Katie Beverley » blog

I’ve been wanting to blog these images forever–I talked to Meghan off and on for about a year and a half before she and Mark had even set their wedding date and so by the time I finally met them I already felt like we were friends. You might remember them from their engagement/family shoot I posted a while back–what a fabulous little family. Their Sunday afternoon wedding had such a great vibe to it! It was made up of an intimate ceremony and reception which were both held at the fabulous St. Charles Country Club in St. Charles, IL. It was my first time shooting there and I left the place hoping to be back soon–what a beautiful little spot for a wedding in the Chicago area! The couple was off to Paris for their honeymoon, and so the day had an adorable Paris theme. Gorgeous purples and blues were everywhere and the scent of lavender filled the air–awesome!









A kick butt Sunday brunch

I hope no one (besides Mike who shot this with me) could notice my teariness when Meghan danced with her son! It’s a good thing I have autofocus..ahem…

Mike’s awesome shot!

And from my angle…

Meghan had a nice mouthful of lavender at the end of this…

you have been so good to us so far…! It has definitely been one long awkward silence, hasn’t it? I am a bad blogger, but I will try to be better now that I have my big life change over with. Most of you have no idea what I’m talking about, do you? Well Mike and I, along with our three itty bitty Bevs, kissed family and friends goodbye, took up all of our earthly possessions and moved from Illinois to Southern California about two months ago. I know, right? It was kind of a big deal. We had toyed with the idea of exploring new horizons for a little while but it was nothing serious until this past Fall. Mike ended up receiving a very exciting job offer, and after a lot of sweat, prayer and deliberation, we made the decision to just go for it! I grew up and have a bunch of family here in Ca, so we were also moving to familiar territory. There was so much that went into our decision, and I can’t even begin to remember every detail of that journey because it happened so quickly, but in all of our long late night talks, we always arrived at the same conclusion–we knew we wanted this adventure. And it still feels so right. I can’t tell you how much we love where we live! Sure, we are still adjusting, and we don’t know too many people around here, but it’s sort of fun to be the new kid on the block.

I think orchids will forever remind me of this time. When we showed up at our new house, my grandmother had already placed these in my kitchen. ( Along with completely stocking our fridge and pantry) We’ve been here for about two months and they are still perfect! I also keep receiving orchids from other friends and family as housewarming gifts, it’s crazy how many of these I have growing in my house right now!

One of our favorite things to do: on weeknights that we eat dinner early enough, we’ll then head on over to the beach, walk along the water with our new hummer of a stroller (a.k.a triple jogger) and watch the sunset. A few simple snippets

The setting of this shoot is a chilly October day, at the crack of dawn. I love early morning shoots because the light is absolutely amazing–it is my favorite light of the day! (I love it even more than my beloved just-before-sunset evening light.) But these types of shoots are more rare because not everyone is brave enough to schedule a shoot in the early hours of the morning. Cecilie and James were, even when our Midwest weather was just starting to get really crispy…and oh, how I love and hold a special place in my heart for them because of this. We got countless images like this one…

and this one too…






We walked by some cornfields…


and hid in some corn as well.






Then we went to a few locations in Sycamore I’ve been eyeing for a while…

And here is a preview of my next post… Linus joined us a little later, and my, is he handsome!

…I married my Mike! About 9 1/2 years ago was when we went on our first date (the DeKalb High School Spring Dance, of course) and we’ve  been together ever since. Wowza! He is slowly becoming a saint with every day that he is my husband and dad to our three small babes. I am always in awe of how well he puts up with me, how patient he is, and how much I still just love being with him after all this time. You see, I’m a little high strung at times, and he’s, well…not. When things don’t go as expected, he’ll usually just step up to the plate and take care of it…and I have been known to, well, pout. Marriage is huge and wonderful and amazing and hard all at the same time. Whenever we get into a fight, you know, the kind that has a sting to it, he’s always ready to just hug me and keep hugging me till the sting fades. I can’t wait to spend the rest of my life with him! I’ve been absent from this blog for a long long time, and thought this would be the perfect occasion to jump back on the train again. I’ve always wanted it to be a journal, and so here are ten things that four years have given us so far:

1. Johnny, Matthew and Monica are awesome! We love them more than we could have ever imagined. They are daily reminders of how much love grows with service and sacrifice and they’re just plain funny!

2. I now know how to clean a house and remember the time I had to look up online “how to mop a floor” in the first month we were married.

3. I have slowly begun to forgive myself that my house isn’t ever as clean as I dreamed it would be when I was unmarried and dreaming of being a housewife.

4. I now cook better. It was a huge revelation to me (literally it SHOCKED me) that although my mother and grandmother are fantastic cooks, I did not, through osmosis, learn to cook all those years I ate their food.

5. Mike now is definitely a less picky eater. Maybe those early months and years of my kitchen experiments really did kill something in him. Poor Mike.

6. We now have introduced exercise back into our lives after a several year hiatus–it’s tough with kids, but we finally decided to try and make the time for it. We also eat healthier food.

7. I now clip coupons and pay attention to sales.

8. The garage is clean and we are getting better about clearing out clutter.

9. We’re both so lucky to be able to do things we love to do–he is a software developer and I love taking photos!

10. This year we have made new commitment to going away for at least one weekend a year, just the two of us. This is also hard to do when you have kids, but it is SO important. It was New York this past summer, next summer it will be somewhere else.

Hunting through my archives I have found two gems…The first is junior prom!

And last summer in New York!

Last but not least, I have tons that I have been DYING to post. Now that Christmas is over and life is slower, I’ll be showing off some super cute couples soon. Please stay tuned for that! Here is the front of our card this year…These guys are what keep me too busy to blog: