This year has taught me so much about life, love, creativity, business and balance. It’s one of those years in my life that will serve as a milestone and that has truly proven just how much one’s life can change in just 365 days. It has been simultaneously the busiest, most stressful, most successful, happiest and best year of my life.

First and foremost, this year has been an incredible year for me personally having fallen in love with and married the love of my life. One day, I was totally happy being single- working and focusing on my businesses and what I wanted from life. Quite literally, the next day I had met this amazing person who changed my idea of happiness and from then on I knew that I didn’t ever want to experience anything without him by my side. I know I have yet to do a full post about our wedding, but I hope to do that early in the new year. It was definitely one of the best days of my life and I’m looking forward to sharing more about it.

Professionally, this has been the best year yet. I exceeded many of the goals I had for my company and even started a secondary company with one of my best friends (I will be posting more about that in 2012). I shot so many amazing weddings this year for clients who understand and appreciate my vision and approach to photographing weddings, which makes my work even more creatively fulfilling. I also photographed some great commercial and studio sessions- accomplishing another goal of mine to build up the commercial side of my business, which I hope to continue to do next year. Finally, I am almost ready to launch a brand new Web site and blog- something I’ve been wanting to do all year and finally made time for in the past month or so. This new design is so much more me and I can’t wait to unveil the whole new look hopefully by the end of January!

Looking back on this year truly makes me smile, but I smile even bigger when thinking about 2012 and all I know it has in store for me, and everything I have yet to find out. At this time last year, I could never have guessed what 2011 would bring to my life, and I know 2012 has just as much potential to surprise me in amazing ways.

I have never posted a full “Best of” post before because I always found it so overwhelming to go back through all of my photos and select my favorites. So, this year I did something a little different. The below images are images that for some reason I remember the most. They all are images that made an impression on my mind and lingered in my memories… and they are all images that flash in my head when I think about the images that creatively define my 2011. They are in completely random order- and some of the sessions featured haven’t even made it to the blog yet. So many images from this year linger in my head, so I created this collage rather than posting them all individually. Seeing them all together like this makes me smile and I hope you enjoy viewing them, too.

Here’s to reflecting back on a great year full of lessons, love & laughter- and here’s to hoping that 2012 brings the same! Happy New Year, everyone!! xoxo