March in instagrams: personal || dallas, tx engagement & wedding photographer

I wasn't planning on blogging today, but I realized about ten o'clock this morning that it's the last Friday of the month which means that it's time for an instagram recap!  March has been full and happy--trying to prepare for the busy-ness of wedding season, enjoying the gorgeous spring weather (which means I've started working on my tan--hooray!), and shooting my first two weddings of the year, in the same weekend, in two different states... talk about an adventure!

1. // Favorite street on earth, my grandparents.  2. // New kicks for spring, courtesy of the little girl section in Target.  3. // Family trip to the mall, where all the sibs get their fill of angry birds and temple run :P  4. // Driving home from church one night I had to stop and grab this shot--it was just so beautiful.  5. // New bookshelves made out of old crates, and books organized by color!  6. // Very happy faces after The Boy got an amazing job offer!  7. // I don't care a thing about bball, but I filled out a bracket and I'm determined to beat those boys :)  8. // I came home from a senior shoot one night looking like I'd been playing in the mud.  9. // Horseback riding date with The Boy.  10. // sunset + rainbow.  11. // First wedding of the season, and my mind was blown with their creativity!  12. // Loved having Elisabeth Carol as my second shooter last weekend!  13. // Flew to Mississippi earrrlly Saturday morning on what had to be the smallest plane used by commercial airlines. seeerrriously.  14. // My beautiful mississippi bride.  15. // Loved everything about Mississippi, the church I visited...  16. // ...the beautiful giant trees...  17. // ...picnics by the lake with my Whitney friend/traveling buddy... 18. // ...and all the lovely blooming things everywhere you looked.  19. // "Food is essential to life, therefore, make it good." aaaaamen.  20. // There are some days that I leave the house and realize my accessories are so matchy matchy it's almost annoying,  I guess it's what happens when you love one color SO much.

Much Love.
Jessica Shae

February: instagram style || dallas, tx engagement & wedding photographer

My mild obsession with instagram has continued to grow--it's just so much fun :)  And because I know not everrrryyone can see all the instagrams I post (on an almost hourly basis. I kid, I kid--kind of.) I'll be posting monthly recaps of some of my favorite instagram love here on the blog :)  So here's February, instagram style!

He's the funnest (yes I know that's not a word, mom) person ever. everevereverever. :)

I once heard that Thomas Kinkade paints all of his paintings with all the lights on inside the houses he painted.  The reason he did that was because growing up his mom was a single mom who worked all day and he said that he hated coming home from school every afternoon to a dark house.

I took this walking back up to my house after a walk one evening--there's just something wonderful about a house with warm yellow light spilling out of it everywhere, isn't there?

I made a fool of myself one afternoon at Target, standing in their card aisle cracking up at these cards.  Awkward Family Photo's meets greeting card -- FTW! :)

Just a little valentine crafting...

1. // The dearest Boy in the world sent me the most massive bouquet of flowers on valentines day.  2. // 3 weeks later and I'm still nursing along the last few blooms :)

He also surprised me with tickets to go see George Winston (my favorite pianist since I was a little girl) play live in Ft. Worth.  Since he knows how much I love surprises, I didn't actually know where we were going until right before we walked into the concert hall--it was a goooood night :)

I'll really never get tired of taking sunset photos.

I am a fan of food.  really really a fan.  And I like to take pictures of things I'm a fan of ;)

1. // homemade egg mcmufffin--waaaay better than the real thing.  2. // Free chicken mini's for breakfast the other morning, best thing on chic-fil-a's menu I think.  3. // Soup is probably my absolute favorite winter meal. Just can't get enough.  4. // Goldfish = best snack/meal replacer everrrr.

Someone at work gave The Boy tickets to go see "The Wicked Divas" at Bass Hall.  Super super amazing.  Probably the coolest performance I've ever been to.  The two lead Broadway actors who star in "Wicked" sang tons of Broadway show tunes with the Ft. Worth Symphony.  And our seats were right on the floor, close to the front--amaaaazing.

Recently I've been blessed with sweet random little gifts from different people...they've made my day time and again!

