Honoring Destry

I graduated from Rush Springs High School many moons ago and had the opportunity to get to know Destry Horton and his wife Brandy. Destry was a year ahead of me in school and Brandy was a couple of year's behind me. They were both incredible people and while I don't keep up much with people from Rush since I graduated and moved away, when I learned about Destry's accident 2 years ago, I was heartbroken. He was a firefighter. He lost his life trying to save the lives and property of others - what an incredible gift he gave for people he didn't necessarily know. I couldn't imagine losing my husband and trying to raise two daughters without him. Brandy is truly a courageous and strong sprited young woman. What a life milestone she has had to cross even before her 30th birthday.

This morning on the news, I heard where his widow Brandy was spearheading a fundraising effort to update the ICU ward at the Integris Burn Unit in Oklahoma City. Unfortunately hundreds of families have to use this unit each year and the 23 days Destry spent there sparked the idea for Brandy and her family. The family has to raise $500,000 and then a matching amount will be made by an outside foundation. The ICU ward will then be renamed in Destry's honor. What an honor and long-standing memorial for such a fine man and firefighter.

If you would like to help the Horton family in their efforts - the address and phone numbers on where to send your donation are mentioned below. I know the family would be greatful for any donation of any size.

It only takes a little to make a big impact in the world.

How to help Send donations:
•By mail: Integris Baptist Medical Center Foundation: 3030 Northwest Expressway Suite 1600 Oklahoma City, OK 73112
•By phone: 951-5005 or (888) 567-3433

Sky's Senior Pix

Meet Sky - our latest senior! She has this beautiful spirit about her and after she finally loosened up - she realized we really could have a lot of fun! She brought her equally beautiful younger sister along to keep her company and we had a blast. She plans on being some sort of an accountant after graduation - she says shes great with numbers - I'm certainly glad someone is because I'm NOT! And if you have a hankering for one of the best hamburger's in town...stop by Waynes and Sky will hook you up! It was a pleasure to meet you and we wish you the very best of luck in your future!

Busy March...

Wow! We've had a very busy March - I can hardly believe it's almost April! Where does the time go?? I've got some great Easter pictures to post, but just haven't had the time this week. We've met with 3 different brides on some wedding dates this week and met with 2 last week. Whew! I was very exicted to meet each of the couples and get to know them better.

It's been a crazy month for us with the bulk of the craziness happening this week. I had a routine dr's appt. Monday that resulted in some not-so-routine news...for once, I was IN FRONT of the camera and had an MRI done yesterday (I now have proof there really IS something inside my head). I go see another specialist on Monday where I'm hoping I hear some 'decent' news and hope the fix to my quickly disappearing vision is a fairly simple and pain-free cure. I've been on pins and needles all week wrapping my mind around my inital diagnosis and the options that lay in front of me. But I'm optimistic and refuse to let anything get me down for too long.

Updates....
Graduation Announcements: As a reminder, if you're going to order your custom graduation announcements from us - orders are due by Monday March 31st. We will accept orders after this, but we cannot guarantee they will arrive in time to be sent out. Please call and ask before placing your order.

2009 Weddings: We've already started getting requests for 2009 weddings and have started booking dates for that time. As a result of the many requests, we have posted our 2009 pricing on our pricing website www.bwdweddings.com . To access this gallery, you will need a password, but just shoot us an email or quick phone call and we're happy to share that with you!

Holiday Closings: We will be closed during Memorial Day weekend May 23-26 to enjoy the time with family.

Web Specials: For 2009 seniors - we will be running a special through May 31st. This is our annul early bird special where you can get an extra $25 print credit to use as you want and is you have a year to use it! Just mention our 'web special' when you call to book your appointment.

Referral Program: A little known fact to our clients - we give a referral credit to anyone who refers senior or wedding clients to us. For senior referrals, we give you a $25 studio credit and for wedding referrals we give you a $50 studio credit. There is NO LIMIT on the amount of referral credits you can receive!! It's just our way of saying thank you for sending clients to us!

Girl's Day

Today Kal and I had a 'Girl's Day' - Shawn decided to have a 'Dad day' and headed up to watch a multitude of basketball finals - Kallie and I decided we'd do something a bit more creative. We started at the pottery painting place 'A Pigment of Your Imagination' where we proceeded to paint an ice cream cone, a flower and a mug (all of which Kallie picked out). They won't be ready until Thursday and we'll have to post some pictures of our special art pieces. We had an absolute blast and I have a feeling, it will become a much more frequent event for the two of us. Below isn't our exact ice cream cone, but enough for you to get the idea....we had way too much fun! (I do not recommend you wearing good clothes though - especially with little ones).

Then we decided to walk over to Hastings where a friend of the family, now both an attorney and author, was signing his new book - 'The Oklahoma Scrananimal'. Larry Derryberry, a native of Altus and close friends with our Nana (Mitzi) and my late Papaw (Calvin) signed a special book for us along with several others who stood in line. The book is something I will highly recommend if you have little ones - a CD comes with it and features great voices of Jayne Jaroe, Barry Switzer and Gov. Brad Henry to just name a few.

We rounded out our girls day with a trip to one of Kallie's favorite places to eat - Wayne's Drive in. We ordered our hamburgers and cherry cokes (our fav), came home and had a picnic in the living room. We also did a few loads of laundry which weren't nearly as fun, but a necessity. We had to call Dad and tell him he missed out on all of the fun. Maybe if he's lucky, we'll take him along next time.

Girl's day is one of my favorite things to do with my daughter. We spend some very personalized time together. We've discvoered it doesn't matter what we do - just as long as we're together. Typically, girl's night is a pizza picnic on Mom's bed as we watch a Strawberry Shortcake movie. What can POSSIBLY be better than that??

Chesnei & Derrick

Their's is an American love story. Football star falls in love with cheerleading beauty. Yesterday we had the opportunity to shoot Chesnei and Derrick's engagments. They met at college at Northwestern State in Alva - she cheered him on from the sidelines and the rest is soon to be history. They are one of our couples getting married this June 14 and we couldn't be more excited to share their day with them! Chesnei is such a camera person and God love Derrick for going along and being such a good sport with everything yesterday! They are so cute together!! Here are just a few of our favorites from their session - we tried to incorporate so much of the things they love to put their own love story into images. Congratulations to both of you!