Project Senior | Rachel L. | Lincoln Southwest
“Looking at my pictures together afterwards made me realize that that really was me! I really did that. Finding confidence was hard at first, but by the end of it and looking back on the photos, I don’t know if i’ve ever felt more confident.”
Meet Rachel.
Rachel’s story is so unique, and it all began in Ukraine with the name Yelena Ivanova Verbitskya! At 9 months old, she was adopted, and from there she grew up in Albuquerkue, New Mexico as Rachel Marie Lemen. She spent 16 years there before her and her mom moved to Lincoln! While in New Mexico, Rachel went to a high school called Eldorado where she was a cheerleader for two years. Her past two years in Lincoln she has attended Lincoln Southwest, where she is now a senior! As you can imagine, the move was a little scary, but she says it really helped her step out of her comfort zone! Upon moving to Nebraska, Rachel got into Rodeo and it also brought her one of her most cherished friends, Cash, a 17 hands high quarter horse. You’ll see this beautiful horse in many of Rachel’s senior pictures! The bond between them is so so sweet.
When Rachel’s not spending time with her horse, she’s busy with spreading love and connecting with people through her YouTube Channel, The Pack. Be sure to check it out! She also loves traveling to the Disney Parks (her very favorite place to go!) as well as London and Paris.
After high school, Rachel plans on attending Southeast Community College here in Lincoln. She’s not 100% sure what she wants to go into because there are so many possibilities, but she really loves business and horses, so if she could do something that combined those two worlds, she would have a career she truly loves!
What I love the most about Rachel is how much she joy she finds in making other people smile and feel loved. She is inspired by all of the empowering women in her life. She has so much wisdom and truly has a beautiful view of life. She understands that life is short and it’s important to spread love instead of hate. If we can learn one thing from this inspiring girl, it’s that we can all be better about letting others know they are loved and appreciated.
Rachel, I am so thankful I got to meet your pasta, watermelon, and wolf loving self! You are so inspiring, and I am so excited to see where life takes you. Between your kindness and the love you spread and your ambition to make a difference, I know you will do great things!
Rachel’s Experience with Sonnenblume
“My experience with Sonnenblume Studios was so much fun! Before the session i was feeling a bit nervous because I didn’t know how the shoot was going to go. However, as soon as the photoshoot started, Gabby me feel really comfortable and confident! She started to make me laugh, she asked about my family, and make it feel more like i was a friend and she was taking photos for me! I had never had an experience like that before, so when Gabby would encourage me and make me laugh, it made me more confident! One of the main things I really enjoyed about was that she got to know me on a personal level. It wasn’t just someone saying “smile” then taking a picture. Gabby got to know me and it make the experience so meaningful and so much more fun!
After the Photoshoot was done, seeing the photos was incredible! My jaw dropped! When looking at photos, I really liked how her organization worked. There was a Yes, No, and Maybe category to help narrow down to our favorites. That truly helped a lot! Looking at my pictures together afterwards made me realize that that really was me! I really did that. Finding confidence was hard at first, but by the end of it and looking back on the photos, I don’t know if i’ve ever felt more confident. I really enjoyed my experience with Sonnenblume and hope to do more things with her soon! I totally recommend to everyone!
Senior year is an exciting time in life. You are in the stages of of defining who you are, deciding what you want to be, and where you want to go in life. You've got personality, and dreams, and so much potential. Your world will change so much in the next year, so as you get ready to move on to the next big thing in life, it is important to commemorate who you are right now.
This year, I’m looking to put together a model team! I’m searching for current juniors who will be graduation in the Class of 2020 who have souls that are full of adventure, and hearts full of happiness! Being a Sonnenblume Senior Model is all about sharing who you are, spreading your story and your message for the world, earning some cash and having fun while you do it!
What being a Senior Model entails:
Be Famous! You will become the face of Sonnenblume Senior Marketing!
Two Free Sessions! - One in March, and one in June or July
Share your favorite pictures with your friends and get their opinions - Collect Names!
Meet with me weekly to share your results
Hand out session offers to your friends!
Earn $5 Print Credit for every name you collect
Earn $15 Cash for every referral who books a senior session with Sonnenblume!
Fun Styled Shoots throughout the year
Fun get togethers with the model team throughout the summer!
Senior Model with the most referrals will win a Grand Prize: FREE Limousine Service and professional pictures for your Senior Prom!
Runner up will win $50 towards professional hair or a tux rental for your Senior Prom!
Ready to Join the Team?
Follow Along
Project Senior | MaryClaire H. | Lincoln Southwest
“I had so much fun. By the end of the day it felt like I was a princess.”
