Alma Sofia || dallas, tx engagement & wedding photographer

As much as I adore babies, taking their picture isn't something that I feel especially talented at.  I see other photographers and wonder how on earth they manage to get babies into all those cute little poses while sleeping peacefully and at the same time make an adorable face.  (I seriously sometimes wonder if maybe children's nyquil is involved.  Or maybe a little bit of jack daniels mixed into their formula??  C'mon people, fess up.  Please share your secret.)  Maybe some people just have the gift of baby whispering and that's how they manage it.

But despite the fact that I don't feel like as far as photography goes babies are my specialty--when someone offers to pay you to spend a couple of hours talking to, holding, and playing with a little person as cute as this one, you'd be insane to refuse.  And I'm not crazy...

Alma Sofia || 8 days old

...and she was a perfect angel.

Much Love.

Jessica Shae

fall savings {dallas, tx engagement & wedding photographer}

When I sat down at my desk yesterday morning and started to write out a to-do list for the week (one of my fa-VO-rit things to do) I thought that mayyyybe just maybe I had been a little optimistic with how many things I had scheduled over the next few weeks. In less than two weeks I have 6 portrait sessions and 2 weddings to shoot, 2 of the portrait sessions and a wedding are happening in Colorado this weekend, and 1 of the portrait sessions and the other wedding is happening in E. Texas next weekend.  So obviously, I thought I should keep up that crazy pace for the rest of the month and I decided to run a special to help make that happen!  bringiton :)

Now's the time to book your portrait sessions my friends--before you lose your summer tan!  Any portrait sessions booked and scheduled with me in the month of October will receive a 15% discount on their total package price.  October is my state's prettiest month in my opinion, as far as light and weather goes, so it's the perrrfect time for pictures!   I'm already booked up for half the month, and only have room for about 8 more sessions, so contact me soon if you're interested in booking.

I'd looooove to take pictures of your beautiful smiling face! :)

*all sessions located outside of a 40 mile radius of Frisco, TX will be subject to travel fees.


Much Love.
Jessica Shae

Jessica Dueck: bridals {niagara falls, ontario engagement & wedding photographer}

I loved so many things about Joel & Jessica's wedding day, and as I was going through sorting all the pictures I took, trying to decide which ones to share, I realized there was no way they were all going to fit in just one blog post ;)

So I'm breaking it up a little, and today you get to see some of the bridal pictures I took of Jessica.

Jessica is the cutest, teensiest, little curly haired girl you'll ever meet.  She reminds me of a little fairy with her big green eyes and adorably tiny features.  

Much Love.

Jessica Shae

Chi-town + Canadia: travel {dallas, tx engagement & wedding photographer}

This will be long.

Because I couldn't sort down the pictures to just a few, and because I had a lovely trip and I want to tell you all about it.  And besides being where I post all my latest work, this is also kind of like my online journal + scrapbook, so bear with me :)

I left two Wednesday's ago for Chicago to visit friends and to see one of the only cities I've ever been to that I absolutely adore.  As most of you know I'm a country girl through and through and I'd take open fields and big sky almost any day over big noisy dirty city.  BUT there are a few cities that hold special places in my heart, and Chi-town is one of them.  I love all the lights, and pretty store-fronts.  I love all the people out and about, businessmen/women, hippies, artists, and everyone in-between.
I love Navy Pier, and The Bean, and all the other tourist-y things you can see there.

I was staying about 30 minutes outside of Chicago with a friend but I was determined to make it downtown while I was there.  So even though the weather didn't co-operate at alllll, I got up super early one morning and rode the train (my favorite mode of transportation!) to meet two friends who decided to brave the freezing cold with me for a day ;)

It really was the nastiest weather all day.  Pouring rain and a high of about 42 degrees = kind of miserable.  But it was an adventure none-the-less :)

No matter how many times I go, I will always take a bean picture despite how cliche it may be.  I'm a tourist at heart - so sue me ;)This is one of my favorite ones that I've ever taken I have to admit.  The rain+fog+mist all over everything gave it a cool feeling :)


My two darling friends, Julia + Amy.  I met them both in Chicago last year when I was shooting Jason & Elizabeths and Josh & Kates weddings, and we've kept up ever since!


