Shelley & Patrick

Shelley and Patrick were married at St. Ignatius Loyola Catholic Church in the Champions Forest area, with a reception following in the Settlement House at Northwest Forest. The grounds at Northwest Forest are absolutely beautiful, and the staff (under direction of Victoria Hermann, the event coordinator) is so very easy to work with.

Shelley & Patrick's day was truly full of love, fun, family, and friends-- lots of crazy Cajun, Polish, and Irish folks getting together and dancing the afternoon away. Pete Armendariz provided the music and kept everyone on their feet (as usual); I'm not sure there was a time when Shelley wasn't on the dance floor and surrounded by guests having a fabulous time.

I should mention that Shelley is my "little" cousin-- little, because she's a couple of years younger than me, and has been one of my closest cousins growing up. We're all very happy to have Patrick as part of our family, and look forward to watching them grow together as a married couple. I included a couple of their engagement portraits just for fun : )

Thanks again to my wonderful assistant Karen, who did most of the shooting once the reception began, so that I was able to enjoy the afternoon's festivities as a guest. She captured so many fun, sweet, and loving moments.

Alan & Emily

Alan and Emily were married at Central Christian Church in Galveston, with their reception at the historic Ashton Villa.

Alan and I go waaaay back-- we graduated college and moved to Houston at the same time (Alan from Tulane, me from Texas A&M). We saw a lot of concerts together, palled around at Astros and Aeros games, and helped one another out whenever help was needed. He's remained in my close circle of friends, and we couldn't have been happier when he started bringing Emily around.

It's a daunting yet honorable task when a close friend hires you to photograph their wedding... it's even more of a daunting task when that friend has a background in photography and you're hoping to meet his expectations. My assistant Karen did an amazing job taking over the reigns once the reception started-- so that my husband and I were able to enjoy the festivities as guests. She caught a particularly wonderful shot after Alan's dance with his mother-- he and Mom wrapped up the dance and then headed over toward Alan's father, who had removed his glasses to wipe tears from his eyes... and in the background of the image, you can see Emily's friends gathered around her, congratualting her.

Emily was truly the picture of sweet, composed, bridal beauty on her wedding day. I'm so proud of Alan for recognizing how special and beautiful she is, and for behaving well enough over the years to convince her that marrying him was a good idea ;)

We had SO much fun at the reception-- we were greeted outdoors with fresh Mojitos, treated to an extravagantly delicious dinner (catering by An Affair Extraordinare), served some of the best wedding cake I have ever eaten (by Who Made the Cake), and then danced the night away to live music from Molly and the Ringwalds, an 80's cover band. Once again, Kelly with Eventology Weddings was the coordinator, and she did a bang-up job of keeping everything flowing smoothly.

For the Love of Shoes...

Ohhhhh shoes. Need I say more?

Here are some of my favorites... all of them belong to my brides, with the exception of the natural leather ones-- those belonged to a groom!

I can hardly believe she's 2!

This is my little friend Kendall, who recently celebrated her second birthday. I like to think that in some small, cosmic way I'm responsible for the insane cuteness... since I introduced her mom and dad to one another back in college.

Luckily I get to capture the cuteness on a regular basis! She was not in the best of fabulous moods on the day we decided to shoot, but we turned up with lots of two-year-old expressions and even some cute temper tantrum moments. With the help of a giant lollipop, I'm calling it an overall success.

Just look at this little guy...

How cute is he? He's Ian, and he's just a little monkey full of sunshine.

Ian and his parents met me out at Hermann Park, where we had a mid-morning full of baby giggles and full-on belly laughs. Any photographer will tell you that in a park full of birds, trees, squirrels, dogs, and other kids it is no small feat to get the little ones to look at you (I am chopped liver compared to the ducks, folks)... but Ian was actually pretty easy to work with. He was full of expression! My favorite picture from the session was when Ian's mom and dad went in for some baby kisses and Ian happened to be looking right at me-- hopefully that one will show up on the wedding slideshow a few decades from now... hehehe.

Happy Mother's Day!

I'd just like to take this opportunity to send a big old shout out to alllll the moms!

So many of my friends and clients have become mothers this year... and more have babies on the way. One dear friend is even expecting triplets! The fun is just beginning.

Before all this, though, there was MY mom.

The best, prettiest, coolest, sweetest mom ever. She never failed to foster my creativity and certainly never thought anything was "too silly". I remember when my best friend and I liked to crawl around the house on our hands and knees, wearing kitty ears and tails, meowing and purring. Mom humored us by feeding us nachos on the floor in my bedroom closet, because that's where the kitty house was. She always made me home-made cakes and decorated them with sprinkles on my birthday (not just at my birthday "party"-- ON my birthday-- because that day was special too, and warranted celebration).

Time and time again, she made me foil crowns and bracelets so I could REALLY be WonderWoman in my sweet costume-bathing suit with my zip-up boots. She brought my grandma along and cried tears of "mom joy" when we'd sing Christms carols in elementary school. She brought me home "surprises" (pieces of candy from a shop near her work that were QUITE the treasure, because they weren't the kind of candy you could find at the grocery store). She always had 50 cents when the ice cream man came driving around. Upon return from any sort of celebration, she greeted us with pieces of fancy cakes and cookies wrapped in a colorful napkin.

When she won money at Bingo, she always let me help her spend some of it... even if it was on something horrid like a white satin "Derrick Dolls" jacket (in my defense, it was 1981 and the Oilers were pretty cool). She never got mad, no matter how many times I "borrowed" her makeup or clothes.

She gave up her summer weekends (and let's face it, lots of weeknights) to accompany me to softball practices, games, and tournaments for all those years I played competitively... She always had a $20 bill handy when I was leaving the house to go back to my dorm in college; and looking back, she always made every one of my friends feel welcome in our home, like one of the family.

From the start, she accepted my (step)children unconditionally as part of the family, never looking back or asking questions. They are her grandchildren, no clarification is necessary.

I guess sometimes growing up, you don't realize how lucky you are to be part of such a wonderful family; but once you have a family of your own, you finally realize how hard it must have been for her to make life so sweet for you.

Thanks, Mom. I love you :)

Here are some throwback shots of me and my mom, taken by my always-handy-with-a-camera dad-- and of course a gratuitous shot of the WonderWoman bathing suit, complete with one handcrafted foil crown (check it out, she even put a jewel on it for me!)

Have camera... will travel!

Jeanette and Alec, who will be getting married in the very near future, live in Chicago, but will hold their wedding in Houston... and what do we do when we have busy clients who live out of town but still want portrait sessions? Why, we pack up our bags and travel to a location more convenient to them! In this case I lucked out in that it happened to be one of my favorite cities to visit, and one of the best times of the year to do so.

We met in Lincoln Park shortly before sunset, and I was thrilled to see Jeanette show up in this stunning plum-colored little number (have I mentioned that I love color?). I had the pleasure of meeting Alec and his charming mother (who came along to handle Jeanette's coat, since it was a little chilly with the sun going down). I knew I liked Alec's mother when I asked her what type of album she wanted after the wedding-- her answer? "I want something beautiful." No problemo!

We walked from one end of the park to the other, starting at the zoo and working our way down and back around to a lovely skyline-at-dusk-on-the-water shot to close it out. I can't WAIT to see them again on their wedding day!