these two have a sincere love for each other and will certainly enjoy their lifetime of love.  jessica certainly knew what she wanted from her photography and i hope she is excited to see a few i pulled from my first pass of this fantastic evening at heather's glen (www.heathersglen.com).   the best man stole the night with his speech and if i was a little more comfortable with video i would have had to capture that moment.  none the less here a few shots to get you by until i can complete the edits.  hope you two enjoy your honeymoon and i can't wait to show you the rest!

Orchestrated - You know, there's always a plan when you setup engagement shoots (decide on a location based on the couple's interest and the photographers vision), but there's always surprises! Sometimes they're good and sometimes they're bad. I will save you the distress as this one was good! whew

The plan (and request from Brooke) was to have a very outdoor type setting with downtown Houston in the background. That's easy...Eleanor Tinsley park. We planned it for dusk, but luck would have it that the sky was very overcast which gave us a nice big diffuser. We didn't know that an orchestra was also planning a photo shoot up on a bridge out of our view. We explored for an hour or so and then decided to cross the river and check out the other side of the park. When we came up the side of the bridge...wow!! An entire orchestra was posed for a photo shoot overlooking the downtown skyline! I was thinking photo-op and they were thinking - what a coincidence! It just so happened that they were playing the wedding march...crazy!

Anyways, I thought I would imbed a slideshow of the images on the blog. The only problem is that the sound doesn't yet work on this feature. So, to enjoy the riffs of Andrew Bird while watching the shots of this amazingly beautiful couple - CLICK HERE and I choose the second option for the best viewing experience (but that's up to you). Also, feel free to comment below and make sure to link it to your blog or webpage!

Ahhh, the luck of a nearly impossible timeline!  I really thought when Kim contacted me in a pinch to check the availability of my schedule I wouldn't have the date open for her, much less be able to squeeze in a bridal shoot and have the enlargements ready for her in time!  Kim contacted us 5 weeks out from her wedding date and said that her photographer had fallen through and she really needed some help.  I am open for anything when it comes to photography and gladly accepted the job since my schedule was open.  The only real kink was getting a bridal shoot completed in time for the presentation at the reception.  Needless to say we got it taken care of and had a blast doing it!

You know the only thing I don't like about bridal shoots is that you have to wait until after the wedding before posting the pictures.  So, here are some favs from the day we spent in the urban areas of Houston.  More about the wedding in a later post but you can see a sneak peak here: www.dcstanleyphotography.com/darkroom/share and using the keyword - meadows.

Yazmin is one of the most exotic looking brides I have been graced to shoot.  She makes my job easy and was always full of candid actions.  It sure is refreshing to see such a strong love for family and life!  I couldn't wait to see how this day unfolded as I knew it was going to be special from the moment I met these two!  Yazmin scheduled some time between the ceremony and the reception for us to go (with the entire wedding party) to a few locations for a fun shoot session.  Houston is such an enormous town and I had never ventured to this part of town so, I decided to scout out a few locations on my way to the wedding.  I found an amazing place for us to go....peep it below (about midway through this post).

Totally glam!!

These are the shots I spoke about early, I love the background here...downtown Houston!

I love the girls just not wanting to let her go.  They wanted to be in her shoes for sure!

These two are absolutely in love and their families are the kinds you wish you were related to.  Jill called me one day to discuss setting up a meeting...whew we had a tough time getting together.  At the time I was floating around quite a bit and we decided to meet at a Starbucks between her's and my location.  To bad there are like fifty Starbucks in the area and we were both waiting for each other to show up!  I gave up and decided to call (not wanting to rush them if they were late), she was doing the same thing, ha-ha.  Anyways, long story short here are some of my favorites from their amazing day!

The ceremony took place at St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church.  What a beautiful church, and historic as well.




I just loved the flower girl pulling the action from the camera.


My absolute favorite from the night!  This is such an emotional time in one's life and I hope that you can feel it from this shot.




Thanks for the great experience and I really wish you guys the best!

Liz is such a beautiful bride.  Everyone that has seen these shots so far has just been amazed by her striking appearance.  The whole family was so welcoming and I felt right at home within the first minute of being there.  The wedding took place at an old historical house in Conroe - Heather's Glen. This is the first time I've been here and I hope to come back soon as the staff and facility are very cordial to photographers.  Liz promised me it was a place you had to see for yourself to appreciate and she was completely correct.  Liz and Terry are great people and I wish them all the best in the world!  Here are some of my favorites from the day (bear with me as I had quite a few favorites).

We were all there pretty early and since Terry was no where in sight we decided to check out the chapel for potential lighting issues.  Liz just impromptu started twirling in the front of the chapel, she is just that kind of person.  Always bubbly and fun!








Terry disappeared and when he came out...whew I couldn't believe my eyes (she couldn't either)!  The place was on the floor.

I love any opportunity to do a bridal shoot and I think they are so important for brides.  I was really happy when Shawnna said she really wanted to do a bridal shoot as I had not had the opportunity to do very many and also because she is such a great subject!  People are always mezmarized when see brides out running around in their wedding dress and she definitely turned some heads that day. 

 

Shawnna is an upcoming photographer in the wedding business and I have been fortunate enough to have her tag along with me on a few shoots.  I really wish her all the best in her business and will have to update this post with her website info when she finally launches it!

 

Meet Shawnna -

 

 

 

She had very real expectations and I was honored to be apart of this great family gathering!  The wedding took place at the historic Galvez (http://www.wyndham.com/hotels/GLSHG/main.wnt).  The party lasted all night and the band was amazing.  The candid party shots are some of my favorite yet.  I hope I get the opportunity to document some more action at the Galvez as I really enjoyed myself and the creative options are endless.





You would have thought these two were the bride and groom!  What a gorgeous couple.




It's not what it looks like, I promise!!

It was funny when I received the first phone call from Arturo, he said, "Umm, I'm supposed to call you because my fiance likes your work."  My response was, "That's awesome!  Are you guys looking for a photographer?"  We laughed for a minute and hey here is their wedding day photos below!  

I was very honored to be able to document this special day for them!  The service took place at a historic chapel (St. Joseph Catholic Church) in downtown Houston.  It was my first "real" Catholic wedding...yes they are long and totally worth it to see the traditions involved!  

A good view of the massive altar area.



Melissa's dad was making sure Arturo didn't get to close to that window while Melissa waits in the background.


I love the look of anticipation on Melissa's face!


Arturo was able to steal his Uncle's cowboy hat but Arturo didn't get very far.  His Uncle grabbed him and started to dance with him....hilarious!



They had a real Mariachi band come to the reception and serenade the bride and groom (a Mexican tradition).



These guys were awesome!