ENGAGE: Matt and Rhonda!

I was worried that it was going to be intolerably hot today which would make their shoot miserable for them, but the mellow summer continued and the shoot awesome. Oddly we found out today that Zilker Botanical Gardens had suddenly decided to charge $50 for a photographer to shoot in the garden. As a principle I will never pay $50 to shoot at a garden that is publicly funded by my outrageous property taxes. We only found this out the day of the shoot when we met Matt and Rhonda there to shoot. We left immediately to the Capital then went to the warehouse district and got much better pictures there then we would have at the Botanical Gardens. Those gardens are nice, but only nice enough to pay $3 to park at, nothing more. Sorry City Of Austin, but I'm a bit of a rebel.

TWO RINGS BIND THEM: Judy and Lawrence at the Creekside!

So we spent the night in Victoria the night before and left late in the morning to find 183 underwater on the way to Judy and Lawrence's wedding. We had to get all the way up to Driftwood and there were a couple of roads that were closed and we had to make massive detours that filled my heart with fear because I was venturing into unknown territory and I was freaked out about finding water and floating away in my little yellow Tupperware looking car.


But, God is good and there were no delays at all in getting where we needed to go even though we drove an extra 40 miles.






Judy and Lawrence were fairly quiet. I was having a heck of a time reading them when we first met. They didn't laugh at any of my bizarre humor. But I think they were just a little shy and I'm a little weird. But their ceremony was probably the sweetest one I've seen this year. They had family from Asia at their wedding and they had planned on the wedding being an opportunity to witness with a very Christian message and Communion. They said this was probably the only time these people would ever hear the Gospel in any way. It was very touching to see that and I felt very honored that they chose me to shoot their wedding. It was a great way to end my summer and start off my August vacation that I so dearly needed.





They had more guest photographers at this wedding than any wedding I have ever been to.

TWO RINGS BIND THEM: Jessica and Jason at the Raisin L Ranch!

Google maps kept giving my the wrong directions and was trying to make me go 40 miles further than I had to for Jess and Jace's wedding in Victoria, TX. One thing I've learned about Texas is that every city in the world is somewhere in Texas. Victoria takes the cake as the most humid, sticky place that I have ever been. Not having air conditioning was not an option here. After we found the right directions on Mapquest (Obviously the definitive source for mapping information) we drove down to Victoria and as we got close a weird scum built up on our windshield and I couldn't drive anywhere without my wipers going. It never ceases to amaze me what drives all of these little towns in the middle of no where. Jessica and Jason grew up in this town of 60,000 and returned for their wedding. Other than the humidity, it was a great place. Lots of old historical buildings. The Catholic church that the ceremony was at had these fantastic weathered metal doors. I loved the shots there. Then off to this weird converted metal barn that was flipping awesome for the reception, the Raisin L Ranch. They partied and danced until midnight when they at last left to sleep a little before their 8 a.m. flight in Houston the following morning.

TWO RINGS BIND THEM: Charlie and Derek in McKinney!

Charlie? A girl named Charlie? I had to ask a couple times on the phone to make sure I had her name right. She and her fiance Derek had their wedding in McKinney a little north of Dallas and invited us to shoot and experience their very different rehearsal dinner party where their friends and family came out with shotguns and volleyballs for some skeet (clay pigeons) shooting and guys vs girls volley ball on the rain soaked marsh of the groom's grandparents ranch. It was a great deal of fun!











Derek was a Longhorn at UT in Austin and had a great ring from winning against USC which is in their engagment shoot somewhere in the past on this blog. His family was somewhat obsessed with this and very proud of him.



The next day their wedding prep began at their church. Their reception was short as the newlyweds needed to get on the road to Galveston to board a cruise ship for their honeymoon the next day. Ah, people after my own heart.

TWO RINGS BIND THEM: Ashleigh and LJ in Rosenburg!

Sadly, I was a replacement photographer on this wedding when Ashleigh's cousin, Michelle, another photographer in the Austin area was killed in a car accident returning from a wedding last year. I quit the WPJA after discussing some of our postings on their forums following Michelle's death with their arrogant leader.

Ashleigh and LJ were really great and I worked very hard to make this day as special as possible. The wedding was held in Rosenburg, somewhat outside of Houston which was the home town of the bride's father. The family was very adament about us having a hotel the night before the wedding and the night of so as make sure we were safe for the night. The day following the wedding the bride's cousin's remains were brought home to Rosenburg.


Since we were already in town we went to their reheasal dinner and then to their rehearsal and even were invited to go with the bridal party to Houston for a fun evening of partying which we declined because we were already exhuasted from traveling from Austin.

The wedding was held in a small Catholic church in a tiny town just outside of Rosenburg.

The bride's mother's family were from Lousiana and they were all dancing maniacs. I think I need to visit New Orleans some Mardi Gras and experience the whole thing to really get a good grip on the people and customs. What's with the umbrella? They all seemed to know what to do with it! Christina was eventually dragged on the dance floor by some family member or friend towards the end of the evening. The band played for half hour after the bride and groom exited to keep the family excited while they cleaned up the hall.