• Home
• Galleries
  •   Weddings
  •   Bellies & Babies
  •   Engagements
  •   Families & Kids
• Categories
  • Weddings
    • We Will
    • We Do
  • Sessions
    • Maternity
    • Babies
    • Kids
    • Families
  • Events
    • Birthdays
    • Anniversaries
    • Showers
  • My Own
  • Specials
    • Contests
    • Events
  • .
  • Photo Brain
• Calendar
• View an Event
• Vendors
  • Custom Photo Props
  • Happily Ever After Invitations
  • Lion's Roar Media – Video
  • Mary Kay Consultants – Melaina Charleston & Kelly Mase – Makeup
  • Operation Getdown – DJ
  • RENDITION – Band
  • Stella & Dot Stylist – Jewelry
• ツ Christina
• Praise
• Contact

I don’t think I could ever explain how much I love this girl. Too much prettiness in her beautiful pettiskirt from KoolKloz and gorgeous jewelry from Stella & Dot. Just some sneak peeks of her 5 year session. I cannot wait to post more of these!

Leave a Comment

Name (required)

Email (required)

Website

If you would like to make a comment, please fill out the form below.

Just a little sneak peek of my bff, Melaina’s ADORABLE daughter, Lexie. Thanks Tammy, for the gorgeous jewelry from Stella & Dot! More to come soon!

Leave a Comment

Name (required)

Email (required)

Website

If you would like to make a comment, please fill out the form below.

When Jenni O’Connor of Lion’s Roar Media decides to second with me, I usually have soooo many pictures at the end of the night. It also makes it super hard to pick out one or two sneak peeks. She’s that good. I’ve decided I’m going to kidnap her and force her to come to all my weddings. Somehow, I don’t think she’ll have much of a problem with it. Meanwhile, here are some sneak peeks, two from Jenni, two from me from Kaytee & David’s wedding on Saturday. We had a blast, these two are hilarious. The story is fantastic too, so stay tuned for that and for more awesome pics!

Leave a Comment

Name (required)

Email (required)

Website

If you would like to make a comment, please fill out the form below.

First off, I want to give everyone who entered a HUGE thank you to all of you for your entry. I am just THRILLED with the turn out for all of this. Really, I can’t thank you all enough. Just your willingness to enter has given hope to Laura and Tim. A BIG thank you To Amy Soden and Mandy Raimondi for booking parties with Laura. You guys are amazing! I will be emailing you your free session certificates on Monday! And don’t let the contest stop you from booking a party with Laura! If you didnt win, you can always earn free chocolate with a party! Thanks again, all of you!

And without further ado, the two winners of the Dove Chocolate Giveaway (selected by Random.org) are…

Liss

&

Jen Bretz!

CONGRATULATIONS! Please contact me with your choice of bundle from Dove Chocolate Discoveries and your mailing address and I’ll have your bundles in the mail asap! Thanks again to everyone!!

Leave a Comment

Name (required)

Email (required)

Website

If you would like to make a comment, please fill out the form below.

I’m just letting you all know in advance that this is a very hard giveaway for me. I don’t think I want to give any of this away, I want to buy it all for myself. But, I’m in a sharing mood, so I’ll let you all join me in my obsession with chocolate.

Before I get to the chocolate, I need to tell you why I’m having this giveaway. “You mean it’s not about feeding my addiction?” No, it’s not.

I shot Tim & Laura Krooswyk’s wedding back in January of 2007. They recommended me to a couple of their friends, and I’ve done their weddings as well. We’ve kept in touch on Facebook and I’ve watched their adorable little man, Josiah grow. Josiah was a miracle, and he is such a blessing to them. After trying for a while and through some complications, they got pregnant with another little miracle.  After 19 weeks of pregnancy, they were told that their baby had Cystic Hygroma and that condition would give their baby a 10% chance of a normal outcome. Then, they were told that their baby also had hydrops and that condition would give their baby 100% chance of mortality, and that there was no hope. Devastated, they waited to deliver the baby. Virginia Rae was born on May 3rd, 2010 and she was already dancing with the angels. You can read more of the story on Laura’s blog here. They are the reason why I decided to become a Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep affiliated photographer.

