Monthly Archives: September 2010

Canned Food Drive Auction: The Results

Mom Blogging:

“The bread which you do not use is the bread of the hungry. The garment hanging in your wardrobe is the garment of the naked. The shoes that you do not wear are the shoes of the one who is barefoot. The money you keep locked away is the money of the poor.”  –St. Basil the Great

Wow.  I am so excited to share the amazing results of our canned food drive auction.  I am seriously overwhelmed by the generosity of so many of you.  We have the results of the auction and with the canned food that will be donated by the top 5 bidders we have EIGHT HUNDRED AND SIXTY FIVE food items to donate to our local food pantry!!!  865!!!  Thank you all so much for sending in your bids and helping a necessary cause.  Families who would have gone hungry will now eat thanks to your giving hearts!

I am happy to announce the top 5 bids who have won a fall-themed mini session on September 25th with a disk of their images:

Andrea bid 67 cans for each of her 3 kids for a total of 201 food items!

Berni bid 100 cans for her two nieces for a total of 200 food items!

Heather bid 100 cans for her two kids for a total of 200 food items!

Denise sent in her bid for her son for 150 food items!

and Kristen sent in her bid for her son for 114 food items!

We have decided to match the top bid and donate 201 food items as well so we will have a total of ONE THOUSAND SIXTY SIX food items to bring to the local pantry!  That is an amazing blessing for so many people and it is such an honor for our family to have some small part in that.  I cannot express how full my heart feels!  1066 food items…WOW.  Thank you to the winners and to everyone who sent in a bid (there were many others who were very close) for your kind hearts and generosity.  I will be contacting the winners via email today so they can choose their time slot for the session on the 25th.

I cannot wait to share the pictures of what 1066 food items looks like before we bring them to the food pantry!  It is going to be amazing!  And of course we’ll blog pictures from the fun fall themed sessions too!

Wedding at the Lake Mary Events Center: Day Two with Jennifer and Alex

Dad had a wonderful time with Jennifer, Alex, and their families and friends at their Indian Sangeet.  He joined them the next day for their wedding at the Lake Mary Events Center.  The coordinator there, also named Jennifer, does a great job!  The bride and groom decorated the ceremony with hanging crystals, floral arrangements, and a petal-lined aisle.  The reception room looked gorgeous with long tables decorated with tall gold candlesticks, greenery, and floral arrangements between the gold place settings.  Jennifer’s bouquet was also stunning.  It was even more special because a piece of her mother’s wedding gown was wrapped around the stems.  What a wonderful idea for using your mom’s gown on your own wedding day!

Thank you so much to Jennifer and Alex for including dad in these two terrific celebrations.  Congratulations to you, and have an awesome time in Hawaii!

Jennifer and Alex’s Indian Sangeet

An Indian Sangeet is a pre-wedding celebration for people to dance, have fun, and build the excitement for the wedding.  Dad joined Jennifer and Alex the day before their wedding to celebrate their sangeet ceremony.  Another Indian tradition is the Mehndi ceremony and Jennifer had mehndi, or henna, applied to her hands and feet.  The bridal mehendi is said to signify the strength of the bride’s marriage.  It is usually a detailed design with the groom’s name included.  Jennifer looked amazing in her Indian bridal attire!

At the celebration there was Indian dancing, a mehendi artist for the guests, and more Indian wedding traditions.  Dad enjoyed watching the custom of male relatives of the bride and groom exchanging garland to show the two families coming together.  It was a terrific evening!  Dad also got to see Brie and Rich again which is always a great time.

Pictures from the ceremony on Saturday will be blogged soon!

Canned Food Drive: Auction for Free Fall-Themed Mini Sessions

Mom Blogging:

Last fall we had a Feed the Hungry Can Contest and it was a great success!  The winner of the contest donated over 100 food items to be given to our local food pantry!  Many food pantries are having to turn people away because there is a great need but not enough donations.  People worry about where their next meal will come from and parents struggle to find food to feed their children.  The non-perishable food items that we donate to food pantries help provide for people who would otherwise go hungry.

We are once again having our canned food drive but this year it is going to be in the form of an auction.  We’ll have more winners and even more food we can bring to feed the hungry!  On September 25th we will be giving away five mini studio sessions set up with some adorable fall props!  Starting today people can email us with their highest bid for how many non-perishable food items they would donate to win one of these mini sessions along with the disk of images from the session.  The email should be sent to jasonangelini@aol.com with the subject line “Bid for Canned Food Drive.”  This can be for any type of session including engagement, maternity, newborn, babies, kids, or anything else!  However, you must place your bids per child to include more than one child in a session.  For example, a family with two kids who wants to have a family session would place a bid of 50 cans per child.  They would then have to donate 100 cans if they win the auction.

We will be taking bids until midnight on Saturday, September 18th.  We have a minimum bid of 20 food items per child.  The five bids with the highest total number of food items will win one of the sessions with the disk of images.  These top bidders will be announced on September 19th.  Time slots start at 11am and go until 4pm and winners will get to choose their time slot in the order of how many cans they have bid (most cans gets first choice and so on).  Winners will have to bring the number of food items that they have bid to their session on the 25th.  If you do not want to carry all those cans around, we will also accept a gift card to Publix with $1 for every food item you bid.  If you won making a bid of 100 cans, you can bring 100 cans or a gift card to Publix for $100 and we will do the shopping trip to buy the actual food.  This is also an option for people who live out of town but want to win the free session as a gift to someone here.  Make your bid and you can mail in a gift card if you win!  Last year Jamie and Tristan were the winners and donated over 100 food items.  If all 5 of our winners this year bid at least that much we are going to have some very happy people when they go to get their meals from the local food pantry!

These mini sessions are completely free to the winners of the auction and they will even receive the disk of images.  If any prints or other products are ordered from any of these sessions we will donate the profits to Feeding America, the nation’s largest hunger relief charity.  And of course if anyone is unable to make it on September 25th for a session but they still want to donate food items we’d be happy to include those when we bring everything we collect to the local food pantry.

Send in your bids now!  You’ll be helping a terrific cause while getting some awesome images as well!

Wedding at the Sirata: Sarah and Casey

“Now pour the rum and show me that horizon!”  Sarah and Casey were married in front of the ocean at the Sirata Beach Resort.  A wedding by the water was perfect for celebrating a pirate love!  The couple had Irene of For Better For Less create the floral arrangements which included lots of bright pink.  Kendal Lucas of Lucas Productions was the DJ and Cakes by Carolynn made the wedding cake.

Sarah wore her hair in soft loose curls held back by a rhinestone headband.  Her gown looked perfect for her and had beautiful embellishments which continued down onto the lace layer ending in scalloped edging at the train.  She was a gorgeous bride!  The dance floor at the reception was packed and all the guests had a fun time.

Congratulations Sarah and Casey!  Dad had a blast celebrating your day with you!