Some of you may remember Preston, the actor from LA whose headshots I photographed awhile back (as well as his twin brother Drew, whose wedding I shot a couple months ago). I was extremely disappointed that I couldn’t photograph Preston’s wedding, since I pretty much love the entire Jones family, but I at least managed to get in a quick last-minute engagement session a few days before their wedding. Preston and Ashley wanted to do something similar to Sarah and Drew’s engagement session, so we headed to a local park here in Frisco to enjoy the beautiful summer weather.

We started off easy with a simple, relaxed portrait (see? I know how to take normal, smile-at-the-camera photos!)

And we found Frisco’s largest playground, which of course meant having a little fun!

Getting a little more dramatic and romantic..

It had been raining all day, so I brought along a few umbrellas just in case, but luckily for us, the sun came out about halfway through the session, so I decided to get a little creative with the umbrella! The photo on the left was inspired by the lovely and talented Susan Yee - Check her out!

Based on how dreary and gloomy it was all day, I can’t believe we managed to get these gorgeous skies at just the right time!

And last but not least, I looooooove my flare!

I had so many great images from this session, I decided to do a slideshow! It takes a bit to load, but definitely give it a shot, it is so fun to watch! I used my new favorite song, Jason Mraz’s I’m Yours, which is also being featured on my new website right now.

Preston and Ashley, thanks for making the two hour trek up here to hang out with me! I’m so glad I got the chance to shoot you both, even if I couldn’t make it to the wedding. Have fun on the honeymoon!

Last week Jason was seriously under the weather with some sort of weird bug, and sure enough, the nasty little virus found its way to me. Thankfully it at least waited until after my (amazing, awesome, unique, super-cool) wedding last weekend, and even more thankfully, that was my last wedding for a full month! So I at least have time to relax

I know Humpdates have been pretty boring recently.. Last weekend’s wedding was #7 in a row for me, so basically I have not had any time to do anything but edit and blog (and lately, cough and sneeze). I promise that this month, things are going to be much more fun! I have an awesome trip planned out for next weekend, and a few other fun surprises coming up, so Humpdates will soon be interesting again

Here is a fun fact about me that many of you may not know: I am clinically OBSESSED with reality TV shows. I love them. Virtually all of the TV I watch is some form of reality and/or game show. I have always been an avid people watcher, and reality TV has basically made it so much easier to peek in on the lives of other people and see what makes them tick. Right now I am really loving:

Legally Blonde: The Search for Elle Woods - Ever since my trip to NYC, I have been completely obsessed with all things Broadway. Those people are so talented and so dedicated! It’s really fascinating to get a behind-the-scenes look at what goes into being a Broadway star. I totally have a girl crush on Bailey, she is so cute!

So You Think You Can Dance - Simply amazing. I never thought dance was all that interesting until I followed this show last season. It’s hard to pick a favorite, they are all fantastic, but I think I’m secretly pulling for Twitch

The Mole - Although I will admit that this is one terrible show, it’s really really interesting how people react when they are in a constant state of paranoia. When we’re put in a group of new people, it’s human nature to find someone you click with and form a bond with them, but on this show, you can never 100% trust anyone.

Okay, I need to get back to work, but I am posting an awesome engagement session later today.  Stay tuned!

Anyone who reads this blog at all will know that I shoot a lot - A LOT - of Aggie weddings (for those of you who have not had the pleasure of living in Texas, an Aggie is a student/former student/fan of Texas A&M University, Texas’ first and best public university).  The other day I actually sat down and calculated it out, and 85% of the weddings I have shot have had either an Aggie bride, Aggie groom, or both.  However, very few of the weddings have been as “redass” (Aggie term meaning “spirited”) as Julie and Jeff’s.  Julie and I met at A&M in an organization called “Freshman Aggies Spreading Traditions,” otherwise known as FAST, an group dedicated to teaching new freshmen about school spirit and traditions.  Jeff was a member of A&M’s pride and origin, the Corps of Cadets, Julie’s brother is a player on the Fightin’ Texas Aggie football team, and most of the bridesmaids and groomsmen were also Aggies, as well.  There is nothing that brings me more joy in life than spending a day with my fellow Ags, so you can imagine how excited I was for this wedding!

