To the people who’ve done nothing but complain about Royal Wedding coverage, well, you might want to just stop reading right here…. ’cause it’s gonna get all monarch-y up in this here house!!! (whoa…where did THAT come from? Sleep deprivation people…TOTALLY sleep deprivation.)

Sooo….Friday morning I woke up WAYYYY earlier (like, 3:30 early) so I could get ready for work and prep for my students to come over to watch the Royal Wedding. At my day job, I oversee a group of college students who help us with all sorts of jobs, from writing to editing. I like to treat these kiddos at the end of each semester with a dinner out but this year, since we spent so many weeks discussing the (ahem) “Wedding of the Century” we thought, why not make it a breakfast date to a wedding? (and funny enough, an old colleague of mine at the newspaper caught wind of our party-planning and wrote about us — kinda cute :) )

We started the morning off watching the guests arrive while drinking some Earl Grey and eating scones and homemade clotted cream made by my awesome graduate assistant, Samantha (who studied in London a few years ago and is as much—even more—an Anglophile as I am)

Did I take pictures of the wedding as it played out on my TV? OH YES I DID. I get it—it’s silly. But everything about this morning was kind of silly. Which is what made it so so much fun. What wasn’t silly? This wedding. It was GORGEOUS. That dress? OHMYGOSHHOWPRETTYWASTHATDRESS??? We all squealed when she got out of the car!

I love these two shots—first Kate (oops—Catherine) walking in with her father (when I shoot weddings, I always love this moment most—watching the dad give his daughter away) and then exiting with her new husband, Prince William!!! Watching this event live, with other people to oohhh and awww about it all with me, totally made it worth losing some sleep! We put one of my other students, Chanel (she’s standing next to me in this next shot), on party planning duty. She came prepared–haha ….here we are with our very own “tiaras”. Hey, we ladies can dream right? Chanel’s boyfriend is a graphic designer so she had him DIY us some masks to pull out for this obligatory shot — I just wish “Hot Harry” (as we dubbed him ;) ) had joined us! This shot cracks me up — that’s Kenzie on the left and Samantha on the right — they wanted to do their best impression of the Royal Couple, right down to the hand-holding. Chanel tried her hardest to find UK-inspired plates and cups for us, but here in the states, we had no luck finding Union Jacks. So we opted for something that was…well, as close as we could get to appropriate for the occasion. And then we toasted the newlyweds with mimosas! With all these crowns floating around, it was only a matter of time before we tried to knight Daisy. That last shot of her is so hilarious to me because as soon as I saw it, all I could think about is that first time Prince John wears the crown in Disney’s Robin Hood (I have that movie memorized, I think…one of few cartoons we had growing up that we actually owned on VHS!) Me and Samantha—man, I am gonna miss this girl! When I hire my graduate students, they work with me for two years — that’s two years of training and mentoring and, as is often the case, friendship. Samantha has been such an 8-to-5 blessing to me since she hired on and I am going to hate saying goodbye to her—but I know she’s going to take the public relations field by storm (and then come let me visit her when she gets hired by an international p.r. firm :) )

Finally, not that my two cents are worth all that much, but for all the naysayers who poo-pooed this wedding (many in my Twitter feed who were wedding photographers, which I found somewhat ironic), well, I’m sorry you had to bring out the haterade. Because, for a lot of us, this was just a time to wish a happy, beautiful couple well — a couple I believe, this time, are the real deal. It’s funny…you could talk to most people over 40 and ask them, “Where were you when Charles and Diana got married?” and they’ll remember the pageantry of the occasion.

It’s been a long time since one of those watershed moments has happened for my generation that DIDN’T involve something negative — a 9/11 or a natural disaster or another war on the way. And so, some day, along with telling my kiddos about the night I watched America elect its first black president with goosebumps on my arms, I’ll tell them about the time in my 20s I watched a fairytale play out in front of me too — ’cause this is definitely a morning I’ll remember for years to come. Besides, what’s not to love about love, right? Right. 

See more of Gail’s work at www.gailwernerphoto.com. Become a fan of Gail’s work on Facebook. Follow Gail on Twitter.

Another great month of good finds to love!

1) New music from two new acts, The Belle Brigade and James Vincent  McMorrow: I know it’s early in the year to say this, but I really believe these two new artists will make their way onto my annual Top 10 Favorite Music Finds for the year. The Belle Brigade gained a lot of buzz after performing at SXSW and the comparisons made to their sound—one part Paul Simon, one part Fleetwood Mac— are pretty dead on. (Fave tracks of theirs: Sweet Louise, Lucky Guy and Losers (a song that has been on repeat in my playlist since I found it!) As for James, his voice is kind of the Irish answer to Bon Iver. Add to that inspirations for his music that are some of my favorite writers (F. Scott Fitzgerald and John Steinbeck) and no wonder he’s tops in my book! (Fave tracks from him: If I Had a Boat, We Don’t Eat).

