Happy December!! Can you believe Thanksgiving, Black Friday & Cyber Monday have all passed us by? Seems like it was just summer! I’ve spent November playing some serious catch up with editing and album designing…. I’m ecstatic to say, I have NOTHING left to edit or design! All weddings & portrait sessions are done & ready for delivery 🙂  Nothing makes me feel more productive than to have time to do other business related tasks besides editing…. We have one wedding left this season (woot woot Heather & Graham!) then we get some serious, much-needed down time. We have so many items on our to-do list for the off season I’m scared to even blog them…. but I will, in hopes it will force me to accomplish them all. Let’s look back at November….. 1. Edit & Blog Catey & Michael’s wedding DONE! 2. Edit & Blog Arianne & Jeff’s wedding (edited, just not blogged yet) 3. Prepare for boudoir shoots DONE! 4. Take our Christmas card photo (hmmm… hopefully next weekend!) 5. Enjoy Thanksgiving! DONE! 6. Celebrate my birthday! DONE! 7. Finish up all album orders before I leave for Oklahoma next week DONE! 8. Photograph Heather & Graham’s engagement  DONE! 9. Work on submitting more to blogs & magazines DONE! 10. Put together my new referral packets for brides (Gathered some supplies) 11. Photograph Emma Rae’s 2nd birthday! DONE!    December Goals: 1. Blog Arianne & Jeff, Heather & Graham, Emma Rae, Burnett Family & all the film I just sent off 🙂 2. Shoot Heather & Graham’s big day! 3. Go to the Bahamas! (tonight!!!) 4. Finish Christmas shopping 5. Decorate the house 6. Explore flooring options for the office 7. Explore draping my office ceiling 8. Do some paint projects in the office 9. Order new prints & rearrange them 10. Create office “buffet” 11. Finish referral packets 12. Send Holiday cards…. with said photo above 13. New rug situation for office? 14. Figure out how to incorporate navy into the blog 15. Monogram navy pillow 16. Make pillows 17. Order cake 18. Customize water bottles with logo 19. Customize napkins with logo 20. Paint the fireplace wall? 21. Paint/cover/order new tops for end tables 22. Hang TV in office 23. Create new system for back ups 24. Submit to blogs & magazines 25. Make chalkboard 26. Hang drum shades ……. probably another 45 things I can’t remember right now….   and for a little preview of what’s coming…..   We’re heading to Florida tonight to board a boat to the Bahamas tomorrow…. I’ll return all emails on Monday evening & Tuesday.  

I am the same as the most of you…. I’m patiently sitting at my desk (at the day job) awaiting quitting-time, so I can be released from my windowless, tan box of an office to go out and enjoy turkey, sweet potatoes, pumpkin pie and quality time with my family….. oh yeah…. and SHOPPING! My mother was a FIRM believer that Black Friday was the biggest amateur shopping day of the year. We did not participate. It would have been a cardinal sin to leave the house. Well…. since I’ve been with Jeremy we think it’s fun to go out and see what their is to see…. last year my sister & I even hit up the new Tanger Outlets in Mebane at midnight! I think the key to ENJOYING Black Friday is to go out shopping, not looking for anything. I always find the best stuff when I’m not looking for anything in particular, don’t you?!? Well…. I wanted to fill you in on some Black Friday deals within the wedding industry you might be interested in…. 1. US! All our prints size 16×20 and larger (even custom sizes!) are 25% off! You can click “proofs” up at the top of the website to get to all the events that are uploaded and available for sale. Email us about custom sizes. Sale goes Friday-Sunday. All prints will be here in plenty of time for Christmas 🙂 2. New York Bride They’re hosting “White Friday” with dresses discounted from $99-$299 from 9AM-3PM! 3. Zazzle Zazzle is offering $8.80 off custom postage stamp orders with the code ZPOSTAGESALE . Get another $10 off when you mention my name 🙂 4. Carol Hannah on 100 Layer Cake Carol Hannah’s “Maids & Party” sale will be on Tuesday, November 29th! 5. The Bridal House I’m not sure if they are doing any special promotions, but they are relocating to downtown, historic Statesville & opening this Saturday! ** Edit** She’s got dresses she needs to liquidate this weekend!!! I’m sure their are other great sales going on too… feel free to post them in the comments below!   ** Another “deal” you might be interested in…. All weddings we book for dates in January & February 2012 will be at a discounted rate 🙂 Email us for info! info@jjhortonphotography.com   ….. and just because these are 3 of my favorite photos ever…… I’m posting them again 🙂   Have a yummy Thanksgiving!!  

Halloween is a lot of fun in our neighborhood…. it’s one of the best days to live on our street. See, our houses are all of 5-10 feet apart, and several of us all in a row don’t have kids yet so we’ve made a tradition of hanging out on our front porches, handing out candy to all the trick-or-treaters and ordering Chinese  take out! This year we decided to set up a mini version of our Who Booth on the porch to take pics of all the candy-takers, we weren’t sure how it would be received but overall the kids enjoyed it, and the parents thought it was a cute idea! Maybe we’ll make it a tradition along with Chinese take out 🙂 I won’t be posting any of the kids photos here since they are all minors & I didn’t get any written permission…. so here’s some we snapped of each other. Jeremy didn’t dress up…. surprise, surprise. I decided at the last minute to be Betty Draper from Mad Men…. I’d been cleaning out my closet the week before and came across a very 1950’s inspired dress…. so I threw it on, praying it would fit, and curled my hair.  I don’t think anyone realized who I was, but I didn’t really care.