Confessions of a book-a-holic: personal {dallas engagement & wedding photographer}

All growing up, going to the library was a routine part of my life. About every two weeks we'd all load up in our big van--Me, Benjamin, Rachel, Luke, Sam, Lawson, Emma, and of course Mom--and head to the public library. Mom would have to put time limits on how long we'd be spending there, because if left to our own devices we'd have been happy to stay all afternoon. Checking out always took forever, because between all 8 of us, we'd usually have about 70-90 books to check out, and when I was a little kid they still did the whole hand-stamp-the-inside-of-the-book-before-you-could-check-it-out thing. The librarians hands were cramping by the time they were done with us. And then my little brother used to complain that when the receipt for our books started printing it was embarrassing because people would stare when it started to roll off the desk and hit the floor. He finally got wise to the fact that if he got his own library card he could check out on his own and then act like he had no clue who the weird large family checking out 273 books all together was. And then there was the problem of having to find a new library about every 10-12 months, because we'd read everything out of the kids section in one library and start complaining to mom that we wanted to find new books to read.

I realize what you're thinking.

I was a nerdlet.

Actually, I still am.

Because books still really excite me. I could easily spend my whole paycheck on books, and still not have all the books I want. (someday I'm going to have a room in my house with floor to ceiling bookshelves, and one of those ladder things that slides back and forth;) And trips to the library...? Are still the highlight of my week/month/or however often I get to go. Problem is, with traveling so much, working so much, and just generally becoming addicted to work like I did this year, the amount of books I've read has gone waaaay down. And I miss it. So as part of my cutting-back-on-work-so-I-can-start-enjoying-real-life-again-campaign I went to the library a few days ago, checked out a few books, rounded up a few from home that I've been wanting to read for a while, some for the 2nd (or 3rd) time, and created a reading list for the month. ;)

I'm excited about being a nerd again ;)

(not pictured--the Narnia series. It's becoming Christmas tradition for me to read them every December)

p.s. I'm always up for a good book recommendation. Anyone read a good book (fiction/non-fiction) lately? I'd love to hear about it in the comments section! :)

Much Love.

Jessica Shae

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 ;)

Break {personal}

"I believe the nicest and sweetest days
are not those on which anything very splendid or wonderful or exciting happens,
but just those that bring simple little pleasures,
following one another softly,
like pearls slipping off a string."

{ -l.m. montgomery }

120.

That's how many days I've been gone (traveling) this year. That's almost half of the 291 days that have passed this year. When I sat down and calculated all that up, I was shocked. I mean, I realized that I had been gone alot, but it didn't feel like that much! By about April of this year I knew my Summer was going to be crazy busy, between the wedding's I had booked, a friends wedding I was a part of, two friends graduations, and all the other little things that seem to fill up my Summer every year (you know, like daily trips to Sonic during happy hour. The important things, right?! ;) but I had plans for a calm Fall. A few weddings, a few portraits sessions, no traveling, and lots of time spent working on my website, new branding, and goal setting for the new year.

Ha.

Who was I kidding? ;) Just as soon as I get through a really busy month to a month that I'm hoping will be slower . . . I look at my calendar and wonder where on earth all those appointments came from. And as much as I love what I do, love that I get to travel so much, see friends, visit cool places, I miss the calm predictability of Home. I miss structure and schedules, I miss cooking dinner, and going on "dates" with my siblings.

And so, because life seems to never slow down on it's own, I've decided that I'm just going to have to slow down intentionally - and that's what I'm doing this week. I realized looking at my calendar a few weeks ago, that the next month of my life was completely crammed except for this week. I saw a brief 5 day break in the craziness and immediately knew that it needed to stay that way. I blocked those days out on my calendar and decided that nothing would be scheduled those days and it was going to be my "vacation" ;)

So this is to let you all know that after today I won't be answering emails (unless they're super urgent), I wont be blogging, I won't be posting new pictures/updates on my Facebook business page, and I probably wont be tweeting much (if at all) until the middle of next week. I'll be doing much more important things like cooking home-made pretzels and caramel apples, and trying out several new recipes I've been dying to make off of the pioneer woman's website like this one. I'm hoping to take my younger siblings to this river I found the other day to go exploring, and hopefully come back very wet and muddy ;) I want to finish several books I've been reading verrry slowly over the past few weeks, and take the time to write real hadwritten letters to friends. I want to take the time to enjoy life's "simple little pleasures . . ." while I can.

I will still be doing some business related things, but only for a few hours every day, like trying to finish up my website, finish working on my new brand to go along with it, and put the finishing touches on a couple of ideas for the new year that I can't wait to share with y'all.

I hope y'all have a wonderful week, and take time to enjoy those you love most!

Much Love.

Jessica Shae

{Because we have the photographs. . .}

"Do you want to grow up?" Frances asked.

Elsie thought for a moment. "Yes. I think I do."

"Even if it means never seeing the fairies again?" Frances persisted.

"It doesn't matter, not seeing them again," Said Elsie. "We'll never forget, like everybody else who grows up. Because we have the photographs. that's why they're so important. Whenever we start to forget or pretend we never knew, we can look at them and we'll remember."

-Fairy Tale: a true story

Much Love.

Jessica Shae

Accidental Awesomeness {personal}

I can't stop laughing at this picture.

