emily and mike were married at San Luis Resort and Spa last month in galveston, tx. from the time kevin and i moved to texas, i told him that i wanted to photograph a wedding at san luis resort. so when mike and emily told me their beautiful wedding venue, i just about swooned, but somehow managed to hold in my excitement. and just as i imagined, the wedding far exceeded my expections.



emily had one of the most gorgeous gowns i have ever seen.

no matter how great of a photographer anyone is, you can't capture both the bride's and the groom's face when they first see each other. i was lucky enough to have jenna dee from studio|detro andmike charlton help me out to capture every moment. i always photograph the bride when she comes down the aisle, while my second shooter captures the groom's face when he first see his bride. as i was capturing this photo, i heard mike gasp a soft "wow..." as emily turned the corner. it was a touching response to seeing her for the first time, and jenna dee captured his expression perfectly.

emily and mike were married in an afternoon outdoor ceremony overlooking galveston's beach and ocean, just hours after a storm. the air smelled fresh, and the ceremony was intimate and calm as these two exchanged their vows with tearful eyes all around.







after the ceremony we all ventured inside for the cocktail hour and celebration!





these two didn't skip any details, and topped it off with a gorgeous display of tiffany blue wedding candy.



emily had a quick dress change half way through the reception, and i LOVED her tiffany blue cocktail dress!

the night ended poolside, with emily, of course, in her white bathing suit and matching tiara. kevin and i were done photographing for the day, but we stayed for the pool party and enjoyed our weekend in galveston. thank you so much emily and mike for trusting us to capture your day - we had a great time and can't wait to see you guys again!



to see more from emily and mike's wedding, check out their galveston wedding slideshow.

kevin works in a city with one road, no traffic lights, and one decent restaurant. knowing myself all too well, i avoided such a place for as long as possible. however, not seeing my husband every night or expecting him to make a 2 hour commute each evening are both unreasonable expectations. so when kevin told me he had to be in madagorda, tx last weekend i got myself motivated by planning a campfire on the beach with hot dogs (kosher of course.... pork = eww) and s'mores.

his house is right on the beach so i'm all "let's take a walk on the beach with bella!! we can go through that trail that's cut out through the brush behind your house!!" kevin, being the sensible one in the relationship says "eh, there are bugs and snakes back there. let's just drive down." me: "pssh! you baby! we're walking - it's right there! like 100 feet!"

half way through i'm nearly in tears - snakes, swams of mosquitos, and burrs caught in my flip flops and giving me splinters on the bottom of my feet. bella was being carried by kevin.... it might be the first time i was ever envious of my sweet little dog. needless to say, we walked all the way up the beach, around the brush, and down the street to get back to his house, 100 feet away.

all in all, the hot dogs and marshmallows hit the spot, bella had a beard full sand from all the fun sniffing she did in the seaweed, and we had this incredible view as we walked hand in hand down the beach. i'll be back again next tuesday and wednesday while he's working, and will stay clear of that deceiving pathway to sandy bliss.

it grew - like... REALLY grew. our business has gone from a few boudoir photography sessions a month to a few boudoir sessions a WEEK. this is on top of weddings, engagements, and senior photos. in may, we met our annual goals for the entire year. woah. this means one of two things - we're either getting much more word of mouth than we expected, OR we're really bad at estimating.

if i plan to be the boudoir, wedding, and senior photo photographer for all of this, it means i need some help on the back end. which brings me to the announcement of the addition of our new photo editor, steph! she has helped out in the past with our branding and logo design, and is currently helping out with a new project we are working on. adding her as a vital part of our photography company only made sense.

so kevin and i took a much needed break/company retreat over memorial day weekend and headed to charlotte to train steph on our style. the three us wandered around charlotte with a camera - ya know, for a 'company' photo. we intended for it to be somewhat serious - fail on our part - but i think these are only telling of our personalities... we're a little different!

 

steph - the ArtiTech
kevin - the Director of Dull Stuff
me... well... my title is boring... principal photographer... but i'm open to suggestion if you have one!

cheers to boudoir photography!

photographing any wedding is always an honor, and i am sure to become friends with every single one of my brides before shooting their wedding photography... to me, it is very important to be able to connect with the bride and groom on a personal level. i am the only person that day never leaves the bride's side - from preparation to exit - i'm capturing what she sees through my lens so that she'll never forget that day. for this reason, it is important that we click as friends.

but photographing the wedding of an existing friend can't be beat - what an honor. adam lived with my husband, kevin, in college and was the best man at our wedding. so when elle asked me to be their wedding photographer, i was beside myself - "yes, of course i will be your photographer!!!" their desintation wedding near salt lake city, utah couldn't come fast enough. and what a perfect place for a wedding. all of our friends are avid skiers so we spent the first few days hitting the slopes and eating phenominal local food. perhaps the whole skiing thing wasn't such a great idea since most of us showed up at the wedding with wind burned faces - including the groom - but hey, it was worth it for the view from this mountain!

adam and elle had an intimate wedding ceremony in a tiny white christmas card style church, and then had their reception in a ski lodge at park city. the entire event was stunning and we were so lucky to be a part of their day.














this group definitely knew how to party!

did i mention that this group liked to partty?? ...oh yeah, and if you were wondering, YES, that IS my husband.





and of course, my favorite photo for last. how stunning did elle look?!?!



elle and adam, a million thank yous for such an amazing weekend. love you both!

 

emily and michel came to me as a referral from a close friend. we decided to meet at starbucks one evening, and i knew we would hit off immediately when she said very matter-of-factly "you will know who we are, because i have platinum blonde hair and michel has none". ha! easy enough!

we talked about all of the fun wedding day details - emily hasn't missed a beat with the details - and looked over album and wedding photography options. and as simple as that, we were ready to set up their engagement photography session!

the thing i love most about emily and michel is their desire for something different. i always say that you aren't taking full advantage of your professional photography if you go to a park for portraits - you have a tree in your front yard - use that. a professional photographer can think of something more unique and creative - and emiyl and michel were all about it! so we headed downtown and got creative.

yesterday i photographed their incredibly beautiful galveston wedding at the san luis resort and spa, right on the seawall of galveston, tx. i can't wait to get home and look through all of the images! enjoy your honeymoon emily and michel!!!




this address originally said something else, but being that their wedding was 5/15, i figured a little photoshopping was required. :)