Today I’m introducing a new feature on my blog.. My marketing this year is all about my clients, showing off who Stacy Reeves Photography brides and grooms are.  Since my job is to take a couple and tell their love story through my eyes, this is a fun way of letting my blog readers into my world and showing off some of my favorite clients from years past.  It’s also a chance for me to show off some old photos that I still adore!

For the first Client Spotlight, I knew I wanted to feature Alex and Nick, because they have been such great supporters of me for so long.  They’ve been some of my most vocal referral sources (I can trace at least seven of my weddings this year back to them in some way).  Their Chicago engagement session was one of my first destination portrait sessions, which kick-started a part of my business that has now become incredibly popular.

Alex was also one of my first brides to brave the cold waters of Kemah for a Fearless Bridal session (also known as a Trash the Dress session, a trend that is huge up north but slowly gaining a presence down south).

Their wedding was featured in several wedding magazines, and to this day I still get referrals from people who somehow saw Alex and Nick’s wedding images and loved them.  I wish I could take the credit, but just look at these two – they made my job too easy!

About the Bride

Name: Alexandra Noelle (Olson) Luton
Birthplace: The Woman’s Hospital of Texas in Houston – which is also where Nick was born, and where I currently work as a nurse.
Current hometown: Houston
Education: B.S. in Microbiology from Texas A&M (2005) and B.S. in Nursing from UT Health Science Center in Houston (2007)
Job: Neonatal ICU Nurse
Hobbies: Decorating and home improvement. I’m also a fanatic for any kind of live music, and I especially love finding out about up-and-coming artists before anyone else does. And I could read In Style magazine for days on end, especially accompanied by a venti iced green tea (unsweet, please!) from Starbucks.
Favorite store: Anthropologie. It’s like a whole sensory experience.
Favorite song: Ever? “Let’s Stay Together” by Al Green
Favorite book and/or movie: Let’s go with movie — Juno
Favorite thing about your spouse: He only has one dimple, and his ears are the perfect shape. That’s probably not what you meant, though. Nick can literally accomplish anything he sets out to do – he embodies the greatest combination of desire, willpower, and luck I’ve ever seen. He doesn’t know the word “can’t”, and he’s so, so great at helping me slowly erase it from my own vocabulary. He’s an amazing companion and mentor.
Fun Fact(s) about you: I love babies more than anything on the whole earth. I can say the alphabet backwards. Some friends and I once sang for a former president and his family at his private College Station residence. And Chicago is hands-down my favorite place, ever.

Stacy’s note: I can attest to Alex loving babies. She was a bridesmaid at a wedding I photographed last weekend, and watching her playing with some of the babies in attendance was beyond adorable. I can’t wait to see this woman become a mother herself! No pressure, Nick!

About the Groom

Name: Nicholas John Luton
Birthplace: Houston, TX
Current hometown: Houston
Education: B.S. in Civil Engineering (2003) and M.B.A. (2005) from Texas A&M
Job: Land Acquisition Manager for Centex Homes
Hobbies: Golf and home improvement projects
Favorite store: Home Depot
Favorite song: It changes every couple of years, but old Aerosmith and Red Hot Chili Peppers songs are some of the favorites
Favorite book and/or movie: Can I do “favorite actor” instead? Tom Hanks, hands down.
Favorite thing about your spouse: She is the most caring person I’ve ever known and will do anything for anyone at anytime.
Fun Fact(s) about you: I helped lead a team of individuals to raise over $200k for charity back in 2001 selling t-shirts at Texas A&M. We had to sell over 80,000 t-shirts for $5 each to make that much money! It was an incredible experience that I wouldn’t trade for anything.

Stacy’s note: For those of you reading this familiar with Texas A&M, you might remember the event he mentioned as the Red, White, and Blue Out.. Here’s some visual proof of Nick’s amazing contribution to the world:

