Often wedding days are a long time coming, but I felt like I had been looking forward to this one for FOREVER.

It wasn’t that Julieta and Phillip had an obscenely long engagement, it was just that Julieta had been such a present fan (and avid “like”er and “comment”er) on the JZP facebook page and blog for such a long time that I was chomping at the bit to photograph her wedding.

And hopefully that will be the last time I compare myself to a horse in this blogpost.

This June day was truly an all-around sweet day with an absolutely dear couple.

Reason #487 why Julieta is awesome: she wore a Princess Leia garter. This also shows why Phillip is awesome because it means he’s the type of groom who would be really proud for his bride to wear a Star Wars garter.

There is something so fun about a bride getting ready in a whirlwind of bridesmaids with a million hands helping her into her dress and do hair touch-ups. But there was also something so precious in the quiet calmness of Julieta’s mom being the only one there to help get her ready for the wedding day. I very much enjoyed photographing this different pace of “getting ready” shots that yielded a different mood of images.

Julieta and Phillip decided to do a first look on their wedding day and I’m so happy that they did. I’ll actually only be showing a couple of photos of it in this post as I’ll soon be posting about their personal experiences with the first look and will include more photos then.

 The first look allowed these two to take their bride-groom and wedding party portraits at their reception venue — the beautiful Fort Worth Stockyards.

 I loved their reception centerpieces’ use of many mini succulents.

After finishing up at the Stockyards in plenty of time we took off for the Robert Carr Chapel at TCU for the ceremony.

I’m seriously in love with this image of Julieta’s grandmother from El Salvador giving Phillip’s littlest brother a thumbs up right before the ceremony.

I think the above photo may very well be my most favorite recessional photo I’ve ever taken. I love all the genuine emotion showing in Julieta’s facial expression directly into the camera.

After family photos and a few more quick portraits of the bride and groom and wedding party, we were all headed back to the Stockyards for the reception that started off in true Texas style with a yummy bbq dinner.

Julieta is the biggest fan of squirrels that I know, so I made sure to integrate these cute cake toppers into their ring portrait shot.

The DJ pretty much forced the wobble on Phillip but he ended up not being half-bad at it.

 Julieta and Phillip, even just being around y’all together on two occasions, it is evident that y’all are an exactly perfect fit for each other and that always makes my heart so, so happy to get to see!

Thank you for choosing JZP to be there to document your most special day (even before you had a wedding date set :))!

Meet Audrey.

I should have seen it coming when Audrey first walked up to me talking about “the horses.” She had seen some horses on their walk to meet me and it was all she could talk about.

I didn’t think twice about it. She’s a two-year-old. Surely she’ll forget about the horses.

First I tried distracting her — Audrey loved playing the “let’s throw leaves at the camera” game with her mom, Nicole. Worked like a charm.

She was interested in the water for a bit, but the next thing I knew? She was talking about those horses again. Nicole and I promised her we’d go see them before we were finished and that held her for over for a bit longer.

Audrey’s little sister, Harper, was there too. Gotta love those baby spit-bubbles.

Up to this point Audrey has been talking about “the horses” with increasing fervency, so we decided to head back in the general direction of the horses.

I picked a spot where she could SEE the horses from a distance. That was my first mistake.

She made a beeline for the horses. Several beelines actually.

Mistake number two — thinking that letting her get closer to the horses for a short time would curb some of the horses’ allure. Nope. Audrey could have waved at those horses all day.

Thankfully the horse had to go take a bath so we waved good-bye and kept taking pictures.

This picture. makes me laugh. every time. Look at that determined look on her face. She WILL get to that horse.

I wish I could remember what I did to make her laugh. I’m surely going to need to use that trick again in the future.

Darling. Just darling.

Nicole. You are a great mother. I’m just going to say what everyone else is thinking.

Everything about this picture on the left says “sweet little girl” to me.

Then came: the stairs.

Audrey looooooooooooooooooooooved those stairs. Perhaps she could see the horses better from the top?

She was up the stairs. Down the stairs. Up the stairs. Hahaha, I’m sure it was quite the sight because I was just running back up and down the stairs too trying to stay in front of her.

She showed off her ballerina moves at the top of the stairs. Then it was back down the stairs to help mom up the stairs.

Look at that toe point! She has a future in ballet for sure.

You know, I made a lot of trips up and down those stairs that day. I chased after Audrey as Audrey chased after horses. I talked in all kinds of voices to keep her attention.

But at the end of the session when Audrey said she wanted me to hold her? It was all worth it.

For Audrey, it hadn’t been getting her pictures taken.

It had been one long game with her new friend.

And that’s alright by me.

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