I know I know I know I am late with posting pictures of Baby Jace and I’m so sorry, please forgive  Ok but here are the pics Karey has taken.  Are they not super cute!!!!!  Jace is just adorable!!!!  I’ll get straight to the pictures so you can enjoy the uberness of cuteness.

I’m going to give you fair warning with this post, some of the pictures may make you REALLY hungry.  I’ve been so meaning to share these pictures of David and Sara’s Wedding Rehearsal Dinner at Dakota’s Restaurant in Downtown Dallas. They were married in May at the Adolphus Hotel with a fabulous wedding planned by Shari Johns and her team at As You Wish.  Now we weren’t there wedding photographers, but I have seen the wedding pictures so I know the wedding was fabulous, plus with it being planned by As You Wish how could it not be  Shari contacted me because Sara wanted photographs of her rehearsal dinner and her wedding photographer couldn’t make it so I was happy to fill in.  Everyone was so nice and treated me like I was a member of the family.  And I have to say, some of the images are my favorite to date because of the real, intimate moments I had the pleasure of capturing.

So here is where I come in for some wedding advice, brides have you thought about having your photographer at your wedding rehearsal dinner?  If not, why not!!!!  Some of the most intimate, personal, and of course fun moments regarding your wedding happen at your rehearsal dinner.  So there is some food for thought for all you brides out there.

The following images may make your mouth water, fair warning

Ok I saved this image for last but it is certainly not least.  This is the Mother of the Bride and Her Mother.  I kid you not, I teared up (ok more like balling) while I was editing this image.  So personal and a moment that I know will be treasured forever.  Capturing moments like the one below is why I LOVE doing what I do.

So if you follow our blog I’m sure you have noticed the lack of posts in the last couple of weeks.  Well that’s because both Karey and I have taken the month of July off.  Karey had her baby on July 2nd and I had sinus surgery to fix a severe deviated septum on July 7th.  So basically we are using July as down time to recover and Karey to spend time with her baby boy Jace (which I will have pictures to post soon). I think we really just wanted to beat this crazy Texas summer.  My gosh it has been HOT!!!!  Our first wedding back will be August 6th so stay tuned for those pictures.

In the meantime, I wanted to share some pictures of my family that I took when we were all up in Colorado for my cousin’s wedding (view my cousin’s wedding pictures by clicking here).  My family truly is the best and I have so much love for them.  I really wish we all lived closer and when we get together, it never seems like we get to spend enough time together.  But when we do get together, we have the best time and do nothing but have fun and laugh the whole time we are together.  I’m so not lying, if you met my family then would totally get it.

I started off my accompanying a couple of my cousin’s and their children, my grandmother, and aunt and uncle to the Denver Aquarium.  It was so neat watching the kid’s faces light up as they saw all the different fish and how mesmerized they were by them.

My Uncle Peter with two of his grandsons, John and Thomas (above)

Below, Miss Hazel is dancing and catching bubbles.

My lovely Grandmother or better known as Grammy.

I just love this picture of Alex

Then I Grammy and I joined other for lunch at a Chinese Restaurant in Evergreen.  Luckily it was too full because we were loud, nothing wrong with that right

I can’t remember what my uncle was talking about here but my mom and husband were intrigued.

I think when we left we were all going back to the hotel for a nap before the rehearsal dinner.  I’ll post those pictures soon.

First Looks between a Bride and Groom are becoming more and more popular so I wanted to address this post as to why that is.

- First of all, a “First Look” allows you to see your soon to be husband in a private moment without all your guests looking at you.  It’s about the two of you.  It is just the two of you seeing each other for the first time, no one else is around (well except for your wedding photographer to document it).  When you walk down the aisle, you might no necessarily see your groom’s expressions as you are worried about tripping, have a sea of people in front of you etc.  When you do a first look, there is none of that stress.  It’s all about the moment and you will remember that forever.