About The Wedding

Dating/married for how long: Dating since 2002, married since 2008
Wedding date and venue: February 22, 2008 at Hotel Derek in Houston
Honeymoon location: Bucuti Beach Resort in Aruba
Proposal story: (told by Alex) For my 23rd birthday, Nick surprised me with tickets to see A Christmas Carol at the Alley theater in downtown Houston. After the show he arranged for a private tour of the theater, including the script library, the costume closets, and where they build the sets. It was incredible. Afterwards, we took a short walk around the area while we waited for time to pass before our dinner reservations. We were completely alone in the middle of downtown Houston, and Nick pulled a card out of his pocket and handed it to me. He said he was planning on waiting until after dinner, but he just couldn’t hang on to it any longer. I thought it was just a birthday card. When I opened it, the outside read, “To the love of my life”. Oh my gosh! I squealed, opened the card and saw the words “Will you grow old with me”? Then we both lost it. Nick got on one knee and asked me to be his wife, right in the middle of the city… not something I was expecting from such a typically private guy. After an hour of hugs, kisses and phone calls to family and friends, we had a fabulous dinner and spent the rest of the evening celebrating with champagne in the Presidential Suite at the historic Lancaster Hotel. It was beautiful.
Favorite thing about planning a wedding: Figuring out how to have exactly what we wanted on a less-than-desirable budget, without sacrificing quality or style
Resources that helped you during wedding planning: Magazines, online blogs and message boards of other brides – really, just the internet in general. Google can be a hugely useful tool when you’re trying to think outside the box on things. We did a ton of research on every aspect before making any decisions, since we had to be so careful with our money. Also, you can never have too many Excel spreadsheets – ours were color-coded and everything.
Favorite wedding detail: Alex – Our vows and all the music. I even hand-picked the song playing when the reception doors opened. Music isn’t often thought of as an important detail, but I believe it should be.
Nick – The fact that one of our best friends was the minister. I would have been a mess without Jeff up there with me.
Favorite moment of your wedding: Alex – The moment the doors opened at the start of the ceremony and I saw Nick waiting for me at the end of the aisle. You can tell how I was feeling by the photos where I’m all-out into the ugly cry! It was genuine happiness, more than I have ever felt before.
Nick – Same moment as Alex’s. My heart stopped for a couple seconds and I had a hard time standing up. My bride was absolutely stunning.
Anything you wish you’d known when you started planning your wedding, or anything you didn’t do that you wish you had done: I would change little things here and there, like I’d have chosen a vintage cake topper and made our thank-you notes myself in order to match our save-the-dates, but nothing really other than that. It was really a wonderful, wonderful day.
Why you chose Stacy Reeves Photography: From the start, we sought someone who would take a more photojournalistic approach to our wedding photos, rather than the more traditional, posed approach. We wanted a photographer capable of capturing the feelings and emotions of the day, not just the outfits and hairdos. Stacy’s ability to chronicle every detail of a wedding is so in-depth that we didn’t even feel it necessary to have a videographer. Stacy also channels her creativity in new and different ways for every couple – so that each pair gets something fabulous that they love, but also something completely different from anyone else. From the very beginning, we could tell that Stacy was very intuitive about what ideas we would love, and she never tried to make us into anything we weren’t. She truly captures the essence of each couple for who they are, and has the extraordinary ability to translate their love across the camera lens into something that radiates from each and every photo.
Favorite wedding photo: There are way too many to choose, but this is the first one we bought, so I guess that means it’s our favorite.

Stacy’s Favorites

 
One of my favorite moments of their wedding day was when Alex saw her father for the first time all dolled up in her wedding dress.  When her father teared up, Alex immediately went into what she calls her “ugly cry”!  The emotion of the moment, combined with the perfect light, came together to create an image that is still on my favorite shots list.

Another one of my favorite images from that day was a series we did with the wedding party.  I knew their ceremony would end after dark, and lighting a large group in a fun, artistic way can be challenging, so I spent a lot of time racking my brain trying to think of something unique.  I ended up purchasing a bunch of rainbow glowsticks, and the result was fantastic!

Finally, this one is by far my favorite dance photo ever.  I love that they are in the middle of a sea of wedding guests dancing and laughing and talking, but they seem to be completely in their own world.  It’s such a special moment, and I honestly feel very lucky to have captured it.

In the future Client Spotlights will be by request or nomination only. If you’re a former wedding client and would like to see yourself on the blog again, or if you know one of my couples you’d like to see featured here, let me know!

Oh Stacy Stacy Stacy…  As I’ve mentioned before, my bride Stacy B. is the epitome of a total package.  She’s smart, funny, stylish, and of course so beautiful she just takes your breath away.  John Matthew is a very lucky man – and he knows it!  I could not have been happier when Stacy hired me to photograph her wedding (which is this weekend!), and the fact that she flew me out to New York City for their destination engagement session certainly helped.  I’m so excited to get Stacy (and several of my past brides!) in front of my lens again this weekend, but for now, we’ll all just have to sit here and stare at her amazing bridal session at the Omni Houston.

