I still vividly remember the first time I ever became friends with Emery. We were both in 10th grade in the year 2000, and because we were (well…because we ARE) both dorks, we were at the regional science fair at the Monroe Civic Center. Since our booths were near each other, we hung out and talked while waiting to be judged…and our personalities just immediately clicked. During our lunch break at the mall that day, my always graceful and poignant self dropped food all over my shirt. And not just any food, but an Italian muffuletta filled with bright red marinara sauces. I, of course, panicked because OH NO THE JUDGES WILL BE DISTRACTED BY THE BRIGHT RED SAUCE ON MY SHIRT AND I WON’T PLACE AND WON’T GET TO GO TO STATE SCIENCE FAIR (oh the drama…)!!!!!! Luckily, Emery was there to calm me down and save the day. She took me to New York and Co. and picked me out a pink (yes, a pink) dress shirt on clearance for like $4… *whew*…disaster averted (well, not completely averted because I DID buy a pink shirt that day). From that day on, we’ve been very close friends. Over the past 10 years, we’ve had so much fun laughing at “Mystery Science Theater 3000″ in Ms. Storm’s physics class, going on our senior cruise, eating lunch on the LaTech campus in between classes, scrapbooking, beach trips and various other road trips, watching every episode of the tv show “Friends”, countless movie outings, craft nights, cooking nights, long talks about the complexity and geniusness of the Harry Potter series, weekends spent at her parents’ house on the lake, and I could go on and on and on.

Since she has been one of my closest friends for a decade, its sort of bittersweet to see her get married and eventually move away. Of course I’m thrilled that she found Trey and that they are getting married…because, seriously, they are absolutely PERFECT for each other. However, I am still going to miss my friend. But I know that regardless of where they go and what happens, I know we’ll always be great friends (and, yes, I am well aware that just sounded like a cliched Hallmark greeting card, but whatever…). So, Emery, I know we’re both too emotionally constipated to “express our feelings” and stuff like that, but I just want to say that I love ya and that I’m so blessed to have you as a friend.

Ok, with all that being said, on to their engagement pics. Emery is so incredibly creative and talented that it sort of made me nervous about taking their pics. She kept asking me if I knew of any really cool secret location to take pictures, but I knew of none. But one day I was driving to my grandparent’s house and I found it….THE location. So I called Emery and asked if her and Trey could take pictures that very week since I was afraid the flowers would be dead soon. She made an emergency shopping run to pick out the perfect outfit and we met two days later to take pictures. And I’m so glad that we did, but I loved loved loved this location for them. It was just so perfect.

Emery and Trey have a special mutual affection for pie. So, of course she made a yummy apple pie for the shoot. And we all ate it at the end of the shoot while waiting for my dad to come tow us out of the ditch we got stuck in. Good times, good times…

We had AMAZING light for the shoot. Oh, and Trey’s hat was also quite amazing .

They are just so cute together!

And sweet together.

I love the way they look at each other. Again, they are just PERFECT together.

But don’t let all that sweetness fool you, they are also just plain GOOFY together :).

I love the red in this picture.

I am so jealous of Emery’s dimples in this picture!

Trey is so good to Emery.

Its an inside joke thing…

Its PIE TIME!!!

Oh, and they get 4738294723942 bonus cool points for bringing Harry Potter books to their engagement shoot

We’re going to be taking their pics again at another location, so you’ll see them again soon. Till then, have a great day !

- heather

Hello again blog world! I know its been over a month since our last blog post! We skipped the entire of March. It literally flew by and I’m not sure where it even went. We have been staying extremely busy though and have so many shoots to share with you in the near future.
Recently we met up with James and Jessica out in Luna at Heather’s grandmother’s home for their engagement shoot. It was a beautiful day and James and Jessica were so much fun together. They made our job easy!

Jessica and James will be getting married this summer and we are so excited about their wedding at Hatchel Hills Farms.

—Miranda

I’m so blessed to have gone to nursing school at ULM and to have connected with such wonderful people. We just recently shot my nursing friend Brittany and Mitch’s wedding, and now I get to shoot Ashley and Jerred’s wedding..and I went to nursing school with both of them! So that makes it extra fun for me . I had a great time catching up with them during their engagement shoot, and I can’t wait for their wedding in April! Till then, here are some of our favs from their engagement shoot a couple of weeks ago. Enjoy !

Love the boots!

They’re such good sports…when I asked them to sit on the old bathtub, they didn’t look at me like I was *too* crazy .

Loooove that setting sun light!

We couldn’t resist taking a picture in the very building that brought Ashley and Jerred together…so many memories were made in this building. And this proves that as difficult as nursing school was for all of us, they weren’t all bad memories . There’s even a *small* (and I mean teeny tiny) part of me that misses it…a little.

Thanks again Ashley and Jerred!

- heather

Brittany and Mitch got married a week before Christmas in a beautiful winter wedding! The entire day just flowed perfectly, and we had a wonderful time with them. And luckily it wasn’t too terribly cold that day so we were able to take some outside photos (which of course you know is our favorite). And Brittany, you get bonus points for being so patient with us on getting your pictures to you. Thanks for that . Hope the wait was worth it…

Brittany and her bridesmaids first got ready at “The Catwalk” hair salon:

Then they headed to The Hilton for the finishing touches. Doesn’t Brittany just look stunning!!!

