Wit, charm, kindness, and a love of adventure make up the perfect Southern Belle.

If you want to know where your heart is, look to where your mind goes when it wanders.

A friend is a gift; they are your needs met.  And if you ever find that you don’t need them, they were never a friend at all.

Southern Belles are sweeter than sweet tea, stronger than Tara’s foundation, with passion as fierce as a hurricane and love as deep as the Mississippi.  They only make women that way in the South.

For the longest time, I have wanted to share my actual passion with you all.  I know I have mentioned it a time or two, but I don’t think that my followers really know what it is that I do half the time when I am away from Lessons from a Southern Belle…

I am a photographer.  Legitimately!  In real life!  Above is one of my shots from a wedding I shot over Memorial Day weekend.  I do have my own business, accompanied with one of my best friends as my business partner. 

I love art…I always have.  I dreamed of finding a creative path and career my entire life.  I dabbled in music, writing, drawing, but when it came to photography, it caught my heart.  I never thought I could make it my lifelong career; in fact, I was told by a lot of people when I left my state university to go to art school that I would fail.

Belles (and beaus!), if I had to tell you all something that I learned along the way, I would tell you to follow your heart.  Never let anyone, not even those closest to you, dishearten you.  Never let anyone crush your dreams because they are attainable.  Nothing is too big, too far away, or impossible.

Never give up, stay to true to yourself, and remember that you only get out of life what you put into it.**

—-

**A quote from my dear, old dad.

Davis & Varney Wedding by Snaperture Art is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

When life is built around love, it can outlast death, because death is not the end.

You should always celebrate being in the presence of love.

Love; it will not betray you, dismay, or enslave you.  It will set you free.

A man should be proud to speak your name, to speak of you and love you. He should be proud to call you his, no matter the circumstance in which you met. And if he can’t do those things…well, honey, he isn’t worth it.

Sometimes, you need to just take that boy by the hands, pull him to you, and kiss him!  Being shy all the time isn’t going to get you anywhere—especially on Valentine’s Day! 

Although, we can all hope for Mr. Butler to come our way…