The case of the cobbler’s daughter strikes again.  To say this year has been Crazy with a capital C for our family would be an understatement.  Between moving to/from three different homes since February and still now knowing exactly where we are going to land for good, blessed, crazy busy work schedules, moving one child to an new place at college, having a senior prepping to graduate high school and taking on an exciting new project, there hasn’t been one single free minute in life since last year.

This past weekend was (what I hope) the commencement of some of the craziness.  We are temporarily in our rental house, our son has successfully moved to his new place for the next semester, our daughter has graduated high school and Saturday was her graduation party.  She is considering a career in business with an emphasis on event planning.  Knowing that, I had to throw her the best grad. party I could.  Only problem, I had to find the time to carry it off.  3:00am bedtimes and 5:30am wake-up calls became the norm in order to keep up with my own senior client photos, sports photos and planning her graduation party.  I had grand plans, most of which came to fruition but not without a few FAILS along the way.

Fail #1:  I hoped to photograph the event after it was all set up.  That didn’t happen.  In fact, 30 minutes after the party started, I was still putting out the food.  Positive #1: I was able to get the few photos on my cell phone during the party.  No professional, polished photos but I did get some photos.

Fail #2:  There was a cake.  Key word being was.  We ordered a two-tiered blank cake that we decorated to match the purple and gold glitter theme.  When it was time to load everything to take to the party venue, the cake wasn’t packed level in the vehicle.  When we opened the cake at the party, one side was entirely smashed and the second tier slid off.  Positive #2:  Thankfully I had baked plenty of cupcakes and the cake wasn’t missed.

Fail #3:  Just before moving, our garage refrigerator quit working.  With all of the moving here to there, we haven’t had a chance to replace it.  I cooked all of the food for the party.  That morning, I ran out of room for everything in the fridge so the cream cheese mints were set out earlier than desired.  Half were coated in purple sprinkles.  Half were white with purple sprinkles mixed in.  When we went to set them out for the party, they were just warm enough that the dye from the purple sprinkles melted all over the white mints making them look less desirable.  Positive #3:  They were still edible even if they didn’t look perfect.

Fail #4 (and probably the biggest of them all):  I photograph seniors as my profession.  I had a senior in high school this year.  We squeezed in her senior photos on my birthday the first weekend of October 2016.  I thankfully had super great holiday and spring portrait seasons so I postponed editing my own senior’s photos until just before her party knowing the typical turn from my print labs.  After a full day and night of editing, the photos were ordered and scheduled to arrive the day before the party.  Perfect.  Only, not so perfect when I got the notification that there had been an “unexpected delay” with the delivery and were then scheduled to arrive the day of the party.   Positive #4:  I was still able to set up and video slideshow of her images.  And, the photos did arrive, albeit an hour after the party started.  They weren’t framed and hung perfectly on the walls, but they were there and set out for those that arrived later to the party.    Just as the cobbler’s children have no shoes, my daughter had no senior photos for her party…until she did.

All in all, the party was a success.  We were blessed with many family and friends that were able to attend to celebrate our daughter and this great milestone in her life.  There may have been many fails in the party process along the way.  In the end, they just proved to be comical memories the added to the fun of the day.

With that, here is the video slideshow of her senior images that saved the day at the party:

And a few cell phone snapshots from the party.

 

 If you made it this far, you get to know a little secret I’ve been keeping for awhile.  Notice the building in the photos above where we held the graduation party.  That is the new commercial location of Christy B Photography.   There is still a bit of work to do before we officially open up the studio but it’s getting there (and another reason things have been so crazy busy lately).  I can’t wait to share the finished product and to start shooting in the new space.  Exciting things happening in 2017!