Alright!  We kick off the new year with a blog post from last year’s wedding, Michelle and John who got married at Villa Antonia on a beautiful fall day.

Michelle and John work for NASA in Houston – as you may recall, we photographed Michelle and her gorgeous dress at her bridal session.     What a dress!

From Michelle about how they have met.

How we met: 
We went to the same high school and the same college (UT) and had some of the same friends, but we didn’t meet until couple years after all of that.  John is two years older so it isn’t all that odd, but when we look back at all the people and places we had in common it is hard to believe we never crossed paths.  We first officially met at a mutual friend’s wedding, but our relationship really started when we met again with the same group of friends welcoming back our friend from the Marines with a margarita happy hour. At first John didn’t remember me, but I remembered him =)  We locked eyes at the dinner table several times.  Our group relocated to a local bar to keep celebrating where we talked all night and we have been together ever since.

He proposed on our 3 year anniversary in Sonoma, California in a vineyard garden and we were married a little over a year later.  

John is actually a photographer and I always love working for photographers because it is both a challenge and  creatively speaking, more freedom as well.

Going to start this blog off with some fun details!

Love this!

They love making funny faces

Congratulations Michelle and John!!

Date: October 8th, 2011

Ceremony and Reception:  Reunion Ranch, Terrell, Texas

Megan and Jonathan (yes, we have another couple this year with the same names!) got married on a beautiful day in Terrell, Texas in October.

A quick slideshow of their day:

Here are a few of our favorite images:

Date: October 1st, 2011

Ceremony and Reception:  Tenroc Ranch, Salado, Texas

Allison and Ross got married at Tenroc Ranch on October 1st, 2011 in Salado, Texas.  Salado is one of the towns around Austin that you should definitely visit if you are in Austin area.  The day was beautiful with some of the best natural light we have seen this fall.

This is how Allison and Ross met, in their own words:

 We met in Fall 2006 while attending Sam Houston State University. Ross was pledging Phi Delta Theta Fraternity, whose fraternity brothers were neighbors of Allison. Though meeting a couple times before, it wasn’t until the Halloween party when they truly began to notice each other. Allisonwas an Angel, all dressed in white. Ross claims that’s when he knew Allison was his very own, “angel.” Time passed, and they talked every now & again. Things really sparked up between the two in March of 2007, and Allison decided that she was going to make Ross her’s! One of Allison’s friends at the time, Brittani, secretly put Allison’s phone number in Ross’ phone. Over Spring Break, they talked every night. Not long after that, on April 6, 2007, they made it official!

Barbara Hearnes of Barbara’s Brides was her planner did a great job as always!

After I photographed this image, I really wanted to buy a smoke machine and some lights

Love the closeness of families on the exit.

Some fabulous details from her wedding:

Congratulations to Allison and Ross!

Here is a photo from her brother, Nathan and Katie’s wedding:

Megan’s sister, Nathalie and her husband Alex got married last year at the Houston Yact Club:

And, we look forward to Alex’ sister, Jessica’s wedding, next March in Houston as well!

Date: September 10th, 2011

Ceremony: Saint Mary’s of the Immaculate Conception Catholic Church, La Porte, Texas

Reception: Megan’s parents’ home in La Porte, Texas

Love Megan’s expressions – I can photograph these all day.

Nathalie and Alex in front of their photo

Megan made her own cake for her wedding – she has also made her sister’s wedding cake last year.   The food was amazing.

One of the best part of having a wedding at home is how relax you can be.  One of my favorite moments of the day:

Experimented with some film:

Film:

Gotta love it when the groom’s family gets on the dance floor as much as Jonathan’s.

Meghan and Jason met each other at a friends’ party 10 years ago and hit it off right away and have been together ever since.   They made it official on August 27th in Tarrytown at the Good Shepherd Episcopal Church with the reception in Westwood Country Club.  After the wedding, we headed off to the Four Seasons hotel in downtown Austin for some photos of the couple alone.

Some highlights of their wedding day:

Her nieces are a lot of fun

One of my favorite garter toss photos, ever.

Congratulations to Meghan and Jason!  Love the dress you wore at the Four Seasons!

Her wedding designer/decorator is Suman Pai at Elegant Affairs from Dallas, Texas who handles both the ceremony and reception decor and set up.

Congratulations Niyati and Alok!!

I first met Niyati in 8th grade during my stint with the Hill Country Middle School Symphonic Band.  Due to our running in different circles of friends and middle school awkwardness in general, nothing particularly interesting happened for a few years.  Our story begins at the end of high school with our first date, otherwise known as the Westlake HS prom. After three years together at The University of Texas, Niyati and I decided that we both wanted more letters after our names so we headed off to Dallas and Palo Alto, CA respectively.  Turns out that it would take a lot more than 2000 miles to break us apart!  I asked her to marry me in March of last year after a day of winery touring in Napa Valley.  Niyati is finally venturing outside of Texas to join me in San Francisco once she graduates this spring.

 Date: June 18th, 2011

Ceremony and Reception:  Hilton Hotel in downtown Austin, Texas.

After two days of celebration, the wedding day is finally here!   The day begins with Niyati and Alok getting ready at the downtown Hilton Hotel in Austin, Teas, followed by a short first meet.  The Indian Baraat and Ceremony took place at the Hilton as well.

Our associate photographer Ashley Eddleman joins me and Hazel for the wedding day and did a great job!  Some of the photos are hers.

This is part one of their day (Baraat and Ceremony – reception will be in a separate post coming up next):

Tying the knot, literally!

Their beautiful reception is coming up in the next post!

Wedding day post is next!

The first night is the Mehndi where hands and feet are painted – Niyati, however, already did hers the night before (it takes a fwe hours on the bride and for the ink to dry).  The next morning is a short Hindu ceremony in their house, before heading off to the Garba that night.

So how does one photograph a four day wedding?   Coffee and and vitamin I-buprofen.  A bonus:  Niyati’s dad was feeding me and my second photographer Ashley Amy’s ice cream.  For those of you that aren’t familiar with Amy’s ice cream, it is delicious and local to Austin and it is sooo good due to the milk fat content    But it works well for me since it allows me to store energy throughout the night.

Here are some photos from the night and the ceremony at noon the following day (Garba photos will be in the next post).

The noon ceremony:

A lot more including the wedding ceremony at down Hilton coming up soon!

In case you missed it, here is their engagement sessions in Austin and in College Station.     Yes, that is Janki wearing a UT football shirt inside Kyle Field.  And yes, you may send me hatemails if you are an Aggie.

Their wedding day begins at Memory Lane Event Center, then moved on to the W Hotel, followed by an after hours party at the Phoenix Club in downtown Austin.  And, only in Austin can you witness a wedding of guests from India with guests from Lebanon doing country square dancing in the reception!

Date: June 4th, 2011

Ceremony and Reception: Memory Lane Event Center in Dripping Springs, Texas

Janki and Omar met each other during their freshman year in college.  Janki went to a party in College Station with some mutual friends from Austin and met Omar at the party.  They were friends for a long time before they started dating.

Omar knew Janki so well that when I asked him if he knows what Janki is going to wear as her wedding dress, he replied: “I just know it will be something princess-y, a ball gown most likely.”

Janki designed her wedding with one theme in mind, Alice in Wonderland.   We don’t typically blog a lot of detail images but they have spent a lot of time on these details that we are going to show them all in the next few frames:

More images – yes, that is a Kyle Field cake!

More details on Kyle Field.

They plant a tree with their native soil.

Aggies versus Longhorns – who is going to win?

We are only going to share one photo from the after hour party:

Congratulations to Janki and Omar!  What a fun wedding!!!