Sabrina Fields Photography » Photographer of New Beginnings

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Birthday Giveaway! | Threads by Nomad

How in the world I’m 37 years old today completely baffles me… mainly because I don’t FEEL like I’m 37.  Most days I feel like I should still be in high school or college or at the least in my late 20s.  But then I look in the mirror, see the plethora of grey hairs that desperately need to be covered up, have a few flashbacks to how long ago high school actually was and remember that yes, I’m definitely knocking on the door of having been in this world for 4 decades.  It’s crazy!

But honestly, the older I get, the more I enjoy life.  And one of those reasons is because of new ideas that pop up, new projects that come about, and getting to see friends and family come into these areas of their lives because it’s exactly where God intended for them to be all along!  It’s such a beautiful thing.  Which brings me to this year’s birthday giveaway!!

Some of you may not know that when I graduated from Clemson, I packed up a couple suitcases and moved to Brussels, Belgium to live and work alongside some missionaries and their two teenage kids.  Well, after that move almost 13 years ago, this family has actually become my family.  I’ve photographed them several times since turning this into my profession, including both of the weddings of those former teenagers (you can see Christen’s wedding HERE and Brandon’s wedding HERE).

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What seems like not that long ago, Nell and Christen traveled back to Senegal with several others where they lived and served when Christen was a little girl.  And while they were on that trip, God began planting the seed for these two amazing women to start a clothing company.  Never would either of them have believed things would have fallen the way they have, but both of them have been suited for this for at least as long as I’ve known them.  So, after much thought and planning and prayer (lots of prayer!), they launched a Kickstarted campaign to raise the initial funds to begin this business.

But it’s not just a clothing business… here’s what they’re about (from their website): Our clothing and designs represent women across the world. Through the recognition of all women as beautiful, Threads by Nomad sources fabric from across the globe, employs refugees in the United States, and provides an avenue for micro-enterprise entrepreneurs worldwide to sell their creations.

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This clutch is so perfect but you should also check out the 2017 spring/summer line on their website: ThreadsByNomad.com

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So, this year’s giveaway isn’t just support two amazing women in my family, but to support refugees here in the states and entrepreneurs across the globe.  Not only that, but this beautiful and fun clutch isn’t even on their website yet!!  Two more colors will be available next month so while the winner won’t actually receive their clutch for several weeks, they’ll soon have the chance to choose another color scheme if they’d like to!

So, PLEASE check out Threads by Nomad’s site, follow them on social media (Facebook and Instagram) and enter to win by using the Rafflecopter entry form below.  The winner will be announced on Friday!
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Kyle Jennings - October 26, 2016 - 8:31 am

I am in LOVE with Christen and her mom’s work on Threads by Nomad – I’ve been following along over the past couple of months and I am so excited to see where it takes them. The part of their story that gets me the most, though, is the fact that their work is supporting refugees. It’s a creative extension of missionary work and I think it’s absolutely beautiful.

Rock on, Threads by Nomad!

Stacy - October 26, 2016 - 8:34 am

Enjoy following you Sabrina:) and love the clutch. Glad to know about this company!!

Anna - October 26, 2016 - 8:43 am

Happy birthday Sabrina! I’m glad I’ve known you 5+ of your almost 4 decades ;) You’re awesome!

Amanda Chalke - October 26, 2016 - 9:09 am

Happy Birthday Sabrina!! Hope your day is blessed!

Gabby Anderson - October 26, 2016 - 9:45 am

I love the dress

Susanna - October 26, 2016 - 9:46 am

Happy Birthday, Sabrina!! Hope you have a wonderful day! I love how you choose to promote awesome companies like this one, especially on your birthday! I really love the blue and white striped peplum top I saw on their Facebook page :) looks like this company is doing some really awesome things.

Aida Torabi - October 26, 2016 - 9:57 am

Happy Birthday :)

Leslie - October 26, 2016 - 9:59 am

Happy Birthday Sabrina! I’m not even going to comment on how long I’ve known you! :)

Liz - October 26, 2016 - 10:22 am

Happy Birthday!! I hope it’s a spectacular one.