-  Second reason for a first look is it reduces stress.  It is really stressful to take formals after the ceremony because family and friends want to congratulate you, chat with you etc and its hard to collect everyone needed for the pictures and have them paying attention.  You have groomsmen running off to get drinks, guests waiting on you for the reception to start, a grandmother that has gone MIA.  It is so much more relaxing to get all those formal pictures done beforehand.  It really makes the day run a lot smoother and cuts down on a lot of wedding day stress.

- Third, you can join the cocktail hour and spend more time with your guests.  So its win-win for you and your guests

I have done an interview so to say with some of our past brides that have done a first look and here is what they had to say.

Why did you choose to do a First Look?

Lacey  - I knew that I would be so nervous walking down the aisle. I knew that if I saw Sergio beforehand, that it would ease my nerves. Plus, I wanted to have that private moment between us. I wanted to be able to look into his eyes the moment he saw me and see the expression on his face. It was great.

Laura – We chose to do a first look because we knew we wanted a lot of portraits and didn’t want to miss half our reception time taking them.

Stephanie – We chose to do a first look so that we would could take some of our wedding party photos before the ceremony. We also wanted to have that intimate moment of seeing each other. It meant a lot to us to be able to talk and express our love to each other before the wedding.

What Benefit did you see to the first look?

Lacey – I was a lot calmer for the ceremony. I had that special moment with my fiance and I was just super happy to be getting married.

Laura – The benefits of doing the first look was that we could take all the portraits we wanted, and more practically, I wasn’t having to hide from Nathan in the hours before the ceremony. I would have been very annoyed if I had to seclude myself before the wedding – I wanted to see and be with everyone!

Stephanie – I think it is extremely beneficial to have a first look. It can be intimate, private and personal. It helps the photographer by giving more time to take group pictures.

Did the First Look help reduce the stress of wedding day?

Lacey – Most definitely. I already knew his reaction. I knew he thought I was beautiful and honestly, that’s all that mattered to me.

Laura – I don’t know if the first look helped with wedding day stress. My stress that day came from disorganized make-up artists, not worrying about if Nathan would like my dress. But the first look certainly didn’t create stress, so that’s good.

Stephanie – The first look definitely helped to reduce stress on my wedding day. It was nice to be able to talk with my husband and hear him reassuring me how beautiful I was and how everything was falling into place just right.

Did you feel like you lost that special moment when you walk down the aisle?

Lacey – Not in my opinion. I felt like I had that special moment – privately with him. I had a million things going through my mind when I walked down the aisle (like don’t forget to look at the camera). I did look at Sergio, of course, but he probably saw me before I was able to lock eyes with him. So, I would have missed his immediate reaction if we had not done the reveal.

Laura – The entire ceremony seemed like a blur… I can’t say that I would have remembered the “walking down the aisle” moment, even if we had insisted on waiting to see each other. What I do remember is finally getting to Nathan and seeing how emotional he was. He wasn’t that emotional during the first look, so there was definitely something special about the real deal.

Stephanie – I don’t at all feel like I lost that special moment of walking down the aisle. I know that my husband had already seen my dress at the first look, but I think walking down the aisle is a completely different experience. It’s more about knowing that you are coming toward the man you will marry than worrying about him having already seen the dress.

Do you regret doing a first look?

Lacey – Not even for one second.

Laura – I don’t regret having a first look. I think it’s a great change to the traditional wedding timeline. When I started planning, I didn’t think I’d want a first look. I thought it would take away from the emotion of the ceremony. But as we got closer to the wedding day, more a reality than a far off dream, it became so unimportant. What was important was getting pictures with loved ones AND spending more time with family and friends at the wedding. The ceremony is special because you are getting MARRIED, not because you haven’t seen each other all day!

Stephanie -I do not regret doing a first look at all. It was very intimate and private and I am extremely grateful to have pictures that captured the wonderful emotions on our faces.

I wanted to share these real experiences with you from real brides because I think a common misconception is that it won’t feel special when you walk down the aisle and that is not the case.  We certainly would never make a first look mandatory but it is something worth considering and is very beneficial to the flow of your wedding day.

