Rachel: winter portraits {dallas, tx engagement and wedding photographer}

Sometimes I just have to do a shoot just for me. A shoot to try new stuff, to get out of my comfort zone a little bit, to help me get off "auto" and try new ideas. And I've been itching to take someone out to a couple of new locations I'd found for shooting for weeks now, so it helps that I have 6 beautiful little people living at my house ;) One of the things I want to make sure and do this year is an individual shoot of each of my siblings so that my mom has really good pictures of each of them. Aaaand Rachel got to be the lucky first!
It was FU-REEzing cold, but we had fun tromping through fields, stepping on some poor famers crops (all the while I was apologizing--out loud!!--for killing his crops. I hope we didn't ruin his harvest.) and taking pictures at the abandoned house that I'm pretty sure crackpots use on a regular basis if the words scribbled on the door were any indication. Ha, never a dull moment on a shoot with me ;)

Thanks for being so beautiful Rachel.














The pictures with the black hat are my FAVooooorites, hands down. For several reasons. One, I think Rachel looks like a Russian Princess or something amazing like that, and two, because that hat was my great-grandmothers hat. Can we please go back to a time where they wore fascinating things like this?!?!













































I'm going to be booking a limited number of portrait sessions this year, so seniors email me now if you're interested in having your pictures done by me, spots will fill up fast!

Much Love.

Jessica Shae

2010: recap {dallas, tx engagement and wedding photographer}

A year ago today, I had never shot a wedding before, not assisting, or second shooting, or anyyyyyything. I'd dreamt about it, read about it, talked to other wedding photographers about it, even booked two weddings for the next year (2010). I knew I wanted to start shooting weddings, and since I'm an all or nothing kind of person I did the obvious thing and set a goal of shooting 30 weddings this year total: second shooting and the weddings I personally booked. Just 30...No big deal really. I also wanted to see my Facebook Fan page grow from just under 400 fans to 1000 by the end of the year. And then prayed that God would send the business and worked my rear off to do whatever I could to make it happen.

So here I am a year later, with 911 "fans" and 24 weddings under my belt.

TWENTY-FOUR.

When I set that goal of 30 weddings this year, I knew I'd be lucky if I shot even half that much. And can't believe that I've been able to shoot as much as I have. I'm grateful for all my darling couples that booked me, even though I was just starting out and flying by the seat of my pants half the time. I'm grateful for friends who referred all their friends to me, and for the way they all have cheered me on every step of the way. I'm super grateful to all the photographers who've let me second shoot for them to gain experience and who've been patient to teach me so many important things. And I'm grateful to Jesus for turning something that I dearly loved into my full time job, so that I hardly ever feel like I'm actually working, but instead feel like I accidentally got double portions of ice-cream somehow ;)

I always enjoy seeing some "behind the scene" pictures of photographers, so in celebration of all the amazingness of this year, I thought I'd share a few I was able to round up from all my shooting this year. Thanks to Tim and Evy Porter, Josh Thomas, Laura Parker, and Rachel Leigh for capturing these! I tried to get a picture with all of my brides this year, but it just didn't happen, but I'm grateful for the few I do have, they are all just darlings!

Me, headed out to shoot the first wedding of the year...and consequently my first wedding, ever. NBD, really ;)



My very very first bride - Elizabeth Smith






My Evy friend second shot half my weddings with me this year, we made quite the dynamic duo ;)


My Sarah Berry bride. Whose Horses I'm going to visit very soon. I mean, and her...of course ;)



We're kind of a big deal ;)



Please don't ask what kind of pose I'm pulling here, just focus on how adorably tiny Katie is. Finally! A grown up shorter than me! ;)






Tara wins the prize for the bride who was furthest away from me, I officially got to add New Jersey to my list of states I've been to after her wedding.






If I could photoshop two big blobs of gel on the top of my head in this picture, I would. If someone would like to create that action (the gel blob action) I would be supremely grateful.


My first catholic wedding...um, it was really long. And really really pretty.


