Land-a-Goshen:traveling {dallas, tx engagement & wedding photographer}

2,000 miles, 35 hours of driving, 5 states, a never ending playlist of music, and 3 best friends.

We're the sisterhood of the traveling poodleheads :)

Tuesday morning at 6:02 AM Whitney, Amanda, and I started our roadtrip towards Goshen, Indee-yana :)  And by 11AM we had officially sung ourselves hoarse.  By 12 PM we had stopped 5 times (5 TIMES) because of Whit's eency teency bladder.  Good times my friends, gooood times.

We are coming up here for some dear friends wedding and I've been looking forward to it for months.  This is by far the longest road trip I've ever taken with just friends, and it has not been without its share of adventures.  Really it's crazy the things that have happened the last few days, we've made enough memories over the last 48 hours to last a lifetime...and we're just getting started ;)

I've been taking photo's religiously with my iPhone, I'm really so in love with the camera on that thing, and all the polaroid apps I have on there, it's just so much handier than lugging around my big camera.  So enjoy a little bit of my iPhone documentation ;)

They won't be able to handle our southern cool.

Texas bugs are... large.  I thought for a sec maybe we'd killed two birds.


We may or may not have all bought matching aviators.  Prob not...because that would be a totally dorky thing to do.

"Congratulations!  You did it!  Worlds BEST cup of coffee!"(high five to whoever can name that movie quote;)

Ooook.  So I was preeEEtTy excited about getting to drive a big truck all the way to Indiana.  You can imagine my dismay when I got in and found out I am to short to see over the steering wheel.  I fixed it though ;)

No idea what we were thinking when we decided to let the barely has her permit driver behind the steering wheel for an hour.  My praying life was instantly strengthened ;)

FiiIIinally made it to my Evy friends house at about 10:00 and stayed up forever telling hilarious stories and laughing our guts out.

Seriously some of the funniest stories everrr....

Cutest hostess on the block ;)

Tim (Evy's husband) (*gasp* Evy has a HUSBAND?!) (weird weird;) (I mean...it's a happy weird, but it's still weird) made us all carmel macchiatos that were better than anything I've had at Starbucks :)
Evy is THE most adorable little hostess...and made the most scrumptious breakfast for us yesterday morning. C'mon America...
Beach day with my ladiiieeess!


Starbucks happy hour with friends...winwinwin.

Front porch sittin....

We finally rolled into Goshen last night about 12PM and instead of just going straight to bed like normal people we decided to go meet up with our peeps at Steak and Shake.  No one wanted anything to eat though...so we decided we'd better move the party outside.  It was pouring rain, so we all just crammed under the awning and chilled for a while :)



I'm terrible at blogging on trips...but I'm gonna tryyyyy to do better.  We're really having the time of our lives and it's impossible not to share at least some of the happiness :)

Much Love.

Jessica Shae

p.s. apparently blogger had a glitch yesterday and all blog posts that were posted yesterday were lost.  So  I reposted it again today! :)

Chi-town + Canadia: travel {dallas, tx engagement & wedding photographer}

This will be long.

Because I couldn't sort down the pictures to just a few, and because I had a lovely trip and I want to tell you all about it.  And besides being where I post all my latest work, this is also kind of like my online journal + scrapbook, so bear with me :)

I left two Wednesday's ago for Chicago to visit friends and to see one of the only cities I've ever been to that I absolutely adore.  As most of you know I'm a country girl through and through and I'd take open fields and big sky almost any day over big noisy dirty city.  BUT there are a few cities that hold special places in my heart, and Chi-town is one of them.  I love all the lights, and pretty store-fronts.  I love all the people out and about, businessmen/women, hippies, artists, and everyone in-between.
I love Navy Pier, and The Bean, and all the other tourist-y things you can see there.

I was staying about 30 minutes outside of Chicago with a friend but I was determined to make it downtown while I was there.  So even though the weather didn't co-operate at alllll, I got up super early one morning and rode the train (my favorite mode of transportation!) to meet two friends who decided to brave the freezing cold with me for a day ;)

It really was the nastiest weather all day.  Pouring rain and a high of about 42 degrees = kind of miserable.  But it was an adventure none-the-less :)

No matter how many times I go, I will always take a bean picture despite how cliche it may be.  I'm a tourist at heart - so sue me ;)This is one of my favorite ones that I've ever taken I have to admit.  The rain+fog+mist all over everything gave it a cool feeling :)


My two darling friends, Julia + Amy.  I met them both in Chicago last year when I was shooting Jason & Elizabeths and Josh & Kates weddings, and we've kept up ever since!


Love love LOVE this city.

I got yelled at for taking this picture while we were exploring through the library...but I loved these vintage postcards, pictures, and ads.

Glad the memory's documented...even if the guy who took out picture wasn't quite able to get our faces in focus ;)  It's the thought that counts.
I got to go out to dinner at Cheesecake factory with a bunch of my old co-workers and housemates from when I lived and worked in Chicago a few years back, I love these girls so much!

'manda jean, my lovely hostess and bff ;)She's a favorite for sure.


And THEN.After my quickie two day trip to chicago, it was time to go to Canada!I realize that it's probably lame how excited I was.  But that's alright.  I'm ok with a little bit of lame-ness.  Because I really really was excited.  I was going to get to use my passport for heavens sake.  And while Canada isn't a very "foreign" foreign country, it was still a different country, and I was planning on enjoying every minute of the first of my international travels ;)
Airplane cloud pictures are also kind of lame, everyone has them, and they all look the same.  But I never get tired of taking them.  Because really, how awesome are they!?  They look so much cooler from above than they do below ;)

Rain was pretty much the theme of my trip, it poured rain every single day I was in Chicago and Canada, so when the sun came peeking out for just a few minutes Saturday afternoon I couldn't help but snap this picture to remember the moment.

