Graham & Cassie: preview || chicago, il wedding photographer

I shot my last wedding of the summer last weekend just outside Chicago.  It was a gorgeous day and if you're interested in seeing a few more from the wedding there are some on my facebook page.  Full post coming soon!

Much Love,
Jessica Shae

delightful... || pittsburg, tx wedding photographer

"it's delightful when your imaginations come true, isn't it?"

//l.m. montgomery

Those moments during the final prayer right before you're announced as husband and wife for the first time... almost too much happiness to contain.

Much Love,
Jessica Shae

Allix: portraits || ft. worth portrait & wedding photographer

I'm officially 1 wedding and 11 days away from maternity leave, which means that the past few weeks and days have been a whirlwind of trying to wrap up all of my weddings and portrait sessions from the summer, (aka: all sessions/weddings edited, galleries uploaded, disks mailed, emails answered, and blogs posted or prepped)  aaaand getting ready for the little raspberry to arrive (apparently that's important.  I guess ;)  So blogging has been a bit slower here recently and I'm excited(?) to say that won't be changing much anytime soon.  Excited because it means that big changes are in the works (a son! is coming! soon!) and I can't deny that I'm thrilled to be exchanging work for kissing my baby's cheeks a million times every day.  I love my work.  I really do.  But.  Um, hello, we're talking about squishy baby cheeks here..

I do have a few more things to share with you guys before I vanish into the mommy wonderland for a few weeks, and this is one of them.  Allix is a dear and darling photographer friend who modeled for me + my interns a few weeks ago at the Summer Adventure.  All of the girls were having so much fun taking her pictures that I could only steal her away for a few minutes, but these are a couple of my favs from our time together.  Thanks for being so lovely for our cameras Allix!

Much Love, Jessica Shae

Jacob & Annie: wedding || chandlers gardens celina, tx wedding photographer

During the booking process when Annie was describing to me what they wanted their wedding day to feel like, and what style they were going for, she told me "We really want the whole thing to be fun and full of celebration.  We want people to remember from our wedding that they experienced and felt the goodness and sweetness of Jesus there...not necessarily that our table settings were awesome."  
I can't tell you how much I love it when my couples really get what their wedding ought to be all about, (representing Christ and His love for the church!) and make that their ultimate goal, more so than putting together that "pinterest-worthy" "publishable" wedding, with a thousand perfect details.  (Don't get me wrong, beautiful details are great!  I love them!  But...)  It makes my job more enjoyable and so much more of an honor when I know I'm documenting such Christ exalting moments.  Jacob and Annie's day was exactly what they were hoping for it to be, full of sweetness, joy, and praise to our good God for bringing them together.
An added element of love for this wedding for me was the fact that for the second time I was getting to shoot at the same wedding venue I got married at last year!  And you'll probably recognize a few faces from this post, because the last wedding I shot here was Annie's sisters wedding (yes, two daughters were married within two months of each other!) and I've loved all the time I've gotten to spend with this sweet family this spring.
Congratulations Jacob & Annie, thank you for including me in such a beautiful Christ honoring day!
Thanks to Allix for second shooting this with me (some of her pictures are in this post!) and Jenine for assisting, as always, I couldn't do it without my awesome "team"! :)
Much Love, Jessica Shae