Meet MaryClaire.
MaryClaire is a senior at Lincoln Southwest High School and she is a truly special soul. Her favorite color is pink, loves anything spicy, and she enjoys playing with her dogs and taking vacations with her family. She’s constantly cracking jokes and telling it like it is. When you’re the youngest of 6 kids, you’d have to have some wit to and spunk to hold your own!
Something I love about MaryClaire is how important her family is to her. When I asked her to tell me about her, she proceeded to tell me all about the wonderful people gets to call family. Her dad is a vet, and her mom is blessed with being a stay at home mom and she volunteers at catholic social services. Both are such caring and loving parents who inspire MaryClaire to share her kindness with those around her. Then she told me about her siblings, who each inspire her in a different way. Her oldest sister is in the Army Reserves and recently was diploid in Kuwait, teaching her about sacrifice. Her next sister is married and expecting her first baby, and MaryClaire is so excited to be an aunt! The third sister is in college and then wants to go to law school, teaching MaryClaire about hard work! Then there’s her brothers. One is in mortuary school, a career that takes a lot of compassion, and the other is teaching her that it’s okay to be patient and figure things out as you go. They each have their own path, and that’s the beauty of siblings!
What I love about MaryClaire is how much she looks up to all her siblings, yet still has her own favorite hobbies and her own dreams. MaryClaire has a rare genetic disorder called Prader-Willi syndrome, but she doesn’t let that hold her back. She participates in Special Olympic Swimming and has won several medals! She also cheers at Cheer Express and even travels for competitions! She loves being involved in both of these things because the she gets to spend time with even more people that make her feel loved. These kind people, along with her family, are the ones who inspire her to follow her dreams. And what is her dream? It’s to be a pre-school teacher!
MaryClaire, thank you for sharing your kindness with me this year. I am so excited to see where life takes you! I know you’ll do great things!
MaryClaire’s Experience with Sonnenblume
My experience with Sonnenblume studios was spectacularly awesome. … I emailed Sonnenblume studios and Gabby emailed me back and I talked to her and told her that I had a disability and I said that some of the time I can be insecure about my self because of my illness and people making fun of me and I said I wanted to have the best experience of my lifetime so I told my mom that we had to go to a coffee shop before we could continue with our grad photo investment. After we met with Gabby my mother said to me, “is this what you want to do?” and I told her “yes.” When It was time for pictures we got a couple of clothes and we were off on a hot summers day. First I had to get ready so we had an appointment with Kate and Nicolby at Tangerine Salon for a day of getting pampered with hair and makeup. We thought we wouldn't make it because we got lost but we made safe and sound. I got pampered and then Gabby came in to check on me and how I was doing. Our first location was down in the Haymarket. Everywhere we went, Gabby said that I looked so cute and I had awesome pictures. She was incredibly ecstatic with the idea to go down by where I go to practice for my special needs cheerleading competition team and take pictures by my gym. Our last location was in a park there we took pictures of one of my greatest accomplishments: my three gold medals that I won at the special olympics! We took a lot of sassy pics with those, but also other photos there without my medals.
MaryClaire, this next part makes me giggle, because it’s the perfect example of you just telling it like it is - “Even though me and my mom were getting sick of Gabby because it was like a trillion degrees out that day and we went to like a trillion locations and it felt like we kept going and going and it wouldn't stop, I had so much fun. By the end of the day it felt like I was a princess.” You and your mom were such troopers in the heat!
I knew I had made the right decision when it got to the day of the sneak peek. The nice kind words that Gabby said on the post made me feel that it was even more of a special experience. So overall, my experience was superb. And I could also see how much dedication and hard work you put into your products and what we received was of incredible quality and was a lot more than what I had imagined. So thank you for giving me the time of my life and giving me a time to remember and thank you for just being awesome!
Senior year is an exciting time in life. You are in the stages of of defining who you are, deciding what you want to be, and where you want to go in life. You've got personality, and dreams, and so much potential. Your world will change so much in the next year, so as you get ready to move on to the next big thing in life, it is important to commemorate who you are right now.
This year, I’m looking to put together a model team! I’m searching for current juniors who will be graduation in the Class of 2020 who have souls that are full of adventure, and hearts full of happiness! Being a Sonnenblume Senior Model is all about sharing who you are, spreading your story and your message for the world, earning some cash and having fun while you do it!
What being a Senior Model entails:
Be Famous! You will become the face of Sonnenblume Senior Marketing!
Two Free Sessions! - One in March, and one in June or July
Share your favorite pictures with your friends and get their opinions - Collect Names!
Meet with me weekly to share your results
Hand out session offers to your friends!