2) Courtney Fischer Jewelry and Indy’s Homespun store: Earlier this month I had a wonderful Saturday afternoon spent traipsing around the capital with some of my dearest friends, eating brunch, gabbing away and shopping our little hearts’ content. We tucked into Homespun and were giddy at how adorable and awesome it is. The perfect answer for when you’re needing a cool gift for a friend—just check out some of the featured artists whose work is for sale in the store. Speaking of those artists, Courtney’s jewelry at Homespun attracted me like a moth to a flame. I snatched up these medallion earrings in mustard yellow (my FAVE color) and have been wearing ‘em non-stop ever since!

3) HGTV’s “Secrets from a Stylist”: I have a confession to make: Nick and I have cable TV again. Through no initiation of our own, our Comcast cable provider recently sent us these two digital converters that were required for their new Xfinity service. The night Nick hooked them up, he started yelling at me in the den, “GAIL!GAIL!GAIL! WE HAVE HGTV! AND THE HISTORY CHANNEL!!” You would have thought he’d put himself in a time machine and just discovered the Santa of his youth. I’ve been good at staying away from cable but I must admit, HGTV has sucked me in. And no show more than “Secrets from a Stylist.” The show is built around Emily Henderson (who, if I’d had HGTV last year, I would have been rooting for her to win their DesignStar contest) and her attempts to make over people’s living rooms. I confess I watch just as much to see her sweet wardrobe as I do her mad style. I kind of have a new girl crush on her. I mean, just spend five minutes on her blog and you’ll see why (And seriously, read this post of hers…I died laughing—it’s SO true!).

4) The Paris Wife by Paula McLain: I took a lot (and I mean, A LOT) of time to read in April and so I have two awesome books up for ya! This first one shares the story of Ernest Hemingway’s first wife, Hadley, and the ups and downs of their relationship as they try to make 1920s Paris their home with the rest of the Lost Generation that landed there. I am a SUCKER for well-told historical fiction and McLain has definitely done her homework with this one. Would be a great summer or book club read for any of you fellow bibliophiles.

5) Bossypants by Tina Fey: I’m telling you what, if you need an instant (and I mean instant) pick-me-up to your day, take 10 minutes and read a chapter of Tina’s new book. It’s chock full of essays about her life in improv, writing for SNL and giving birth both to 30 Rock and her daughter, Alice. I didn’t want it to come to an end, I loved it so much. Here’s hoping Tina corners a new market with her humor and writes a second best-seller soon!

6) Water for Elephants: Friends, no exaggeration here, I’ve been stalking this movie since paparazzi shots of them filming it last spring first hit the Interweb! I read Sara Gruen’s novel about three years ago — back then, I would have been all “Rob who?” but now, after seeing this, I couldn’t picture a better cast. Everything about this movie is beautiful—from the circus setting to Reese’s wardrobe to Rob’s cheekbones (especially Rob’s cheekbones!) Add Christop Noth as the overbearing, creeptastic ringmaster, August, and it’s a total must-see! (and despite having read a few critical reviews, I must say, I loved it! Definitely worth a trip to the cinema!)

See more of Gail’s work at www.gailwernerphoto.com. Become a fan of Gail’s work on Facebook. Follow Gail on Twitter.

In what’s become my never-ending quest to redecorate/rehaul/re-everything my living room, I spent much of April wrapped up in thinking and doing—about what needed to get done in this room and just how, exactly, that was going to happen.

There have been a lot of stops and starts to this project. Furniture ordered but waiting in the garage until the old stuff could be sold on Craig’s List or picked up by in-laws. A dresser and chairs sanded down and then stained, only to realize how much you don’t like the stain and “Honey, could we please strip it again?” Energy gained with each successful completion of something on the to-do list (pictures framed at Hobby Lobby…check!) and then energy lost when a long day at work or an overcast, cold evening means it’s your bed that’s calling, not those IKEA directions.

Speaking of IKEA, this is me. And my EFFEKTIV cabinets. There are three of these bookcase units that have now found a home in my living room. When I told Nick he was going to have to help me put these things together (translation: do most of the work), his infamous “I-hate-IKEA-furniture-more-than-anything-else-on-this-Earth” scowl came out as we took deep breaths and tackled this stuff together. (I swear, if someone wanted to save themselves thousands of dollars in couples counseling and gain a cheap Swedish coffee table in the process, then putting IKEA furniture together as man and wife ought to do the trick.)

For me, I doubt a portrait series of my 20s could be complete without a snapshot of putting this stuff together. To own IKEA furniture is sort of a rite of passage. And by rite of passage, I mean that mostly in a white-middle-class-girl-in-her-20s kind of way. I hate this stuff but I love it. Kind of the way I love the store but hate it when it’s time to find a restroom and I can’t for the life of me figure out which direction I’m supposed to go.

The stops and starts of this project feel as though they’ve bled over into the rest of my month too. I got started spring cleaning, only to come to a grinding halt because I had a case of the “That’s-a-lot-of-stuff-I-have-to-haul-to-the-Goodwill” blues. I was going full-throttle with an exercise routine until an undiagnosed injury to my left foot forced me to start mildly limping on it about two weeks ago (I think it’s a stress fracture but Nick tells me I need to get thee to a doctor to find out!). I’m hoping this stop-and-start pattern of mine dissipates like all this rain we’ve had as we leave April behind and move on to May.