Ok, so The Falls are cool in pictures.But they're absolutely breathe-taking in person.You should go see for yourself ;)

Proof: I was here! ;)

As I walked along the edge of the Falls, stunned with the majesty and power of it all, my thoughts just kept running along the lines of:"Oh Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder //Consider all, the works Thy hands have made..."

My housemates and exploring buddies for the weekend...you can just baaarely make out the falls behind us through all the mist.


So, the whole time I was there I was on the look-out for "foreign-ness" as a reminder that I was in another country.  And besides the fact that everyone said "ay"and speed-limit signs were in kilometers, not miles, (SO confusing when you're driving) there weren't a whole lot of differences.
Except for the bagged milk.  I'm not even kidding, this one totally threw me for a loop.  They buy their milk, IN BAGS.  Can someone please explain why???
I had to try out some of the local fare of course, but what's not pictures is the poutine I had.Poutine, for those of you who don't know what that is, is french fries and cheese curds, drowned in brown gravy.  I'm sorry Canada, it was gross.  I don't even know how such a thing ever came into being. 
Ahhhh, the whole reason I got to go on the trip!  My adorable petite curly-haired Jessica "twin" got married - and I got to take pictures :)  And despite the fact that it poured rain all day, it was a beautiful wonderful wedding.

I got to go hiking down in the gorge my last day there before I had to head to the airport, it was so gorgeous down there!




I inspired my new friend Mark to buy knock-off ray-bans :)  So we had to take a picture of course.


So despite the fact that I had to go without a phone for 4 & 1/2 days (one of the hardest things everrr!) and the fact that they didn't even stamp my passport when I went across the border (I thought about asking for at least a smiley face sticker or something!) AND despite the fact Canada doesn't serve Dr. Pepper (boo) my first international trip was a success.
Now I need to book a wedding in Europe somewhere.... ;)
Much Love.

Jessica Shae

Contest winners! {dallas, tx engagement & wedding photographer}

I just love having contests.

And if you don't know what these contests are all about, you should probably catch up here and here before you continue reading :)

I love reading everyones entries and I'm not even kidding when I say I get nervous when it comes time to put the numbers into random.org and see who's gonna win ;)  I put all the names into a spreadsheet form with a number assigned to each name, put the numbers into random.org, push the generate button, see the number that's been chosen and then quickly look at my spreadsheet to find out who has that lucky number.  And then I do a little happy dance around my room for the winner ;)  Umm, so maybe I get a little bit more excited about it than y'all do. . .just let me have my fun, K?

So I was just a little bit overwhelmed (in a good way!) by all of your guesses + suggestions.  And I was happy to see that the majority of you guessed the right color!  I'm hoping that means that it's a good choice?  Or maybe it just means I'm predictable?  Haha, for any of you who follow my authentic blog at all, it was prob pretttty easy to guess, my color shows up alot there ;)
Well whatever it is--I love my new color.  And I think I'm becoming a little obsessed with it.  Anything and everything I see in this color, I must buy.  A pair of socks? They're my color, I must need them.  A set of measuring spoons?  They're tiffany blue, I must need them.  You get the idea...it's kinda bad ;)

I just can't quite decide what to call it.  I usually call it Tiffany blue in my head, but I realize that technically it's a little darker than the "real" Tiffany blue, but it's not quite teal or aqua to me either.  I think the one that I've settled on liking the best is "robins egg blue" ;)
It all started with my darling iPhone cover.  I got this back in January, and ever since then It's like I can't keep my hands off stuff in this color.


I have new stationary


A beautiful little "robins egg" necklace that I got as a birthday present from a friend.


This cool vintage jar I found at a thrift store, and the adorable potted plant sitting in my room that I'm doing my darndest to keep alive.


And these adoooorable summer shoes that I found this week--to go along with all of the teal/tiffany blue/robins egg colored tops and dresses I've been buying here recently ;)


And my favorite fav.  My wayfarers ;)


I love them so much that I'm giving a pair to one of youuuu!  But you don't get to know who, just yet ;)

p.s. thanks to Kendra Dawn for the picture! ;)
I also loved all of your music suggestions. Seriously guys...you all have awesome taste in music, and I found SO much new stuff that I like.  It took foreeever to go through all 98 of your suggestions, and I loved all the txt messages, emails, FB messages, and comments I kept getting all week adding to the list ;)  So much fun-ness ;)  The not fun-ness part was having to pick just ONE song that I loved the most, and really it was quite impossible.
But it had to be done, and this one was definitely in my top plays over the past week.  I've never heard of Little & Ashley, but I loved everything about this song--the vocals, music, and lyrics...especially the lyrics ;)



Soooo folks, the lucky winner of the iTunes gift card is Lydia Covey who shared this adorable song with me.
Aaaaand Amelia Sutton is going to get a new pair of rockin' wayfarers because she guessed the right color and random.org decided it was her lucky day ;)
Shoot me an email girls (jessica@jessicashae.com) with your address so I can send you your prizes! :)
And I can't wait to unveil the whole shabang on monday!  I may not have any hair left by then but my bloooog sure will be cute! ;)  Let's just hope that this weekend involves some sleep on top of shooting a wedding tomorrow, church on Sunday and somewhere in the mix of all that finishing the design ;)

Much Love.Jessica Shae