Earn $5 Print Credit for every name you collect
Earn $15 Cash for every referral who books a senior session with Sonnenblume!
Fun Styled Shoots throughout the year
Fun get togethers with the model team throughout the summer!
Senior Model with the most referrals will win a Grand Prize: FREE Limousine Service and professional pictures for your Senior Prom!
Runner up will win $50 towards professional hair or a tux rental for your Senior Prom!
Ready to Join the Team?
Follow Along
Project Senior | Katelyn S. | Pius X
“Even though it was like a million degrees out that day I had so much fun. By the end of the day it felt like we were all pals and I loved it.”
Meet Katelyn.
Katelyn is a music loving, book reading, beautiful and inspiring senior at Piux X High School in Lincoln, where she lives with her Mom, Dad, and two younger siblings. At school, she is involved in band and choir. She has played French Horn for about eight years, the Mellophone and piano for about four years, and most recently, has picked up the violin. Music is something that Katelyn just can’t get enough of, so when she goes to the University of Nebraska Lincoln this fall, she is going to audition for the marching band!
I whole-heartedly believe that Katelyn’s love for music will be a part of her for the rest of her life. I can totally see her rocking her dream job of being in a composers orchestra!
When I asked Katelyn what inspires her, she had a lot of answers. The general consensus though was that it’s people who inspire her. People like famous composers because they can do the things with music that she dreams of doing. People like her parents and her teachers because they are kind, and selfless, and encouraging, and hard working; all the things that make great role models. People like her boyfriend and friends because they each teach her a little something about life. Things like speaking your mind even when its hard, working hard but still finding the time to enjoy life, always trying your best, and standing up for what you believe.
If we can all take one lesson from Katelyn, I think it’s the importance of surrounding yourself with people who inspire you, teach you something by the way they live, and build you up. How lucky is this girl to have so many inspiring people in her life! I think we can also learn a little something about how Katelyn wants to help change the world. It’s not some grand plan to cure a disease. It’s better than that. It’s all about spreading love. “I know I may not be the type of person to make a difference that will be apparent world or nation wide. However, I do want to make a difference in my everyday life by making those around me smile and helping them when they need someone by their side most. Whoever, whenever someone needs me I plan to be there. I want to make a difference in any little way I can and hopefully those little things will add up.” Day by day, one smile at a time, you will absolutely change the world, Katelyn!
I am so excited to see where Katelyn’s life journey will take her. Ten years from now, she hopes to be married and maybe even have a couple of little ones. She hopes to have found a career where she is able to do something she loves and do it every day. Despite the inevitable struggles, she knows she will be able to take them and not give up no matter what. While her dreams may change over the course of her life, she is so ready achieve each one as she goes! Most importantly, Katelyn just wants to be joyful in her everyday life. Now, if that’s not something to strive for, I don’t know what is. You’re one inspiring girl, Katelyn!
Kately’n Experience with Sonnenblume
My experience with Sonnenblume Studios was awesome. I am quite indecisive so I thought it was incredibly helpful when I told you some of my ideas and you were able to come up with locations, but how you also let me share what I thought would be good idea as well. Even though it was like a million degrees out that day I had so much fun. By the end of the day it felt like we were all pals and I loved it. I also thought it was super cool when you had an idea you wanted to try so you asked me if I would be open to trying it out with you. That is where we got the parachute pictures and they were awesome. So overall my experience was amazing. And I could also see how much hard work you put into your products and what we received was of incredible quality and was a lot more than what I was expecting. So thank you for being awesome!
Senior year is an exciting time in life. You are in the stages of of defining who you are, deciding what you want to be, and where you want to go in life. You've got personality, and dreams, and so much potential. Your world will change so much in the next year, so as you get ready to move on to the next big thing in life, it is important to commemorate who you are right now.
This year, I’m looking to put together a model team! I’m searching for current juniors who will be graduation in the Class of 2020 who have souls that are full of adventure, and hearts full of happiness! Being a Sonnenblume Senior Model is all about sharing who you are, spreading your story and your message for the world, earning some cash and having fun while you do it!
What being a Senior Model entails:
Be Famous! You will become the face of Sonnenblume Senior Marketing!
Two Free Sessions! - One in March, and one in June or July
Share your favorite pictures with your friends and get their opinions - Collect Names!
Meet with me weekly to share your results
Hand out session offers to your friends!
Earn $5 Print Credit for every name you collect
Earn $15 Cash for every referral who books a senior session with Sonnenblume!
Fun Styled Shoots throughout the year
Fun get togethers with the model team throughout the summer!
Senior Model with the most referrals will win a Grand Prize: FREE Limousine Service and professional pictures for your Senior Prom!