On top of this, Laura and Tim just found out they are miscarrying another baby.  Which is even more heartbreaking. And because of the economy, they are not doing so well. Laura decided to pick up some babysitting jobs, which helps, but it’s not enough. So, she just started working as a Dove Chocolates Discoveries Chocolatier. Which leads me to the giveaway!

To help Laura kick off her business, I need your help! I am going to giveaway your choice of a bundle of Dove chocolates to two separate winners. All you have to do to enter is to go to Laura’s page, look around, come back and tell me which of the special bundles you would want if you won. Contest ends at 7pm CST on Friday August 13th. On Friday evening, I will pick the two winners. In addition, if you book a party with Laura, OR you order $50 worth of product from Laura (be sure to mention LilyBelle Photography in the comments in your order), you will receive a Free Session from me ($150 value)!

Want more entries? You will get an additional entry into the contest if you do any (or all) of the following and come back and comment here about it.

1. Follow LilyBelle Photography on twitter

2. “Like” LilyBelle Photography on Facebook,

3. Subscribe to the RSS feed of my blog,

4. Post about this giveaway on your own blog

5. Share about this giveaway on Facebook

6. Share about this giveaway on Twitter

You will recieve an extra entry if you do any or all of those and add an extra comment here telling me about it (make sure you provide a link to the facebook/twitter/blog post)!

Good luck!!

Leave a Comment

Name (required)

Email (required)

Website

If you would like to make a comment, please fill out the form below.

I had such a blast at this wedding. These two are so adorable!! Can’t wait to show more!

Leave a Comment

Name (required)

Email (required)

Website

If you would like to make a comment, please fill out the form below.

These two have such a wonderful story. Serendipity, I tell you. Stephanie was born and raised right here in the south side of Chicago. Michal was born and raised in Slovakia. In May, 2009, they each planned a two week trip to the same resort in the Dominican Republic. Michal was supposed to go with a friend, but plans fell through and he ended up going alone. Stephanie planned to spend the first week with her mom, who lives in Georgia, and the last week alone. They had two chance meetings around the resort, both noticing the other was alone. After the second meeting, they ended up spending the rest of the week relaxing, adventuring and falling for each other.

In late September, Michal came to Chicago to visit and they planned a kayak trip down the Chicago river, Steph’s way of showing Michal around Chicago. Michal proposed to her under the Ohio Street bridge. The couple now live in Kent, England, but they plan to live abroad, possibly Australia or New Zealand.

I’ve known Stephanie for a long time. Steph, Amanda (her matron of honor), and my sister have been friends since Jr. High. So when she contacted me to do her wedding, I was thrilled! Since she was in England, we set up our meeting via Skype, my first of many Skype converations! It was easy to see how in love these two are. Michal was probably the class clown in school, and he absolutely loves to make Steph laugh, which he does often. The two of them share this connection, it’s palpable. It seems like they’ve known each other for years, when in reality, they’ve only been together a little over a year.

I’m so happy you both found each other, and I’m so thankful you asked me to be your photographer for your beautiful day! Thanks so much to Jenni O’Connor of Lions Roar Media for being my second. Your first wedding as a photographer (she’s been the videographer for many) was a huge success, and I’m hoping you have bookings lining up out your door! You did a fabulous job! The pictures below are a mix of both of our shots. I love that Jenni has the same style as me. This could be the beginning of a beautiful business relationship!

Enjoy!

LOVE this church. I could not stop snapping pics of it. The lighting was gorgeous!

The video shows more, but Michal is quite the goof. It makes for a very happy bride and some really great pictures!

Lots of tearful toasts. Had me crying too!

The reception was very intimate, held in Steph’s uncle’s barn and it made for some fun shots! My beautiful sister, Fran, down there on the bottom left with her boyfriend, Ray.

