JD and I had so. much. fun. shooting Amy and Todd’s engagement session.

So, we ended up taking these two to a grocery store. And it was awesome. Amy told me that she was really getting into the fall season, so she wanted to see if we could find a pumpkin patch to take photos in. I suggested that we hijack a display from the local HEB, and then carry on with the session inside the grocery store. Let me tell you, my heart sang when she said yes! The grocery store turned out to be just every bit of awesome as we’d hoped.

We started out in Downtown Bryan so that we could check out their reception site while we were in the area, plus take advantage of the cool backdrops in the main drag. We also wanted to have some good stuff in the camera already just in case we (oops) got kicked out of HEB later. Anyway, Downtown Bryan reminded me a lot of Sugar Land Town Square, except that it was authentic (sorry Sugar Land) and quaint. Amy tells me that it’s a hot spot on weekend evenings, but it was totally dead and ready for us to take it over when we were there.

Once we were done in Bryan, we headed to the HEB and turned on the crazy. Amy and Todd were such good sports and they made the experience really fun!

Todd had a little fun with melons. I’m not sure how Amy felt about that!

Then we threw Todd in the cart, so Amy could pretend she was picking up a husband on her trip to the grocery store.

A little sweetness by the freezer…

And then we had some more fun with the cart.

Amy and Todd, we had a blast at the session! I hope you’ve enjoyed this sneak peek.

Everyone’s getting into the holiday season these days, and we’ve been getting inquiries about doing family portrait sessions for holiday cards.

I don’t want anyone to be disappointed, so I have to tell you now while you still have time that if you want us to do a shoot and/or cards, you better get crackin’! Our official cut-off for holiday sessions is Friday, November 21st. That means you only have about two weeks!

If you’d like to get a holiday portrait session in before the deadline, please let us know! We’re offering a special as well. For $250, we’ll provide the session, online proofing, and your choice of 25 4.5×5 custom designed cards, or 24 wallet prints.

We have limited weekend availability, but we do have a number of weekdays open, so send me an email to get scheduled ASAP!

I know we’ve been quiet on the blog these days, and there’s a good reason-we are freaking busy! Of course, this means you’ll soon be flooded with a bunch of posts to show off what we’ve been up to. So stay tuned, I promise the wait will be worth it.

Anyway, the point of this post is to wish everyone a happy election day. This is a historic election either way it goes. So no matter what your political persuasion is, I hope you’ll get out there and vote to make your voice heard!

I’m Jessica Merritt and I approved this message.

When Mary contacted us about taking family portraits at her mother’s 95th birthday celebration, JD and I were instantly excited. It isn’t often you get to photograph four whole generations of a family at one time!

Here are our matriarchs (and matriarchs in training!)

Of course, you know we had to bring along our photobooth, just for fun. These two seemed to enjoy it!

Thank you all for a fun session and a great experience (and delicious homemade ice cream!)

So, Porsche & Eric (you may remember them from their super cute engagement session) are going to have the most fabulous vintage inspired wedding ever.

Porsche’s bridesmaids will be carrying vintage feather fans as bouquets. The guys? Top hats and canes. The style is something like Audrey Hepburn meets The Great Gatsby. Awesome, right? (And for you literary freakazoids like me, wouldn’t that be a fun novel?) Anyway, we just had to introduce a few of those elements into their save the dates and invitations. Check them out:

I don’t know where JD finds these things, but how supremely cute is this?

Of course, these peacock feathers are all over the place.

Porsche and Eric, I hope these are a hit with your family and friends! We love your style and are looking forward to the wedding!

JD and I had the pleasure of photographing this wonderful family, who are friends of my sister in law (ha-I can say that now!) Kim. These are a few of our favorites from the session.

I just love his look here, as if he’s thinking, “Yeah, yeah…I know you love me.”

Thank you for such a great session!

Have we got some news for you!

Over the past couple of weeks, I have been a very busy bee. I’ve been working extremely hard to create our new handmade line of albums and keepsake photo jewelry, and I am so excited to finally share them with you!

First up is our collection of custom keepsake photo jewelry.

These one of a kind pieces are hand pressed under thick glass, and set as a pendant or magnet. The pendants come in two sizes and are carefully wire wrapped for durability and beauty. They are really striking and make wonderful gifts for bridesmaids!

Volume discounts are available for our magnets, so they are a great idea for wedding favors.

Guys take note, because very soon we will also be offering these as cuff links!

I am perhaps most excited about our new handmade photo albums. Seriously, let that sink in for a minute. Hand. Made. Albums. Made with love by yours truly. Awesome!

Every single page of these albums is hand stitched and carefully assembled. Making these beauties by hand in our own studio means that you will be able to have a truly unique album. No one in the world will have one that looks like yours!

With this high level of customization, we’ll help you pick out a fabric to use for your cover as well as paper colors and beading. We can even make the cover from fabric that’s special to you, like a table runner from your reception.

As always, we will offer a flush mount, custom design for your images on each page.

I hope that you’re as excited about our labor of love as we are! Keep an eye out for even more unique handmade items from us very soon.

Want to get your hands on a handmade creation of your very own? Just send me an email and we’ll talk about it.

PS: If you’d like to order from our new line for holiday gifts, make sure you place your order by November 30th for guaranteed delivery by Christmas.

Amanda and Kyle’s wedding was a different one for us, as it wasn’t technically a wedding. They got married in Mexico the weekend that Ashley and Jason had their wedding, and then came back home to have a cocktail reception with their family and friends. They held the reception at a new Spanish tapas restaurant off of 1960 called Capriccio. The night was full of lots of mingling and a million awesome little details:

It was a black and white reception, and everyone looked awesome. Some of their guests had super cute shoes.

They set up a projection screen and played a slideshow full of images from their lives, as well as their wedding day. I think people really enjoyed it.

There was plenty of alcohol to go around, because hey, what’s a cocktail reception without good booze?

Always a friendly sight: kegs at weddings.

Capriccio served up some oh-holy-goodness awesome Spanish paella.

I am pretty sure this kid wanted to go home the whole time. It just wasn’t his scene.

Amanda checks out some bling:

It was pretty crowded, so we didn’t get to use the photo booth as much as usual, but once it cleared out a bit we had a little fun.

By the end of the night, the shoes came off and the cigars came out.

I think Kyle made good use of that candle, don’t you?

Amanda and Kyle, thanks for a great reception!

Tyra Banks has a talk show that is freaking hilarious. She reminds me a lot of Paris Hilton, in that I’m never quite sure if she is behaving so crazy for attention and profit, or if she really is just that cooky. Anyway, I tune in to her show every now and then, and today I found a special treat.

She did her show on YouTube celebrities. She’s certainly not the first one to do it, but she had some interesting stuff, particularly the Wii Fit Girl. If you haven’t seen the video, she’s the one whose boyfriend took a video of her playing the Wii Fit hula hoop game in her underwear. For reference, here’s what the jerkface posted:

Embarrassing, no? Well, they were both on Tyra’s show today, and she made him do the hula hoop in his underwear!

I totally love that he left his pants around his ankles. Awkwaaard!