Kelly Lee Photography

When I chose to go to Franciscan University of Steubenville (Ohio), where I got my business degree, I had to make a hard decision. While I knew it was the right school for me, I had to give up my dream of playing Collegiate Volleyball and turn down my chance to play for another University. While I easily made the decision, it wasn’t easy to give up playing.

When I got to the University I quickly became involved in the Fieldhouse as a medic for the Rugby and Soccer Teams (Our only sports teams then) and Intramural Sports program. I also met some other Freshman girls that year that were in the same boat as me and we would dominate the Volleyball teams every year…. My Junior year talks were made and we worked ourself into being a NCAA D-III provisional school. That same year myself and the 2 girls I entered with became the Captains of the first ever Franciscan University Womens Volleyball team. That also marked the first year of Cross Country and Softball. The year or two before we had begun basketball, soccer, and baseball teams.

Yesterday, Tuesday August 19th, around 4:30pm a SUV carrying 7 members of the Cross Country team are thought to have swerved to miss a tire on Rt. 22 between Steubenville and Pittsburgh. The SUV lost control, went through a guardrail, down a hill, and flipped several times before coming to rest in the trees. A sophomore Political Science and Business major, Kelly Roggensack, died instantly. 2 students were airlifted to UPMC and the rest were transported to a local hospital.

With having only 2,000 students representing 36 majors, we are a very small school. Our athletics department is even smaller. One of the great things about the school is whether you know personally all 2000 students, you know either their name, or face. While I did not know this student, as I really don’t know anyone there anymore, I know what happens on the campus when we loose a student. And it’s beautiful.

While many people choose to focus on the sadness of the loss of a person we, as a student body, are blessed to see the glory that they are now experiencing is beyond that of what we have here on earth. Not to negate the sadness or sense of loss, or that there are no tears. There will be many tears, however, from those tears will also flow tears of joy that one of our sisters has… in the words of St. Paul, Run the race and fought the good fight. In fact, in Kelly’s case how true are those words, that in her travels to physically run the race… she also completed the greatest race of all.

Please keep Kelly’s family and friends in your thoughts and prayers as well as the entire University family.

Thank You.
“Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize.
Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.”

“I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.”

Saturday marked the wedding for Ryan and Beth. One thing I loved about shooting their wedding was that between their engagement portraits and Beth’s bridals I really had a chance to get to know them. By the time I stepped to the venue on Saturday it felt very relaxed and just good to see everyone again. The whole day was beautiful as well as carefree and full of fun. I really have enjoyed working with Ryan, Beth, and their families over the past 6 months or so….

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As you all know, I was in Rochester last weekend for the wedding of Chris and Julie. I’ve already spoken about it quite a bit but I had such a wonderful time there. Julie looked absolutely STUNNING and we had a full day of fun. We did have scattered thunderstorms all day long, but it all scattered perfectly! It rained when the hair was being done, but stopped to leave. Rained during the ceremony, but stopped for the end. We had a rainbow followed by an amazing sunset… and then it rained some more. Julie was not worried though. It rained or snowed on the wedding day of 2-3 generations… and everyone’s lived happily married full lives.

First off, it was getting to the salon to get hair done and ready. I’ve never seen a woman do so many updo’s so incredibly fast, and they all stayed the entire night long! No worries about this first image though, this is only partly done This is Cindy, one of the many fabulous bridesmaids Julie had.

Julie’s hair was perfect

When Julie saw the veil on it was pure emotion that quickly came. It was beautiful and I don’t think there was a dry eye.

After the girls all got ready we were all a bit hungry, so naturally, we all went to Subway

Fist Kiss as man and wife

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And of course, the Rolls Royce

Julie’s Uncle (before becoming a Psychologist) used to do floral design. Well, I for one tried to convince him to do a lot more of it than jut a handful of weddings a year. His flowers were amazing.

Check out the amazing sunset we had over the vineyards!

THIS was a first for me! Usually, the guy who catches the garter puts it on the leg of the girl who got the flowers…. well… this girls PARENTS came and supervised. It’s OK, it was all in good fun and EVERYONE got quite a laugh out of it.