Will full-blown spring on the horizon, I’m looking forward to a month ahead where I can finally finish this room and in which maybe I can show you all the finished results. And oh yeah, speaking of showing you things, I look forward to showing you again that I am a photographer. I just need to get on the other side of April before I can prove it to you.

See more of Gail’s work at www.gailwernerphoto.com. Become a fan of Gail’s work on Facebook. Follow Gail on Twitter.

I couldn’t have asked for a better portrait session to kick off my 2011 shooting season than my April afternoon with the sweet-as-can be Kingdon trio. Heather and her hubby, Ben, are just over the moon in love with their little man, Liam. (I am such a sucker for ginger-haired cuties :) ) Obviously, as you can tell from this little sneak peek, it’s not hard to see why! Much more to come from their session–and the start of engagement sessions too—coming soon!!!!

See more of Gail’s work at www.gailwernerphoto.com. Become a fan of Gail’s work on Facebook. Follow Gail on Twitter.

Some of you have asked me to report back on how things went going social-media free for a week. So I thought I’d hijack the subject of this post for a minute to give a few insights: 1) I missed it — a lot. Going without social media for 7 days was a good opportunity for me to evaluate the pros and cons of the medium. I’ve decided I want to be on Facebook and Twitter less going forward, but still make use of both sites since I learn so much about friends and family through them! 2) I realized the feeling many of us carry with us—the one that leads us to think thoughts like “Oh, but people will notice if I don’t post anything!” and “But I have to keep scrolling to read everything I missed since the last time I was on here!” is so self-induced it’s scary. The bottom line for me was to get “over” myself, get over such warped notions of being noticed and noticing others and just let go of caring. Once I did, my mind was free to think of things outside of my writing my next Tweet or getting my Facebook fix and that was all I needed to decide this break had been a healthy one.

Now, on to the subject of this post and that’s my first time building a house for Habitat for Humanity! I debated writing about this experience, but having a full week to reflect on it made me realize I had a few thoughts to share about what I learned from hammering nails for 6 hours straight on a rainy Saturday afternoon.

I was invited to participate in a local Women’s Build for Habitat by my boss’s wife, Natalie (all these photos are scans of images she took of me on the work site and gave me with a sweet thank you note—so nice of her, considering I didn’t bust my camera out once!) I’ll be honest and say that while I accepted the challenge, I was initially reluctant to get involved. I don’t think my rational for reasons why (I’m too busy…I don’t have time to fund-raise…I’VE NEVER BUILT A HOUSE BEFORE) are all that different than the lies (yes, lies) any of us tell ourselves when presented with opportunities to help others—be it in our family, our church or our community.

When the day of the build came, it was freezing cold out, dark and raining. I had a friend in town overnight and as she left my house that morning, I joked about not wanting to go, how I’d rather stay on the couch under a blanket and read a book all day. When I got to the build, I felt shy and overwhelmed. There was so much work to be done and I had no clue where to start. Not to mention I couldn’t remember the last time my girly, uncalloused hands had picked up a hammer, given that Nick barely trusts me to pound a nail in the wall for a picture frame. (Pfffttt…Mr. Perfectionist).

Before long, I was introduced to one of the few men on site for the day, Jason, the local Habitat contractor. I’ll stop right here and say that this Jason? Well, he had the patience of Job. Seriously…here he was, trying to tell all of us women how to hold our hammers, hang up insulation and frame a house while our attention was diverted in gabbing away about our weekend plans and kids and hobbies!

I got put on duty finishing a side wall to the house and I quickly discovered that it’s really, really hard to drive a nail into a piece of wood. Especially when you’re balancing on top of it. The wood, that is. But over the next few hours, I got better at pounding away (the technique is to hold the hammer farther away from its head …you’ll get more force to your swing that way :) ) and I quickly realized how much I was enjoying what I was doing that day.

I took pride in even the little things, like successfully toenailing wood.  I took pride in realizing that I! COULD! DO! THIS! and recognizing how, every time I’ve ever felt that way in life, it’s inspired me to tackle other so-called “impossible feats” I never dreamed of taking on. There was pride, too, in being part of a team working toward a goal as part of an experience so new to so many of us. We finished up the afternoon with us lady folk pushing the more than 20 trusses of the house up two ladders and onto the house’s frame so that the roofers could finish up that part of the work the next day.

I headed home that night and relaxed on the couch, feeling more physically exhausted than if I had shot two weddings in one weekend. But I already was (and still am) excited about helping out in next year’s build. In wanting to get some of my friends involved. In wanting others to feel the kind of gratitude that comes with doing hard work and doing it well and stepping outside of your comfort zone all in the name of this business of helping others. I gotta tell ya, it’s pretty powerful stuff.

See more of Gail’s work at www.gailwernerphoto.com. Become a fan of Gail’s work on Facebook. Follow Gail on Twitter.