Ginny Rexroad - October 26, 2016 - 10:28 am

Happy Birthday to you!!! :) Love the clutch.

Dara - October 26, 2016 - 11:59 am

Love Threads by Nomad!

Kadie Freeman - October 26, 2016 - 3:25 pm

Happiest of Birthdays sweet Sabrina!! I love following your blog and seeing what is happening with you all! Cannot wait to see you guys again and meet sweet baby Isabella!!

Kelly - October 26, 2016 - 10:26 pm

Happy Birthday Sabrina! Hope you had a beautiful day!!! XO

Grace Custer - October 27, 2016 - 12:03 pm

I love that you give things away your birthday week and it is also a fun way to get the word out about some great ministries.

Joanna - October 27, 2016 - 12:55 pm

Very cool story and clutch!! Means so much more when you know the story and people behind it!!

Susan - October 27, 2016 - 3:19 pm

How kind of you to offer the giveaway of this great clutch!

JoEllen Delamatta - October 27, 2016 - 4:40 pm

Love this clutch design! What a cool story! Indeed the Greens have been “family” to many across this planet!!!

Rebecca Hicks | Sabrina Fields Photography - October 28, 2016 - 10:17 am

[…] finally… the winner of this year’s birthday giveaway is Kelly M!  Congrats, girl!  I’ll be in touch soon […]

Monday Musings | Pumpkin Carving

Every year since Ben and I met, we’ve gone to our friends’ house to carve pumpkins.  Sometimes we’ll have dinner, sometimes it’s just coffee and dessert, but we always take over their dining room table with pumpkins, carving tools and two bowls – one for seeds and one for the rest of the guts!

Well, last year we didn’t actually make it over there (I’m going to blame Catherine only being 8 months old) so we were really glad to resume the tradition this year!

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David, this sweet girl’s dad, may have stolen my camera for some shots too :-)

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This was mine!  I tend to go for the easier designs.

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And Catherine decided she wanted to help her papa with his… she was such a cute little worker!

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Until she got super sad because it was so far past her bed time ;-)

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Ben always seems to go for the crazy complicated designs… but as he said, Yoda never looked so good!

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For those curious about settings: ISO 3200, f2.2, 1/80 and I was using my 35mm 1.8 lens.

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For this one with Catherine, I jumped the ISO up to 6400 and my shutter up to 1/100 while Ben used the flashlight on his phone for some off camera lighting :-)

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The Bridal Guide for Sabrina Fields Brides

Part of me still can’t believe it.  Even though I’ve held it in my hand, flipped through it multiple times, shipped several off to my 2017 brides and hand delivered a few, it’s so hard to believe that my bridal guide is actually here!  It’s been printed.  It’s an actual magazine.  And I hope and pray that it’s one of the most helpful things I’m able to give my future brides. weddingplanning-bridalguide-sabrinabrides-101

Wedding planning is no joke.  And even if you work in the wedding industry, when it comes to planning your own wedding, there are all kinds of things that pop up that people don’t tell you about beforehand!  Namely, ALL the emotions and the stress that come with planning one of the most important days of your life.  It’s probably better that nothing is said because who wants to ruin the excitement of an engagement with things like how stressful planning a huge party for all of your friends and family will be??  No one.

So, when a bride comes to me, I love being able to help calm her and redirect her attention to why she’s doing all of this in the first place… and that’s when I point to her man sitting next to her :-)  A wedding is an experience to be remembered for a lifetime because it’s the beginning of a new family – YOUR new family!  And that’s an incredible and wonderful time… but a lot of planning has to happen before we get to that day. weddingplanning-bridalguide-sabrinabrides-105

And that’s what I hope this bridal guide can help with.  Thanks to Katelyn James and her incredible design skills and generosity, her Bridal Guide template became the bones for what my brides will receive soon after they book me.  Yes, they’ll see well over 125 photos from weddings and engagement sessions that I’ve photographed, but even better, they’ll be able to read about what to expect at an engagement session, they’ll already have a sample timeline of a wedding day, my brides will get to see and read about exactly what they need for photos on the day of their wedding and (as cheesy as it is to say this), there’s SO much more!

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I have so many favorite spreads in this bridal guide, but the ones with detail photos rank high up there.  Partly because it can be DIFFICULT to go through 7 years worth of weddings to find detail shots that work together!  Granted, in the spread below, all the images are from the same wedding so that was easier, but try sorting through 7 years worth of family photos to only choose a handful.  And then, make sure they coordinate with colors as well as finding a mix of up close and wide shots.  It’s like fitting a puzzle of 10 pieces together when you actually have thousands of pieces to choose from!  Seriously, if my brides didn’t have such beautiful weddings, this guide would have been finished in about a week’s time ;-)

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There are lots of things to think of when it comes to THE day, especially when it comes to photos.  But handing this over to my brides early in their engagement will give them a lead on their planning and what needs to happen!  I’m always here as a resource and I love answering questions to help relieve stress at any point during their engagement.  But having this in hand – especially to be able to share it with her fiancé and mom! – will be such a big help.

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This guide would NOT have happened if not for so many people… so, here’s my version of my Academy Awards thank you speech :-)
First, thank you to all of my brides who have trusted me with capturing their wedding days.  YOU are the ones who not only grace the pages of this magazine but you have helped me learn and grow and know how to help future brides with their weddings.  I’ve already said thanks to Katelyn (about a dozen times!), but seriously, I’m not a designer so if she hadn’t had this template, this guide literally would not be in existence for me.  Thank you to all of the talented photographers who have guided me, helped me, led me, taught me, directed me and trusted me to shoot with them as well as the ones who have second shot with me over the years.  Your influence, ideas and wisdom have been VITAL in my business and where God has brought me since day 1.  Many thanks to all of the vendors who have made each wedding day SO special and beautiful… the coordinators, the florists, the bands, the DJs, the venues, the caterers, the rental companies, the videographers, the cake artists, the make-up and hair artists as well as the designers and dress makers!  It takes a ton of people to make a wedding happen and half of these photos wouldn’t be as pretty as they are without each of these vendors.  Thank you to Morgan, one of my precious brides, who helped with edits and catching my typos before going to print!  And thank you especially to my husband who is always my biggest cheerleader when it comes to my photography and any projects I try to tackle. He’s such a big part of this business and there’s no way it would still be running without him and everything he does behind the scenes (mostly encouraging me) :-)

And to all of my 2017 brides, I’m THRILLED that you’ll be the first ones to have this in your hands!  There will be updated versions as the years go by, but with this being the very first one, I’m more excited to get these to you than I ever dreamed!  So, I hope you enjoy it and that it helps your overall wedding experience as you get ready to walk down the aisle and say “I do” to the man of your dreams!

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Clemson Homecoming 2016

It was 5 or 6 years ago that Ben and I last went to homecoming in Clemson, which means we were either dating or engaged.  And that means a LOT of life has happened since the last time we were there!  Since neither one of us had a wedding, we packed up the car and took Catherine to Clemson for the morning to see the floats on Bowman field and meet up with some friends.

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Her favorite part of the day was just being out of her stroller and wandering around!

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We missed lots of photos with lots of people we loved getting to see, but we did get a couple… Catherine’s babysitter last year is a freshman at Clemson so we met up with her and got to catch up a little bit in front of her sorority’s float!  Allie, we love you!

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And then she took of photo of us :-)  Even though Catherine wouldn’t smile, I promise she had fun!

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The floats were SO good this year!  So impressive.

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A smile!!

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The little baby is so picky about when she will get up after falling down.
If it’s in grass, she usually asks for a helping (princess) hand!

