Meet Christina. She married Cedric on a lovely morning in December.
For clarification, the man pictured above is not Cedric, it’s her father.
Just wait until you hear how she and her husband met. Let’s just say that Christina and Cedric are a testament to what Myspace did for our generation.
Yeah, I’m just going to leave it there for now.
We started the day at her grandmother’s house in Fort Worth where she was getting ready.
Christina’s grandmother had such a great bench on her front porch where I was able to take some of the wedding details — including Christina’s veil and her fabulously sparkly Steve Madden shoes.
Perhaps a garage is not your typical place to take photos of the wedding dress, but I like it.
Christina’s niece was there getting ready for the wedding too. Cutest. thing. ever.
I love that this pictures all the Gonzalez women present while she became a bride – both Christina’s sisters, her mother, and her grandmother watching from her seat.
I said it once and I’ll say it again, cutest little girl ever.
Next it was off to All Saints Catholic Church for the ceremony.
Now meet the groom, Cedric.
Cedric and his two groomsmen met us at the church. Cedric’s parents were with him right up until the ceremony started – his father pinned his boutonniere on him and his mother gave her son one last kiss before he became a husband.
I’ve never been to a Catholic wedding before but Christina could top that — she’d never been to ANY type of wedding before (at least since she was a little kid). Sooooooo, she won. Plus she’s the bride, so she basically wins everything.
After the ceremony ended there were a few hours until the reception started that evening and Christina and Cedric had reserved some of that time specifically to take pictures of just the two of them. Setting time aside on the wedding day for the bride and groom to take pictures together is a great idea — whether that be after the ceremony or in the form of a first look if the couple doesn’t have any time to spare before the reception.
While we were taking these pictures is when they told me the story of how they met, so this is when I shall share the story with you.
“Lord Cedric Sweetheart” was Cedric’s username when Christina first spotted him on one of their mutual friend’s Myspace page. Thankfully the name didn’t scare her off and her friend vouched that Cedric was a great guy. So, she struck up conversation with Lord Cedric Sweetheart.
Their online conversations continued, which led to phone conversations, which eventually led to their first date a month later.
I loved Christina’s recount of their initial reactions to each other.
“Wow, you’re really short.”
“Wow, you’re really tall.”
(Don’t be fooled, in all of these pictures she’s wearing her Steve Madden heels)
It was a whirlwind love from the start — after four months of dating, Cedric asked Christina’s parents if he could marry their daughter.
Happy though they were, her parents asked that they wait a year before getting engaged.
So on their one-year anniversary date Cedric proposed. And a year later here they are: Mr. and Mrs. Lord Cedric Sweetheart.
The above right picture is one of my favorites from the day. I can’t pinpoint exactly why, but just know that I really like it.
After we finished with bride-groom shots Christina and Cedric had an unusual request – did I want to accompany them to the mall? To document them building their personalized wedding day bears at Build-a-Bear?
Why yes, yes I would.
My brother Jacob was shooting video at the Castillo wedding so we spent a few hours at a coffee shop until it was time for the “Ever After” themed reception at The Chateau at Forest Park.
The wedding cake was as sparkly as Christina’s shoes and had a glass Cinderella carriage on top! It was terribly girly and I was in love.
I love people’s reactions to seeing a bride — they usually look like this.
First dance, y’all.
Someone else loved the cake too!
Cedric’s mother gave such a sweet speech in Spanish to the bride and groom. I wish I could have voice recorded it but I guess that could have been weird, so I guess it was a good idea that I just stuck to my still camera.
Segue into father-daughter and mother-son dances.
And then it was segue into ALL. SORTS. of dancing.
Two particular standouts were these two. The little boy above was an INSANE dancer. I wouldn’t be surprised if he literally owned the dance floor — like the owners of the dance floor should name it after this kid.
After a final dance it was time for the send-off.
Thank you for letting me document your day, Mr. and Mrs. Castillo (aka Lord Cedric Sweetheart)! Best wishes to you!
Meet Jacob.
Jacob is my brother. We worked together for the first time at a wedding I photographed recently. He was shooting video at a wedding for his first time, but in these pictures he was helping out the bride by sweetly holding her veil and bouquet while I got some shots of the couple. But when I turned around and saw him looking all precious and cold, I had to snap a couple of him too.
Meet Hollye.
Hollye is another dear friend of mine. She had never had any photos taken of just her before so for her birthday we set out on a picture-taking adventure! Here are a few of the shots from our walk.
Several things you will immediately notice upon meeting Hollye are: 1) she is absolutely beautiful 2) she is absolutely hilarious and 3) she puts her whole heart into everything she does.
For these reasons she is 1) a particularly good friend and 2) particularly fun to take pictures of.
Annnnnd she brought props — a FULL SUITCASE of props! We had so much to work with which made for an absolutely delightful shoot. Delightful, I say!
On our walk we were also toting a large golden picture frame (around my neck — it was very becoming) and mirror, just waiting for the opportune moment to use them in our shoot.
Gosh, I know I said it earlier but something I l-o-v-e-d about photographing Hollye is that she was completely uninhibited in everything she did. She didn’t make one awkward or embarrassed face the entire shoot — she just threw herself into every pose, every facial expression, every laugh and it made for beautiful, uninhibited photos.
Don’t get me wrong — I don’t mind people who make awkward faces. I’m one of them when I’M in front of the camera. But I want everyone I ever take pictures of to know that I’m NEVER behind my camera thinking to myself, “WHAT do they think they are doing?” whenever someone is trying something new for a picture or really committing to a particular pose. Â I’m pretty much always behind my camera thinking, “That’s so great!!”
I like to think of the mirror in these pictures as a rabbit’s hole into another world.
Gosh. I love everything about this picture — the cool, quiet contentedness of it all.
Yeah, girl.
We wanted to end with some standard Hollye shots — her Ray-Bans and a button down.
Why yes, Hollye did happen to have a giant, glittery maple leaf on hand.
Hollye, you are beautiful.
Yeah, I’ll end on that note.
Thank you, my friend, for letting me take you picture. I hope they fully capture your amazing, adventurous spirit.
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Meet the Bell family.
Let me just start by explaining that Brittney Bell (the tiny, cute person in the blue and white polka dots) is one of my most near and dear friends which makes her entire family near and dear to me as well. That’s funny how that works, huh? I love Brittney and therefore I automatically love everyone that she loves. It’s just the way it works.
Ty, Brittney, Heather and Bekah
And let me also get this straight: It was dang windy the day we took these. However, the Bell family took it in stride even though there was a lot of hair-stuck-in-my-lipgloss pictures. Especially for Ty.
Aren’t they pretty?
We took these pictures in a sculpture garden near where Heather works in Dallas. This picture is one of my favorites from the shoot — such a serene family photo.
Sweet brother-sister love.
“That’s right. I raised them.”
(That’s what Heather is saying in my head in this picture)
SO MUCH love!
This is the Bell family cd cover.
Brittney and Bekah could be models if they wanted. Like, modeling agencies of the world, meet your next . . . models.
Well. I love them. There aren’t very many other words I have for this family.
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