Juli and Jared’s beautiful wedding was set at the McKinney Cotton Mill — a venue I always love photographing. I could not get past Juli’s great attention to detail in every single piece used in her wedding decor. All it it came together so seamlessly and fabulously! I could have spent the entire day photographing each individualized table-setting.
Confession: Juli had two DARLING sisters by her side helping her throughout the entire wedding day process, only I kept forgetting one of their names! Finally Forgotten-name-sister looks at me dumbfounded (with legitimate reason) and says, “It’s ‘Jillian.’ It’s YOUR name.”
I didn’t forget it again after that.
Juli and Jared chose to go the route of a first look — this allowed them some intimate moments alone in the midst of all the wedding day hustle and bustle and also allowed us to take all of the formal portraits before the ceremony because Juli was adamant that she did not want to miss out on their reception that she had put so much effort into. So miss out they did not!
SERIOUSLY, JULI!! THE DETAIL!!!!
One of my most favorite moments from the reception was when Juli’s father and his college a cappella group serenaded the couple with their soulful crooning.
Jared was even lucky enough to get pulled up on stage with the quartet for a special song!
And Juli just sat there and smiled. Oh, that Juli-smile. So, so beautiful.
Best wishes to Juli and Jared and a lifetime full of attention to all the sweet details along the way.
One early Saturday morning in July I loaded up my car with camera gear (well, technically James did), grabbed some Starbucks, and headed out for good ‘ole East Texas to photographically celebrate Laura and Matt’s wedding day. Several hours later I pulled up to First Baptist Mineola and was greeted by pretty blue skies, a cheery bride and a solid amount of time to take fun detail shots — this made for one happy photographer.
Laura’s niece proudly held the (specific) title of flower girl princess. She wore it well.
While finishing up the getting ready process, Laura handed me the rings and I turned to leave the room with them when I stopped, executed a perfect spin move and asked, “Do you happen to have your passport too?” International travel is a huge part of both Laura and Matt’s lives and I knew it’d be the perfect setting for the ring portrait.
Matt and his groomsmen showed up with just enough time to play an, ahem, very short, but very entertaining, round of Monopoly.
Faces like this can only mean one thing — it’s time to don the wedding dress.
Laura was giddy and expressive and bubbling over with excitement the entire day and I LOVED it.
We finished up with wedding party portraits and Laura hid herself away until the ceremony.
Remember when I mentioned that Laura is just a tad bit expressive? She was especially so before Matt went in to seal the ceremony with a kiss.
I love when clients reserve some time after the ceremony for bride-groom portraits — I love it even more when there’s still beautiful natural light to work with as on this afternoon.
This first dance has stuck with me. Much like Laura and Matt, this dance was extraordinarily . . . happy.
Yeah, that was the most accurate description I could come up with.
Laura was happy.
Matt was happy.
Behind my camera I was happy watching how happy they were. I remember having one of those goofy crack-your-face grins all over my face behind my camera.
There was so much happy it made my heart hurt. In a totally good way.
After dinner, toasts and some cupcake cutting the reception segued in to full-on celebration mode, with the help of the fantastic dj expertise of Justin Williams with INTELLIGENT Lights & Sound. I’ve throughly enjoyed working several weddings that he’s DJ-ed because he keeps the party going and the energy high.
He’s good at what he does.
A-ha. This is Matt’s pained, (semi)joking “Laura’s-dancing-again” face. Classic.
Although I’m sure Laura and Matt would have been perfectly content to keep dancing into the night, their guests sent them off with lots of bubbles, well wishes, and, yes, all the happiness in the world.
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