CATEGORY event
This gorgeous couple definitely made the most of their day with some of the best silly facial expressions I’ve seen yet! Of course, only those that showed their intense devotion to one another that is the flip side of their intense senses of humor! During our consultation I asked if they wanted to forward any links to favorite wedding photos so I could get an idea of what they like, and Chris said, “We didn’t look at any other web sites but yours. Your personality had us hooked!” So my honest sarcasm for once hasn’t bitten me in the butt. When I met their friends I fit right in. A great laughing group with so many inside jokes like Charlie’s Angels and the “claw,” all the time they spend together was obvious.
They chose the beautiful outdoor Chapel Dulcinea in Driftwood, TX with a reception following at the Salt Lick BBQ Garden Room. Of course they were generous enough to feed me at my favorite restaurant. Best to the both of you on this next phase in your lives together, and thank you for having me a part of your wedding.
I love following a couple through several months and several sessions with the “triple threat” of engagement, bridal, and wedding portraits, getting to know them and creating photos that show off their unique personalities and relationship. Ruth and John, you are both beautiful and easy to work with, chose gorgeous locations like Springhill Event Center in San Antonio for your sessions, and actively created your photo experience. I enjoyed working with you and for you, and thanks to my second shooter Soobum Im for capturing me capturing you. Congratulations on your wedding, I know your marriage will be blessed!
Oh, Jessie, you had me laughing as much as Krystal, which makes taking photos difficult! When the camera wasn’t shaking with my mirth, I caught a few serious moments and especially enjoyed the intimate exchanges of tenderness when the two of you forgot we were watching. The only sad part was driving home to Austin because I thought we would be moved into our new home in Kyle, TX near the venue in San Marcos, TX and that 45-minute drive felt a lot longer than the 15 I was planning on last fall when we booked. But who cares? I got such a kick out of attending and documenting your wedding. Huge congratulations to you both, and you will certainly enjoy life together even more now that you are together forever.
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I get a lot of calls from San Antonio event organizers saying they can’t find anyone who does print-on-site events from a San Antonio provider, and even though I am sure there must be some, I very much enjoy working in both Austin and San Antonio since I live just about in between the two. This April Fool’s Day saw me at Our Lady of the Lake University in downtown San Antonio at a student mixer. We did a few serious shots in their fancy duds, but of course everyone had far more fun using the photo booth props, getting down to the karaoke music, and acting like, well, fools!
Legalzoom.com has an office here in Austin and held a fantastic holiday party for their local employees at the Oasis in Lakeway. The Oasis burned several years back and rebuilt with a vision, adding amazing event rooms to their spectacular Lake Travis views we’ve come to expect when dining there. Legalzoom founders came in from Los Angeles, California for the party, gave a speech I’ve heard is funny every time, and sat in my photo booth just to show some solidarity! Great food, fantastic band, a dj with some creative karaoke, a great photographer (me!) with portraits printed on site, and a gorgeous setting made a very fun night!
Bollywood Shake Dance Studio sponsored an awesome event in downtown Austin at the Copa Bar and Grill with dancing, dance performances, modern Indian rock music, food, drinks, vendors, and of course, me! A green screen can take you anywhere in the world, and that night we chose to go to India! The Taj Mahal, or do you prefer one of your favorite Bollywood actors?
This beautiful wedding was set at the uniquely rustic Texan chapel at Old Glory Ranch in Wimberley, Texas right along the river. A couple that started as a junior high crush has matured over the years as their families have become a part of one another, and that close knit longtime relationship came through, even if the groom was a little camera shy! A fun and classy group of friends completed the circle, topped off with a great second shooter, Tara Pottichen with whom I second shot a wedding the weekend before, we all fun capturing a fairy tale event!
I have a niece Brittany and a nephew Josh who are about 20 years apart, so the dimples and eyes and names make me feel like I’m right at home with my own family. Can you imagine the gorgeous eyes their children will have between the two of them? I loved the tender interaction they had with one another as their comfortable familiar relationship took on a new and exciting turn. Best wishes to you both as you embark on the next phase of your journey together!
