It’s been a long time since I’ve posted anything personal on this blog, but today I have a good excuse. Today is April 21st, which is significant for two reasons. First of all, it’s the anniversary of the Battle of San Jacinto, which effectively ended the Texas revolution as General Sam Houston defeated Santa Anna and the Mexican army amid shouts of “Remember the Alamo!”   As a tried and true Texan, this alone is reason for me to celebrate the day, but it also happens to be Aggie Muster.  Muster is a tradition celebrated by all those connected with Texas A&M University where Aggies across the world are supposed to gather together, share fun stories of their time at A&M, and remember the Aggies who have passed away since the previous Muster.  The highlight of Aggie Muster is the Roll Call for the Absent, during which the names of those fallen Aggies are called, and we answer “Here” to signify that they are with us in spirit, if not in body.  After the Roll Call, a 21 gun salute is fired, and then there’s another Aggie tradition – Taps is played three times – once to the north, to the south, and to the west, but not to the east, because the sun will never rise on that Aggie again.  *Every* fallen Aggie is celebrated at Muster, so someday when I die, Aggies will call out my name and answer “Here” for me, too.

One of the defining moments of my life was when I served as a Muster Host when I was a freshman at A&M.  As a host, I was assigned one of the families of a fallen Aggie, and my duty was to show them where to go, what to do, and to tend to whatever they needed to make the experience as positive as possible for them.  The family I was assigned was the family of Brandon Davis ‘06, a fellow freshman who had died only a month beforehand.  I was expecting them to be distraught, emotional, upset, and a host of other understandable emotions, but to my surprise they were happy, positive, and excited.  They talked about how much Brandon had loved A&M, how Muster had been his favorite tradition, and how honored he would have been to have his name called out at the campus Muster.  It was so inspiring and so life-changing to see this family, who had lost their son and brother far too early, celebrating his life rather than mourning it.  I have been extremely lucky to never lose a loved one, but I hope that whenever that awful day comes, I can be as strong and brave and positive as the amazing Davis Family.

Today, even if you’re not an Aggie, take some time to remember the people in your life who have passed away.  Call up someone who knew them and swap stories about the times you laughed together, your favorite memories of them, what you loved most about them, and the impact they had on your life.  Light a candle for them, call out their name, and answer “Here.”

So, Happy Muster to all my fellow Ags, Happy Birthday to the Republic of Texas for all my fellow Texans, and Happy April 21st to everyone else. :) If you’d like to learn more about Muster, check out Wikipedia or the official Muster website.

In many lands and climes this April day, proud sons of Texas A&M unite.
Our loyalty to country, school, we pray, and seal our pact with bond of common might.

We live again those happy days of yore on campus, field, in classroom, dorm, at drill
Fond memory brings a sigh — but nothing more; now we are men and life’s a greater thrill,

Before we part and go upon our way, we pause to honor those we knew so well;
The old familiar faces we miss so much today left cherished recollections that time cannot dispel.

Softly call the Muster,
Let comrade answer, “Here!”
Their spirits hover ‘round us
As if to bring us cheer!

Mark them ‘present’ in our hearts,
We’ll meet some other day.
There is no death, but life eterne
For our old friends such as they.

*******As part of the Cans for Comments drive, for every comment left on the blog in the month of December, I will donate a canned good to a local food bank. Please leave a comment and help out those in need!*******

The best part of shooting my friend’s weddings is that it feels like a mini-reunion, and I get to spend a day not only with clients that I love, but also with some of my favorite people, and we’re all there to celebrate a really happy occasion and have a great time.  Lisa and Grant’s wedding was like all of that times ten.  I had the joy of getting to watch their relationship blossom when we were all together in an organization at Texas A&M, and I truly can’t think of two other people who are more deserving of love and happiness.  You’d be hard pressed to find anyone who knows Grant or Lisa and doesn’t think the world of them, so it’s no surprise that their wedding was packed with friends and family who traveled far and wide to come to tiny little Ennis, Texas (home of the greatest drive-in ever!) to see them get married.  Here are some of my favorites from the wedding day:

I loved how Lisa incorporated an item from both her grandmothers and grandfathers, including an Aggie ring, a cross, a bible, and a rosary.  There was so much significance and meaning tied into her bouquet!