And Mitch doesn’t look too shabby either with his groomsmen:

Brittany and her gorgeous bridesmaids:

Brittany and Mitch chose to see each other before the ceremony, and of course we were all for it ! I just adore the pictures we get of the bride and groom seeing each other for the first time in a more intimate and personal moment. They are always my favorite pictures from the day!

So sweet:

LOVE this!!!

The sun was setting fairly fast, but we were still able to get some shots of the complete bridal party outside:

After it was too dark to take any more pictures outside, we headed inside the church to take a few more. The church was so pretty:

The ceremony:

Getting ready to sign the marriage certificate:

After the ceremony we headed to “King’s Palace” in Monroe for their reception. Since their wedding was during the Saints’ game vs Dallas, they had the game on a computer by the groom’s cake. Unfortunately, the Saints lost that game, but it doesn’t even matter now because they’re playing in the Superbowl this Sunday! WHO DAT !!!!

Their first dance:

It didn’t take long for the party to heat up with lots of dancing and fun had by all. I think this picture of Brittany and Mitch dancing may be my favorite of the day:

Brittany’s father gave such a touching toast. I love this shot of them during the toast:

Last dance before leaving:

I love bubbles!

Thanks again y’all. We had a fabulous time !

- heather

We shot Jennifer and Drew’s engagement pics a few weeks back and had a great time with them. They were both just soooo easy to photograph, and they even brought their precious dog….and you know how I’m a sucker for lil’ dogs . We also got to shoot somewhere that we’ve been wanting to shoot at for a while now - The Restoration Park in West Monroe.

But first, we started in downtown Monroe/West Monroe:

Then we headed to The Restoration Park:

The colors were beautiful!

And you know how we love the setting sun light!

Love the angle on this last one!

- heather

Wow! Its been a while since we last posted. I know that some of you have been patiently waiting to see new pictures. The holiday season was a busy one for us, just as I’m sure it was for you as well. But we are working extremely hard to get caught back up and are ready for a great new year!
In 2009, we shot some absolutely awesome couples and some amazing weddings! And Cody and Hannah’s wedding didn’t disappoint! We had a great time spending the day with the two of them. The wedding party was fabulous as well as the families and everyone else we worked with! So without anymore rambling here are their pictures. I’m sure your thinking ‘finally’!

We started off the day with the beautiful bride getting ready!

Cody bought Hannah some beautiful pearls:

Next we headed over to snag a few of the groom:

I thought church was really pretty that night:

Hannah and her dad preparing to walk down the isle.

I like this one Heather captured through the doors:

And a fun shot of the whole group:

After the ceremony we stole the bride and groom for just a few shots of the two of them together:

Their first dance as husband and wife:

I love this one!

Hannah and Cody, thank you for letting us share your special day with you! We had a great time and we hope that you enjoy your pictures!

—Miranda

Wow, has it really been almost a month since we’ve posted something?!?!? Instead of giving some long excuse and apology on why it has been so long since we’ve posted, I’ll just instead go right to the photos from Brittany and Andy’s wedding…

We’ve been to many weddings over the past few years, and Brittany and Andy truly had one of the most unique weddings and receptions that we’ve ever seen. They really made everything a reflection of their personalities and style. It was such a pleasure photographing this couple and their wedding. Thank y’all so much Brittany and Andy! Y’all were so much fun!!

We’ll start with the getting ready pictures:

Love the shoes!

Meanwhile, the guys are watching some LSU football.

I love this picture of Brittany right before going to see Andy for the “first look”:

As you all know, we love it when clients decide to do a “first look.” It allows for much more time to do bride and groom pictures with just the two of them, and the day just flows so well.
I really love this next picture because I think it really embodies what a groom feels right before seeing his bride for the first time. He’s excited, nervous, anxious, and a thousand other feelings that only he can know or explain.

But all that nervousness melts away when they see each other for the first time.

I just love having so much time photographing the bride and groom on their wedding day.

Love this next series:

Such a good looking couple!

The bridal party:

After taking the group pics, we headed into the sanctuary to take a couple more pictures of Brittany and Andy:

We LOVED the spotlight in the church!

The ceremony:

Now on to the reception details…they were so CUTE! This is where they really put some thought into showing their personalities through the decorations. Brittany wanted the reception to have an elementary school theme and she pulled it off perfectly!

What girl DOESN’T remember playing the game “M.A.S.H.” in school???

And instead of birdseed, sparklers, or rice, they had paper airplanes for the send-off!

We had a lot of fun taking their ring pictures!

And let me take a second to say how much LOVED their cakes. Seriously, they.were.AMAZING!!!

Isn’t the groom’s cake awesome!

Their first dance was so sweet.