Love love LOVE this city.

I got yelled at for taking this picture while we were exploring through the library...but I loved these vintage postcards, pictures, and ads.

Glad the memory's documented...even if the guy who took out picture wasn't quite able to get our faces in focus ;)  It's the thought that counts.
I got to go out to dinner at Cheesecake factory with a bunch of my old co-workers and housemates from when I lived and worked in Chicago a few years back, I love these girls so much!

'manda jean, my lovely hostess and bff ;)She's a favorite for sure.


And THEN.After my quickie two day trip to chicago, it was time to go to Canada!I realize that it's probably lame how excited I was.  But that's alright.  I'm ok with a little bit of lame-ness.  Because I really really was excited.  I was going to get to use my passport for heavens sake.  And while Canada isn't a very "foreign" foreign country, it was still a different country, and I was planning on enjoying every minute of the first of my international travels ;)
Airplane cloud pictures are also kind of lame, everyone has them, and they all look the same.  But I never get tired of taking them.  Because really, how awesome are they!?  They look so much cooler from above than they do below ;)

Rain was pretty much the theme of my trip, it poured rain every single day I was in Chicago and Canada, so when the sun came peeking out for just a few minutes Saturday afternoon I couldn't help but snap this picture to remember the moment.

Ok, so The Falls are cool in pictures.But they're absolutely breathe-taking in person.You should go see for yourself ;)

Proof: I was here! ;)

As I walked along the edge of the Falls, stunned with the majesty and power of it all, my thoughts just kept running along the lines of:"Oh Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder //Consider all, the works Thy hands have made..."

My housemates and exploring buddies for the weekend...you can just baaarely make out the falls behind us through all the mist.


So, the whole time I was there I was on the look-out for "foreign-ness" as a reminder that I was in another country.  And besides the fact that everyone said "ay"and speed-limit signs were in kilometers, not miles, (SO confusing when you're driving) there weren't a whole lot of differences.
Except for the bagged milk.  I'm not even kidding, this one totally threw me for a loop.  They buy their milk, IN BAGS.  Can someone please explain why???
I had to try out some of the local fare of course, but what's not pictures is the poutine I had.Poutine, for those of you who don't know what that is, is french fries and cheese curds, drowned in brown gravy.  I'm sorry Canada, it was gross.  I don't even know how such a thing ever came into being. 
Ahhhh, the whole reason I got to go on the trip!  My adorable petite curly-haired Jessica "twin" got married - and I got to take pictures :)  And despite the fact that it poured rain all day, it was a beautiful wonderful wedding.

I got to go hiking down in the gorge my last day there before I had to head to the airport, it was so gorgeous down there!




I inspired my new friend Mark to buy knock-off ray-bans :)  So we had to take a picture of course.


So despite the fact that I had to go without a phone for 4 & 1/2 days (one of the hardest things everrr!) and the fact that they didn't even stamp my passport when I went across the border (I thought about asking for at least a smiley face sticker or something!) AND despite the fact Canada doesn't serve Dr. Pepper (boo) my first international trip was a success.
Now I need to book a wedding in Europe somewhere.... ;)
Much Love.

Jessica Shae

Joel & Jessica: preview {niagara falls, canada | international wedding photographer}

So many words, thoughts, memories, and happiness stored up from my last week of traveling.

But my favorite part was definitely Joel & Jessica's beautiful, dripping wet, oh-so-wonderful wedding.  Can't wait to share them all with you, but for now here's a little preview of the gorgeousness to come!

Much Love.

Jessica Shae

p.s. I know I said the deadline to apply for the internships/mentorships was monday and that I'd announce the accepted applicants today, but I've pushed all that back to next monday!  I am super busy catching up from being gone for a week so I need a little extra time to get all of that together. So you still have a few more days to apply! :)

New love: personal {dallas, tx engagement & wedding photographer}

Friday was a happy day.