On a side note, back in January for Stacy’s session I rented a Contax 645 and purchased some Fuji Pro 400H 120 film just to try it out.  The majority of the photographers I admire shoot film, so I thought it might be worth my while to give it a shot.  The results gave me quite a bit to think about, but I’ll post about that some other time.  For now, try to guess which of the images below were shot digitally, and which were shot with film.

As some of you may have noticed, things have changed quite a bit around here. If you’re reading this using a blog subscription service such as Bloglines or Google Reader, please CLICK HERE to come over to my site and check out the new look!

After five and a half months of planning and waiting, I am so happy to present my new brand to all of you.  It has been a long time coming, and a lot of heart (and money!) has gone into gathering the right team to help make my vision a reality.

When I relaunched my business in June of last year, I knew that creating my new brand would be a long and involved process, and I would need to hire a professional to truly do it right. That professional was the one and only Ashley Jankowski of For the Love of Creating and the new design boutique Luxecetera. I can’t say enough good things about this woman. She was such a godsend for me! She is the epitome of professional, she has fantastic ideas, she’s patient and understanding, and most importantly, she’s incredible at what she does. If any of you are looking for a new brand, I HIGHLY recommend going to Luxecetera and getting on their waiting list ASAP. They are so talented, and in my opinion their rates are extremely reasonable, especially considering the quality of their work. Your brand is the heart of your business, and it’s worth investing in. You will not be disappointed!

So what inspired my brand? In my opinion, it’s really important for a brand to be reflective of both the business and the people who use the product/service. Thus, the first step for me was to sit down and think about my clients – who they are, what they do, what appeals to them, etc. As I thought about my brides old and new, the one common thread I saw was that they all embodied a modern Southern lady.  My brides are beautiful, elegant, and classy, but never stuffy or uptight.  They strongly value family, heritage, and personal relationships.  They’re fond of tradition but willing to put a modern spin on things.  Most importantly, they are all friendly and welcoming to everyone around them. That is the Stacy Reeves bride, and that is who I want my business to appeal to. Ashley took that description and created a beautiful brand that I could not be happier with.

I learned a few things during this process:

• Hire the right person.  Choose a professional, someone with experience and a great portfolio and a design aesthetic that you love.   This is not the time to hire a crafty friend or a design student or a startup designer.
• Be prepared to invest time and money.  This process isn’t cheap or fast, and is just as valuable, if not more so, than a cool new camera or lens.  I started working on my brand in June of last year, got on Ashley’s waiting list in November, began working with her in February, and finally went live with it in April.  Although I got very impatient at times, taking nearly a year gave me the opportunity to look past trends and “cool ideas” and really identify exactly what I wanted, something that I will stick with for a long time to come.
• Know your target market.  Know who your average client is, what they like, where they shop, what appeals to them, what turns them off, etc.  Identifying these things will give both you and your designer a good reference point for where to start.  Also keep in mind that more than likely you’ll need a different brand for each type of photography you do.
• Trust your designer.  Assuming you hired a professional, they have a successful business for a reason.  They know the difference between a fad, a trend, and a style, and they are trained to be able to take what you like and translate that into good design.  During my process, whenever I was torn or unsure, I deferred to Ashley’s judgment, and it always turned out to be the perfect choice.

Again, I strongly recommend giving the girls at Luxecetera a call. They are extremely talented, and I know they will take good care of you and your business!

Here’s the whole suite. I’m so excited and relieved to finally have a brand that I adore!

As promised, here are the second half of the images from Darby & Mark’s wedding day.. Starting with Darby’s gorgeous ring! Darby worked at Zales for awhile, so you can only imagine the pressure Mark was under to get the PERFECT ring. I think he did a great job:

As I mentioned before, Mark and Darby incorporated some parts of their background and relationship into their wedding.  One part of that was meeting on the Texas A&M campus and doing their First Look under the Century Tree.  Aggie tradition says that if you walk under the Century Tree with the guy you love, you’re destined to get married and be together forever.  Looks like it’s working so far!






I adore this photo!  I think it really embodies their wedding day..  Darby couldn’t keep that smile off her face, and Mark was being his usual goofy self.  I love it when a photo goes beyond a nice pose or pretty background and really captures a special moment or an aspect of someone’s personality.




Their reception was held at the College Station Hilton, and also incorporated parts of their personalities.  They had an adorable slideshow of photos running, as well as photos from throughout their relationship, and lots and lots of Aggie paraphernalia (my favorite was the KD paddle, but I am a little biased).




