Dressing up the Italian girl...

I think she's glad her folks went with "Elee."

Because the original option was Eliggia.   

It doesn't take long to figure out that Elee Edwards' mother didn't grow up around these parts.   A thick foreign accent accompanies a high energy voice as you converse with Antonella Edwards.   I was curious as to what the story was behind the senior girl... and being the inquiring mind that I am... I found out.

Mrs. Edwards is very much Italian.   From Catania, Italy to be exact.   Dark hair, strong willed and not afraid to speak her mind.  Turns out Elee's father met Antonella ("Toni") while in the Navy back in the day.   He eventually brought Toni to the states with him and the rest is history, as they say.

And part of that history was naming their daughter.  And when she was born, Toni informed me that she was originally going to be sure to be mispronouned Eliggia.  (The closest I can explain it would be like our "Elijah.")   

I took one look at our senior guest of honor and asked... "are you glad they went with Elee??"

Not surprisingly, Miss Edwards nodded and smiled.

So while the streets of Tama/Toledo are not NEAR the picturesque sights of old world Italy, we made our way there to get some urban flavor for Elee's rockin first outfit.   Toni promised me she'd send me pictures of her old hometown, and I jokingly told her that she shoulda flown us all over there for her daughter's senior session!   I thought it was a great idea!  Evidently the girls didn't want to spend their hard earned Hy-Vee paychecks to fly my overweight tookus over there.   The NERVE of some people!  :)

We returned back to Montour where we don't have any leaning towers... but we have plenty of old sheds whose frames are no longer straight and defying gravity... for the time being anyway.

Elee jumped in a cute little dress to go from edgey to super sweet and we successfully showed the other side of her personality.

The future pediatric nurse had one more request before her session would be complete however.   And in her words she just asked that her track picture needed to be "really intense."   I posted two images in her track uniform.  I'll let you be the judge of which one fulfilled her request.

For a variety of reasons, Elee's session was postponed a couple of times.   Finally in late August I got the oppotunity to meet her and her flavorful mom.   The best part of my job is meeting new people and finding out their stories and sharing them with all of you.   Thank you Team Edwards for your unique story and your choice to use my studio.   Lo apprezzo!!!