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Wedding Series | Our Amazing Wedding Photographer

January 23, 2017

I am so excited to continue our wedding series and share about our amazing wedding photographer. As a fellow photographer, you would think choosing your photographer for your wedding would be the hardest decision. However, for me it was actually the easiest one. I follow a lot of photographers being in the industry. While I am not a wedding photographer, I had known what style I wanted and had been following Layce Bauman of Layce Bauman Photography for quite some time. When I saw one of her family sessions posted on Facebook, I messaged her and told I wanted her to be my wedding photographer.

It didn’t matter that Layce lived almost 3,000 miles away from Hudson. It also didn’t matter that we had never met. I loved her artistic eye and having followed her on Facebook and Instagram, I felt like I already knew her so it was going to be perfect. Intuition is a marvelous thing. After messaging back and forth, I managed to get her to agree to tentatively hold three dates for me. You see, I chose Layce before I had a venue or a date. That was how sure I was of my decision.

Once we set a date, we began building a friendship via text messages and emails. The first time we met Layce was at our engagement shoot, the evening before our wedding. Remember how we lived 3,000 miles apart? We definitely wanted to take advantage of the session, so we could get to know Layce before our big day. You know when you meet someone and you just click (I promise that pun was not intended)? Well, that happened.

We got to spend an hour and a half with her while walking the streets of Hudson. It didn’t even feel like we were taking photos, as there was such an ease. She posed us, told us where to go, how to stand. I let her have full control. It is definitely nerve wracking being on the other side of the camera.

I loved our urban session. I had scouted locations prior to our session and knew I wanted to start at the Amtrak Station in Hudson. Josh and I did long distance for over two years. We basically lived on Amtrak, commuting between Washington DC and New York City, so it seemed fitting to start at the train station. Hudson is also on the Hudson so there was a perfect little spot by the water. Nearly every building along Warren street made for a pretty backdrop, so it was easy to just walk anywhere and stop. I knew I loved Layce’s work before our session, but once I saw the back of camera goodness, I knew I made the right decision. Here are some of my favorites!Engagement, Love, Hudson, Layce Bauman Photography, Downtown, Vince Camuto Engagement, Love, Hudson, Layce Bauman Photography, Downtown, Vince Camuto Engagement, Love, Hudson, Layce Bauman Photography, Downtown, Vince Camuto Engagement, Love, Hudson, Layce Bauman Photography, Downtown, Vince Camuto Engagement, Love, Hudson, Layce Bauman Photography, Downtown, Vince Camuto Engagement, Love, Hudson, Layce Bauman Photography, Downtown, Vince Camuto Engagement, Love, Hudson, Layce Bauman Photography, Downtown, Vince Camuto Engagement, Love, Hudson, Layce Bauman Photography, Downtown, Vince Camuto Engagement, Love, Hudson, Layce Bauman Photography, Downtown, Vince Camuto Engagement, Love, Hudson, Layce Bauman Photography, Downtown, Vince Camuto Engagement, Love, Hudson, Layce Bauman Photography, Downtown, Vince Camuto Engagement, Love, Hudson, Layce Bauman Photography, Downtown, Vince Camuto Engagement, Love, Hudson, Layce Bauman Photography, Downtown, Vince Camuto Engagement, Love, Hudson, Layce Bauman Photography, Downtown, Vince Camuto Engagement, Love, Hudson, Layce Bauman Photography, Downtown, Vince Camuto Engagement, Love, Hudson, Layce Bauman Photography, Downtown, Vince Camuto

And then, she photographed our wedding and I can’t even explain to you what these photographs mean to me. You see, your wedding day goes by FAST. Before you know it, the day is over and it is off to begin the rest of your life together. Receiving my images brought me back to every single moment of our day. Like when I saved my Mom’s favorite perfume bottle (half empty) knowing that I would want to wear it on this day. Wedding, Marriage, Love, The Hill, Hudson, Layce Bauman Photography, Barn, Rustic, Venue, Getting Ready, Together, New York

Capturing our first look, which I 110% recommend doing! Wedding, Marriage, Love, The Hill, Hudson, Layce Bauman Photography, Barn, Rustic, Venue, Couple, Together, New York

