Ever After Princess Party Events | Chilliwack Princess Photographer

Who is your favourite princess? I've always been really partial to Ariel. I was that kid who would push myself out of the water at the side of the pool, and flip back my gorgeous blonde mullet, likely spraying everyone around me with water, thinking that I looked exactly like Ariel. AND THEN I WOULD SING. I saw the movie when I was 7, after getting my ears pierced for the first time, with my cousins, and despite her evilness, have always held a soft spot in my heart for the fabulousness of Ursula. This is partly why I was SO excited when Emily and Pauline added The Little Mermaid to their list of available princesses - my 7 year old heart was feeling pretty happy. 

If you want to feel a little verklempt, I would fully suggest watching a kid's face when they meet a princess. I've been lucky enough to work with Ever After Princess Party Events a few times now, and seeing the excitement and occasionally overwhelming joy on a child's face when they meet Cinderella doesn't get old. 

This past spring I was able to do some promotional photography of all of the Princesses, and here are a few of my favourite images from that session. 

If  you'd like to book a princess for your child's birthday party, or for an event, Ever After Princess Party Events is run out of Chilliwack by two truly fabulous people. Get in touch with them for rates, questions, or to book. 

That's when the rains came

Um, hello rain! This weekend has been so cozy for me, holed away in my little office, editing, working on projects, and realizing I haven't watered my windowsill cacti for like a month. I hope you all have been staying dry, and safe, with piles of books and tea (maybe some of New Moon Tea Co's?) 

Here's an image from a recent shoot I did for Kilnhouse Studio, featuring some of my new mugs from her. The Swan one is my new all time fav. 

I've done a few updates around the site: added a new gallery, and looked at my submission contact form. It *seems* to be working, and tests are going through - but I've added a little blurb there just in case to let people know that I answer everything in 48 hours. I'm also looking into a contact form like the one I had on my old Wordpress site eventually - it logged all the entries in two places, so if I didn't receive an email I knew right away. Hopefully I can find something similar to SquareSpace!

Stay cozy, friends!

PS: If you're looking for a few cozy books to read during this storm, might I suggest: Watership Down, The October Daye series by Seanan Mcguire, or Stephen King's "It"? 

The Yosts | Chilliwack Family Photographer

I have been photographing this family since I first met Georgia, a million years ago, at our job in a video store. We spent long shifts talking about movies, making jokes, and eating all the candy available in the store, and I've watched her family grow from a family of four to a family of six (plus two adorable kittens). We got together again this fall to shoot in the beautiful Community Forest (off of Annis Road exit) and the light was absolutely perfect. 

You haven't seen pure joy on a child's face until you let them scream "Diarrhea" in the woods several times. Everleigh's cooperation on the shoot is directly related to that. There is also a certain amount of magic that happens when you just let kids squish together and jump up and down and be goofy and ridiculous in the forest - this is something I love doing so much. As a photographer, I'm not much for posing - I love squishing people, making them laugh, and capturing the genuine expressions that result. Sometimes photo shoots are messy, but sometimes the emotion is in the mess.

I'm so thankful to know this great group of people, and looking back through all of my shoots with them, I can't believe so much time has passed so quickly - but I'm grateful for every minute of it. 

Movies for Halloween that are amazing*

*Amazing being a totally subjective term. 

Every Halloween I break out a few movies / specials to watch, usually while editing, burning gingerspice candles and thinking about how much I loved Halloween as a kid. The movies below are all ones I watched when I was little, but may not be for everyone - I think I had nightmares about Mr. Boogedy for years. But honestly, that's fine because I also thought that Blair Underwood from the Facts of Life was a monster who lived under my bed. Does anyone remember the murder mystery episode of Facts of Life? Because NOPE. (Also, writing this post, and realizing that not everyone may get my Facts of Life reference... makes me feel super old.) 

Halloween 1990: a beautiful princess, Donald Duck, and me, an awkward, mulleted cat in sweatpants. 

So here's my go-to list for Halloween movies that (might) make you feel super nostalgic!

The Watcher in the Woods. I love this movie! It's classic, unsettling Disney AND it stars Bette Davis. Full movie here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0owgDMDBg4

Bride of Boogedy. Also categorized under movies that terrified me as a child, this movie is a super weird (and not necessarily for super young kids) Disney classic. Wax museums, magic cloaks, movie monsters, it's got it all! You can actually find it (and the original) on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLVBidR-8cU

Ernest Scared Stupid. The trolls are so, so, so gross. Jamie can't watch this movie while eating. Trailer here.

The Monster Squad. Maybe not for little kids (although that's totally when I watched it), this movie is like a movie-monster themed version of The Goonies. My favourite line will forever be: "My name... is Horace." Trailer here. 

The House on Haunted Hill. This is the original movie, with Vincent Price. When I was a kid, my parents wouldn't let me rent Nightmare on Elm Street, etc (with good reason) but sometimes I'd be allowed to watch the old classics. I watched a ton of Abbott and Costello + monsters movies. This one still probably isn't great for kids, but it's definitely tame in comparison to the most recent version! 

Return to Oz. I think a lot of people thought when this came out that it would be a direct sequel to the Judy Garland Wizard of Oz, but it's really, really not. At all. Nope. The Wheelers are basically handcrafted straight out of nightmares, as is Princess Mombi's gallery of heads. Trailer here. 

If you're looking for something really scary, check out Nightmare on Elm Street, It Follows, Insidious, The Conjuring, and the Shining! If you're looking for more specials (that you're likely to find on YouTube), check out Garfield's Halloween Adventure, The Real Ghostbusters: When Halloween was Forever, and the Tower of Terror.

If you have a favourite Halloween special, or something to add about the ones listed above, please leave a comment below!