Miriam & Steven Wedding

Miriam and Steven wanted a very family and friends focused wedding and they wanted that to also reflect through their photos. They weren't big on details or decorations and so as a result their wedding was one that was most definitetly filled with lots of love and happiness centered around all their wonderful loved ones!
I met so many lovely people and I absolutely loved getting to be a part of their big day.

Here's a few of my favorite shots from their wedding, enjoy!

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Check out more here (make sure you tag yourselves!)
Interested in getting some portraits of your own done?
Email me for more info: by.leney@gmail.com
Also have to give a little shout out to my second shooter Kourtney! She's amazing. Don't know what I'd do without her. Thanks for being my right hand woman Kourt, you're the bees knees.
Make sure you go like her page here!

A Video


So on my summer to do list I had an item which simply stated: 

"Do something incredibly brave that I've never done before"

I wasn't really sure what that was going to be, but I knew I wanted to challenge myself this summer and step outside of my comfort zone a little bit more. 
Well, yesterday I visited my oh so lovely friend Janelle, who you've seen here on the blog one or two times, and we ended up making a little video.
Not just any video though, a video in which I play ukulele. 
And sing. 
Sing. Me. Singing. So everyone can hear me. Out loud.
Okay granted I've sung in front of people before, a couple times actually, on a little mini stage even, in the cutest little country church you could ever lay your eyes on.
But that was as a back up vocalist. You couldn't really hear me. And I definitely wasn't the center of attention.

I'll give you a little bit of a background story...
Janelle came to visit me a few weeks ago and I was walking around my room cleaning and absentmindedly singing to myself, when all of a sudden she stops me and goes:
"Leney, can you sing??" 
I was startled, not really aware she'd been listening, and so I said:
 "Umm.. I mean no not really.."
Long story short she sat me down, made me play her a song, and she proceeded to freak out and insist that I had (what she calls) "A voice".
So that's basically how this all came about.
I'm still pretty shy about it and I'm a little unsure about all of this as a whole to be honest. 
I do really enjoy singing and playing though and have ever since I taught myself guitar in high school actually (Taylor Swift songs were my particular area of expertise). 
I just haven't ever had much confidence in my musical abilities and I've pretty much just kept it to myself because I never really thought I was very good.  
So maybe it'll just be another one of those "somethings" that I do just for me.

But anyway, I'm being brave in sharing this video with you guys today so I hope you enjoy it!

You should definitely check out Janelle's music though. 
Like, right now. Go listen to it. And then buy it.
Because it's only $5 and she's amazing.
Talk about a voice.
(Honey and Come to the Creek are my personal favorites.)  


 P.s. The audio on the video is a bit delayed for some reason. Oops.

Travel Bug

I'm kinda sorta never not thinking about traveling.
But I've been thinking about it a little bit extra as of late.

One thing I absolutely love about getting older is that the friendships you make don't just stick close to home. They branch out. They grow. 
Whether it's because you've gone and visited new places and made new friends along the way or because your close to home friends move away themselves. The latter is always bittersweet, but I mostly love it. Because going to visit those friends just gives me an excuse to visit another new place. 

But anyway. I have the travel bug.
I'm ready to go somewhere new and see some new things.
And maybe make some new friends while I'm at it.
Because, more often than not, those kind of friends end up being the best kind.

Leah & Anthony

Meet Leah and Anthony

I don't think I could be more in love with this cute little country engagement session.
I mean everything's straight out of some country song lyrics, what with the tractors and red sundresses and pick up trucks and dandelions (you're probably not going to get any of those references unless you actually listen to country music... but it's pretty self explanatory)
Their daughter Emilia also tagged along and let me tell you, I could probably spend an afternoon just taking photos of her as she wanders around exploring. The most precious little girl ever.
We basically became best friends.
So there's a few a lot of photos of her here today too because I just couldn't resist.

Enjoy the photos of this gorgeous couple, you can definitely tell they're in love.
Can't wait for their wedding this fall!

 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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Check out more here.
Interested in getting some portraits of your own done?
Email me for more info: by.leney@gmail.com

Ukulele


Originally had some photos I was going to share but the day and its work load got away with me and they're not quite ready yet so I'm saving that post for tomorrow.

Instead I thought I'd let you know that I've been playing lots of ukulele over here lately.
I've been getting the hang of it over the past few months and I'm not too terrible.
I really rather love it actually.

It's still my life's goal to be able to play Beirut's Postcards From Italy.
One day...
One day.


On Writing

 Follow me on Instagram at @agirlnamedleney


I write a lot.
I don't really consider myself a writer though.
Mostly because my writing's are more of a personal venture I suppose, not really shared with many people.
They're mostly just random scribblings and doodles of whatever my mind needs to work out or get out at the time.
Or lists of seemingly-unimportant-but-actually-important things.
Or detailed descriptions of problems or events that I'm working on understanding.
Or accounts of moments I don't want to forget.
I've kept a journal pretty consistently since I was eleven. Though technically my first one was at age eight, I hardly kept up with it. Not to mention the sort of things eight year olds write about is hardly deep or meaningful reading material, though it might be fairly amusing.
(I will leave this unexplained and up for creative interpretation)

I think it also just comes with being a documenter.
I love documenting things.
Whether it's in photos or in words.
I like creating things that capture little moments just as I want to remember them.

I mostly write for me though.
Which I think is the way it should be with some of the things you love.
We all have to have something we do for just us.
This is my something.

Things I Love Thursday: Blue Books


I love books. 
I love reading. 
Neither of those things are really much of a secret. 
However I specifically love blue books. 
I have quite a collection in fact. It spans a whole shelf. 
This photo was actually taken three years ago and only shows a small portion of it.
I secretly/not so secretly want to use all my blue books as part of my table centerpieces when I get married one day.
Wouldn't that be fun?
I think so. 

Summer Storms

Photo Cred: Meagan Abell

Yesterday we had one of those all-of-a-sudden-out-of-nowhere thunder storms. 
The kind that interrupts the sunshine and brightness of a day rather rudely and abruptly. 
So abruptly that the sunshine sticks around for a minute or two, even though it's raining, because it's determined to hold out, almost as if to say "hey hold on a sec, I was here first."
The kind that comes with a ferocity and fierceness that sort of make your heart jump a little bit and if you didn't know any better you'd be a little bit frightened by it. 
The kind that you stand on your porch and watch and feel a little bit more alive while doing so. 
The kind that you feel at your very center when the thunder crashes, closer than it normally would be, practically on top of you it seems. 
With a loudness and strength that exhilarates you inside and out. 
That's my favorite kind.
This kind of summer storm.


Abundant Rain

Shot with 35mm film/ Minolta x-700

Let my teaching fall like rain
    and my words descend like dew,
like showers on new grass,
    like abundant rain on tender plants.
//Deuteronomy 32:2//

Feeling extra challenged lately. 
In a lot of ways, but primarily to be more open to what God wants to teach me and show me right now. 
To take what he's teaching and showing me and to really meditate on it. 
To write it down, read it over and over, think about it more than once, talk about it, pray about it, feel it all the way through.
With all that I've been learning I feel so very filled, about to burst, but empty and ready for more, all at the same time. 
The fullness is a sort of saturation.
Like plants being soaked all the way through after a rainstorm. 
But with each new day comes a new desire to learn more, a new thirst that needs quenching.
I'm excited about new seasons and new challenges and new opportunities and new answers to new questions.
Just newness in general.