Weddings 2010 {contest}

It has been so much fun these past 5 days watching the votes roll in for the other two categories in the contest, I've loved hearing what y'alls favorites are and I can't wait to see who pulls off the win! I personally love them all so so much, I wish I could declare everyone a winner (flashback to pre-school days: "everyone's a winner!" I always hated when they said that, even at 5 I realized what a cop-out it was. ;) but that would kind of ruin the whole thing. So if you haven't voted on your favorite portrait or couple picture, go do it now! And if you haven't read my last two posts and don't have a clue what's going on, then click here to catch up! ;)

And today I'm going to be posting the final part of the contest, some of my favorite wedding shots from this last year. I can't believe I'm wrapping up my first full year of shooting weddings! A year ago today, I had never shot a wedding before in my life, I had two very brave (wonderful, amazing, sweet, you know who you are!;) brides who had already booked me for their wedding the next year, and I was setting ridiculous goals about how many weddings I wanted to shoot my first year, with no expectations of actually meeting them (more on that in another post).

God's been good. So so good to me.

I'm planning on writing another post to dive more deeply into everything He's done for me this past year, but for now I just can't pass up this opportunity to say that it's because of His amazing grace and provision that my business has grown in the ways that it has this past year! It makes me excited to see where He's going to take me next year!

Have fun looking through some of my favorites (you have no idea how hard it was to pick just a few!) and then head on over my facebook page to VOTE!

Jason & Elizabeth

Matt & Sarah

Mike & Kristin

Bill & Elizabeth

Elvis & Katie

Oh woops....how'd this get in here??

Just a little wedding inspiration I like to keep around ;)

Steve & Tara

Josh & Kate

I love you all, my fabulous couples!

Now goooooo vote!

Much Love.

Jessica Shae

p.s. just kidding about the wedding inspiration thing...the only reason I keep that picture around is so that I can make bridesmaid dresses like that for my wedding someday ;)

Ben & Jordan {anytime}

Since when did this little dude . . .

. . . grow up to be this big dude??

I tweeted a few weeks ago about how I was in Philly taking pictures of the cutest couple ever. And while I don't normally pick "favorites" out of my clients - I think I'm pretty justified in saying it this time. Because that dude's my brother. And that girl? Is just about the cutest sweetest darling I have ever met - and my brother's girlfriend ;)

My brother and I drove out to New Jersey a few weeks ago, I was there to shoot this wedding and my brother was there to - well, hang out with his favorite person ;) One of the days we were there we spent in Philly (side-note: the geography in all these little north-eastern states amazes me. Somehow I never realized that everything was so close together. Jordan lives in Jersey, but can be to Philly in 30 minutes, to NYC in an hour and a half, the ocean in 45 minutes, and DC in less than 3 hours. Who wouldn't want to live there?!?) . . . anyways, I decided to take the opportunity to take some pictures of cuteness things one and two while we were walking around the City of Love. (Yes, I know it's technically the "City of Brotherly Love", but I like the "City of Love" better - and it's my blog. So sue me ;)

Although they had been good friends for months they had only been "officially" girlfriend/boyfriend for all of about 2 days (He had asked her to court him 2 days before on the beach at sunset ;) when we took these pictures and it was just soooo stinking cute to watch them together. Smiling and blushing and laughing. I like these two people, alot. And I'm so glad that God decided to put them together :)

Can I just say, that while it was a little bit surreal to be taking pictures of my little brother and his girlfriend, I had more fun taking their pictures than I ever have with anyone else.

These two are my fav fav fav's. Especially the one on the right. Don't they look so happy?? Any girl that looks adoringly at my brother like that must be amazing ;)

I also got to take some pictures of just Jordan one night when the light was so yummy and warm I couldn't not take pictures of something - or someone. Doesn't she look just like a little wood fairy or something? Not that I've ever seen one before . . . but this is what I imagine one would look like ;)

I met Jordan last spring when I visited my brother at school, after he gave me the whole "I'm interested in this girl and I want to know what you think about her spiel." I told my mom after spending a few days with her "I don't care what Benjamin decides, I want to be that girls next best friend" ;)

She was just that amazing.

And I'm happy to say that she's now one of my dearest friends.

Ben and Jordan - thanks for being so cute and amazing. If I have anything to do with it, y'all are going to have the best documented relationship of anyone I know. Even if that means regular flights to New Jersey. I don't mind . . . no really I don't ;)

Much Love.Jessica Shae

Random is my life: personal

This blog post is what most people call random.

And while random is not something that you can write a cute little blog post about and tie it up neatly with a bow - random is exactly what my life is made up of these days - so that's what you're going to get ;) It's kind of like my life threw up on my blog, or something. So settle in (because I have alot of randomness - therefore the post is rather long) and try not to be to bored.

I went to New Jersey last week - another state to check off my I've-been-there-list! I actually drove up there with my brother. Alllll the way from Dallas. Yeah, it was a crazy long trip but so much fun :) What could be better than a 24 hour road trip with your best friend, fun music, almost zero sleep, stopping for food at 10 PM in a scary little town in TN, being awake for both the sunset AND the sunrise, and playing with your new iphone?!? Very few things I tell you.

One of the main reasons I went to Jersey was because I was shooting a wedding there last Saturday, with a wedding party of - 24 people. Oh yes, we definitely had fun with that! Can't wait to post about it :) You can see a few more pictures of their wedding on my facebook page.

While we were in Jersey my brother and I stayed with friends that live there and they took us to Ocean City the first night we were there - If you could package up Summer, all the sights and smells and beauty of it, I think it would turn out looking alot like this place at sunset. It was just so gorgeous.

And my favorite picture that I have taken to date with my cell phone.

Oh laaaands, I just love it so so much.

And then another day we went to Philly - a place full of amazing sights and history, and I got to see the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall for the first time! Admitting that that was exciting for me probably classifies me as a total nerd, I know ;)

Some of you may have read my tweet about being in the "City of Love" (and my brother corrected me later and said that it was the "City of Brotherly Love" - but I like my version better ;) photographing the cutest couple ever. Yes, they were definitely the cutest - and I'm going to be nice and let you see a little sneak peek of them.

On another completely random note: I've started trying to take more nature/detail pictures. Taking pictures of flowers and the gorgeous outdoors is what originally got me hooked on photography, but these days I feel like I don't do nearly enough of it.

This beautiful girl (yes, the same one in the picture above) let me take some portraits of her one night when all this yummy light was just kiiiilling me. . .

. . .and then in turn practiced some of her amazing photography skills on me :)

And that is just a peek into the random-ness of my life right now. I'm also playing Soccer mom to 5 little rugrats - er - darlings for a week while my parents are in Colorado celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary! Mom (I know you're reading this;) and you'll be proud to know that I've kept them all fed and clean(ish) for the past 3 days, and I forgot Emma at the store yesterday but realized within 15 minutes that she wasn't in the car so it was no biggy really.

I kid, I kid, it was more like . . . ten, at the most ;)

Much Love.

Jessica Shae

***Update: I was toootally kidding about leaving my little sister somewhere, but apparently alot of people thought I was serious. I was a joke people - it was a joke. I'm waaaay to responsible for that! ;)