Runner up will win $50 towards professional hair or a tux rental for your Senior Prom!
Ready to Join the Team?
Follow Along
7 Reasons to Celebrate your Love with a Photoshoot
“Gabby is amazing at what she does! ... With my fiancé and I, she definitely captured the love between us! The pictures turned out amazing!”
February is a month that makes us take a step back and think about Love. It takes on so many different forms. We love our parents and our siblings in a way that only family can. We love our kids. We love our dogs like they are our kids. (let’s be real, they are just furry kids, and sometimes we even spoil them more than the human variety). We love our friends, we have love for the things we do and the places we go, and we try our best to love ourselves.
We love all these people and all these places, but this month, it’s time to celebrate being IN love. It’s for the best friends that became life long lovers, the one person you can’t imagine life without, the soulmates. It’s for those who choose to love each other with all their hearts, every. single. day.
No matter where you are on this journey call life, you’re doing it together. Your story deserves to be told, your love celebrated. So do it! Celebrate the love that brings you laughter when you need it, dance parties in the kitchen, late night conversations, a life full of adventure, and a heart full of happiness.
Here are the top 7 reasons to remember your love exactly as it is. Right here. Right now.
Photo Courtesy of Corey Rourke Photography
1) You’re Dating!
Your story doesn’t start with your engagement. It starts the moment you meet. It’s the awkward flirting and the first kiss, the excitement you feel when you get to spend time together, it’s the road trips and adventures, the fun times and the hard times. It’s everything that has brought you together, and it’s everything that has kept you together. Your story is about how you fill each other’s souls with fire and hearts with love. That’s a story worth telling.
Ethan and I have been dating for 6 years, and other than a couple shots during family pictures, and some snapshots here and there, we never took the time to actually have our pictures taken together. We waited 6 YEARS to finally celebrate our journey together and document it properly, and I cannot tell you enough how much I wish we’d done it sooner!
Photo Courtesy of Corey Rourke Photography
2) You’re Engaged!
This is a huge milestone in your relationship. You’ve decided that this person you love is, without a shadow of a doubt, the person that you want to spend the rest of your life adventuring with. This is the person you want laugh with and cry with, build a life with, and side by side, take on the world with.
Even if you already have had engagement pictures taken, or you plan to have them taken soon, a mini session in February is a fun way to celebrate, especially if you JUST got engaged and you haven’t picked out your wedding photographer yet! Plus, you’ll need lots of pictures to decorate your home with each season!
3) You’re Newly Married!
You did it! You got married! It’s been a whole year, or a few months, or maybe even just a couple weeks, but oh, what an amazing time it’s been, taking on this wild world with your best friend by your side. There’s simply nothing better! Document how your love has grown and how your story has evolved since the big day! Besides, fun dates are still important!
4) You’re Celebrating a Big Anniversary!
Maybe you’ve been married for awhile now! 5 years, 10 years, 20, 25, 35, 43, 50, 62, whatever the number, it’s a milestone, and every milestone is worth celebrating! With each passing year, your lives change and your love grows. You happily welcome new members to your family, you unwillingly say goodbye to others. Babies, grand-babies, fur-babies. You buy your first house, move across the country, change jobs, start a business… whatever life takes you, you’re on this adventure together, and every part of that journey is worth commemorating!
5) You’re Expecting a Baby!
A really fun reason to do a couples photoshoot is that you’re expecting a baby! Maternity sessions are all about your love and this new little love you’ve created. You guys made a baby! CELEBRATE that!!
6) You’re Settling into an Empty Nest
All the kids are gone. You’ve raised them to be incredible humans, and now they’re off building their own lives, remembering the things you taught them. You’re settling into the quiet, into the slower pace of things, and getting used to it being just the two of you again. Its the perfect time for a photo date to reconnect to who you were before kids and remember all the little things that made you fall in love.
5) Just Because, You’re In Love!
There’s no right or wrong reason to couples photoshoot. It’s all about celebrating the fact that you have your person. You have your person, you love your person, and your person loves you back. Cherish that and Celebrate that!
Bottom line, cherish this love with the time you have. You’ll never know how important these photographs truly are until they’re all you have left.
Are you thinking about your person and the love you share? Are you ready to celebrate that love!? Are you ready to give the perfect gift? Click below to get started!
Wildflowers are one of the most requested locations from my seniors. The thing about wildflowers is that they’re constantly changing. Different types of flowers are in bloom during different seasons or parts of the year, so If wildflowers of any kind are on your radar for your senior pictures, then this post is a must read!
Read on to learn when each type of flower is in bloom so you know when to book your senior pictures!