Girl or Boy?: personal || dfw engagement & wedding photographer

Tomorrow's the big day!  We get to find out if we have a little miss or mister on the way ;)  Our family and friends have been voting on what they think the gender is (girl is currently winning) and we're so excited to find out the verdict!  Click HERE to cast your vote, and there might just be a little prize in it for one of you who guesses correctly!

Much Love,
Jessica Shae

Share the Love: giveaway || dfw engagement & wedding photographer

February is like a little slice of sunshine in the midst of a dreary southern winter.  It's mine AND The Boy's birthday month with Valentines Day sandwiched right in between the two + I have a little project I've been working on that I finally get to share with y'all in a few weeks!

In honor of all that happiness + all the couples that will no doubt be getting engaged in the next week or two (gah!  I'm excited for you already!)  I'm hosting the biggest giveaway I've ever hosted!  Yeeaaaah, that's just how pumped I am about this happyloveymushy time of year ;)  So gents, if you're about to propose, enter for the chance to make that moment even sweeter with pictures of the whole thing.  And couples if you just got engaged or get engaged sometime in the next few weeks, Enter! Enter! Enter!

Here's how: Tweet, Facebook, and/or Instagram about the contest, linking to me + this blog post.  Then leave a comment on this post for every time that you entered!  Each post counts as one entry so if you do all of them then you'll be entered to win 3 times!

Oh, and for those of you who aren't getting married anytime soon and think that this contest is not for you, think again!  Scroll down just a little bit and find out how you can be entered to win a $25 amazon gift card!

The giveaway will be open now through the 21st of February (*my birthday!*) and the winners announced the next day!

need to know my usernames so you can link to me?  ----> twitter || instagram || facebook

All the boring rules and regulations are as follows: winners must be from the DFW area (or willing to travel to the DFW area) and shoot(s) must be located within 50 miles of downtown Ft. Worth.  All sessions must be scheduled between March 1st, and May 31st 2013.  Engagement & Bridal sessions include 1 hr of shooting, a disk of retouched images, and an online gallery.


Much Love,
Jessica Shae

2012 couples contest || dfw engagement & wedding photographer

Thank you so much to everyone who's taken the time to vote on yesterdays pictures, it's always so fun to see which picture turns out to be everyones favorite!  And now it's time for part two of the contest :)  Today I've picked my favorite couple shots that I've taken this year aaaand once again you guys get to vote and tell me which one is your favorite!

The rules are the same as yesterday: I choose my favorite couples shots from this year, and post them here on the blog, and also in a Facebook album on my business page.  All you need to do is look through them all and vote for your favorite on Facebook by clicking "Like" underneath the picture you're voting for.  Voting ends December, 20th, at midnight, and the couple with the most "Likes" underneath their photo on Facebook will win a 12x18 print of a picture from their wedding!
Spread the word couples!  Tell all your friends to vote for you, and I'll be announcing the winner Friday, the 21st of December.  Click here to view the facebook album.
Mike & Michelle || click here to vote for their picture on facebook!

Jared & Emily || click here to vote for their picture on facebook!

Clayton & Raegan || click here to vote for their picture on facebook!

Preston & Allison || click here to vote for their picture on facebook!

Brian & Jaymee || click here to vote for their picture on facebook! Much Love, Jessica Shae

2012 wedding contest || dfw engagement & wedding photographer

This is one of my favorite parts of my job.  Looking back at the end of the year, thinking through each wedding, remembering how sweet each one was, and picking out my favorites from each couples dream-come-true day.  I'm going to post a full "year in review" post later on this month, so I'm not going to get all sappy nostalgic on you quite yet.  But it's time for something I've been doing for several years now-- a fun end of year contest for all of my 2012 couples! Here's how it works: I choose my favorite picture from each wedding I shot this year, and post them here on the blog, and also in a Facebook album on my business page.  All you need to do is look through them all and vote for your favorite on Facebook by clicking "Like" underneath the picture you're voting for.  Voting ends December, 20th, at midnight, and the couple with the most "Likes" underneath their photo on Facebook will win a 12x16 canvas of a picture from their wedding! Spread the word couples!  Tell all your friends to vote for you, and I'll be announcing the winner Friday, the 21st of December.  Click here to view the facebook album.
Matthew & Kristina: 3.23.12 || click here to vote for them on facebook!

Evan & Hannah Lundy: 3.24.12 || click here to vote for them on facebook!

Christian & Olivia: 4.21.12 || click here to vote for them on facebook!

Tyler & Veronica: 5.20.12 || click here to vote for them on facebook!