We were able to sneak the bride and groom away for a couple of minutes to snap some pics in front of the red phone booth outside:

Another thing that made their reception so much fun was that they had a photobooth set up for people to take pics with fun props:

The bouquet and garter toss:

And the send-off:

Ok, that was a massive post. Hopefully it somewhat makes up for our lack of activity of the blog lately (but believe me, we’ve been plenty busy fulfilling wedding print orders).
We have a special Christmas post that we’ll blog next week, so stay tuned :).

- heather

We shot Hannah and Cody’s wedding last night and had a great time. We’ve been wanting to post her bridal pictures for a while, but had to wait till after the wedding to do so. We had so much fun shooting her bridal pictures. At first we were a bit worried because so many of the spots we take pictures were completely under water (for those who don’t live in the West Monroe/Monroe area, we have been having a lot of problems with flooding). But now I’m really thankful for the flooding because it made us improvise and think outside of our comfortable box. We always strive to stay fresh and try out different spots, but sometimes its difficult with bridal shoots due to the constraints of having to get dressed and keeping the dress clean and etc. Hannah was such a trooper and pretty much just followed us anywhere we suggested. Thanks Hannah! And congrats to you and Cody!

See why we couldn’t wait to post them….because she’s such a GORGEOUS bride!!!

Love that setting sun…

- heather

A couple of months ago my favorite youth pastor’s wife of all times contacted Heather and I about shooting a wedding for a couple in their church. Of course we couldn’t turn Ms. Shontel down so we worked through emails for a while getting everything set up.
Fast forward a few weeks and Heather and I headed down to Des Allemands to meet Patrick and Kim for their engagement session! And boy are we glad we did! We had an amazing time with the two of them! They are so much fun and you can just tell that they are so much so much in love!
Heather and I have never had the opportunity to do a shoot in New Orleans. Top that off with an amazing couple and an absolute fabulous shoot!

New Orleans + Amazing Couple = Extremely Hard Time Choosing Only a Few For Blog.

So….sit back and enjoy because this is going to be a long post!

We started out in an open area by their church with some beautiful lighting and beautiful trees:

I love this tree! This tree is very unique and is such a good representation of unity! If you look at the picture carefully you will notice that it is actually two different trees that have grown together and now rooted together. It symbolizes the joining of Patrick and Kim becoming one!

Anybody that shows up in LSU gear for their shoot is number one in our book:

So much fun together:

There is a story behind this picture although I want go in to it! It has something to do with Heather’s directions or lack there of! HAHA!

Next we headed to walk around New Orleans for some beautiful architecture and more great light:

Love this texture:

It would be wrong to visit New Orleans and not get beignets so we headed over to Cafe du Monde for some great food and faboulous pictures:

I think that this next one from Cafe du Monde is my favorite from my day. I just love the lighting!

And I love this next one too. After promising that the last picture was the last picture, I turned around and decided that I just wanted one more. (I think I said just one more picture at least 5 times before we finally wrapped up the shoot.)

Patrick and Kim, You are both so amazing and so much fun! We had a great time with the two of you! We can’t wait till your wedding and catch up with you two again. You two are wonderful people! You made our shoot rock!

—Miranda

Couples like Lauren and Beau remind me how much I love my photography job. How can anyone NOT like being a part of someone’s happiest and best day of their life? Since I am also a nurse, I have the responsibility and privilege of helping people on some of their worst days. There’s a big difference in helping someone recover from open heart surgery or a heart attack one day and bustling a bride’s dress at her wedding the following day. But in the end, I just love people and the connections that people share. I love “love.” And I love photographing love. Lauren and Beau made it so easy for us to capture their love for each other. (And apparently shooting weddings has turned my old bitter and cynical self into a big mushy love sap. Before you know it I’ll be talking about how much I love movies like “A Walk to Remember” and “The Notebook” .)

Lauren and Beau, thank you so much. Y’all rock and we can’t wait to do y’alls “after the wedding” photo shoot!

They got married at the BEAUTIFUL First Christian Church in Monroe! Seriously, there were stained glass window and chandeliers in the bridal room! How awesome is that! The gorgeous dress:

And the shoes:

The rings:

I LOVED Lauren’s flower choices. These bouquets are just amazing!

Lauren looking breathtaking:

And Beau looking quite handsome himself:

I have to say that my favorite part of the day is taking the “first look” photos if the bride and groom choose to see each other before the ceremony. I look forward to it the most and they are always the first pictures that I go back and look at after they are downloaded. You just can’t beat the raw emotion that these photos capture.

Plus, doing a “first look” allows for plenty of time for portraits of the bride and groom.

We had some fun with the bridal party! Oh, and do you recognize Bridgit in this picture from her awesome wedding seen here?

But for some reason the guys didn’t want to walk arm in arm together

Right before walking into the church:

This is one of my favorite bride and father pictures EVER!

Like I said earlier, the church was so pretty!

They had their reception at Austin’s. I love this venue.

I thought the cake topper was so unique.

I really enjoyed playing around with some off camera lighting with the couple. We’ll definitely be playing around more with this technique.

I got some pictures with my camera flash on for their exit, but I actually really liked this picture not using my camera flash.

Ok, that’s all for now. Miranda and I are finally starting to get caught up on our business work, so there will be lots more posts coming up within the next few weeks.
Stay tuned!

- heather