Sometimes everything just falls into place to create the perfect excuse for a fun portrait session.  In this case, we had a sweet 16 birthday combine with a golden birthday (when your age matches the day you were born) – it was a SWEET 16 golden birthday!!!  Knowing that this young lady was a fantastic mix of spunk and bougie-ness, I started scouting locations.  I started and ended with my first choice: a local bakery called Sweet Paige’s Bakery in Brownsburg, IN.  It is beautiful inside and matches the theme of the Sweet 16 portrait session perfectly.  Afterall, what could be more sweet than a bakery? The kicker was a sign over the fireplace that read, “My mom worked way too hard for me to be ordinary.”  I work with this girl’s mom, so I know how hard she works to create the best life for her family that she can.  Both of her parents do, in fact! The rest of the scouting was to find a little bit of grit (the brick walls) and a little bit of country (a gorgeous nearby park). One of my favorite parts about this session was that we got to do a little bit of the whole family in addition to featuring Miss Sweet 16, because it is the whole family that contributes to just how special this girl is.

“Bug,” as her parents affectionately call her, is a talented dancer.  She has poured countless hours of hard work into her years at a dance studio in Zionsville, IN.  Her mom has spent countless hours bedazzling costumes in support of her daughter’s passion.  This is the first year that she isn’t dancing with the studio, but she has already been cast into the high school musical and started a dance club at school.  I also want to note that this girl’s work ethic isn’t limited to her passion alone.  A month ago her mom suffered a knee injury, inhibiting her from installing yard cards (she owns Card My Yard Brownsburg).  This sweet girl stepped up in a self-sacrificing way to install the signs for her mom so that her knee injury wouldn’t be exasperated!  I loved seeing her support her mom’s passion!  Her year is beginning on a very sweet note, indeed!

I already mentioned “one of my favorite parts”.  Another favorite part is the session itself and seeing how much this family enjoyed themselves.  Dad would break out in a grin, which caused his daughter to break out in a grin, which caused him to blush, which caused his wife to break out in a grin.  The session was full of chain reactions like that, which caused me to break out in a grin!  My final favorite part is when I reviewed their portraits with them.  I left a sneak peak on my monitor while we socialized initially, causing Mom to be completely distracted and dying to get to the images.  Finally, I said, “Are you ready to see your photos?” with great theatrical pause.  Plunk.  Suddenly they were all three present and accounted for in front of my monitor.  That gave my heart such joy.  We had such a great experience that everyone was ready and excited to see what we had created together!  We were only three photos in (out of more than a hundred) when Dad said, “That’s my favorite out of all of them!”  Mom was surprised at how great she looked (yay!), and Miss Sweet 16 got to see herself through a different lens than normal.  I suspected that she uses her spunk and goofiness to disguise some insecurities (because I do the same). I wanted her to see that she’s more than she thinks she is.  And she did.  She saw just how special and beautiful she is.  This girl is, yes, full of spunk, grit, and bougie-ness.  She is also full of passion, zest, compassion, and all-out committed to seeing those she loves succeed.

Now this family has a very difficult decision: What will they do with all these photos they love?!

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