Capturing moments that when you look at that photo, you just think “if this was the only photo, this would be enough.” Wedding, Marriage, Love, The Hill, Hudson, Layce Bauman Photography, Barn, Rustic, Venue, Couple, Together, New York

Getting those shots that you put on a list and somehow your photographer remembers (with zero traces of paper). Wedding, Marriage, Love, Details, Flowers, The Hill, Hudson, Layce Bauman Photography, Barn, Rustic, New York

Moments like this when the glass did not break on the first try. Josh just needed a mulligan. Wedding, Marriage, Love, The Hill, Hudson, Layce Bauman Photography, Barn, Rustic, Venue, Couple, Together, New York

Finding photos of your best friends wearing their pashminas from their bridal gifts from Marigold & Grey. Wedding, Marriage, Love, The Hill, Hudson, Layce Bauman Photography, Barn, Rustic, Wedding Party, Marigold & Grey, Navy, JCrew Bridal

Making your dream of being with the horses a reality. Might I add, there are 92 horse pictures that make my stomach fill with butterflies and give me all.the.feels. Wedding, Marriage, Love, The Hill, Hudson, Layce Bauman Photography, Barn, Rustic, Venue, Couple, Together, New York Wedding, Marriage, Love, The Hill, Hudson, Layce Bauman Photography, Barn, Rustic, Venue, Couple, Together, New York Wedding, Marriage, Love, The Hill, Hudson, Layce Bauman Photography, Barn, Rustic, Venue, Couple, Together, New York Wedding, Marriage, Love, The Hill, Hudson, Layce Bauman Photography, Barn, Rustic, Venue, Couple, Together, New York Wedding, Marriage, Love, The Hill, Hudson, Layce Bauman Photography, Barn, Rustic, Venue, Couple, Together, New York Wedding, Marriage, Love, The Hill, Hudson, Layce Bauman Photography, Barn, Rustic, Venue, Couple, Together, New York Wedding, Marriage, Love, The Hill, Hudson, Layce Bauman Photography, Barn, Rustic, Venue, Couple, Together, New York Wedding, Marriage, Love, The Hill, Hudson, Layce Bauman Photography, Barn, Rustic, Venue, Couple, Together, New York

Moment on the dance floor with Josh who let me tell you, typically does not dance! 

She caught moments on the dance floor with my Dad. Wedding, Marriage, Love, The Hill, Hudson, Layce Bauman Photography, Barn, Rustic, Venue, Dancing, Father, Daughter, New York Wedding, Marriage, Love, The Hill, Hudson, Layce Bauman Photography, Barn, Rustic, Venue, Dancing, Father, Daughter, New York

Truly, not a moment of our more than 8 hour day was missed, all captured more beautifully than I could ever imagine.

Leave a Comment · Labels: Lifestyle, Personal, Photography, Wedding Tagged: Engagement Shoot, Hudson, Hudson Valley Weddings, Layce Bauman Photography, Lifestyle, Marriage, New York, Photography, Rustic, Rustic Wedding, Wedding, Wedding Day, Wedding Photography, Wedding Photos

The Beginning of Our Wedding Series | The Venue

January 16, 2017

It is about time to start blogging the beginning of our wedding series and first up: the venue. I say series because there is just no way I could ever just write one blog post on the most amazing day of our lives. It would be a novel for sure. So where do I start…

I always knew I wanted to get married in New York and I always knew I wanted to get married in a barn. When I mention always, I am referring to my teenybopper self when I dreamed about my perfect day with the perfect guy (who I definitely did marry). For those that don’t know, I am from New York City. I spent my weekends and summers in Pawling, New York, a small town 75 miles north of Manhattan. Our house was an old converted cow barn. Fun fact: George Washington bought his cheese there. This house was so special for so many reasons and I knew that a barn would be in my future. Since I grew up riding horses, a horse farm for a wedding venue just seemed like the perfect fit. I just needed a ring to start the planning.

On August 29th, 2015, Josh proposed. Yay, I could start finding my barn. When it came time to look for venues, I learned that there weren’t many barns, especially those that I could classify as “elegant.” When I wanted a rustic wedding theme, I didn’t want hay bales and mason jars. I wanted an elegant rustic feel. I found three barns and scheduled three appointments for a Saturday in October. Four days prior to touring, I was notified that one of the barns booked up the two dates I had in mind.

Yes, I had already had a date in mind, as I knew I wanted a Fall wedding. I had mid-September in my mind, hoping it would fall around the time of my Mom’s birthday. I wanted to incorporate her as much as possible, having lost her to cancer 7 years ago. September was also our anniversary month so it really was the only month I was looking at for our wedding.

I believe in fate and things working out, so I moved on from the venue falling through. Another plan fell through and my stepmom had to work so she couldn’t tour with me. Fortunately my best friend was able to go with me, while her husband played golf with my future husband and my Dad. We met in Hudson, New York and as I turned into the driveway of the venue, I was greeted with this view. Wedding, Marriage, Love, The Hill, Hudson, Barn, Rustic, Venue, Couple, Together, New York, Private property,

I knew, before even seeing the barn, that this was definitely my venue. Once I got to the top of the property, I was greeted by a beautiful baby blue with white trim barn. The property also included a smaller “bridal barn,” where we ended up getting ready. There was also an “art barn” where the cocktail hour took place. There was a beautiful outdoor space that overlooked a large paddock of horses (oh my heart) and the beautiful Catskill mountains. I would be pleading my case to the family later that evening. I knew my Dad was going to ask if we visited the other venue, so we did drive there and saw it. While it was nice, it was definitely not my venue.

Two weeks later, we secured the venue and a date was set – September 17th, 2016. After 11 months of planning my own wedding, the day was beyond perfect. Every tiny detail that I had envisioned came together to create the most beautiful day. Here are a few pictures of the outside of the barn. Swoon worthy, right? Wedding, Marriage, Love, The Hill, Hudson, Layce Bauman Photography, Barn, Rustic, Venue, Couple, Together, New York
Wedding, Marriage, Love, The Hill, Hudson, Layce Bauman Photography, Barn, Rustic, Venue, Couple, Together, New York Wedding, Marriage, Love, The Hill, Hudson, Layce Bauman Photography, Barn, Rustic, Venue, Couple, Together, New York Wedding, Marriage, Love, The Hill, Hudson, Layce Bauman Photography, Barn, Rustic, Venue, Couple, Together, New York

And the rustic touches of the inside of the barn. Wedding, Marriage, Love, The Hill, Hudson, Layce Bauman Photography, Barn, Rustic, Venue, Couple, Together, New York Wedding, Marriage, Love, The Hill, Hudson, Layce Bauman Photography, Barn, Rustic, Venue, Couple, Together, New York Wedding, Marriage, Love, The Hill, Hudson, Layce Bauman Photography, Barn, Rustic, Venue, Couple, Together, New York

My heart just gets so happy. I 110% chose the right venue (The Hill), the right photographer (Layce Bauman Photography), the right everything. Most importantly, I chose the right guy.

Leave a Comment · Labels: Lifestyle, Personal, Photography Tagged: Barn, Dream, Elegant, Farm, Horse Farm, Hudson, Hudson Valley Weddings, Layce Bauman Photography, Love, Marriage, New York, Photography, Rustic Wedding, Venue, Wedding

Out with the Old, In with the New | Balance in 2017

January 2, 2017

Oh what a year 2016 was, but it is out with the old and in with the new! I am welcoming 2017 with wide open arms. While it is not the first day of the New Year, it is the first Monday of the year, so I am making today the day of new goals, big dreams and a year of balance. Balance. I have chosen this word as my word for 2017. I have never chosen a word of the year. In fact, when I first saw people posting about their future words of the year, I was hesitant. How do you choose just ONE word to dedicate 365 days to? A lot of thought went into this and I have decided that I am going to live intentionally and the word balance will lead me to this.