Friday's are usually happy days anyyyways.  But this one was extra happy.  Because this handsome dude got here ;)

 I was seriously like a little kid waiting for Christmas all morning.  Thanks to modern technology I knew from about 7:30 that morning that my baby was "out for delivery" and it was tooorture all morning trying to get work done while I was waiting ;)

My little family just keeps growing and growing ;)

I was preeeetty excited.  And I'm completely in love.  I had doubts about whether the mark II was going to live up to all the expectations I had for it--but so far it hasn't disapointed.  And I cannot wait to start sharing videos with you, that's one of my favorite features ;)

Now I must go be productive...I have two days to get alot of work done before I leave on Wednesday for Chicago > Canada.  Mhhmmm, yep.  This girl is about to become an international traveler ;)  And I might be just a leeeetle excited about that.

Much Love.

Jessica Shae

p.s. tomorrow's post--is gonna be rockin' awesome ;) Don't miss it.

Contest winners! {dallas, tx engagement & wedding photographer}

I just love having contests.

And if you don't know what these contests are all about, you should probably catch up here and here before you continue reading :)

I love reading everyones entries and I'm not even kidding when I say I get nervous when it comes time to put the numbers into random.org and see who's gonna win ;)  I put all the names into a spreadsheet form with a number assigned to each name, put the numbers into random.org, push the generate button, see the number that's been chosen and then quickly look at my spreadsheet to find out who has that lucky number.  And then I do a little happy dance around my room for the winner ;)  Umm, so maybe I get a little bit more excited about it than y'all do. . .just let me have my fun, K?

So I was just a little bit overwhelmed (in a good way!) by all of your guesses + suggestions.  And I was happy to see that the majority of you guessed the right color!  I'm hoping that means that it's a good choice?  Or maybe it just means I'm predictable?  Haha, for any of you who follow my authentic blog at all, it was prob pretttty easy to guess, my color shows up alot there ;)
Well whatever it is--I love my new color.  And I think I'm becoming a little obsessed with it.  Anything and everything I see in this color, I must buy.  A pair of socks? They're my color, I must need them.  A set of measuring spoons?  They're tiffany blue, I must need them.  You get the idea...it's kinda bad ;)

I just can't quite decide what to call it.  I usually call it Tiffany blue in my head, but I realize that technically it's a little darker than the "real" Tiffany blue, but it's not quite teal or aqua to me either.  I think the one that I've settled on liking the best is "robins egg blue" ;)
It all started with my darling iPhone cover.  I got this back in January, and ever since then It's like I can't keep my hands off stuff in this color.


I have new stationary


A beautiful little "robins egg" necklace that I got as a birthday present from a friend.


This cool vintage jar I found at a thrift store, and the adorable potted plant sitting in my room that I'm doing my darndest to keep alive.


And these adoooorable summer shoes that I found this week--to go along with all of the teal/tiffany blue/robins egg colored tops and dresses I've been buying here recently ;)


And my favorite fav.  My wayfarers ;)


I love them so much that I'm giving a pair to one of youuuu!  But you don't get to know who, just yet ;)

p.s. thanks to Kendra Dawn for the picture! ;)
I also loved all of your music suggestions. Seriously guys...you all have awesome taste in music, and I found SO much new stuff that I like.  It took foreeever to go through all 98 of your suggestions, and I loved all the txt messages, emails, FB messages, and comments I kept getting all week adding to the list ;)  So much fun-ness ;)  The not fun-ness part was having to pick just ONE song that I loved the most, and really it was quite impossible.
But it had to be done, and this one was definitely in my top plays over the past week.  I've never heard of Little & Ashley, but I loved everything about this song--the vocals, music, and lyrics...especially the lyrics ;)



Soooo folks, the lucky winner of the iTunes gift card is Lydia Covey who shared this adorable song with me.
Aaaaand Amelia Sutton is going to get a new pair of rockin' wayfarers because she guessed the right color and random.org decided it was her lucky day ;)
Shoot me an email girls (jessica@jessicashae.com) with your address so I can send you your prizes! :)
And I can't wait to unveil the whole shabang on monday!  I may not have any hair left by then but my bloooog sure will be cute! ;)  Let's just hope that this weekend involves some sleep on top of shooting a wedding tomorrow, church on Sunday and somewhere in the mix of all that finishing the design ;)

Much Love.Jessica Shae