One of my good friends, Jenna (who also happens to be a photographer!) came and she was kind enough to take a few photos. I’m so glad she did because by the time I finished the party stuff and got 3 hours sleep (I stayed up til 1am with my first attempt at cake pops and then Micah kindly woke me up at 4am) I just wasn’t in the mood to even pick up my camera!

You’ll note the majority of my decor was done with neon duct tape and surveyor’s “tape”. The gardlands were made with felt and pipe cleaners for the hearts. All pretty cheap and easy.I used hot glue gun to write the theme “totally in love” as well as three hearts, and xoxox on some glass then spray painted them with neon spray paint! Excuse my iPhone photo, but thought I’d put some of the elements together. I made a cake pop box with mini garland (thanks for the help Jeni!). I never did get a clear picture of the table cloth (not pictured) but it was white with neon tape stripes. You can kind of see it peeking in the picture below.I used heart shaped post-its to write a special “I love you because” note to all my guests and their children then encouraged them to do the same for their friends. Everyone left with a little stack of notes. Our signature drink was the Blowpop Martini! Cake mix cookies rolled into lip sprinkes! My new fav way to make quick cute cookies. Along, with some heart shaped bread for the pimento cheese sandwhiches.Here are just a FEW of the radtastic photobooth. More on that later. The favor was teaching the Mom’s how to Freezer Paper stencil so we made these cute 80′s love robots in neons. I found the template here.You can find most of my inspiration on my Pinterest board as well as links for some of the sources over there!

Every wedding there’s a part where I cry. This wasn’t the part where I cried (surprisingly), but it is the part where Sara cried. She and Joey didn’t want to see each other prior to the wedding, but did decide to touch one another around the corner of this big column and talk to each other for just a minute. It was such an intimate moment and there was a point where I stepped back even further (I was already shooting from a ways a way) and just let them have a moment.This would be the part where I cried. See their minister, was talking about how marriage is the ultimate grand pas de deux-(ballet dance for two). She spoke in terms that Sara immediately connected with on a deep level. It was just this moment of definition and clarity–of every point of their lives coming to this one. The breeze picked up and time seemed to stand still.I loved this shot by Megan… apparently both Sara’s Mom and Dad were taken with this moment, too.This was a fun one from the VERY last private dance. Could the night end any more perfectly? See some more on their slideshow here (need flash for this so get on your old big real computer and if you attended the wedding, sign up to be notified when all the juicy images are released by the couple!

Their creative team:
Planner-Foster Blue
Entertainment and Photobooth- Randy Ro Entertainment
Hair and Make-up-Ingenue Hair Artistry
Cake Artist-The Cake Guys
Floral-Market Street Floral Shoppe

I knew from the get-go when I met Sara that that I wanted to shoot her and Joey’s wedding. Right when she said “kinda of a carnival-elephant type theme—with colors of pink, turquoise, and red…” I knew she was a girl with a vision! I admitted to her I really secretly wanted to do bridals in the style of Resse Witherspoon for Vogue (A Day at the Circus) and blabbed on and on about it at her consultation. Later, I wondered if she would think I were a bit cooky for it.

Anyway, she must’ve not thought I was too crazy and decided we would be a good fit. Then… it got better… I was privy to the information that Sara would have a two piece dress. The longer skirt would cover up the shorter dress and she’d wear that until after the first dance, when she planned to take off the skirt and surprise her groom with a sassy (and oh so gorgeous!) party dress. So many fun details! Her Mom even made her headpiece! Can I also just mention Sara’s amazing shoes and her amazing ballet trained legs. Sigh.

Some of my signature “dress in movement.” I love that it shows the hint of her shorter skirt underneath!

It was super fun for me to meet Lindsay and hear about their plans for the wedding. Jason and I have the common denominator of losing our Dads and Lindsay’s whole vintage, laid back vibe helped us form a instant connection which we built on during their engagement session at White Rock Lake. This wedding truly represents the key factor that all my clients have in common. Photography is really important to them. They weren’t having a huge wedding, but they knew this was the one area, where having someone who cared about their day on a more personal level was important. I was honored to be chosen for the job. It was quite surreal to be there for such a momentous occasion for someone I knew when I was 5 years old.

Here are a few of my favorite moments.