I was at my grandparents house this weekend, trying to take a picture of this really cool chili plant my grandmother has. And I totally didn't see my little bro who was inside the house - doing what little brothers do best, acting like a dork ;)

Sometimes the picture you were meaning to take and the picture you come out with are two different things. And sometimes the accidental picture is the best.

And by the way - I love my brother, he's the coolest dork I know ;)

Much Love.

Jessica Shae

Random is my life: personal

This blog post is what most people call random.

And while random is not something that you can write a cute little blog post about and tie it up neatly with a bow - random is exactly what my life is made up of these days - so that's what you're going to get ;) It's kind of like my life threw up on my blog, or something. So settle in (because I have alot of randomness - therefore the post is rather long) and try not to be to bored.

I went to New Jersey last week - another state to check off my I've-been-there-list! I actually drove up there with my brother. Alllll the way from Dallas. Yeah, it was a crazy long trip but so much fun :) What could be better than a 24 hour road trip with your best friend, fun music, almost zero sleep, stopping for food at 10 PM in a scary little town in TN, being awake for both the sunset AND the sunrise, and playing with your new iphone?!? Very few things I tell you.

One of the main reasons I went to Jersey was because I was shooting a wedding there last Saturday, with a wedding party of - 24 people. Oh yes, we definitely had fun with that! Can't wait to post about it :) You can see a few more pictures of their wedding on my facebook page.

While we were in Jersey my brother and I stayed with friends that live there and they took us to Ocean City the first night we were there - If you could package up Summer, all the sights and smells and beauty of it, I think it would turn out looking alot like this place at sunset. It was just so gorgeous.

And my favorite picture that I have taken to date with my cell phone.

Oh laaaands, I just love it so so much.

And then another day we went to Philly - a place full of amazing sights and history, and I got to see the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall for the first time! Admitting that that was exciting for me probably classifies me as a total nerd, I know ;)

Some of you may have read my tweet about being in the "City of Love" (and my brother corrected me later and said that it was the "City of Brotherly Love" - but I like my version better ;) photographing the cutest couple ever. Yes, they were definitely the cutest - and I'm going to be nice and let you see a little sneak peek of them.

On another completely random note: I've started trying to take more nature/detail pictures. Taking pictures of flowers and the gorgeous outdoors is what originally got me hooked on photography, but these days I feel like I don't do nearly enough of it.

This beautiful girl (yes, the same one in the picture above) let me take some portraits of her one night when all this yummy light was just kiiiilling me. . .

. . .and then in turn practiced some of her amazing photography skills on me :)

And that is just a peek into the random-ness of my life right now. I'm also playing Soccer mom to 5 little rugrats - er - darlings for a week while my parents are in Colorado celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary! Mom (I know you're reading this;) and you'll be proud to know that I've kept them all fed and clean(ish) for the past 3 days, and I forgot Emma at the store yesterday but realized within 15 minutes that she wasn't in the car so it was no biggy really.

I kid, I kid, it was more like . . . ten, at the most ;)

Much Love.

Jessica Shae

***Update: I was toootally kidding about leaving my little sister somewhere, but apparently alot of people thought I was serious. I was a joke people - it was a joke. I'm waaaay to responsible for that! ;)

Elvis & Katie: After Shoot {conway, arkansas - wedding photographer]

Remember that adorable couple/wedding that I blogged last week? (If you haven't seen it yet, PLEASE go look, their wedding day was just so amazing!) Well the fun's not over people I have more amazing pictures of them to share!

After seeing the car that they planned on leaving in - I fell in love and quickly planned an after shoot with with Katie, so that we could spend plenty of time getting some beautiful pictures of them with the car.

So after they left their wedding reception I followed them to their new little house where they were going to change and get ready to leave for their honeymoon. We just pulled the car up in front of their adorable new little house 0' dreams and started shooting. The lighting was perfect, the couple was gorgeous, and since all the stressful wedding day activities were over we were able to just take our time and have some fun ;)

Can you believe the lighting and colors here? I was giddy with happiness while taking these.

And of course it didn't hurt that I had two gorgeous completely-in-love people to work with ;)

ummm...hello fabulous vintage-ness.

Katie Katie - how do you do it?!

This girl was such a trooper. I know she was exhausted from the long day, and it was sooo hot and muggy out right now, and can you believe that in spite of all that I was getting pictures like this?!?

They both just had this "We're Married!" glow about them all afternoon. . .

. . . & I love watching them, just so content to be with each other.

Remember how I said it was so so hot? Well it was. And super muggy to boot. So just as we're finishing up taking pictures we hear the happy sound of an ice-cream trucks music as it made its way down the street. Katie laughingly said how good ice-cream sounded right then, and before you know it her uncle was out in the street waving him down!

It was the greatest thing ever. Elvis and Katie, just married, still in their wedding clothes standing on the side of the road picking out ice-cream from an ice-cream truck. Cars were honking and people were shouting well wishes from their cars as they drove past - it was just the cutest happiest thing.

The perrrfect way to end their already incredible and unique wedding day in my opinion.

ha.

Katie, whenever I need a smile I just look at this picture. You are so stinking cute!

And I love the fact that you got a sponge bob ice-cream - so so cool.

Anyone else find the little sign on the side of the van to the right of Elvis and Katie somewhat ironic?! ;) Love it.

Elvis and Katie you two are fabulous! Thanks for being so utterly adorable, love you guys!

Much Love.

Jessica Shae