Weddings 2010 {contest}

It has been so much fun these past 5 days watching the votes roll in for the other two categories in the contest, I've loved hearing what y'alls favorites are and I can't wait to see who pulls off the win! I personally love them all so so much, I wish I could declare everyone a winner (flashback to pre-school days: "everyone's a winner!" I always hated when they said that, even at 5 I realized what a cop-out it was. ;) but that would kind of ruin the whole thing. So if you haven't voted on your favorite portrait or couple picture, go do it now! And if you haven't read my last two posts and don't have a clue what's going on, then click here to catch up! ;)

And today I'm going to be posting the final part of the contest, some of my favorite wedding shots from this last year. I can't believe I'm wrapping up my first full year of shooting weddings! A year ago today, I had never shot a wedding before in my life, I had two very brave (wonderful, amazing, sweet, you know who you are!;) brides who had already booked me for their wedding the next year, and I was setting ridiculous goals about how many weddings I wanted to shoot my first year, with no expectations of actually meeting them (more on that in another post).

God's been good. So so good to me.

I'm planning on writing another post to dive more deeply into everything He's done for me this past year, but for now I just can't pass up this opportunity to say that it's because of His amazing grace and provision that my business has grown in the ways that it has this past year! It makes me excited to see where He's going to take me next year!

Have fun looking through some of my favorites (you have no idea how hard it was to pick just a few!) and then head on over my facebook page to VOTE!

Jason & Elizabeth

Matt & Sarah

Mike & Kristin

Bill & Elizabeth

Elvis & Katie

Oh woops....how'd this get in here??

Just a little wedding inspiration I like to keep around ;)

Steve & Tara

Josh & Kate

I love you all, my fabulous couples!

Now goooooo vote!

Much Love.

Jessica Shae

p.s. just kidding about the wedding inspiration thing...the only reason I keep that picture around is so that I can make bridesmaid dresses like that for my wedding someday ;)

Portraits 2010: contest {dallas, tx portrait and wedding photographer}

It's December!

Christmastime!

Holiday Cheer, Christmas music, parties, and most importantly celebrating the King of Kings coming to earth in the form of a little baby. I still look forward to this time of year almost as much as I did when I was 7 counting down the days to each exciting holiday event, and especially counting down the days until the BIG DAY (it's only 23 days away, in case you were wondering ;).

I'm also excited about this month because I've decided I'm not booking anymore clients until next year, so no more portrait sessions until next year, and other than second shooting a couple of times, I wont really be doing much shooting this month, other than for personal projects! I've needed this break for quiiiite sometime, and I'm looking forward to working on alot of the projects that get pushed aside when I'm just trying to keep up with editing, etc. I'll also be mixing things up here on the blog this month, doing a lot of fun stuff, starting today!!

I've wanted to do this for a while, and since we're now coming to the end of the year, I think this is a great time to do it. This past year has been crazy, fun, amazing, hard, stretching, wonderful, stressful, and in a lot of ways so much better than I could have dreamed it would be. I've booked/shot more weddings than I thought I would in my first year of shooting weddings, my business has grown so much faster than I dared to hope it would, and I've gotten to travel WAY more than expected. And I know that the biggest thank you for all of that needs to go to God, who does above all that I could ever ask or think time and time again for me. He opens doors and pushes me out into new things that scare me to death, but that I know I need to be pursuing ;) I'm grateful for His guidance, and provision that He's given time and time again this year, I am where I am because of His grace!

But the second big thank you has to go to you, my family, blog readers, clients, and friends. You've written me sweet emails and blog comments, referred your friends to me, booked me to shoot your wedding when I hadn't even shot one wedding yet, and I can't thank you enough for all of that! But, this is my little attempt to say a HUGE thank you to all of you. I'm going to be holding a contest on my facebook page for all of you, my faithful clients!

And here's how it's all going to work ;)

I've gone through and picked out my favorite pictures from portrait sessions, engagement/couple sessions, and weddings I've shot in the last year. I'm going to post them in three different facebook albums/blog posts over the next couple of days, and then let all of YOU vote on which ones you like the best. And the client with the most votes on their picture by December, *12th will win a professional quality 10x13 print of their photo. And THEN, the 3 winners of the 3 different categories (portraits, engagement/couple, weddings) will be entered to win a free gallery wrap canvas of their photo.