Couples in love are really my favorite things. Along with ice-cream. And Nutella. And big trucks. But really I think couples in love are my most favorite out of that list. And that's saying alot ;)






I'm excited about all my 2011 weddings, and I wanted to let y'all know my prices are going up the beginning of January. Originally I was planning on having the new prices go into affect January 1st, Buuuut, because I'm nice and want to give y'all a little extra time I'm extending my old prices into the new year until January 10th. So now's the time to contact me if you're interested in having me shoot your wedding next year!Shoot me an email or give me a call!jessica@jessicashae.com || 214.620.5627

Much Love.Jessica Shae

Katie-yo {dallas, tx engagement and wedding photographer}

Looking back over this year there are so many things I can be grateful for. I honestly can't believe all the doors that have opened, all the traveling I've done, and everything I've been able to cram into one little year. There have also been hard and not so enjoyable parts of this year. It hasn't all been cupcakes and laughter, but I can honestly say I am so grateful for it all. But the thing that I'm grateful for that I want to tell you about today, are the relationships. I've gotten to meet some of the dearest people this year, alot of the time while shooting weddings. And when I think about some of the people that are amongst my closest friends right now that 6 months or a year ago I didn't even know, I'm so so grateful for the way God orchestrates even the seemingly small things, like friendships.

One such friend is Mrs. Katie Opris, or as I like to call her, Katie-yo ;)

I shot this darling girls Bee-yoo-tee-ful Arkansas wedding in July, anyone who's been reading my blog for any amount of time probably remembers her because of her gorgeous wedding and amaaaaazing after shoot with the blue car ;) I loved her before I had even met her. From her emails, phone calls, and txts I could tell she was a girl after my own heart and then as soon as I laid eyes on this little 5 ft piece of adorable-ness the day before her wedding I was all "can we just go ahead and seal the deal now that we will be bff's until our dying day???"

I could go on and on and on about how dear this girl is. She loves the Lord so so much. She's funny. And witty. She loves her husband and is excitedly preparing to move to Romania (where he grew up) with him this coming as missionaries. She loves old books like me, especially Anne of Green Gables, and is definitely a "kindred spirit". She is an amazing photographer herself AND an amazing musician/singer. No lie, this girl is everything happy, wonderful, and amazing rolled up into one.

Aaaaaand...dun-du-dunnnn...

She's expecting a little Opris girlio this May!

Katie's family lives a little over an hour away from me, so when she came in town for the holidays I begggggeeeddd for a little scrap of her time and she was kind enough to give it! We ended up spending a whole afternoon together (whoops;) eating chipotle, laughing and catching up on life (face-to-face talk is so so much better than txting or FB) and we also made a little time to take some pictures of her adorable little baby bump.

And what do you do when you're out to lunch and you decided you want to do an impromptu photoshoot? You look out the window and say, "Oh, there's some pretty grass across the highway!"

And quickly run across 6 lanes of fast moving traffic to get to it, so that you can take amazing pictures like the one below.









Ohhhh Katie-yo. I love you.And that's that.




















And what kind of lame-o photographers would we be if we went away from the day without a picture of the two of us together???
Thank you railroad tracks for holding my camera for the picture :)




Much Love.Jessica Shae

[ promise reminder ]

Dusk is my absolute favorite time of day.

I love the way the light turns this golden yellow color and dances across the grass and makes you feel like you are basking in the warmth of a great big dandelion. I love watching the light fade from golden yellow to the colors of cotton candy, light blue, pink and lavender. It never ceases to amaze me, and during the Summer, almost every night I find an excuse to be out in it - to watch all the magic happening around me.

And I never never get tired of it. How could I, with an infinitely creative God designing each one every night? These pictures are from one of my favorite sunsets of the Summer so far, (taken with my cell phone) because it seemed like a special sunset - designed just for me, by a Creator who knew just what was going on in my heart.

Something I've been focusing on alot lately is trusting God, not only because He commands me too, but because I really want to learn to believe He is worthy of my trust. It may seem simple, and cliche, but it's alot harder than it sounds . . . for me at least. And so because of that, I have been thinking alot about His promises, and how He has fulfilled or is in the process of fulfilling every promise that He has ever made to me.

So when I saw this rainbow in the sky while swinging on the swings at the park the other night with my little siblings. . .I felt like God had put it there just for me.

The same summer sky - in 3 different directions. Isn't it just gorgeously amazing!?

Much Love.

Jessica Shae

Denver Portraits: Ayon Kids

I call them my Colorado family.

I've always loved the Ayons, (pronounced I-own, like "I own you" ;) Krista has been one of my best friends since I was 17, and after visiting them 5 times over the course of the last 9 months (usually for about two weeks at a time) they definitely became more than just good friends, they became family.

