention of sending out Christmas cards, but just really want to take some awesome pictures! We can take some non-seasonal photos, no problem!

callie – the first year

kdp — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 15:21:31 +0000

Here is Callie’s first year video montage. from delivery room to birthday cake in about….oh…three minutes.
And here are her monthly crib shots to see how she grew from month to month.

We are crazy in love with our daughter. I hope I’ll always remember Callie’s first year:
-The first night in the hospital when the nurse brought her to me around 2 am after our family had gone home, Jared was asleep on the couch. It was very dark with just a dim light on, and just the two of us for the first time. She had her eyes wide open and I just stared at her and cried. I’d never seen anything so beautiful.
-Her crazy overactive tongue those first few months.
-The first time she smiled at us and we went nuts!!!
-How no matter how upset she’d be, Singing “House of the Rising Sun” would silence. Weird. But true.
-The first laugh, followed by the second, and soon the giggliest little girl you ever met.
-The first time she deliberately disobeyed and how hard it was not to laugh.
-How every morning begins with a dance party. Callie is the best dancer ever.
-The face she makes when she can’t do something the first time. Fierce determination.
-The face she makes everytime she finds green beans on her tray.
-How she can howl exactly like Halpert. And how he hates it.
-How she also can sound exactly like a monkey and carries her sock monkey everywhere while walking even though it’s big enough to make her trip every step.
-How she makes the teddy bears kiss, the sock monkeys kiss, the spoons kiss, mom and dad kiss. she loves making inanimate things kiss. “mmmmmm-mwah”
-How much she loves bananas. Can eat an entire one. And then the first day she saw the whole pile of them at the grocery store and about freaked out.
-How she’ll ‘sing along’ with me on car rides.
-How she wants Dad, then Mom, then Dad all in about 3 seconds.
-When I catch her “reading” a book to herself.
-When in the middle of playing with her toys, she walks across the room and gives me a kiss, then goes back to playing.

Love you Callie Rose. Now please stop growing. -Mom

callie’s 1 year “cute as a button” party!

kdp — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 20:25:05 +0000

It’s official, I have a one-year-old. Though the vision for this party was a sunny, playground picnic, Mother Nature had other plans. So we piled our dear, immediate family into our cozy home to celebrate the baby we all know and love. Everything was button-sized, even the pies. Callie’s cupcakes were complete with white chocolate edible buttons. (Something I plan on never doing again. hee hee) Callie ‘helped’ me make party hats which all the kids promptly destroyed. Haha. I love our chaotic crazy family.

We love you Callie Rose. Thanks for the best year of our life so far!

megan & alex – married – city museum- st louis

kdp — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 22:55:34 +0000

Sigh. I have the prettiest friends in the world. We shot this wedding the day after Andrea & Jon’s wedding. (Long story, but basically that’s what you get when your bestie is a wedding photographer and all the other dates in august were spoken for.) Needless to say, Jared and I were pretty delirious on the dance floor by the end of this wedding. You’ll see what I mean in a minute.
Alex and Megan rock. There was every emotion on this day. It was beautiful.
Megan dubbed me “friendographer” for the day. Awesome. Alex is officially the first groom to stand behind me and make faces while i was doing the gals portraits. (that i know of).
I didn’t realize it until I was editing them. It was at the City Museum in St. Louis which is pretty dang incredible. Enjoy!!!

andrea & jon – crafty backyard wedding

kdp — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 21:29:18 +0000

My bestie got married. And it was BEAUTIFUL. She made those flowers…out of fabric…true story…gasp. my heart. enjoy….

LOVE YOU ANDREA!!!!!! Thansk for letting me be apart of your day!!

callie likes water

kdp — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 14:32:27 +0000

She climbed in there. Then realized how cold it was. She cray cray.

songs for jude

kdp — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 16:34:42 +0000

This is my brother Josh Stewart. No, he’s not my real brother. But we went to Haiti together. We both had significant experiences. Both got baptized. And now we’re both trying our darndest to raise good, god-seeking, creative kids. And THAT is what makes him my brother. His beautiful wife is Breanne.
Bre rocks my world and blows my mind with her awesomeness. She. Is. great. The Stewarts have become our dear friends.

Josh is a musician and I got the privilege of shooting his album art for his latest album, Songs for Jude.

You should buy it here: http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/songs-for-jude/id430617427 (my favorite song is Tokyo, but they all make you feel good.)

Or Read about it here: http://www.songsforjude.com/