Leave a Comment

Name (required)

Email (required)

Website

If you would like to make a comment, please fill out the form below.

This took several tries, but I think we got it! She had a blast with this!!

Leave a Comment

Name (required)

Email (required)

Website

If you would like to make a comment, please fill out the form below.

Rhianna and I “met” each other through an online forum for mom’s. She and her husband, Jeff and their adorable baby, Charlotte live in Colorado She contacted me through Facebook, letting me know they were coming back to Illinois to visit with both of their families and they’d like a big family picture. Two families, made up of six separate families, seven couples, and eight kids. Pretty much the largest family group I’ve done since starting my business. I had a blast! Everyone is so photogenic, it was hard not to have a great time. Plus, the land and the barn on Rhianna’s sister’s property made a fantastic backdrop for the pictures. All the blues with the textures of the barn, perfect. Thank you so much, all of you for such a fantasic shoot!

Leave a Comment

Name (required)

Email (required)

Website

If you would like to make a comment, please fill out the form below.

I knew something had to be up when I received a Facebook message from my dear friend Leah. She asked me if I was available on June 5th. She asked me on May 2nd. I had a potential booking, but nothing set in stone. Still, the fact that she was asking me sent me into a mini panic. Just a mini one. I told her I didn’t have anything booked officially, and asked her what was up. Then she told me the story, and I knew I couldn’t say no. Her niece, Ashley was set to get married in August. Had a photographer and everything. Then, they got the news that her fiancé, Josh, an Airman First Class in the Air Force, was going to be deployed to Iraq sometime before August. On top of that, Ashley also got the news that her father, a Warrant Officer in the Army, was also being deployed, so he might not be there to walk her down the aisle. The only date that the military would give them that was doable was June 5th. Unfortunately, their photographer had to drop out. She was going to ask a friend to take pictures with a point and shoot.

This is when I started a real panic. Of course I had to do it. Pull on my heartstrings why don’t you, Leah? Fiancé AND dad going off to war overseas? Wedding date moved up? No photographer?  Point and shoot? Yea, I really had no choice. So, why the panic? Well, my daughter’s 5th birthday party was set for June 6th. Her 5th birthday is June 7th. The wedding was in Ohio, 5 hours away and I had to be back by 3pm the next day. Ok then. I could do this. I said a little prayer and sent Leah back a message saying I’d do it.

And I did. And it was fabulous. And I made it back in time for my daughter’s birthday party. I even had a nap before hand. Awesome.

Ashley and Josh started dating in eight grade when they were 13 and 14 respectively. Josh wrote her a note saying that he liked her and included a list of things that he was into. Seriously, how cute is that? In the note, he asked if Ashley would go out with him. She told him no. After her friends pushing her in his direction, she eventually said yes and they started dating a week later. She kept the note all those years. As a surprise to Josh, she had it framed and gave it to him at the rehearsal dinner. And adorably, as a surprise to Ashley, Josh sang a song to Ashley at the rehearsal dinner. George Strait’s “Check Yes or No.” Neither had any clue what the other’s gift was. Seriously, tear jerker!

These two are so completely in love. They still make puppy dog eyes at each other and I think everyone gets butterflies in their stomachs when they kiss. This picture that I posted in the sneak peeks, Ashley’s mother, Malena, has said that this pretty much encompasses Josh’s total devotion to Ashley. They’re made for each other, and everyone feels it. I was honored to shoot their wedding. I think my favorite photo from their wedding is this one, basically an unintentional tribute to our troops. The red, white and blue, and the little yellow flowers saying “Support our Troops.” Love that. Thank you Leah, Ashley, Malena, all of you, for asking me to come out and shoot this wedding. I had a blast. You are all a wonderful bunch of people and I’m so thankful you made me a part of your lives, and I am happy to call you my friends.

And I can’t wait for Breaking Dawn in 2011. Just sayin’.

Leave a Comment

Name (required)

Email (required)

Website

If you would like to make a comment, please fill out the form below.

Older Posts »