intimate vows: Asheville Photographer, Sonya Stone

Love is sacred and the vows of marriage are intimate. Maybe that's why I like small wedding ceremonies. There is a tenderness to an event that is shared with only your closest family and friends. I was honored to photograph a wedding like this at the Sweet Biscuit Inn recently. Enjoy a little peek into the special day...congratulations R & M!

Mother's Day Gift: Family & Child Portrait Photographer, Sonya Stone

I am unbelievably excited that Spring is here! The beautiful colors, the warmer weather, the spark that ignites growth and light. Yay! And to celebrate, I am offering a Spring Mini Session special just in time for Mother's Day. Because let's face it, I am a mother...I know what mother's like. They like photos! Scratch that...they LOVE photos. They love photos of their babies, who may be not so little any more, but will always be their babies!

SO if you have a mother, are a mother, are married to/dating/friends with a mother, let me offer a golden piece of advice, get beautiful, keepsake photographs for Mother's Day and you will hit the home run of gift giving. If you have children who are small and/or husbands who are gift giving challenged, GIFT YOURSELF. You have a right. And everyone will understand and thank you for it. Trust me.

Here are the details, the weekend of April 9 & 10, I will photograph children, families, pets, and the like all in the name of celebrating Mom. I will discount my session fee over $50 to give you an opportunity to have custom family or child portraits. You can order prints that are guaranteed to be delivered by Mother's Day. So you can have gifts wrapped and ready to go. And if you include Mom in the session, you get to tell her what the gift is and milk this truly awesome gift for a whole month before Mother's Day.

Then when she opens her prints on Mother's Day, viola; she will be overcome with joy and will be grateful for the whole next year. Make that her whole life because this moment in time cannot be replayed. It is in the here and now that we are laughing and playing and loving. It is here and then it is gone. But the photographs that you hang and archive, those will be the keepsakes that keep these sweet memories alive.

Get in touch and I'll fill you in on the details. And in the meantime, enjoy these photographs of an incredibly cute, sweet boy from last year's Spring minis.

Birth & Breastfeeding Expo, Asheville Event Photographer: Sonya Stone

What a great and exhausting day! Today the BirthNetwork of WNC hosted The Joyful Birth & Breastfeeding Expo at the Asheville Mall. Over 60 exhibitors were on hand to share services and products that support normal birth and breastfeeding, loving parenting and overall feel good family vibes. We also featured some wonderful speakers and inspiring films. I saw many friends who share the passion for nurturing families during the precious and formative time of pregnancy, birth , and early childhood. It is an honor to be in a city like Asheville where there are many of those friends!

Here are a few shots from the day. We had a maternity and children's fashion show...this first little guy sporting looks from Lollipop's Consignment Store.

Katherine Hensley modeling a handmade wrap for the Mama Community Project...

the beautiful moms who wore maternity fashions...

Dr. Lillian Thomas demonstrating the safe and effective use of chiropratic during pregnancy!

LOVE Grow with Me Learning Co-0p...sweet preschool and kindergarten cooperative where my girls have thrived and made wonderful friends!

excited to welcome Azalea Mountain School to our community offering Waldorf education!

can't have kids activities without cool face painting...oh yeah, and lots of adults jumping in too!

Joyful Birth & Breastfeeding Expo arrives

As a co-leader of BirthNetwork of WNC, I am happy to announce that our Joyful Birth & Breastfeeding Expo is here...almost! This Saturday, March 12, from 10am-5pm, 60 exhibitors will fill the Asheville Mall on Tunnel Rd. to greet an expected 1500 attendees. We have a day full of speakers on normal birth, breastfeeding, parenting and more! There will be free activities for kids, free keepsake photos, giveaways of ALL kinds, a maternity fashion show & film screenings. ALL FREE!!

A full program is listed at our web site, www.birthnetwork.org under Events.