Shooting weddings full time has allowed me to see some pretty neat wedding traditions, but the Grand March always takes the cake, and this one was particularly fun.  Led by Mark’s relatives, the entire wedding group marched throughout the hotel, dancing and clapping and cheering on the newlyweds.  It was the first time in my career that I have seen literally every single wedding guest get out of their chair and join together in celebrating with the bride and groom.  I wish every wedding did this!



This was a really cool moment, and the first time I’ve ever cried at a reception.  Mark and Darby sat at the front of the room while the DJ told the story of their relationship.  The story was mostly full of laughs, but when he began to talk about how Mark stood by Darby’s side when she was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, I don’t think there was a dry eye in the room.  Be sure to check the end of this post for more information on how you can help Darby and others with MS.

Another first (this wedding was full of firsts for me!) was the opportunity to join my sorority sisters for the sorority songs.  I’ve photographed lots of sorority traditions, but this was the first chance I’ve had to actually take part in one, as well. Here are several of my sisters serenading our KD Lady!

Darby and Mark, I am so lucky to have had you both in my life all these years, and I’m so honored that you let me be a part of your wedding, as well.  You are two of the most fun, entertaining, outgoing people I know!  Thanks for letting me experiment on you for the engagement session, and for introducing me to so many cool and unique wedding traditions.  I had a blast!

Because I adore Darby so much and I want to see her MS-free, all profits from the sale of Darby & Mark’s wedding photos will be donated to the National MS Society.  If you were a guest at the wedding, or you just want to do a good deed, head on over to their online proofing gallery and buy some photos.  It’s a win-win – you get some great photos, and MS gets more money toward finding a cure.  Thanks!!

Many years ago, Darby and I were sisters in Kappa Delta sorority at Texas A&M. We participated in something called Songfest, where a sorority was paired up with a men’s group (in this case, a group of fun, outgoing guys called One Army) and had to perform a song and dance routine. For weeks, we gathered at the Kappa Delta House to plan our skit to a medley of Beauty and the Beast songs. That was definitely one of the more fun experiences I had in college: goofing off in the Kappa Delta dining room, reliving our childhood through Disney songs, trying to figure out how to make a candelabra costume. It’s amazing to think of what came from that simple activity.. I met Corey Oliver, who would later become one of my best friends and the husband of my college roommate, and Darby would meet Mark, who would eventually become her best friend and husband. Their wedding was a real treat for me because I knew so many of the weddings guests, plus the light was perfect all day (which makes SUCH a difference in the photos), and Darby and Mark really went out of their way to infuse aspects of their personality and background into the wedding. This wedding was completely “Team Z,” from beginning to end.

Because there are SO many photos that I love from this wedding, I’m going to break it up into two parts. Here are the pre-ceremony and ceremony favorites:


Darby is one of my favorite people to photograph because she completely wears her emotions on her sleeve. She’s so outgoing and expressive, and it seems like she’s got a huge smile or a hilarious expression on her face in every photo I took that day.




After Darby got dressed, we headed to the Texas A&M campus to get some fun photos of the wedding party.  We just happened to run across a guy in a shirt with a big Z (Mark’s last name is Zahradnik) on it – talk about luck!












The ceremony was held at St.Mary’s, the catholic church in College Station. What a gorgeous church!  There was so much beautiful light streaming in through the windows, and the church pretty much gave us free reign to shoot wherever and however we want, which is incredibly rare.  Ironically enough, it seems like Catholic churches are the least strict when it comes to photo rules, at least in my experience.  Go figure!

Tomorrow morning I will post the second half of this wedding, including their First Look under the Aggie Century Tree and the INSANELY fun Grand March at the reception!

I just wanted to let everyone know that I will be in Houston for the fabulous wedding of Jennifer and TJ next weekend (April 17-19) and I know there are a lot of you that have been hoping to schedule a meeting or shoot with me while I am there.  I’ve already got two shoots, two meetings, and of course the wedding scheduled, so if you need to meet with me please get in touch ASAP so I can make sure to make some time for you.  I will also be there the following weekend (April  25-26) so I am available then, as well.  Can’t wait to see all my lovely H-town brides and grooms!

Two years ago today a strange boy who I had been talking to practically non-stop for over a week came and swept me off my feet.  One snowy April afternoon, we raced RC cars over the speedbumps in my highrise parking garage.  We went to a carnival and I impressed him with the finer points of nighttime photography.  He serenaded me to Oh Holy Night on saxophone in an abandoned stairwell, and we drank wine and talked about life.  It was one of the funnest nights of my life to date, and it marked the beginning of an amazing era of my life.