Do you know who that is hiding behind that beautiful bouquet of flowers? Yep!

that's me!

No, I didn't really always want to be a cover model. But, it was kind of fun.

As the theme is "JOURNEY", it seemed to encompass my story--all of our stories, really. But as Belong is my journey, having a presence on the cover seemed like just the right fit.

and the photographer?

That would be my incredible husband, Caleb. We actually met in the darkroom in college (back when there was actual film for cameras!) as we both were studying photography. But that's a story for another day (wink wink).

other cover details of interest...

Our cover shoot location was the glamorous backyard of my house--right next to the sandbox and standing on a step stool boosted with other mags.
The shirt that I'm wearing is from Evy's Tree who has a feature in this issue and is also a sponsor. I now own four of their button-ups and wear them all the time.
The bouquet is compliments of BloomThat. Their "brand guru" is sharing all the dirt on the branding journey in this issue. If you need to send flowers--this is THE place to turn to!
The bouquet paper wrap was a little project that I had fun with--I tried several different patterns, but ultimately chose the circles as they resembles the "O" in our logo.
I really wanted a shot where you could see my "be still" tattoo on my right wrist, but it just looked awkward so we nixed it.
Yes, I always wear my hair up in a bun. Always.
We took the shot with both a white background and a green background. The white was safe and soft and very insta-worthy, but the green just screamed at me. After consulting with FB friends who encouraged me to "go bold", I ended up choosing the green. I hope you love it as much as I do.