So getting to take individual pictures of all the kids while I was there last time to update Mrs. Ayon's wall of pictures in her living room was obviously so much fun. Who wouldn't want to take pictures of gorgeous/handsome people with great smiles?! We ended up taking the pictures over several different days because everyone's schedule was different and we couldn't get everyone together at the same time, which meant that I wasn't able to get any group shots. But that was fine because all they really wanted were individual pictures of everyone to frame.

Desiree

She laughs alot (but then again, everyone in the Ayon Family laughs alot! ;) sings beautifully, has blonde moments just like me and Krista, and can quote You've Got Mail and every other important chic flic that you should have memorized right along with the best of us. I like her alot ;) She is married to a youth pastor and lives in Oklahoma (doesn't she look like the most adorable little youth pastors wife?!) and I was so glad that it worked out for us to both be visiting Denver at the same time last month.

They can work it as good or better than any models I've seen! Look at the fierceness ;)

Stephen

Stephen and I were a part of the same graduating class in '07 (Woot Woot!) and have been good friends for years. He puts up with mine and Krista's non-stop laughter when we are together, he valiantly ate burnt pancakes back in the day when Krista and I decided to try our hand at cooking. (I can cook people . . . my defense still remains that I was working with faulty pots and pans ;) And every time you hear his laugh you want to laugh too, even if you don't know what you're laughing about. He's a pretty awesome dude.

Krista.

My dear darling best of friends, laughing buddy, chic flic quoting, gorgeous, matter of fact, hilarious friend. I have so many good memories/inside jokes/and embarrassing moments with this girl. It seems that every time I'm with her something crazy happens. She is almost 4 years younger than me but that has never hindered us being the best of friends and having the greatest times together. (In fact, I think I like it because it gives me an excuse to pretend I'm in Highschool all over again;) I can't believe that she's all grown up now and headed to college this fall...now who will I come visit in Colorado?!

Eric

So one time I visited them, and he was just a little 12 year old boy....I come back 2 months later and he's grown a foot, gotten braces, and all of a sudden doesn't look so much like a little boy anymore! How on earth did that happen? Eric is fun, because he lets me treat him like one of my little brothers. I tease him, and he teases right back. He also happens to be a pretty good lookin' dude, a heartbreaker in the making ;)

Janelle

Better know as Nellie (unless of course she's in trouble) and this little girl is just about the cutest thing you will ever see. I know I say alot of my clients are cute, and they are! But honestly....she tops them all. 3 going on 25 she has me (and everyone else pretty much!) wrapped around her finger. She knows how to get what she wants, (like the time Krista told her that if she wanted ice-cream she was going to have to give her daddy puppy dog eyes, so Nellie promptly turned to her dad and started barking and blinking her eyes. Pretty sure she got the ice-cream ;) and she alway has a very clear idea of what exactly it is she wants. Namely: "yip-gloss" (translation = lip-gloss) preferably pink, with sparkles in it. You will notice there are just a few more pictures of her than anyone else in this post . . . because I don't think anyone can argue the fact that she's the cutest ;)

Please note the shiny pink lip-gloss that had to be applied before pictures began. I'm not even kidding . . . she insisted.

I love my tiny friends . . . I think Desiree is about as short as me. And even cooler actually ;)

Everyone has different things that they notice first about people, and I'm pretty sure eyes are one of those things for me. I think it's so amazing how different everyone's can be, the different shades, and ways they can change colors etc. Well, Nellie here wins the award for the absolute coolest eyes I have ever seen, because they are completely black. Honestly there is no color difference between the middle of her eye and the ring of color around it . . . it's so amazing!

I told her to open her eyes bigger for me . . . she's so obedient ;)

This is my favorite of Stephen . . . just chillin in the front yard.

I think people are going to start getting suspicious that I make sure and pick model-ish looking best friends just so I can take gorgeous pictures of them and have an awesome portfolio. I promise that's not what's going on . . . it just happens! Lucky for me ;)

I think every boy should have a pair of converse, or "cons" as Eric calls them.

No, not praying, just . . . blissful?

That's it . . . I want to eat her up she's so stinking cute.

Aaaaand my favorite favorite favorite. :)

I had to add this picture that my friend Evy took of us when she flew out to Denver to second shoot a wedding for me. I love getting pictures with all of my friends whenever I can - because I'm usually the one behind the camera.

I Heart these people - alot.

Much Love.

Jessica Shae