Aww, it's my BFF!

So my super-fabulous friend Emily got married and I was given the honorable job of taking her bridal portraits. She's such a beautiful person inside and out, I hope that the pictures did her justice! I was in the wedding, so you won't see any lovely wedding pictures from this one, but trust me, it was beautiful... Emily was beautiful... and she couldn't have picked a better goofball to spend the rest of her life with. Did I mention that everything was just beautiful?

Her wedding was held at La Colombe D'or, a small restaurant near the University of St. Thomas. It's housed in the old Fondren Family Mansion, and they've built a grand salon out back with imported oak panels from and old grand salon in France! The bedrooms upstairs (which are HUGE) have been made into hotel rooms. We stayed there the night before and night of the wedding and had an absolute blast-- many thanks to my sweet husband Jack for making the Jack-in-the-Box run for us on the morning of the wedding.

But enough reminiscing, I should get to the pictures of my beautiful friend Emily... and as her husband would say...

Have you met the lovely Mrs. Wells?

Chloe!

Heeeeere's Chloe! She was married in Galveston at Ashton Villa with a Garten Verein reception (pre-Ike, of course-- though we were happy to hear that the beautiful historic buildings weathered the storm with only cosmetic damage)... so for her bridal portraits we made our way down to the island. Kelly of Eventology Weddings joined us for the trip. Hats off to Danielle at The Perfect Face for the outta-this-world job on makeup and hair!

Some beauties from the Bridal Vault

So, I go out and take these bridal portraits of these incredibly beautiful women... and I have to come back and hide them until after the wedding, so that no one sees them in all their bridal glory until the final reveal, when they walk down the aisle toward their intended.

By then I'm busy with the wedding images and have all but forgotten about the bridals-- so here are some of my beautiful brides straight from the vault! They were all married this fall and summer... can you guess which one married the law enforcement officer?

Two years ago...

We gained our scruffiest little family member. He's been a faithful companion to us ever since, and brought many a laugh! Here's to our sweet, frisky, naturally-scotch-guarded, full-o-spunk little Freddy.

A few from Thanksgiving with the family...

Here are a couple of shots I snapped of my sweet little family members on Thanksgiving. You'll see my nephew Andrew, my silly niece Lindsay (in the glasses), and my little cousin Jess.

Because I can't resist... more CUTE KIDS!

Without further ado, here are some of my recent little kid shots (one mom thrown in for good measure... as the light and my lens cooperated beautifully to give us a mottled impressionistic background in the park near their home).

All were shot with natural/ambient light, except for Kendall (in the beige sweater dress with pretty blue eyes).

And speaking of makeup, here are my little ghouls.

Here are my lovely Halloween children. Both of them wanted to be creepy things this year, so I busted out the MAC shadows and went to town. Who'd have thought that the grim reaper wore Viva Glam lipstick?

They thoroughly enjoyed hamming it up for the camera, too.


Be afraid... be very afraid!

Getting there is half the fun...

I've always enjoyed when brides hire me long enough to be there to shoot the "getting ready" shots-- makeup like no other day in your life, fancy underpinnings, hair product galore. It's a beautiful thing to see a bride being made up, as she sits almost in a meditative state. There are so few of these closed-eyed, perfectly still moments during a wedding day... and for me, it's fantasyland. I love, love, love makeup!!!

Bridals!

Ashley is getting married next weekend, and wanted to squeeze in a bridal portrait session before it got to be too late... so I made a little room for her during the Boudoir Weekend shoot, and we shot in the fancy-schmancy hotel!

Beach Blessing... Renewal of Vows

Heather & Dave reside just outside Chicago, and had a simple wedding ceremony there this past April. They took a delayed honeymoon to Galveston (before Ike, thankfully!) in July and had a lovely ceremony on the beach to bless their marriage. I was privileged to be their photographer of choice for the ceremony, which was presided over by John Bostock, the "Island Minister", whose soothing British accent and easygoing temprament fit perfectly with the calm surroundings. I cried a little... he had some very touching reflections on marriage and life, and related them to the sea.

We shot some fun, romantic couples portraits afterward-- so very smiley and kissy, these two, without my even having to ask. Heather and Dave each have a simple tattoo of their wedding date from this past April, and found out shortly before leaving for their trip that they're expecting a baby.

Congratulations, both of you-- and I hope that somehow, somewhere, our paths cross again.