I knew it was going to be a great day when I showed up and realized this was the ceremony location…

Can you guess what the wedding colors were?

I found my Mini Me!!!

What would a blog post be without the ring shots?

And now finally onto the good stuff.. Some of Julie’s bridesmaids are avid readers of the blog, so I know they have been anxiously awaiting seeing themselves here.  Here you go, girls - looking good!  Work that laugh!

They may look classy and elegant, but these girls can rock out, too!

Can’t forget the sexy boys (and the photo that almost got us kicked out!)

Another special request.. the “mafia shot”

Julie and Jeff opted to do a “First Look,” which worked out perfectly with the lovely weather and gorgeous location.  We snuck out to a private garden, stepped back and gave these two some private (well, semi-private) moments together.

The photo on the left is probably my favorite photo of the day.  Julie and Jeff are such happy, friendly people, and they’re SO in love, I really think that photo just sums them up so well.

Jake got this awesome shot through some tree branches.. That’s why I keep him around! 

A few more.. I just love this location!  Everywhere I turned was another cool photo op!

One of my favorite wedding party shots to date.. It’s so nice when we can get out of the chapel and do something colorful and different!

Even though we had been shooting for hours, the day had barely begun. We still had to get these two married!  Here is Julie tucked away with her dad…

And Jeff, so happy to be seeing his wife-to-be coming to meet him at the altar!

Beautiful church!

Since we had already finished almost all of the photos before the ceremony, afterwards we took a few quick family photos and headed to the reception, which was held at one of my favorite venues - Mediterranean Villa!

Mr. and Mrs. Cash got the party off to a great start with a fun entrance!

Their first dance, surrounded by friends and family

I am not even remotely exaggerating when I say that this wedding had some of the most animated dancers I have ever seen.  It was SOOO hard for me to go through the proofs, because I had so many hilarious, awesome dancing photos.  I had to show off a few of my favorites!

Random side note: Jeff is one of the few grooms that I have seen really get into the reception of his weddings.  A lot of grooms spend most of the time sitting on the side, talking to friends or catching up with relatives, content to let their wives boogie down on the dance floor, but Jeff truly gave Julie a run for her money.  He was out there having fun and getting down with the best of them.  I think it really turned the party up a notch.  Grooms, take a lesson from Jeff - it’s YOUR wedding reception, get on that dance floor and enjoy it!

Julie and Jeff, I had the best time with the two of you.  Your wedding was one of the most beautiful I have had the pleasure of being a part of - beautiful locations, beautiful weather, beautiful decor, beautiful wedding party, and of course, beautiful couple!  :)  Your love for each other is so strong and genuine, it’s really inspiring to see, even for someone like me who sees couples in love every day.  I am so thankful that I got to be a part of your wedding!

Carrie and Preston are easily two of the most fun clients I have ever had. I have been blessed to work with some really awesome people (no Bridezillas yet - knock on wood!), but few people I know have been able to make me laugh as hard as these two. Their smiles and laughter are infectious, it’s really impossible to be around them and not have a good time. So, when they asked me to fly with them to New York City for a destination portrait session, even my fear of flying couldn’t keep me from saying yes!

Here are some of my favorites from the trip:

We started off in Central Park, which I thought would be cheesy, but it actually turned out to be fantastic for photos. There are so many neat areas with cool and unusual architecture, I could have shot there all day! I really loved how you could see the city peeking in through the tree branches.

We found this neat Roman-esque area by the fountains.

Getting romantic

One of my favorite shots of the day.. I’m not sure why, I just love it!

See what I mean about these two being hilarious? Preston had to get in on the dipping action, too!

Then we hit the subway…

And headed to the Brooklyn Bridge!

Finally it was time to finish up at one of my new favorite places in the world, the heart of New York City, Times Square!

Carrie and Preston, thank you so much for hanging out with me and helping me to see the gloriousness that is New York City for the very first time.  You guys are a BLAST to hang out with, I am so so excited about your wedding.  I can already tell I am going to have so much fun with you two!

If anyone out there is interested in doing a destination portrait session, send me an e-mail and let me know.  I travel worldwide, and destination packages including my session fees, airfare, and hotel start at only $750 for select locations!  Where would you like to go? 

If you’re new to the blog, Humpdates are my weekly Wednesday updates about what’s going on in my personal life.

