Most of our friends who know us by now know that Jenny and I love to ride our bikes! We raced for years in Florida before moving to Asheville and on any given long weekend or Holiday when we weren’t racing, we’d always try to sneak up to the mountains for a little getaway and some real mountain bike riding. In the years we have spent going on these two wheeled adventures, we’ve met many awesome people along the way that have become friends and some even like family to us. One of those individuals is my good friend Roy! On top of being a top level rider in the State of Florida, Roy is also a USAC certified coach with multiple national champions under his belt and also does professional bike fittings. Just about every time we make the trip down to Florida to see Family, I make a point to stop in and see him to make sure everything is set up just right on the bike! Prior to this past weekend, the last time we all got together, he told me how he wished Jenny and I would’ve shot his wedding as some unfortunate circumstances led to photos that they weren’t necessarily thrilled about for the most part. At that time we had scheduled his beautiful wife Becca’s Maternity session as she was about 7 or 8 months pregnant if I remember correctly. Becca was absolutely glowing and her maternity portraits were so much fun!
After the maternity session I hinted with Roy that we could always get him and Becca dressed back up in their wedding clothes for some wedding style portraits or an anniversary session if they ever wanted too! Fast forward to another year and they took us up on our offer! Leading up to their shoot we discussed what they were going for and where they wanted to go. It was going to laid back vibes, and we were going to finish up at their favorite coffee place Spaddy’s (shoot with coffee at the end??? Sold!). Their sweet baby girl Ryder was now a spunky 11 months and we were also going to work in some formal family style photos, but the night before the shoot, little Ryder wasn’t feeling too good as she came down with a fever and to throw another wrench in the plan, mother nature decided to throw a little cold front Tampa’s way. Becca suggested a lifestyle family session in order to keep Ryder out of the cold and we loved that idea! For those that aren’t 100% familiar with that concept, lifestyle family sessions are typically done in home or at a nice air bnb. You ultimately set up some scenes, but for the most part you let families be themselves and cuddle up, play, act goofy, and go about their normal day. Throw in some strategic lighting and angles and voila, you have your self a family lifestyle session. They tend to be a bit more laid back than formal family session and are very much trending right now. This was only our second one so we were looking forward to it, and the fact that we got to do it for good friends made us even more excited!
Little Ryder not only stayed warm inside but she also warmed our hearts with those sweet expressions! Even their golden retriever Murray got in on the action at the end! Their lifestyle family session was the perfect warm up (figuratively speaking) for Becca & Roy’s wedding portraits! Though it was a bit chilly and windy, these two were troopers and their connection allowed their love of each other to shine. Add in the promise of amazing coffee at the end and you have a recipe for awesome! Spaddy’s proved to be a perfect little spot to finish up with these two and one of our favorite features was the art work paying homage to Tampa. It gave us something funky and colorful to use as a backdrop (cover photo) and after later sharing a sneak peek on social media, we soon found out our good friend Darrel had painted this piece (small world!).
It’s always fun getting to see friends when we go down south but getting to document these kind of moments for them is definitely the icing on the cake! Big thanks to Roy and Becca and congrats on still fitting in your wedding clothes after all this time ;) (lol).
Joe & Jenny