1. // Cute chocolate in a cute package from a couple who I did a mentor session with a few weeks ago.  2. // A postcard from london! Oo-la-la :)  3. // A few days after my birthday I got a package from two girls (who's names I didn't recognize right away) and when I opened it up I nearly started crying over the sweetness of it all.  Two darling blog readers had taken the time to make me gifts for my birthday!  And not just any gifts, but thoughtful creative gifts.  A framed quote, stationary that they designed in my colors, with my fonts, using quotes from my blog, a darling little camera pouch, and they wrapped it all up in the darling-est wrappings!  Thank you Hannah and Amanda :)

If you were not already impressed with the amazing-ness that my Boy is, take a look at the lovely sketch he drew me for our 8 month anniversary.  It was based off a picture taken by the darling Allix B.  Isn't it the sweetest thing?!

1. // this little guys basketball team won the state championship last weekend!  2. // Three of the brothers played in the state tournament, and I had fun going to a million basketball games over the course of last weekend :)

Us-ness ;)

1. // Hearing George Winston play live was nice...but I'd pick listening to this Boy play over listening to George any day :)  2. // letting my inner "anne" come out with some poofy hair :)  3. // Sometimes, I wear basketball shorts to clean in.  But then my legs get cold.  So I put on wool knee socks.  Because I have styyyyyle.  4. // favorite new summer shirt.  Or, in other words, favorite new "freellee" shirt. (nacho libre, anyone?!)  5. // Those two lovely ladies came and saw me a few weekends ago.  we had so much fun laughing, and picture taking, and videoing and eating...good times :)  6. // My favorite, possibly unsafe, reallllly comfortable way to drive.

And there you have it folks :)  I hope your February was lovely--while I can't believe it's already March, I'm SO excited about spring creeping in this month! :)
p.s. to be updated daily with my obnoxious instagram posts you can follow me on instagram at @jessicashae :)
Much Love.Jessica Shae

Instagram + announcement: personal || dallas, tx engagement & wedding photographer

I love instagram. Love love LOVE it.  It gives validity to all the exessive picture taking I do on my phone all day long.  Because let's face it, I can post 6-8 pictures a day on instagram if I wanted (and sometimes I do) but if I did that on FB, it would be just plain annoying.  I'd annoy even myself with that kind of behavior.  But sometimes even sharing my pictures with the instagram world isn't quite enough.  Because lovely as it is, it is kind of limited on who can be a part of the party.  So in order to make everyone feel more included every now and then I'm going to have to share some of my favorites with you here.  And if you're on instagram and don't mind following someone who posts way to many pictures of food and The Boy then look me up, my user name is "Jessica Shae" (imagine that;)

And in case you aren't interested in looking at lousy cell phone pictures you should AT LEAST scroll down to the bottom of this post to see the last picture...it's kind of exciting :)


1. She loves to be in the middle of things. Even board games // 2. Isn't her face the cutest?
1. The Boy and I have started keeping a running list of each of our top ten favorite stores.  They can be anything from hardware stores, to office supply stores, to clothings stores, etc. I realized the other day that QuikTrip definitely needs to be on my list. That place totally redefines what a convenience store can and should be.  //  2. QuikTrip is also where I get my supply of these little bites of deliciousness that I'm addicted to right now.  They were my lunch today :)
Super excited to be going to Jasmine*'s "The Fix" next month...any of my Dallas friends going too?!
1. Panera date with the boy that included his happy smile, a warm fire in a fireplace (not pictured), aaaand mood music played from his phone? yes. great fun.  //  2. Baked potato soup and sierra turkey (extra turkey please!) on the most deeeelicious bread. win.
1. from the moment I saw this I knew I had found the answer to all my siblings complaints of bossiness over the years.  //   2. speaking of adorable siblings, I have several of those around here ;)

And now we come to the REAL reason for this post.  Guess who bought their first car yesterday?!?!  Yes, I am almost 23 years old and I am just now buying my first car.  But the last 5+ years of my life have been filled with other expensive purchases, like cameras and plane tickets.  And really, who needs a car when you can just fly?? ;)  But I finally caved this month and decided it was time to become a normal adult who owns a car.  And in a rather sudden un-expected turn of events I found a mercedes c230 that was in my price range aaaand made it mine yesterday :)  From it's leather interior, sunroof, and little first aid kit built in to the back (how cute is that?!) it's more than I ever expected to be able to afford, and I'm super grateful for it!  So dream list #19. is completed :)

And silly as it may sound (and as short lived as it will be) I'm looking forward to getting the oil changed, and the tiny chip in the windshield taken care of, and all those other little "taking care of your car" duties that normal adults have to do, just because it means that I finally have a car to take care of :)

Anyone need any errands run in the N. Dallas area?  I'd be glad to take care of them for you.
Happy Weekend-ing!
Much Love.Jessica Shae