J.R. & Jessica: 6.1.12 || click here to vote for them on facebook!

David & Esther: 6.2.12 || click here to vote for them on facebook!

Ross & Kate: 6.16.12 || click here to vote for them on facebook!

Chris & Rachael: 9.8.12 || click here to vote for them on facebook!

Tim & Bethany: 9.21.12 || click here to vote for them on facebook!

Brian & Jaymee: 12.8.12 || click here to vote for them on facebook!
p.s. the engagement/couples portion of the contest will be posted tomorrow!
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

Music Love: contest {dallas, tx engagement & wedding photographer}

"Just whistle while you work

Put on that grin and start right in to whistle long and loud

So hum a merry tune

Just do your best and take a rest and hum a merry song."

| whistle while you work - snow white |

I feel like I will forever be behind on the learning curve of music. Brooke Fraser's been cool for. . .how many years now? And I just fell in love with her wonderful music about a month ago. But no matter how late I am to the party, finding new music I like is always a happy little surprise. I love Pandora for that very reason, I'm constantly being introduced to new artists or songs in my favorite genres while listening to my Pandora radio stations :) I have different kinds of music for different parts of the day or my different moods :) I have "early morning I just woke up music" "blog writing" music, "midday pick me up party" music, and "time for bed" music. I loooove country music, acoustic guitar, piano, folk, indie, and a lot of stuff in between ;)

So this is where you come in. I need some new music to inspire me as I work like crazy over the next few weeks trying to get my blog/website finished, and I want to hear from YOU as to what music you're enjoying these days. So part 2 of the contest is you posting a link to the youtube video in the comments or just tell me the title of your current favorite tunes ;) Aaaaand, whoever posts the song that becomes my new favorite wins an itunes gift card!

And I thought I'd share a few of my current fav's that I've been enjoying the past few weeks :)

One of my last interns introduced me to Jillian Edwards and I absolutely adore all her music.

She doesn't have much on youtube, but you can find a lot of her music on itunes.

Mk...I haven't bought this song yet, just so I can still get really excited every time it comes on the radio.

Def my fav country song right now.

Andrew Peterson is another new find of mine, and I really had a hard time decided which one of his songs to post, he has so many good ones, but this is the one that I listen to at least once a day...sometimes more like 3-4 times a day ;)

This one just makes me smile :)

So go for it my friends. I need a few new happy working songs to add to my repertoire, can't wait to hear what you've got! ;) And if you want to get in on the beginning of the contest go here to check out my last blog post!

Much Love.

Jessica Shae

New website & blog + contest fun {dallas, tx engagement & wedding photographer}

I have several confessions I need to make, both happy and not happy.

I'm designing a website right now (happy).

I'm re-designing my blog (also happy).

I'm a perfectionist and a procrastinator (both not happy).

Now, I have some other things to tell you :)

I've been working + thinking + brainstorming these new designs/changes for a while now. Like, 8 months worth of a while. But, because I'm both a perfectionist and procrastinator I have tweaked and rethought and second guessed and thought again and put it off for waaaaay to long. And it's getting kind of ridiculous. So I'm giving myself a deadline and letting you all know about it ;) In the hopes that it will help cure my fear-of-failure-perfectionism and stop me from procrastinating anymore.

Soooo, the new blog that I'm kind of reaalllly excited about is going to be here: Monday, April 11th

And the website? Will be going live by hook or by crook: Friday, April 22th

I have one last confession to make. I'm kind of freaked out at the thought of designing my own website, and putting it out there where the whole world can see it. So be kind to me, because I really have no clue what i'm doing, but I've heard it said that "If you're not embarrassed by the first version of your product then you've launched to late." -Jeff Bezos

But in the meantime, to get my mind off how scary it is, I thought it'd be fun to have a contest. And it's a two part contest. I'll write about part one today, and then tomorrow you'll get part two ;)

In all my redesigning and rethinking of my brand and what I want it to look like, I've added a new color to my "brand" and y'all get to guess what it is!

I've recently fallen in love again with this "new" mystery color, and I've found it popping up everywhere in my life. My clothes, my accessories, everywhere I look I want to buy something in this color.

So, go ahead, comment with your guess on what this new color is going to be, and everyone who guesses right will get entered in a drawing for one of my favorite ______ colored accessories :) I'll announce the color and the winner Friday the 8th before I go live with the new blog.

And in the meantime I'll be working like a crazy woman trying to wrap up all this design stuff--any chocolate, back rubs, or jamba juice's you feel led to send my way to help keep the creativity flowing, would be so much appreciated! ;)

Oh, and don't forget to check back tomorrow for the second part of the contest! It's my favorite!