Not much to share for Humpdates this week.  Last week was all about Darbi & Neil!  I will share more about this couple when I post their wedding next week, but they are two really awesome people, and I have a lot of fun stories about their wedding to share.

Surprisingly enough, Nebraska was a really cool place.. The weather was wonderful - warm and sunny, but with a nice cool breeze - and the landscapes were beautiful, greenery everywhere!  I didn’t have high hopes for Omaha, but I was definitely pleasantly surprised.  The only disappointment was that the place where the rehearsal dinner was held, DJ’s Dugout, had every single Big 12 team’s logo painted on the window - EXCEPT A&M!  How weak is that?? 

On my final flight back to Dallas (I had four total - UGH), I mentioned to the flight attendant that I was a white-knuckle flyer, and she was going on and on about how safe it was and how there was nothing to worry about, when suddenly the pilot came on the PA system and announced that there was an emergency, and everyone needed to take their seats and secure themselves immediately.  I started having flashbacks to my flight in China where the plane began to freefall in mid-air, which is what really started my fear of flying.  Luckily, the only “emergency” was some mild turbulence, but I think the stress of that flight took a good five years off my life!

Needless to say, I am happy to be back in Dallas, with no plane rides in my future for over a month, although I will be road trippin’ it to Arkansas and Louisiana before I head out to Puerta Plata for Nikole and Chris’ wedding!

I am booking 09 like crazy, which is really exciting.  I am actually almost full for the first third of 2009!  I will be raising my rates in about a month, so if you’d like to get in on the 2008 rates, inquire ASAP!

I have two engagement sessions, two weddings, a bridal, and a Day After session to post, so keep watching the blog, there is a lot of fun stuff to share this week!

Hello from Omaha!  This place is swarming with baseball fans from all over the country for the College World Series, but the REAL big event was Darbi & Neil’s wedding last night!  It was so beautiful, I had so much fun with them and I have a ton of stories to share, but that will have to wait a bit until I get the many, many photos edited!

I did want to share something with you all though.. At yesterday’s wedding, the shutter on my camera died, the autofocus on my most-used lens died, a flash went on the fritz, and we had a memory card go bad on us.

I am happy to report that none of these things interrupted the wedding day coverage AT ALL!  Whew!  We didn’t miss a beat, and we have a wealth of fantastic, beautiful images from throughout the day.  The reason for this is that we came prepared with backup cameras, many many lenses, backup flashes, and TONS of memory cards.  If we had not had backups in virtually every aspect of equipment, yesterday would have been a very tragic disaster, as there would have been parts of Darbi and Neil’s wedding we would not have been able to cover.

If you are a photographer, and you do not have backups for EVERYTHING (and possibly even backups for your backups), you should not be shooting weddings.  If you are a bride, you need to be absolutely 100% sure that your photographer has at least one backup camera, several lenses, a backup flash, extra batteries, and more memory cards than they could ever possibly use.  If your photographer is not equipped with this, you might want to rethink signing a contract with them.

In the future I’m going to post a lot of “Tips for Brides” and “Tips for Photographers” but no tip I can give will ever be more important than this.  Hopefully it will be of use to some of you!

Now I am off to shoot Darbi & Neil’s Day After session.  They are both pretty smokin’ hot, so that will make my job super easy!  I’ll be back in the Big D on Tuesday!

No real humpdates this week because a) I have already shared my exciting news with you this week, and b) I am furiously trying to finish everything before I leave for Nebraska this weekend for Darbi and Neil’s wedding in Omaha!

Right now I am working on Julie & Jeff’s amazingly beautiful wedding from last weekend.. Do you ever have one of those days where you just feel “ON,” like everything you do is awesome? I feel like that with Julie and Jeff’s wedding.. Everything just worked out so perfectly that day, and the photos we got are incredible, I cannot wait to share them with you guys soon! In the meantime, here is a small sneak peek at a few of Julie’s bridals!

We shot these on a very very hot day at the Dallas Arboretum, and although it could not have been fun wandering around in the sun in a big, heavy dress, Julie was a total pro! Luckily we were able to shoot on a weekday (weekends at the Arboretum are insane, brides EVERYWHERE!), so for the most part, we had the place to ourselves. Here are a couple of my favorites: