never-to-be-forgotten: personal || dallas, tx & wedding photographer

Summertime has officially slipped away.  There's a little ache in my heart as I let that thought sink in.  Looking back over the past 4 months I can't believe how much has happened, and how much living/doing/seeing/loving has been crammed into them.  This summer.  Ohmyohmy.  It was the Summer that my heart has dreamed of for years, without knowing specifically what I was dreaming about.  Because yes, it is possible to look forward to something without knowing what that "something" is.  And then when the "something" finally happens there's this sudden flash of light and you realized... this is it--this is the summer that my sentimental heart has been waiting for for years.  You no longer have to use your imagination, or wonder what it will feel or look like, because you are living it.

From a ring on my finger and The Boy asking me for forever, a 3 week road trip of a lifetime with my favorite people in the world, and vacations with friends, to planning a wedding and starting the transition from one life to the next, this truly has been a never-to-be-forgotten summer.  As I went through all the pictures from the last few months, whittling them down to my absolute favorites, I couldn't help but smile and revel in the goodness of God in my life.

The girl with crazy curly hair in so many of those pictures is me.  Those memories and experiences are mine to keep forever, and though not untainted with the normal amount of pain or difficulty, they are precious to me, because they were all gifts given straight from the hand of a very good God.  "Oh, how great is Your goodness, which You have laid up for those who fear You, which you have prepared for those who trust in You in the presence of the sons of men!"  (ps.31:19) For 2 years now this verse has been my anthem, especially during the times that His goodness wasn't as easily apparent to my human eyes.  I'm a little bit sad to see this summer slip away... but this fall?  This fall is shaping up to be rather lovely as well ;)

"...the mercies of God cannot and will not fail and His faithfulness is not merely great- it is unwavering."

Much Love,
Jessica Shae

San Fran by video: travel || dallas, tx engagement & wedding photographer

"June" by annie brooks

Y'all are probably going to be sick and tired of hearing about my trip by the time I finish all my posts about it.  But a 3 week trip to some of the greatest sights and tourist attractions in N. America obviously means I'm overflowing with pictures and memories :)  I will try to contain myself though, I promise.  This is just a fun little video that I put together of some of the places we explored in San Fran.

Much Love,

Jessica Shae

The Boy & his sweetheart: part one || dallas, tx wedding photographer

This is the story of a boy and a girl.  It’s a story that in the most general sense has been told again and again over hundreds of years, without ever seeming the same, or growing old.  It’s simple and sweet, no movies will be made from it, and it’s really not very glamorous, but it’s real and it’s ours, and therefore one of my favorite stories to tell.

Our story starts 27 years ago today.  (At least that’s where I’ve chosen to start.)  August 10^th, 1985 was the wedding day for two adorable happily in love couples.  Hundreds of miles apart, but within a few hours of each other they promised to love each other faithfully, became Mr. & Mrs., and started a new adventure.  Three and a half years later (almost to the day) a little brown-eyed boy was born in Bad Axe, MI to one of those adorable couples.  Just thirteen days after that, in Plano, TX the other couple was excited to welcome a bald headed blue-eyed little girl into their life.

And so our two lives began, Joshua Caleb & Jessica Shae.

We spent the next 22 years growing up.  In some ways our growing up was similar to each other, we were both pastors kids (better known as “PK’s”), he played baseball I played softball, our families moved quite a bit, and we both had plenty of siblings to play with: he had 4 and I had 6.  But in other ways those 22 years were quite different for the two of us.  I was homeschooled, he was public+private schooled.  He lived in Indiana for most of those years, I lived in Texas and Colorado.  He was quiet and shy for the first 13+ years of his life, I on the other hand never shut-up and loved being the center of attention.  In High school he was a jock, and kind of the cutest/handsomest thing I’ve ever seen (I only know this from pictures + stories his family has so kindly shared—see below ;), while I on the other hand “thought” that I was very cool and stylish but was in fact, quite the nerd. (again, see below.)  After high school he went to college, starting out as an architect major, but switching to accounting after his first year.  I graduated high school and spent the next four years traveling, living in Chicago and working for a Christian ministry, working for my dad, and then eventually starting my photography business.

The summer before Josh’s senior year of high school (2007) his family moved from Indiana, to Mckinney, Texas.   They ended up moving back to Indiana 14 months later, but by the time they realized that they were going to have to move back Josh had already enrolled and started classes at a college about an hour away.  So they moved back home, leaving Josh to continue college in Texas.

The summer of 2009 my family moved for the 5^th time in 2 years. (Told you we moved a lot.)  We moved from Austin to Dallas, hoping that it would be our last move for a while.  When we moved we thought we already had a church picked out, but after attending there for a few weeks we started to think that maybe we needed to find somewhere else to go.  Around that time, some old friends of ours invited us to their church in Mckinney, and we went.  It just happened to be the same church that Josh’s family had attended while they lived here and the church that Josh was still attending.

Apparently we met that day, on June 28^th, 2009.  Unfortunately, I have no remembrance of this.

Apparently he preached in the evening service that night, along with two other guys in the college group.  Again, no memory of this.

Needless to say, it was not love at first sight ;)

I have a handful of memories about him from the next two months.  We were in the same college and career Sunday School class, and did a few group activities together.  Really the only clear memory I have of him from that Summer was of an afternoon we spent with a group of friends from church at the mall.  We (“we” being the whole group) spent the day wandering aimlessly from store to store, eating in the food court, and talking.  He made me laugh a lot that day, and we had fun talking and joking about several things.  I had been told that he was interested in a girl from church so I was conscientious of not seeming “overly” friendly… besides, I wasn’t interested in him anyways.  He wasn’t “my type.”  But I went home that day and absentmindedly thought to myself, “that boy could be really cute if he’d just grow his hair out longer.” (at the time he had almost completely shaved his head—not his best look.)  Whereas I found out recently that he went back to school that evening and while telling a friend about his day mentioned that there had been a “really pretty girl” in the group of people that went to the mall that day.

All through high school I would hear girls complain about how “they just couldn’t help liking him” or something along those lines.  I always felt the need to correct them, because in my opinion, while attraction is instinctive—that gut reaction of clicking with someone when you meet them, or finding out you’re interested in the same things… Like/Love is a choice, and only happens when you choose to allow that attraction to turn into something deeper.  

I was attracted to Him.  But I did not like him.

The attraction was a very mild case.  I just knew that I thought he was funny, and fun to be around.  That’s all.

So, when he stopped going to our church about a month later because the hour drive was getting too long for him, I barely noticed his absence.  Other than the occasional glimpses I would catch of his life whenever something popped up in my newsfeed about him, I barely remembered he existed over the next 18 months.

And then one cold January day, he showed back up at church…

 (part 2 to follow)

Much Love,

Jessica Shae