Who am I?

I ask myself all the time.  Or maybe it's...who do I want to be?  :)

My name is Arlene Giddings.

I am a wife, a mom...a daughter, a sister, a pug-mom..& I am a little bit of a photographer as well.  Mainly wedding photography.  I absolutely love weddings.  I love the anticipation, the planning, the energy & excitement.  I love the laughs and the tears and the unexpected.  The day flies by in such a mad flurry of tiny little moments and it is incredibly rewarding when a bride and groom sees their photos and comes back to me to say "I didn't even see that happening...I didn't know that little Laura was helping Grandma pin on her corsage"  or "I didn't know that Dad cried when he thought no one was looking".  I seriously love weddings with all my heart.

I did not set out to be a wedding photographer.  I have been many things...Radioland girl, Mcdonald's girl...I have moved bathtubs and sold toilets.  I have worked at 3 different bookstores and was assistant manager of a department store photo studio.  I have run my own home daycare and sold t shirts and tacky earrings.  But I never set out to be a photographer.  It fell into my lap and I couldn't imagine my life without it now. :)

There is a lot to do with weddings on this website but there were some other areas of my life that I wanted to share as well.  I have been keeping a blog for about 10 years (and even as I type that, I think, wow...10 years...what did I talk about!) .  Anyway, I started blogging 10 years ago, kind of by accident....but I kind of fell in love with it.  It stuck with me while we bought our house and renovated it, when I wanted to learn how to knit and attempted to crochet...I have vented and laughed and shared gratitude and small victories on it.  I had always kept that blog kind of quiet...I didn't use my real name on it and it felt a little hidden (although I did share photos of myself on it)...but lately I have had some other goals in mind and feel they might be better met if I shared the blog as well.  If I just let go of the fear of being judged...of looking silly.  If I just put myself out there a little.  So this is me...putting myself out there....as terrifying as it is.  :) 

Feel free to poke around...check out some past weddings...check out the blog...I am hoping to add more to this site as time goes on so stay tuned!  And please feel free to leave me a comment or drop me a line...my poor anxious self conscious am-i-making-the-right-decision heart would love that.  :)