Thank you so much Lacey, Laura, and Stephanie for sharing your experiences regarding your “First Look” with us.

I’m just going to have to start this blog post with a disclaimer: I’m a little biased with this wedding because it’s my cousin Mikey’s wedding, so there are a ton of pictures.  I am so beyond happy for my cousin Mikey and his wife Stephanie, as I just LOVE Stephanie!!!! Stephanie, I’m so glad you are officially part of the family.

Mikey and Stephanie had the most amazing destination wedding in Colorado (I think the majority of my family has now decided they want to move there).  They chose the Evergreen Lakehouse as their wedding venue  in where else, but Evergreen, Colorado, right outside of Denver.  It was picture perfect, I mean like postcard picture perfect. It was right on the lake and surrounded by mountains that were lush and green.  I think I was in awe of the beauty the whole time, it truly was gorgeous!!!!!

Grab some popcorn, sit back and enjoy looking at these gorgeous wedding pictures.

I love this picture of Hazel – one of the flower girls.  She is so adorable!!! I also get to dote on her because she is my second cousin

My cousin, aka the groom, getting ready.  He was nothing but smiles the whole time and couldn’t wait to marry Stephanie.

This has to be one of my favorite images of Stephanie.

She was so cute, once her mom put the veil on, the emotion of it all just overwhelmed her.

This was the view from the  Evergreen Lakehouse.  I don’t think there are any words that can describe it.

Mikey waiting for Stephanie for their first look.

Stephanie turned the corner and saw Mikey and started crying.  Luckily the bridesmaids brought tissues along.

Seeing the look in my cousin’s eyes and his huge smile when he saw Stephanie was priceless.

I loved these bouquets, so pretty!!!!

The groomsmen hanging out before the ceremony.

My husband helped me out during the ceremony and took this picture of Mikey’s expression as Stephanie was walking down the aisle. I don’t think I have ever seen him this happy (and he is a really happy guy).

I think he started getting a little bit choked up.

I swear this is really how it looked, its not a backdrop I promise

This is a really amazing shot taken by my husband.  I wanted to make sure we caught some of those happy tears from Stephanie and Ray did an amazing job taking this photo.

Huge kudos to my Aunt Pam and Uncle Bill – Mikey’s parents – for all the decor.  They DIY’d all of it and did an amazing job.  The centerpieces were designed by Pam and the wood piece it sits on was handmade.  Pam designed it, and Bill made it (Bill has been a woodshop teacher for 20+ years and can do some amazing things)

Oiy where do I begin. I think the speeches had everyone in tears especially Mikey’s brother Eric’s speech.  I certainly don’t want to go uber sad here but Eric talked about our grandfather (better known as Grampy) during his speech.  See Stephanie met the whole family while we were going through one of the most difficult of times.  Grampy was in the hospital and we all knew he wouldn’t make it much longer.  He was brought home and put under hospice care and we were all told he had about 7-10 days, well we was stubborn and lasted 2 months.  But in that time he got to know Stephanie and he said to my Aunt Pam that he felt Mikey had met his life partner.  I think they had been dated for around 6 months at this time but Grampy could see the love they had for each other.  Well Eric brought that up in his speech and had us all bawling. Literally I don’t know how I managed to snap any photos at all.

Haha I love that they went for it!!!

Ok this is where everything got crazy and I think my brother had a huge hand in this.

Haha my mom is staring at my brother like he is crazy.  (My brother is the one laughing with the beer in his hand)

This crazy fella below is my husband who decided to do the “Carlton”.  He is such a goofball, love you honey

Where do I start with these two.  My brother (on the right) and Mikey are like two peas in a pod.  Whenever they get together, craziness ensues.

My dad was held up and robbed by one of the flower girls and ring bearer.  No worries it was just a nerf gun and he lost only a couple of dollars.

This is my absolute favorite shot from the whole wedding!!!!!

v

I think I can speak for my family when I say, Mikey, Stephanie we are truly happy for the both of you and wish you a lifetime of joy and happiness!!!!!! Enjoy Puerto Rico