So you remember how I mentioned that this would be the most Aggie wedding of all time? Here’s some visual proof:

Look at all of that Aggie bling! With over 70 Aggies in attendance, we estimated that there had to be at least $35,000 in gold in that pile of Aggie rings (and at least $3 million in tuition money to earn them)!

*******As part of the Cans for Comments drive, for every comment left on the blog in the month of December, I will donate a canned good to a local food bank. Please leave a comment and help out those in need!*******

Thanksgiving in my world is about three things:  food, family, and football.  Every year we all gather together and feast on a buffet of turkey, corn, mashed potatoes, stuffing, hominy, cranberry sauce, and warm fresh rolls.  After we stuff ourselves, we waddle over to the couch and flop down to sleep off the tryptophan and wait for our two annual Thanksgiving football games to begin.  The first, naturally, is our home team, the Dallas Cowboys.  Every year our ‘boys play on Turkey Day, and every year we don our blue and silver pom poms and cheer for America’s Team.  The second game is a recent addition to the Thanksgiving roster – my alma mater, Texas A&M.  Traditional my Aggies have played t.u. (what Aggies call the University of Texas) on T+1 (the day after Thanksgiving) but recently they moved the game to Thanksgiving proper, so we got a double dose of football.  Although my Ags came out on the wrong end of the game clock this year – Aggies never lose, we just run out of time, and that couldn’t have been more true than this year – we played an amazing game and fought valiantly until the very end.  In honor of the hard work of my Aggie boys this year, I’m dedicating this week to the Aggie Family.  To start with, I’ve got an engagement session that happened in the same place as the Thanksgiving Day game – College Station!

Marcy and Kyle are a favorite in the Reeves-Gulledge household.  We love Kyle because he’s a real American hero, serving our country in the United States Army.  Having attended A&M, which was once a military school and continues to have very strong ties to the armed forces and civil service, I have a special place in my heart for all the people who sacrifice years of their lives to serve America, and Kyle is a true hero in my eyes.  Marcy is a meteorologist for KTBS in Shreveport, LA, and she happens to be the person that Jason’s family watches every night on the news to get their weather report.  I’m so pumped to be able to work with these guys on their wedding photos, and even more pumped that we got to shoot at one of my favorite places on the planet!  Here are some of my favorites:

We began the day at the Academic Building, a gorgeous old building that is the traditional favorite for photos.







No Aggie photoshoot would be complete without a trip to Northgate, the bar district of Aggieland, where every good Aggie spends his Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights.







Finally, we took a chance on a dream.. Kyle and Marcy were desperate to get a few shots at Kyle Field, but that’s much easier said than done.  Luck was on our side, and we managed to slip in for a few quick shots!  I’m pretty sure there are going to be some very jealous Ags after this post!





We finished up at Fish Pond, another Aggie Tradition.  During every Aggie’s senior year, they take part in Elephant Walk, where all the seniors link arms and walk through campus together to get one last view of their alma mater.  Elephant Walk concludes with a hop into Fish Pond, and Marcy and Kyle were brave enough to relive the moment!

Next up, I’ve got the most Aggie wedding you will EVER see, complete with over $35,000 worth of Aggie Rings!

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!!

Since my beloved Aggies BTHO Colorado this past weekend (whew!), I think this is the perfect time to show off Beth and Jim’s engagement session that I shot on the A&M campus awhile back (right before another Aggie victory vs. Army – whoop!). Beth and Jim are not only beautiful, but they are also awesome tailgaters, and masters of tailgate golf. Here are some of my faves from their session in Aggieland:

Beth and Jim, thanks for giving me a great excuse to come back to my old stomping grounds, and for entertaining us before the big game. You guys are definitely redass!! :)

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!