Anabel and Jason

The fall is definitely busy season for portraits... holidays, back-to-school photos, and lately engagements have been crazy! I had the best time last weekend with Anabel and Jason down on South Congress for their engagement photos... the session just kept going because not only were we all having fun, they were up for anything! We started at Jo's, made our way to the food trailers, headed back up by Homeslice and finally finished near the beautiful trees at Academy and Congress. They were great sports. Anabel and Jason, thanks so much for letting me hang out with you for the afternoon!

Karena and Roderick

I've been sitting on this entry for awhile because I haven't really had the words yet to process what an amazing day this was. I was introduced to Karena and Roderick by our mutual friend Laura, and I can, without a doubt, say that this was probably one of the most special weddings I'll ever have the honor of capturing.

Karena is a strong, charismatic, hilarious woman who has been fighting her battle with ovarian cancer with grace, style, and an amazing network of friends and family behind her. Before I got to meet her, I was able to spend some time with Roderick, and it was clear from everything he told me about her that he thinks she hung the moon. As he should. :) They chose to have their wedding at the Horner Family Chapel at Baylor Health Center in Dallas, where Karena has had treatment and where her cancer support group is based.

The beautiful bride...

And the handsome groom.

All of the color details of their wedding were teal, which is the color that represents ovarian cancer awareness. Some of the guests even showed up wearing teal, which was fantastic!

Karena's "something borrowed" was her earrings.

Her bouquet was hand-felted by a friend, and the bridesmaids had matching ones in teal. Fabulous!

Thank you, Roderick and Karena, for allowing me to be with you on this amazing day. I wish you luck and love in your marriage... congratulations!

Kyle

I had the best time this past weekend. I shot my first wedding solo (more on that in a later post) and then got to spend some quality time with my lovely friend Jennie and her family. I got to know Jennie through the internet (which seems fairly standard these days!) and I love that even though we've only met in person three or four times, she was totally ok with me crashing at her house for the night. We stayed up way too late talking about everything under the sun (truly... we went from Matt Damon to husbands to worrying about how to raise our kids to be good people) and then in the morning, I got to take some pictures of Jennie and her adorable son Kyle. Her husband Mike had a race that day and so he had left before we started picture time, but beware Mike! My camera will get you next time. ;)

Kyle was so funny and happy and cheerful, and he let me take a bunch of photos... here are a few of my favorites of the two of them. Thank you, Jennie!

Eliot and Family

My lovely friend Catherine contacted me not long ago about taking some photos at her home, where her family had a celebration planned for her son Eliot's baptism. I LOVE shooting in people's homes (I guess if I were being all business-y I would call it a "lifestyle shoot") and I'm especially in love with Catherine and Rob's home. Rob remodeled it himself and it's such a cool, open house with lots of natural light. I had a great time following Eliot around and getting to see him surrounded by all of his cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents. He is such a loved little boy. Kitty, thanks for letting me be part of his day.

(Side note: isn't Catherine creative? I loved these little favors she put together.)

(Eliot REALLY loved the icing on the cupcakes. Like, a LOT.)

The McGinnis Family

Elena and I have been close friends since we met in college, so hanging out with her this morning and getting some photos of her family was wonderful. Evan and Wesley are so excited about their new baby sister, and Carson was super-baby all morning.

Thank you, Elena and Davin! (And thanks for the granola bars, too... I actually got to have a couple before the girls gobbled them up.)