I’m always impressed with tropper MOH’s…who are preggers. I think this one captures Lindsay’s goofy spirit!Whoa. We grew up. I remember Jason as looking like the 5 year old version of this guy!I was pretty far away when this moment occurred, but Jason spotted his older brother who recently survived a bad accident and made it to the wedding. It was a special moment for him to see him there.Right before their trip down the aisle.Lindsay walked with both her brother and Dad. I always love how a couple looks at each other right after the ceremony.This cutey pie wasn’t a fan of all the loud cheering.My favorite cake topper ever. Couldn’t be a more perfect fit for them!Hysterical moment in one of the funnier best man speeches. Bucky (also of our childhood street gang) stated that it would be best if all the people who had keys to Jason’s place would return them now that he’s married to Lindsay… and the parade of folks came up to return their keys.Including the officer from outside who was there simply because they were serving alcohol.Totally sweet moment during speeches where Jason’s Mom and Lindsay’s Mom were holding hands looking at their kids with such joy.

Lindsay, was pretty nervous and didn’t exactly know how she would “model” when we first started. I just told her what I Tell every.single.bride… relax and just be yourself, I’ll get us where we need to be. And just.like.that this happened!

By the light of the silvery moon,

I want to spoon, to my honey I’ll croon love’s tune,

Honeymoon keep a-shining in June,

Your silvery beams will bring love dreams, we’ll be cuddling soon,

By the silvery moon.

-1909 Edward Madden

I did some visual research to try and has out my ideas, but everything I looked at that included painting a wedding dress was bright, graffiti type stuff and I just couldn’t picture that look on Bryana. I was pretty happy that what was in my mind I couldn’t find any examples of, a good sign. All I could think about was her beautiful perfectly colored blonde bombshell hair. Her amazing skin, her dreamy nature, her model like length…golden was the only adjective that came to mind..I had this dreamy, golden, angelic artist vision in my mind.

Then, at the shoot…. I had to let go of all notions (we simplified quite a bit from my original ideas) and just have fun… I knew we wanted to do some fashion style stuff before we ‘trashed’ the dress so that’s where we started. It was also an opportunity to shoot in a style I don’t usually get the opportunity to shoot in (big studio lights on location taking as long as I dang well please) and it was definitely going to be a learning adventure for the fabulous intern Megan. Andy and I always approach shooting differently, so it was a great chance for Megan to see how we both worked and learn from each of our styles.

Here’s what I shot (see what Andy and Megan shot along with some cool behind the scenes stuff). I hope you enjoy looking at it as much as we enjoyed shooting it.

So we started adding paint little by little.Then, more paint and just kept going. Turns out Kali didn’t so much like the mess as much as we thought she would, but we coaxed her into a few shots.Then we shot outside. I couldn’t get over the amazing dramatic sky. We haven’t had rain in so long and here this storm was brewing. I remember saying that “people were going to think I Photoshopped this sky in!” but NOPE… that’s how it really looked. We shot until it seemed like we were tempting fate with the weather….

so I called the shoot… then… turns out I was right about tempting the weather, because just as we were trying to get the last bit of gear into the truck (and we had a lot of it on this one)… the hard rain that had already started, turned into hail stones! Andy, Megan, and I were literally drenched into drowned rats. Andy being the typical guy, was more concerned about his poor truck getting hailed on. and I just sat there, laughing, soaked to the bone, completely satisfied with the work we did. It was magical really and fed my soul to great extent. I look forward to the day when Kali can tell us how cool she thinks her Mom was for doing this shoot.

Let me know if you are interested in doing a post wedding shoot and rocking out your dress. I probably won’t shoot this same concept again, but what ideas do you have? I’m always looking to push myself in a creative way. OR maybe you have an out-there idea for a family shoot? Are an aspiring or experienced model that needs to beef up your portfolio? I have some concept ideas and I’m always looking to work with creative folks. I’d love to talk with you about your ideas.

credits:

Location-McKinney Cotton Mill
Hair-Bryana herself (seriously call her!) Salon Rene
Make up-Kay Castro
Wedding Dress-David’s Bridal
Child’s Dress-Neiman Marcus Kids, designer: Le Pink, Gold Dust Tiered Dress
Floral- Purple Cabbage flower from Central Market, Southlake
AD-yours truly with paint from Hobby Lobby
Clouds-God!

These will be perfect for Holiday Mini sessions-especially our mini portrait sessions in Dallas on Sunday October 2 in the rich green environment of Lakeside Park, the deep colors will really pop against the environment.