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We made our way across campus and this was when we realized HOW tired she was!  Oh my goodness, it’s amazing how much these littles need naps during the day.  But if there’s anything at all going on, she will NOT go to sleep!

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We didn’t get to spend much time with our Clemsongang girls because of the noon kickoff,
but it was SO good to see them and some of the kids!

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As we walked back to the car, I realized this is one of the (maybe) two times I’ve been outside the stadium when a game has started.

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But it was still fun to be there and feel the crowd outside the gates!

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We ran into my old roommie, Lindsay, and her family as we were crossing back over Bowman :-)
(who I failed to get a photo with. #friendfail #photographerfail)

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One last photo of us at the floats (since everyone else was at the game!)… Thanks for getting a photo of us, Lindz!

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Kayla + Nick | A Dutch Barn Wedding | Greer, SC

The tears were bound to come.  So many people from two different worlds had watched Kayla and Nick grow up into two of the most amazingly wonderful and godly people.  And when God is at work, it’s impossible to hold the tears back!

Hurricane Matthew was coming across the coast last weekend and we weren’t sure just how it was going to affect Kayla and Nick’s wedding in the upstate of South Carolina, but everyone was game for anything.  Because at the end of the day, these two were going to be husband and wife!  And you know what?  We had about 20 seconds of mist the day of their wedding, beautifully overcast skies before the ceremony and then, as family was gathering for photos before the reception, the sun broke through the clouds for a gorgeous evening filled with dancing and dining!

And those tears?  They were all happy ones, trust me.  I shed quite a few myself… and I’d like to blame it on this pregnancy, but since I bawled like a baby when Nick proposed to Kayla at the end of last year, I can’t blame the tears on the baby this time :-)  And now I’m tearing up again just thinking about their wedding day!  These two chose to see each other before the ceremony and when you see the photos from their First Look, you may shed a tear too.  They were both so happy that this day was here, that God was bringing them together as one and they couldn’t hold back their emotions either.

But it didn’t take long for those tears of joy to turn into laughter!  Kayla and Nick, you guys are amazing and I loved every minute of your day.  I hope you enjoy reliving it through these photos and that your first week as husband and wife is more than you could have imagined!

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Their wedding was definitely a labor of love by their families – and it was beautiful!
Nick’s dad made this box for their wedding bands and for the ring bearer to carry them down the aisle. Isn’t it amazing??

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Gah!  I love these!

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And the florals?  Kayla’s grandmother did all of them!!

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Daddy/Daughter First Looks always get me too…

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All of these fall colors totally had my heart!  So gorgeous, you guys!

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Their ceremony was at the Dutch Barn in Greer and again, their families set everything up the week before.  Isn’t it beautiful??

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Married!!

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Oh my heavens, I love this black and white one!

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No, Nick wasn’t feeding Kayla one of the flowers :-)  Kayla prefers Sweedish fish over cake so she took a bite of that while he tasted the cake!

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I was hoping ALL week long that the sun would peek out for just a little bit during golden hour so we could get some beautiful portraits of these two… and oh my goodness was it golden!!  I could have stayed out there for hours!

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Many thanks to the friends, family and vendors who made Kayla and Nick’s wedding so gorgeous!

Ceremony & Reception | The Dutch Barn
Wedding Dress | Dimitra Designs
Bridesmaid’s Dresses | Dimitra Designs

Invitations | Kayla, the bride!
Groomsman Suits | Kohl’s
Wedding Director |Ginger Parks
Makeup Artist |Kelli Winchell, the bride’s aunt
Hair Artist | Kayla of Tinsley & Co. Salon
Florist | Delia Pellegrino, bride’s grandmother
DJ | Joe Clarey

Catering | Holmes Catering
Cake Artist | Darla Bernath, family friend

Jill Pfister - October 13, 2016 - 3:55 pm

I loooooove these! I wish I could have been there. They’re all so beautiful. :)

Deb Vaneffen - October 19, 2016 - 1:25 pm

Ohhhhhh Soooooo beautiful!!!!