Phew, I hope that all made sense ;)

So without further ado, I'm going to start it all off with some of my favorite portraits from the past year, have fun looking through them, and then don't forget to go vote for them on my facebook page! Any votes I get here in the comments won't be counted.

The Manney Family

The Mills Family

The Self Family

The Chaney Family

They Farney Family

The Crain Family

Rachel Leigh: senior

Tim & Jacquelyn: maternity

Daniel & Kaela: maternity

Ashley Hall: senior

Nellie Ayon

The Piper Family

The Morris Kids

Hope Helms: headshots

The Green Family

Ready to vote!? You can click here to head on over to the facebook page and click "like" if you haven't already, and then decide which one is your favorite picture in this album and vote for it! And remember, it only counts as a vote if you comment on the picture you like, and say "vote"! "liking" the picture doesn't count as a vote ;) Can't wait to share all of my favorite couple/engagement pictures with y'all tomorrow!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Much Love.

Jessica Shae

*Because votes are coming in so quickly, and because I don't want to drag it out I've shortened the contest, so now all votes have to be in by December 12th! :)

Josh & Kate: married {chicago, IL- wedding photographer}

I know I say this alot, but I love it when my clients become friends. And it probably sounds like a really cheesy/cliche thing to say, but I'm so serious. I've heard it said that you can decide to run your photography business like a Walmart, or a personally owned boutique. Walmarts' are efficient, huge, anyone from any walk of life can go there, and can find pretty much any product they could ever possibly want in that store. Boutiques on the other hand, are smaller, have a more focused clientele group they are targeting, and generally have alot more personal touches added to the store, and all of their products.

My goal is to run my business like the small boutique. I may not be the most efficiently run business on the block, but I LOVE {you} my clients, and I promise you that we will have so much fun getting to know each other so that I can really capture you, and all your hopes dreams and love on your wedding day.

I love my bride that txted me the minute she got back from her honeymoon just to say hi and see how I was doing and told me not to tell anyone that she had txt me because I was the first person she had contacted since she got back ;) I love my two brides that just in the last 3 weeks told me they were pregnant(!!!). I love my couples who have invited me over for dinner, asked me to come visit them, invited me on trip to puerto rico with them - I'm really not lying when I say I have the best and sweetest of clients. And while I love getting to document their love for each other, even more than that, I love getting to build relationships with amazing people that otherwise I probably would never have known.

This wonderful couple was no different.

I felt like one of the wedding party from the time I got there. I was invited to the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner, got to hang out with them and all their totally amazing friends all Friday night, and then went back to Kate's house with all her bridesmaids for some girl fun ;)

I woke up Saturday morning to the sounds and smell of Kate's parents cooking an amaaaazing breakfast for all 20+ of their house guests that morning. And from that moment on there was just this quiet happy hum all around me. People eating breakfast, getting ready, doing hair and make-up, laughing, and talking about how excited they were about Kate and Josh's wedding day.

And beautiful Kate, so calm, so smiley, and so happy, helping everyone, making sure everyone had what they needed, asking me if I had gotten something to eat yet, was an absolute doll the whole day.

Kate - you are absolutely stunning. No lie.

The day was chilly, VERY windy, and overcast, and I have to say that everyone in the wedding party were total troopers and rocked everything I asked them to do with great attitudes!

I just looooved all their shoes, and how they were all a variation on the same style of shoe.

Ohhh yeah Josh, you can totally rock the serious look.

Hello new favorite groomsmen shot!

And just like the rest of their day, the church they got married in was beautiful!

haha, I love that I caught this moment. It was close the the end of the ceremony and I guess this little guy decided that he was getting a little tired of standing . . . so I look over there during the prayer, and this is what I see ;)

Do they not have one of the best looking wedding party's you've ever seen!?

My awesome second shooter Evy told me when she got to the church that morning that she'd passed an old couch sitting on the side of the road with a free sign on it a few miles away. We very quickly decided that it'd make for an aweeesome prop.

The two beautiful sisters . . . who married two handsome twins ;)

(And if you didn't read the adorable story about this in their engagement post, you must do that now ;)

Isn't it just the cutest thing?!

Josh and Kate - you are just so so cute.

I like you both alot ;)

And my favorite.

Thank you again and again Josh and Kate for your sweet hospitality and friendship. It was an honor to be there for your beautiful day!
Much Love.

Jessica Shae