Evan & Hannah: wedding || byram, mississippi wedding photographer

She was just 11 years old when they met.  Not even middle school age yet, and still more interested in dress up and climbing trees than boys, she was definitely not even remotely on 16 year old Evan's radar.  But their families were friends and went to the same church so for years they saw each other on a weekly basis. When Hannah was 16 and Evan's mom was very sick with cancer, Hannah ended up helping take care of her a lot.  One weekend while Evan was home from school his mom started talking about how sweet Hannah was and mentioned in passing to him that "maybe you ought to wait for Hannah to grow up..." Evan looked at her like she was crazy and said "Mom, she's still in highschool and I'm starting law school, that's a little bit creepy."

Isn't it funny how mothers just seem to know these things...? ;)

Because Hannah did grow up, and all of a sudden, the "creepy" factor no longer seemed to be an issue ;)  And before you knew it they were in love, engaged, and getting married!

I met Hannah almost three years ago exactly at a mutual friends graduation and I actually even took a few pictures of her that same weekend during a "girls" outing that we went on that weekend.  I remember at the end of the weekend her saying something about how whenever she got married she'd like for me to be the photographer.  The funny thing about that was, I'd only "officially" started my business about 2 months before that, and had never shot a wedding before.

So you can imagine how much of a joy and honor it was to be there and to photograph the wedding of such a dear sweet girl who'd been saying she wanted me as her wedding photographer, long before I even was a wedding photographer!  The whole day was filled with sweet happiness, and I couldn't get over how lovely their southern garden style wedding was.

Evan & Hannah, it was a delight to be there for your beautiful wedding day.  Hannah, thank you for believing in me and my photography from the very beginning, and remembering me after all these years!  Your wedding is one I will never forget.

Much Love,Jessica Shae

Hannah: bridals || mississippi bridal photography

Hooray!  I've been waiting for this day for moooonths, and it's finally here!  Welcome to the new look of Jessica Shae!  I have been working with a fabulous designer for months now, fine tuning my brand + blogsite, and while there were definitely times that I wondered if my inability to make a final decision (for petes sake!) would mean that I'd be married with three children before this thing went live I'm happy that we took the time to get it where I wanted it before I shared it with y'all :)  Also, another suuuuper fun part is that this blog is more than just a blog, it's actually a "blogsite" (blog+website combined) so if you click the portfolio tab above you can see the other half of the new design!  Please poke around as much as you like and then tell me what you think :)
I'll be writing more tomorrow about the new design and telling you about the amazing girl behind it (not to mention telling you about a GIVEAWAY!!!) but for now I just have to say that Hannah has put up with months of emails and questions and ideas and my constant flip-flopp-ing back and forth, and acted like she was having the time of her life through it all!  She's fantastic :)
I thought that with all the other happy loveliness going on here today, Hannah's gorgeous bridals would fit right in.  I shot her Mississippi garden wedding two weekends ago, and it was so beautifully sweet.  Look for the rest of the wedding pictures Wednesday!








Much Love,Jessica Shae
p.s. we'll be working on any little kinks we find in the new site(s) today, so if you notice anything funky or are having trouble with something let me know in the comments so I can get it taken care of!

Back in the saddle: personal || dallas, tx engagement & wedding photographer

I spent my weekend in two different states documenting two different happily ever after beginnings, and absolutely loved every second.  SOSO happy that wedding season is here again!

Thanks to Elisabeth Carol for second shooting one of the weddings with me, and grabbing these shots of me doing my thang... :)

p.s. check out my facebook page for sneak peeks of both weddings, can't wait to share the rest of them on the blog soon!

Much Love.
Jessica Shae