Everyone was still smiles at the end, even though the rain washed of EVERYTHING they had just written on the car… 15 min. earlier!

This was leaving the church but I felt it fit better here at the end. Congratulations Chris and Julie! Thank you for allowing me to be a part of your “weekend.”

Ok, Now that everything is official I can finally let you know what my BIG news is! I know I’ve been speaking about it for a little while now, and it’s been a long time coming! So, what is this BIG news?

DRUM ROLL Please!

I’M GETTING A STUDIO SPACE!!!!!!

I can not be more excited about having just signed a lease allowing me to finally put together my client studio space. I’m hoping for an opening by mid-end September. I can start working on it the 22nd so between this being my busiest stretch of the year and getting this ready I’ll be VERY busy! But it will be very worth it and I couldn’t be more happy. We’re going to have space for t you to cozy up on a couch and watch slideshows, look through my albums, perhaps drink some wine or coffee…. I can finally hang and display what your canvas will look like on your wall….. The thoughts of all this get me giddy!

So, Thank you to all my amazing and wonderful clients who have made this a possibility. Thank you also to my amazing parents and boyfriend who have stood by me from the very start of my business and helped support me in my transition to being a full time wedding photographer. I can’t believe where I am at only 13 months into business, I’ve been truly blessed.

Alrighty! It’s been a busy season so far but there are some major updates coming your way!!!! And now that I have plans finalized and what not… I’ll be announcing it really soon! Like… check tomorrow! Can anyone guess what it is? Maybe I’ll give a clue later!

First of all, I’ve been in Rochester for a wedding this past weekend so I’m aware that my messages are a bit full… I’m trying to plow through the phone calls and Emails but when you are gone a few days they can pile up. Thank you for your patience. The wedding was a blast and Julie and Chris where absolutely wonderful! They are the first “real” contract I ever signed and at the time I was stoked not only because of that… but because it was “all the way in 2008!” Well, it has come and gone already and it was a wonderful way of capping my 13 month anniversary of my first wedding. I can’t wait to blog it later… maybe tonight or tomorrow!

I must say though… Be wary of flying through Detroit!!!!

1) Being that I was in “hockeytown” I was almost positive that I would finally be able to find a Red Wings Stanley Cup Championship Hat! WRONG! No hats or shirts to be found anywhere in the airport! How WRONG is that! Anyone know where I can find one other than NHL.com?

2) I felt bad getting in late to Rochester. After starting my day at 4:15 am to get to the airport in time for a 6am flight… I have a short layover… and of course there is mechanical issues with the plane! Finally about an hour and a half later we get a plane, board, and we got across the tarmac in Detroit… I’m 50 min. away from checking into my hotel…. and the pilots pull the plane over. They spend another 30 minutes trying to get the correct weight when we hear that there was a scanner malfunction and we need to go back to the gate a re-scan EVERY bag in the belly! Needless to say… I got in late Luckily the only thing it cut into was my nap time as I still had enough time to get ready and get to the church.

3) Coming BACK through detroit I had issues again! We boarded pretty much on time, found out we’d have a 15 min. taxi across the airport…. was next in line to take off… and BAM! Thunderstorm! WITH HAIL! So… after we a) wait out the storm… which isn’t quick we b) have to go back to the gate (15 min.away) to check out the plane from the hail. We get to the gate and because of lightning the airport is shut down! We were “looking” at the gate for a good 40 min. more when we finally got ushered into the gate. We then had to all disembark and wait another hour to inspect the plane. After that… our cabin crew had been working too long so we had to wait on another crew to come take over! THEN…. we find out that if we don’t get airborn in 25 min… we would loose our pilots too and that would mean spending the night… in detroit… where they don’t have any Stanley Cup stuff Praise God, we got off the ground with about 3 minutes to spare. The entire crew was in a mad dash going over checklists, etc to get going… I’m glad we didn’t have to spend the night… but I didn’t get home till after 11pm…. about 4-5 hours late!

So be careful…. I’ve yet to leave Detroit on time!

Wedding pics to come soon, but like I said.. I have a lot to catch up on so thank you for your patience.