jeremy and brynn's engagements

i got to do engagement photos yesterday for a faithful client and good friend jeremy crady (who's previous shoot with me included some really cool music promo shots). he and his gorgeous future bride brynn contacted me a few months ago about shooting their wedding in dallas late november -- sign me up, please!!

it's getting down to crunch time for them obviously so we chose a totally lovely fall day and headed down to radnor lake to shoot. check out what we got :)



























how cool is jeremy's grandfather's rockin' el camino!!! i'm so stoked we got to sneak this car into a few shots :)

jeremy and brynn, i am overly excited about your wedding -- just a few weeks away now! see you in dallas soon!

hannahelaine

mark + rebecca -- montgomery bell

mark and rebecca got married on what was supposed to be a soggy, cold, rainy halloween day. as it turned out, the day was totally gorgeous and i am so grateful. the wee chapel they got married in was just a single room with probably a 50 person capacity max. not sure how it would have worked had it rained!! thankfully, it didn't an we were able to take advantage of the gorgeous scenery for these photos. take a look...













i LOVE this shot jesse got right before the ceremony started. you can see rebecca on the right hiding from mark, and mark on the left hiding from rebecca.

mark as he sees rebecca for the first time.
























woo hoo! thanks again to the mr and mrs for having jesse and me out to shoot the wedding. we both thoroughly enjoyed how laid back you were and how you were more concerned with marrying each other than the fact that, oh...for example, you had to move the entire reception indoors because the ground was so soggy from the previous night's torrential downpours. no sweat off your backs, just happiness and love. yes.

congrats!!

hannahelaine

maggie + firas

years ago, when i was a starbucks barista, i had the pleasure of making friends with a lot of the regular customers. to this day i still recognize several of them and say hey when i run into them around town. firas happens to be one of my former customers and it was a pleasant surprise to show up to the meeting maggie and i had set up to talk about wedding stuff and to see that he was the groom!

maggie and firas from the beginning had me excited about their wedding at cedarwood. between his lebanese background and her fabulous sense of style i knew it was going to be gorgeous -- and it was! i told maggie that if i ever get married i'm just going to steal everything she did for her wedding and do it for mine :)

maggie surprised firas with this darth vader cake. yummy.





these are hands down my absolute favorite wedding favors i've ever seen. a friend designed their monogram in arabic and created this awesome design out of it then had the posters printed at hatch show print, the most magical place in the world.












chill.

perfect sun, perfect fall day.





























the music would alternate from "save a horse, ride a cowboy", to this fascinating arabic music, then back to "rocky top," and so on and so forth. it was a really cool way to incorporate both cultures and to get everybody on the dance floor. it was a great party, for sure.

nice kicks.








AAAAANDDD last but not least. i have FINALLY decided on a name for the photobooth:

"the f a u x t a u x booth!!!"

what do you think?? check out the shots we got from maggie and firas's fauxtaux booth :)

such a blast, such a beautiful day and an inspiring wedding. hope you guys are having fun in vegas -- can't wait to show you the rest of the photos.

hannahelaine

kat + justin memphis wedding

what an incredible story i have for you from kat and justin's saturday wedding in memphis. john and i arrive at the wedding at 3:45 to take just a few getting ready photos of the bridal party before the ceremony at 4:30 -- him with justin and the guys, me with kat and the girls.

i walk in and the girls are all prettied up and ready to go and i start doing some formals with them. we're just having a great time, not a worry in the world.

little did we know...just down the hall things were not going as well for justin.

due to a mix up at the tuxedo store justin's tux wasn't ready friday morning when he was supposed to pick it up, nor was it ready saturday morning when he went back, nor had the tux arrived when john shows up to start taking photos. here is a series of photos showing the madness of the tux situation.

15 minutes till the ceremony....

8 minutes till the ceremony....

the tux finally arrives with 5 minutes to go....





all hands on deck.


i threw this photo into the mix specifically because the groomsman's watch shows the time -- 4:29!!!!! literally, one minute until the ceremony starts. and the girls STILL have no idea! the next few photos shows what i was doing in the 45 minutes leading up to the ceremony :)













such beautiful sunlight coming in through these stained glass windows.























may i HIGHLY recommend the memphis brooks museum for a wedding venue....it's completely to die for.

i just couldn't possibly say what a great time we had shooting this wedding. kat and justin are just as sweet as they could be and are clearly made for each other. thanks for having us down and for being so incredibly accommodating and sweet to john and i. hope you love the photos, can't wait to show you the rest!!!

hannahelaine

larisa + michael's sweet backyard wedding

larisa and michael decided to go small with their wedding (35 guests and a friend's beautiful back yard). it was such an intimate setting. i really appreciated how beautiful and personal they made it. it was also cool to see how much they got to interact with each of their guests -- something not easily done with a large wedding!

their guests were as laid back as they were and it just made for a really cool and peaceful wedding, free of negative hype and stress. check out some of the photos we got:

larisa hand painted the branches on these lanterns. i had no idea -- they look amazing!

i really thought these bulbs as guest favors were a cool idea. love the jars too.

now they're off honeymooning in ITALY!! so jealous. have fun, larisa and michael!! i had a great time at your wedding and felt so welcomed by everyone. congratulations and enjoy your photos!!

hannahelaine

larisa + michael teaser

such a pretty day and a pretty couple. i'm too tired to put my watermark on the photo but i couldn't resist charing a sneak peek into today's wedding (especially since i forgot to take a photo with my brand new iphone and upload it....i keep seeing other people do this at their weddings and have always wanted to. now, the first chance i get, i forget to do it!!)

so here is a non-iphone preview:

larisa and michael, as captured by my gracious assistant, leanna.

hannahelaine

brittany + will

venues that never disappoint + a couple overflowing with charisma and sweetness + a great fall day = a really, really photo-heavy blog post.

brittany's mother HAND MADE this dress. unbelievable!!

brittany's dad wrote all of the music for the ceremony and it was so unique and ethereal. i really, really enjoyed it.







if you've been following my blog for about six months this is a face you may remember. i shot sam and christine's wedding in april. brittany happened to attend that wedding, saw me at work and loved my photos and thus booked me for her own wedding! such a huge compliment when it happens that way.





all the gorgeous floral arrangements by queen anne florist (the website doesn't show half of how beautiful their arrangements are. absolutely breathtaking work!)



the beautiful cake was done by classic cakes (again, another website that does them no justice to show off how amazing their work is. i don't think there was a single guest that didn't have a piece).

yes, brittany did the ENTIRE thriller dance all by herself in those killer electric blue high heels. this girl hasn't got a shy bone in her body.

let me highly recommend mere bulles as a wedding venue. it was such a cool place to have a reception, the food was unbelievable, and the staff were so friendly and accommodating.

congratulations will and brittany!!! thanks for being so welcoming and great to zachary and me all day. can't wait to show you the rest....

hannahelaine

jewelboxing client dvds

i have to take a minute to rave about jewelboxing dvd packaging.

i came across these little beauties from heather garland's blog (via twitter) and it was precisely the kind of thing i had been looking for for THE longest time.

first of all, i love the shape, look and feel of these cases as opposed to regular dvd cases. they're super modern with a sleek design and a more expensive feel, yet are extremely affordable. second of all they allow you to completely customize every aspect of the paper design -- tray case (front and back), booklet (front, back, inside), and the dvd itself.

i hired happyfish design to help me come up with a cool template for plugging in the photos/info specific to each wedding i shoot, and between the 2 of us the following is what we came up with. check out the complete design for hope and seth's wedding dvd:

having a design template to use makes this a completely effortless and beautiful way to deliver quality packaging to clients and i have had absolute rave reviews about them so far. it literally takes me about 5 minutes to plug in the photos and info for each design in photoshop, and about another 6 or so to print the pieces out on the included perforated sheets and then assemble the product.

i highly recommend you checking out the jewelboxing website and seeing how other people are using their products (both dvd AND cd packaging available). super awesome....and they're website makes me giggle. funny people, those jewelboxing folks.

hannahelaine