Schaefer Family Adventures: February 2019 (the month of going viral)

Wow, February FLEW by! It’s definitely the shortest month and it felt like it too! Today I’m continuing with our Schaefer Family Adventures series. If I had describe this month in a phrase it would be “going viral”.

On February 6th I posted a photo of Dalton’s wedding dress and wrote about my own personal dress buying experience. I mentioned in the post that the dress pictured was Dalton’s and that she was able to wear her daughter in the dress and nurse to sleep her during the wedding Mass. I got a few comments asking to see photos of her wearing her daughter and so the next day I posted some of my favorites of Dalton wearing Ellie is a colorful Oscha wrap. Over the past month the post on Facebook has been shared over 4,100 times and viewed by over a MILLION people! It’s been featured on so many websites and news stations all over the WORLD. Never in a million years did I expect this but it’s been an incredible experience.

Here are just some of the articles:

People | Romper | The Knot | The Bump | POPSUGAR | The Huffington Post | BuzzFeed | Good Morning America | ABC News | BRIDES | Brigitte (largest women’s magazine in Germany) | 9Honey (Australia)

CafeMom | Mothering | Daily Mail (UK) | Parents | Motherly | Univision | Inside Edition (with actual footage of the wedding day) | Parent24 (South Africa) | Herald Star (our local newspaper) | WTRF (interview with our local news station)

It’s hard to put into words what going viral was like but the way it felt was like when you push a snowball down a hill and it just keeps getting bigger and bigger and bigger! It gained momentum and I was suddenly inundated with messages and emails asking for interviews and permission to use the wedding photos. I kept in contact with Dalton, the bride, through the whole thing. We were texting back and forth, laughing and enjoying the shock of the whole thing. She actually went into labor and gave birth during the busiest part of the experience! I saw her the next day when I took their Fresh 48 photos and we just laughed about the whole thing. “Can you believe it?” “This is crazy!” “I’m shocked” It was so fun to go through “going viral” with a friend and fellow mother! Even a month later I am still getting messages from websites and companies. Even the wrap company, Oscha, reached out to us and wrote a blog post about Dalton. They even sent both of us gifts in the mail, all the way from their headquarters in Scotland!

I’ve loved our little time in the spotlight but the entire time I always kept in the forefront of my mind that this “glory” fades and fades fast. The real reason I love photography remains: blessing people’s lives through the gift of visual storytelling. The ability to capture certains moments in time and give them to people to keep forever is why I love what I do! And that’s exactly what I do for all my sessions! This whole experience has gotten me SO excited for our upcoming 2019 weddings and family sessions! We are so excited for those who will join our #fireandgoldfamilies and #fireandgoldbrides family!

The rest of the month was spent enjoying time with our family. John went to his montessori school on Thursdays and Grace continued to just be the best sleeper ever. She also discovered her fist and loves to suck on it. This is great since she doesn’t seem to be a fan of a pacifier. On Valentine’s Day, we got a sitter for John and Matthew, Grace and I went to Pittsburgh for a Valentine’s Day date! Towards the end of the month we all got sick and poor Grace got her first cold. We all recovered quickly, thankfully!

Below I’ve included some of my favorite photos from this past month. It’s mostly just us, hanging around the house living everyday life. But that’s why I love them so much. They are just real life. Nothing flashy, nothing fancy. Just real. Just how I like it.

Oh the many faces of John…

“Choo choo!!”

Easy cheap water spraying toy… an empty mustard bottle!

Baby yawns are just the cutest!