And yours truly will have a table so please be sure to stop by. A fantastic giveaway for the discriminating photography client will be up for grabs!
Here are a few shots from our last expo...

baby power: Asheville Newborn Photographer, Sonya Stone

there are no words to describe how amazing new babies are. and this little guy...talk about amazing. born at just 32 weeks, I photographed him the day after his original estimated due date. and look at him. a miracle, a testament to the power of spirit. he is loved so completely. it was a blessing to me to just be a witness to this family's love affair with this precious little person. he is brand new to this world but already he has come so far. and his parents could not be any sweeter...I mean LOOK at these guys. oh, melt my heart! how I wish everyone could have these kinds of photographs of their babies and their loves!

baby fever: Asheville Baby Photographer Sonya Stone

Oh, the beauty of newborns...how I can I be expected to resist these cheeks? So soft and chubby! I think I am done having babies of my own but an occupational benefit/hazard is that I get to snuggle sweet babies. And when they look like this...

Lord, have mercy!

Also, you may have noticed the new and improved larger images on the blog. You may have also noticed that I'm picking up the steam again on blogging. These two things go hand in hand. I was not pleased with the small images on my blog so I was not motivated to get on here and post images. But now, bigger is better and it is boosting the bloggin' so let's celebrate! I'm going to be hosting a giveaway cause I'm excited and it's almost spring and life is good...so stay tuned.

family love: Asheville Family Photographer Sonya Stone

I have a special place in my heart for this family...I have known them for years and Mom was actually at the birth of my twins! Needless to say, it was a joy to photograph them. Mom & Dad might not believe that as it did seem that the kids were extra spunky that day, but let me tell you, the sass that sends a parent over the edge, makes me giggle...at least when it's your kids and not mine! So we had fun jumping in the leaves and climbing in the creek, sliding down the hills and making silly faces. All the things you are supposed to do when you are a kid.

For everything there is a season: Asheville Family Photographer

...and a time for every purpose under Heaven. I love that this family has a sense of purpose and creativity with their Christmas card message. They vacationed in our lovely mountains and we caught the leaves at just the right time. And lucky for me, this adorable little baby's christening was in just a few weeks...

don't miss out on holiday sessions: Asheville Family Photographer Sonya Stone

Last year at this time, I had so many inquiries I had to turn people away. And I took clients who booked late and still needed photographs delivered in time for holilday gifts. The result? I was pressed for time and felt stressed squeezing in clients because...let's face it...I'm a people pleaser. I took pity on the poor souls who waited until Thanksgiving to have their Christmas card photos and gift prints done. And if I'm being totally honest, it's because I am one of those people who gets busy and forgets to look at a calendar to plan ahead so I have scrambled too. But after the dust settled on last year's holiday season, I vowed to not do that this year.

SO, if you have not yet booked your holiday session with me...your time is up! Well, almost! I am almost booked out for the remainder of the year but I have come up with a solution for my fellow procrastinators. I will host a limited number of mini sessions with guaranteed delivery by Christmas, and when those sessions are booked, that's it...I will clock out, turn off my phone, & stop answering emails. Ok, probably not all that, but that will officially be the close to our holiday sessions.

Let me tell you how this will work. The sessions will be scheduled during the first two weeks of November. For only a $95 session fee (a $55 savings), I will photograph your family in a "mini" session. We will spend roughly an hour getting the images you want for cards, gifts for your family members and keepsakes for yourself. I will provide 10-15 edited images for your review and you will order from a special "mini" holiday session pricelist, which is available exclusively for my holiday mini session clients. Customized packages with options for digital files and prints of all sizes at incredible prices.

Hurry, there are only a few sessions available and they will be booked on a first come, first serve basis! Contact me via my website, www.sonyastone.com, to book yours today.

some of my own: Asheville Children's Photographer Sonya Stone

it occurred to me recently that I haven't posted photographs of my own children in like a year and a half! so to get you up to speed on the "babies" and my big girls...I thought I would share a few recent shots.