amanda & clayton had the closest thing to a perfect wedding day i have ever seen.  no hiccups, fantastic weather, and just the right mix of family and friends.  if all i did was shoot this wedding over and over i would come home every weekend with a full heart.

can we all agree that la tee da flowers is amazing?

there was so much gorgeous light filling first presbyterian in tyler.  i loved it.

so many many vintage goodies provided by prairie sage vintage rentals.

clayton busted out the biggest face of awe when he saw amanda during their first look.

their daughter was as perfect as a flower girl could be.

i adore this image.

clayton was so kind to give alexis a little necklace.  she felt so so special.

the only thing better than vintage props at a wedding is vintage snacks! :)
they were the first couple ever to have their reception out on the church lawn.  it totally felt like anne of green gables.

thank you guys so much for letting me be a part of your perfect day.

ashley & blake are fun people.  fun people have fun friends.  fun friends make for a kick butt mug machine.

unless you have been living under a rock the past year you’ve heard of one direction.  just another in the seemingly endless line of boybands that pop up every other year.  their song “what makes you beautiful” is super catchy and my family may even have had a dance party to it from time to time.  but there is always something that seems shallow when 14 year old boys sing about true love & beauty.

the premise of the song though is spot on.  so many times it’s hard for women to see themselves as others do.  people look at you and see one thing but when you look into a mirror you ignore the good and focus on what you perceive to be a “fault”.  the songs speaks to that idea and hopes to remind ladies of their beauty.

dove is on a little campaign of their own to remind women of their beauty.  the past few years they have made commercials, websites, and print adds that back this idea.  their latest one is so great and totally captures the issue i see almost ever weekend.  i’ll take a gorgeous photo of a bride, show it to the bridesmaids and other ladies in the room and they will just go nuts over how great it is. then i’ll show it to the bride and she’ll say something about her nose, or her chin, or how her left ear ALWAYS looks taller than her right.  :)  take 3 minutes, watch the video and the next time you start to be overly critical of your looks, remember the boys from one direction and the lovely folks at dove may not agree with you.

i can’t say enough good things about ashley and blake.  they were just perfect.  i love them.  i loved their day.  i really loved their wedding venue.  take a look at the lovely howell family farms in arlington.

blake is a visual fx artist.  that means he makes tv shows look good/real.  if you watch boardwalk empire, you’ve seen his work.  and now,since i photographed their rings on a mini green screen i made, you might see their rings in an episode one day. :)

theses two started laughing during their first look and didn’t stop the rest of the day.

still laughing.

still laughing during the ring exchange and if you look you can see ashley smiling/smirking during the prayer!

even more laughter and bit of crying.

one of my favorite post ceremony shots i’ve ever taken.

nothing like facetiming a friend a few states over right after you said “i do”.

lots of dancing, lots of aggies, lots of cake.  it was a great evening.

thank you two so so much for letting me share this little part of you journey.  i loved telling your story.

(in other news, the mug machine was there in full force.  those images will be blogged soon.  stay tuned.)

i’ve known gabby since she was this little.

i met her because i thought her oldest sister was hot.  (i later married her oldest sister.)

more than any other bride i have followed gabby’s journey towards marriage and been there for the ups and downs.  it was so special to be there on her wedding day at bella sera ranch.

gabby and kendal met in hong kong where she teaches english.

gabby gave me her shoes like this.
i said can i take them out of the bag?
she said do whatever, i trust you.
this is what i did.

nothing like having twin daughters help you get ready.

sara, my 7 year old, loved having aunt gabby fix her hair.

petal’s florist did the amazing job they always do.

gabby was so so nervous leading up to her first look.  i loved seeing kendal melt those nerves away as he held her.

i typically don’t post many “formals” but this bridesmaid was too attractive to pass up.  (the little boys aren’t bad either.)

jo loved getting dressed up.  he kept channeling his inner tony stark.  (his words)  he loved it until the bridesmaids started telling him how handsome he was.

fine! fine! since you asked, i’ll show you all 4 of my kids.

gabby & kendal had a herd of nieces and nephews walking down the aisle.

it was about a billion degrees below zero outside and some of the inside cowards were taunting the faithful of us who endured the cold.

i love this photo of them after the ceremony.  gabby has the best laugh.
kendal’s brother in law dropping the perfect out of focus photo bomb.

the toasts were perfect, they included stories of them making out and bible verses that morphed into 3 sisters rapping.

before returning the get-a-way car my kids and i decided to give it a little test drive the next day.

gabby, i’m so so proud of you.  i love you dearly and know you and kendal will make me many many glorious nieces and nephews to spoil.