Wedding photo booths are such a fun way to spend a weekend night! A silly backdrop, a bucket of props, and the aid of a few cocktails or crazy friends or party crashers, with great Indian food and lots of sparkling Hindu saris optional=500 wedding guests going crazy at my photo printer laughing and pointing, “Three of that one! And four of this one! And I need seven of this other!” I think it may have actually caught fire at one point during the busiest time of the party. Thank you to Dalia and Gopal, their family, the JW Marriott event center in San Antonio, my charred on-site photo printer, Nicki Wright and Bill Peary assistance and equipment, wedding planners Melody and Christy, and of course we couldn’t have done it without 500 of our closest friends. And note to self: always bring the big backdrop, even if you don’t want to haul it around, because the backdrop is never big enough!
Allie (aka Allie Danielle of Nashville) and her sweetheart Christian were married in a family-filled ceremony at the antique Georgetown Heritage Society chapel in Georgetown, Texas. With a simple, intimate, and fun reception following at The Old Pecan Street Cafe, between the good country western and Greek music, the guests really got into the dancing! This was my first time second shooting, and it was such a relaxing experience to be able to experiment and work with yet another talented photographer, Tara Pottichen sent to me via our mutual shutterbug Bill Peary. Good food, good music, family close by, and a couple in love, I had as much fun as they did!
Just doing my part to uphold our local motto of “Keep Austin Weird” this weekend as Austin Fashion Week opened with its Kick Off Red Carpet Party at GSD&M Idea City downtown. The clever designers and creative stylists put on a fantastic show, as well as local graphic artists creating the original virtual signature characters to advertise the event, and body artists Michelle Pulsifer and Donald McCaskill recreating them in the flesh to the thrill of the paparazzi! I came in to do head shots of the models and got to hang around pretending like I was blending in to the camera crowd.
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Alex & Joaquin shared a beautifully tender but monstrously hot wedding ceremony at the outdoor (in August=really, really hot!) Chapel Dulcinea south of Austin in Driftwood, Texas. Joaquin is faithfully serving his country and about to embark on his second deployment (military dress uniform=really, really hot!) A huge crowd for the small chapel of family and friends surrounded them, as well as their adorable son. Congratulations on the next step in your adventure together, and here’s to hoping it stays just as hot for years to come!
This beautiful little family grew a little larger today! Tracy and Kieran were wed at the outdoor Chapel Dulcinea in Driftwood, Texas in a quiet, lovely, intimate ceremony with their 2 daughters and infant son. The new stepsisters have known each other since birth and were adorably excited to help and snuggle new baby brother during the wedding. Coming from someone like me, who had only immediate family at our wedding and chose to homebirth to keep the experience small and intimate, being privileged to document their wedding with the officiant as the only other participant was an honor. Congratulations on your new lives together, and thank you so much for allowing me to play a small role. Your deep devotion to each other was evident, accented with a pop of spunky personality symbolized by that fabulous sunflower yellow gown, and I hope these photos do that justice!
Rayna & Derek were married in style and fun at the gorgeous Red Berry Mansion in San Antonio. Their no-nonsense attitude and sense of humor combined with a great group of friends made for a beautiful wedding day in spite of the warmer than average Texas June heat. The reception had great music, food, and drinks, and featured a lovely balloon-release memorial to the bride’s late father. Her grandfather officiated, and she was given away by her uncle. Congratulations to a lifetime full of many years of wedded bliss! And ignore the best man’s advice of, “Why get married? Just find a girl you don’t really like and buy her a house!”
