Sarah Mahen Photographers

You might remember our darling Nora Lynn from her birth portraits last month. I had the joy of doing some newborn pictures of her a couple weeks ago and had to share them with you! There have been LOTS of babies being born as of late, so brace yourself for an onslaught of baby blog posts. Personally, I couldn’t be more excited about it. Holding other people’s babies helps me fight off my own baby fever.

Nora is so tiny, and so adorable and well… so perfect. She is just the most beautiful little thing and I loved taking pictures of her while she was trying to decide if she was going to nap or not. When I see brand new babies it’s so hard to remember that my almost 2 year old was once that small (well… close to that small) and that she wasn’t always running around the house saying, “No Mama! I do it!” to just about everything. I think newborn portraits are important to mothers, especially about the time the child is two. They need to be able to remember the tininess of everything.

By the end of our shoot, Nora was ready to be left alone as you can tell from the image below.
Thanks again to Bethany and Mike for letting me photograph your too cute for words family! It is always a joy to be around you and your brood. We love you guys lots and lots!

Click the image below to start the slideshow

You might remember Karlene and Shawn’s AWESOME maternity session from a few weeks back. Well, their baby FINALLY joined us out here and he is just beautiful!

He was born at 6:55am Saturday morning and weighed in at a whopping 10 pounds, 8 ounces and is 21 inches long. After our wedding yesterday, Dustin and stopped by the hospital to see the sweet baby boy and OF COURSE photograph him!

A big congratulations to Karlene and Shawn on their new addition! We are SO excited for you! And we can’t wait for our LJ’s to start their band!

So Jen and Ed hold like a big place in my heart. I adore them in ways that I can’t even explain. There are no words for how perfect they are for each other, there are no words for how much love they have for each other, and there are no words to express how blessed Dustin and I felt to be a part of their wedding day. Jen and Ed are some of the most beautiful people I’ve ever known, and I just love them!
Jen and Ed got married in Lake Tahoe California where Jen spent many summers of her youth. Their ceremony was held at St. Theresa’s Church and then their reception was at Camp Sacramento. Jen and her family have been going there for ages, so it just seemed like the perfect place to celebrate. We started our day off at Camp Sac as well. I have to say, I give Jen mad props for getting ready for her wedding in a cabin. There were some last minute plan changes and Jen handled them so gracefully! But, in the end everything worked out perfectly!
I have a serious love for Jen’s flowers. Her fall inspired color palette was PERFECT for their September 6th wedding date.
Once hair and makeup were done, we jetted off to St. Theresa’s. What a cute church it is! I was a BIG fan of all the natural light. It was wonderful to watch Jen and Ed promise everything to each other. They had the most heartwarming readings, and then they read something they had written to their family and friends in honor of their wedding day. And yes, there were big fat tears on my part.

Once Jen and Ed were married it was time for some picture action! Dustin and I seriously enjoyed spending this time with Jen and Ed. We just adore these two! And I mean, are you kidding me? JEN IS SO GORGEOUS!!!


I just want to say how incredibly proud I am of Dustin for this next shot. He saw this, set it up, and executed it so wonderfully. He has grown so much as a photographer! It just makes my little heart burst with joy.
When we stopped at the Lake for some pictures we ran into a pack of puppies! We LOVE puppies so we HAD to do a little photo shoot with them!
Once picture time was over, it was grub time. The wedding was catered by Camp Sacramento and all I can say is YUM!!! It was seriously delicious. It’s camp tradition for the kids to ring the chow bell, but this time the bride and her ladies took care of it.
After grub it was off to dance the night away! Jen and Ed had a wonderful reception that went on into the night. There was dancing, eating, laughing, crying and all the rest. At the end of the night there was a campfire and smores and just a lot of people gathered around this couple they love so much. It was SUCH an honor to be there, and to witness all that love. I am just beyond grateful.


Jen and Ed we LOVE LOVE LOVE you so much! Thank you a million times over for letting us witness your wedding and your love for each other. You are both so special, and just amazing. We will miss you SO much when you’re both in Canada. We’ll just have to see how things go in Novemeber though… we just might be joining you. Thank you to your lovely family and friends for being so kind and generous to us too. We just adore everyone you know! Happy forever you two! We’re so happy you found each other!

Click the image below to start the slideshow