Out with the Old, In with the New, Balance, New Year, Goals, Plans, Intentional, Life, Living,

2016 was a very big year for me/us (because Josh is included). We welcomed Roxie, our Vizsla puppy, into our family. On September 17th, we got married! We traveled to many places, including our most recent trip to Hawaii for our honeymoon. I ran two profitable businesses, however they took up all of my time, a lot of time sacrificing being present. Hawaii was the first time I fully unplugged and it made our trip about just us. It was the best trip we have ever been on. The social media world can wait and it did. Taking these 12 days off made me realize that my life is quite unbalanced and I need to create balance, not try to find it.

So in 2017 I am focusing on my health and wellness, my marriage and family and investing more of my time into a few things instead of all the things. I have to tell you that change is scary and announcing this makes me extremely anxious (so I am applying all the stress-away from Young Living), but you only have one life so here we go. On the quest for balance, I am scaling back my photography business. While photography is still one of my passions and I will never let go of it completely, I cannot continue running my business like I have in the past.

I want weekends with my family, being present instead of behind my computer, editing all night. While I typically am drowning in editing during the busy season, I want this year and this Fall to be different. I hope to invest my time into full sessions instead of rushing through shorter sessions with time constraints to pack everyone in.  Lastly, I would love to be valued for my work instead of being valued for discounted prices.

So…I will no longer be offering mini sessions. I will also be scaling back and only offering a limited number of full sessions, so I recommend booking now! This decision did not come easy. However, setting these guidelines will help me balance my life. It will also make more time for my essential oil business, which continues to flourish. I didn’t fully anticipate my success with Young Living and the fact that my team has 3,056 people and is growing daily. But I am so grateful for it.

To my past clients, thank you for letting me document your family. I hope that you will continue to invest in me even through these changes. I know in my heart that scaling back on Dana Rose Lee Photography is the right decision in this season of life.

So 2017, I am coming for ya, so get ready! Today is the second “blank page of a 365 page book. Write a good one” – Brad Paisley.

Leave a Comment · Labels: Lifestyle, Personal Tagged: 2017, Balance, Changes, Dana Rose Lee Photography, Direction, Essential Oil, Goals, Journey, Lifestyle, Living Intentionally, Marriage, New Year, Wellness

Why I Have Been MIA | Unplugging On My Honeymoon

December 19, 2016

In case you are wondering why I have been MIA on this blog (20 days to be exact), I have a really really good reason: I was unplugging on my honeymoon. Unplug, unplugging, Honeymoon, Kauai, Big Island, Kona, Adventure, Marriage, Honeymoon, Married, Travel, Trip, Sightseeing

(Image from Google Images)

On December 3rd, I left chilly Maryland and headed far far away to Hawaii. Before I left, I made it fairly vocal that I would be unplugging as much as possible. The thought of doing this made my stomach go up in knots. This meant not being present in both of my businesses which both revolve around social media. However, I knew that I wanted to unplug to be present and enjoy my time with Josh. My motto: you only go on your honeymoon once and we will never ever have this time to ourselves in this season of life. Honeymoon, Kauai, Big Island, Kona, Adventure, Marriage, Honeymoon, Married, Travel, Trip, Sightseeing

Unplugging on my honeymoon was THE BEST decision I made. I am proud to say that other than the once-a-day IG (and share to Facebook) post, I stuck to staying unplugged. It was SO worth it. You will have to stay tuned for future posts (yes, there might be a few) sharing all about our adventures. I can tell you that there wasn’t much down time. We came, we saw and we conquered all there was to do in 11 days.

One of the best decisions we made was to delay our honeymoon. I wanted something to look forward to after the wedding. I also knew that I wouldn’t want to travel far far away thanks to exhaustion. So instead, we took a mini-moon for two nights up to The Sagamore in Lake George, which was absolutely perfect. If you are in the wedding planning stages and thinking about delaying your honeymoon, I think you are a smarty pants to do so. I also highly recommend you go to Hawaii – it truly is a magical place!

Leave a Comment · Labels: Personal Tagged: Adventure, Hawaii, Honeymoon, Lifestyle, Marriage, Social Media, Travel, Unplugging

Hello there! I'm Dana. A wife, a mama to one adorable boy and one crazy Vizsla. I am an essential oil lover who is passionate about living and sharing the natural life. And I enjoy being behind the lens of a camera.

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