Emily and Alan were married earlier in April at a ceremony in Taiwan with Emily’s extended family, but as true Texans and die-hard UT alums, an Austin reception was required. This is the most fun I’ve ever had at a reception! From a photographer working the event, that’s quite a statement. With great senses of humor from the couple and the guests, hot pink Converse and UT burnt orange bow tie (that I tied and staged a photo to make it look like he knew what he was doing), party games, crazy photo booth, guests “crashing” the portrait session, and an amazing location on Lake Travis just off Mansfield Dam in Lakeway, everyone seemed like they were having a good time. The Texas barbecue and red velvet cupcakes were just the butter cream frosting on top.
I personally also really enjoyed looking at the gorgeous art board wedding album their fantastic photographer in Taiwan put together. They said everyone does a 12-hour bridal session there and that perhaps I should consider adding a day-long wedding photo extravaganza called the “Asian Package!”
Tiffany & Michael were married at the outdoor Chapel Dulcinea in Driftwood followed by a reception at the Iguana Grill in Lakeway. I provided reception-only coverage, and after I met this vivacious couple I wished I had been able to cover the wedding as well even though it was near freezing outside! I got to enjoy the warmth inside the grill. What a fun group and party. The lighting was really difficult to work with with black ceilings at the venue that sucked up the light from my flash like a hungry vacuum, but I was glad I was indoors, and the large windows gave an amazing view overlooking Lake Travis.
Congratulations to Johnny & Natalie on their wedding! They were wed at St. Helen’s Catholic Church with a reception following at the Williamson County Courthouse in Georgetown, Texas.
What a spunky and funny couple, it was almost hard to take photos because we were all laughing so hard! I think it was the first reception I’ve attended where cowboy hats and Texas accents were mandatory (yes, we had the DJ call them all out for a group photo!) Yet especially later in the evening, once the happy couple was ignoring us and we went into stealth photo ninja mode, there was such a lovely tender affection and sense of relief that it set my own heart to melting. My own 13th anniversary was the day after the wedding, and I thank you for giving me the perfect reminder of how wonderful it’s been! And thanks to Tyler Schmitt who is such an experienced and expensive wedding photographer for agreeing to come be my second: you were amazingly easy and fun to work with! Betcha didn’t know he was hiding back there!
View their full galleries for the wedding and the reception
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Steve Wolf of the Wolf Stunt Ranch and Firelake Event Center put on a great show with his Science in the Movies presentation now performed at over 2,000 schools in North America. He demonstrates all the science concepts needs for the Texas TAKS in a fun educational way that really gets the kids excited and involved. Who wouldn’t appreciate all the guys putting themselves at risk by hoisting, dangling, falling, shooting, and the best of all, igniting and fire training? All for the kids, right? It looked pretty fun to me too, relaxing while all the child labor did the work!
Science Day 2010 was filled with demos for the kids to learn various scientific concepts. My kids were grateful for the invitation from Steve Wolf to come to the event, ditch a little of their own school, and enjoyed the Austin Nature and Science Center presentation allowing us to get up close to other little critters.
The top 20 Nike marketing execs from Portland and around the USA visited the idyllic Wolf Stunt Ranch and Firelake Event Center in west Austin for team building exercises. What do you get when you put 20 ultra-competitive Nike employees in an active outdoor games facility and ask them to work together? A lot of team destroying! By the end, bragging rights went to all as they had to figure out how to solve the last puzzle as a group. I’m not sure what happened to the guy holding the homemade bomb, I didn’t want to spend enough time near it to ask what that was all about!
A vintage style wedding photo montage, which goes perfectly with her netted veil and red roses, and the old world feel of the outdoor Chapel Dulcinea.
I love shooting at the outdoor Chapel Dulcinea in Driftwood, Texas because not only is it a beautiful location that is romantic and intimate, but it’s right down the street from my house. This north Austin couple was even more gorgeous than the location, and it’s too bad they didn’t go into modeling careers!
Five hours and Santa’s lap is worn out! It was a great party for Belterra homeowners at the Belterra Welcome Center, busy, busy, and my printer was humming away! No children or camera equipment were damaged for these shots, though my batteries are a different story.
Everyone who attended the party can waive the sitting fee with a free 8×10 on their first portrait session, over a $200 discount!