Much Love.

Jessica Shae

And the winners are...! {dallas, tx engagement and wedding photographer}

It's been so much fun having this contest over the past week and a half and I've loved getting feedback from y'all on what your favorites are! I'll have to do this more often! ;)

But the votes are in and polls are closed, so I'm excited to announce the winners!

The winner of the portraits portion of my contest were the Manneys with 24 votes!

The winners of the Engagement portion of the contest, with 28 votes, are Matthew and Sarah Berry!

Aaaaand the couple with the most votes in the wedding portion of the contest is Jason & Elizabeth Smith, who won with a whopping 39 votes!

And now these 3 finalists are entered to see who can win overall, and win a gallery wrap CANVAS of their photo!

So take a second to vote one more time HERE on which picture you think is the best of these three! You have until Friday night to vote!

Thanks for participating peeps, and sometime in the next week or so I'm going to post about another give-away/contest thingy (that's the technical term for it) that all of you faithful blog followers will have a chance to win.

Much Love.

Jessica Shae

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 ;)

Portraits 2010: contest {dallas, tx portrait and wedding photographer}

It's December!

Christmastime!

Holiday Cheer, Christmas music, parties, and most importantly celebrating the King of Kings coming to earth in the form of a little baby. I still look forward to this time of year almost as much as I did when I was 7 counting down the days to each exciting holiday event, and especially counting down the days until the BIG DAY (it's only 23 days away, in case you were wondering ;).

I'm also excited about this month because I've decided I'm not booking anymore clients until next year, so no more portrait sessions until next year, and other than second shooting a couple of times, I wont really be doing much shooting this month, other than for personal projects! I've needed this break for quiiiite sometime, and I'm looking forward to working on alot of the projects that get pushed aside when I'm just trying to keep up with editing, etc. I'll also be mixing things up here on the blog this month, doing a lot of fun stuff, starting today!!

I've wanted to do this for a while, and since we're now coming to the end of the year, I think this is a great time to do it. This past year has been crazy, fun, amazing, hard, stretching, wonderful, stressful, and in a lot of ways so much better than I could have dreamed it would be. I've booked/shot more weddings than I thought I would in my first year of shooting weddings, my business has grown so much faster than I dared to hope it would, and I've gotten to travel WAY more than expected. And I know that the biggest thank you for all of that needs to go to God, who does above all that I could ever ask or think time and time again for me. He opens doors and pushes me out into new things that scare me to death, but that I know I need to be pursuing ;) I'm grateful for His guidance, and provision that He's given time and time again this year, I am where I am because of His grace!

But the second big thank you has to go to you, my family, blog readers, clients, and friends. You've written me sweet emails and blog comments, referred your friends to me, booked me to shoot your wedding when I hadn't even shot one wedding yet, and I can't thank you enough for all of that! But, this is my little attempt to say a HUGE thank you to all of you. I'm going to be holding a contest on my facebook page for all of you, my faithful clients!

And here's how it's all going to work ;)

I've gone through and picked out my favorite pictures from portrait sessions, engagement/couple sessions, and weddings I've shot in the last year. I'm going to post them in three different facebook albums/blog posts over the next couple of days, and then let all of YOU vote on which ones you like the best. And the client with the most votes on their picture by December, *12th will win a professional quality 10x13 print of their photo. And THEN, the 3 winners of the 3 different categories (portraits, engagement/couple, weddings) will be entered to win a free gallery wrap canvas of their photo.

Phew, I hope that all made sense ;)

So without further ado, I'm going to start it all off with some of my favorite portraits from the past year, have fun looking through them, and then don't forget to go vote for them on my facebook page! Any votes I get here in the comments won't be counted.

The Manney Family

The Mills Family

The Self Family

The Chaney Family

They Farney Family

The Crain Family

Rachel Leigh: senior

Tim & Jacquelyn: maternity

Daniel & Kaela: maternity

Ashley Hall: senior

Nellie Ayon

The Piper Family

The Morris Kids

Hope Helms: headshots

The Green Family

Ready to vote!? You can click here to head on over to the facebook page and click "like" if you haven't already, and then decide which one is your favorite picture in this album and vote for it! And remember, it only counts as a vote if you comment on the picture you like, and say "vote"! "liking" the picture doesn't count as a vote ;) Can't wait to share all of my favorite couple/engagement pictures with y'all tomorrow!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Much Love.

Jessica Shae

*Because votes are coming in so quickly, and because I don't want to drag it out I've shortened the contest, so now all votes have to be in by December 12th! :)