Although JD and I absolutely love photographing couples in love, and have no plans to stop doing so, our recent move to Katy has made us realize that we’re missing out on a lot of fun with high school seniors, and we’ve got to do something about that! That’s why we’re currently on the hunt for a few good high school juniors and seniors in the Houston-Katy area to become our brand ambassadors.
What’s in it for you? Well, a free photo session, to start! We know that the best way to find seniors is to start with seniors. So we’re offering a free photo session to a select group of special young people who can spread the word about just how great we are!
We’ll take your portraits in a location of your choice, then provide you with Facebook photos and 100 personal calling cards that you can use to share your cell phone, email, blog-whatever you like, and to gather referrals. You will also receive a 15% ambassador discount on all prints and products that we offer.
The referrals are important, because for each senior you refer, you’ll get $100 off your purchase of a memento album filled with your senior photos. If you refer 10 seniors to sign up for a senior package with us, we’ll present you with an iPod Touch. Be sure to refer your closest friends, because as an extra special thank you, we’ll schedule a buddy session for you and your 10 referred friends together, for free, with an 8×10 for each of you of the group.
To sign up as a senior ambassador, please fill out our application form. We look forward to hearing from you!
Back before all of the craziness of Ireland (I will have Ireland photos soon, too), closing, and moving, once upon a time JD and I had a little down time to enjoy ourselves, and I haven’t had a chance to update you on our activities until now!
In February, we took a quick little trip to Brazos Bend State Park. It was mainly to play around with our Holgas, so most of the photos we took are still trapped in film. But I did remember to take a few shots to satisfy my need for instant gratification. We were on a creepy little trail, and this branch lined up with the moon just right.
Back at our old house in Sugar Land, March brought on spring, and lots of weeds to our backyard. Fortunately for us, they were actually kind of pretty.
JD joined a softball league organized by Coffee Groundz, an awesome little coffee shop and community hub in midtown Houston. I didn’t want to let him have all the fun, so I signed up as a cheerleader and unofficial photographer. We had so much fun and made lots of new friends! The season’s over now, but we’re hoping to sign up for the next one.
In April, we enjoyed a trip to iFest, Houston’s international festival. The highlight country was Ireland, which we visited just a week after the festival, so you know we had to go!
JD has taken a liking to cigars, so we picked one up from a booth at the festival.
JD and I are obsessed with “I’m on a Boat” (seriously, check it out!) so we couldn’t resist the opportunity to take this shot of JD on a Jamaican pirate boat.
After an awesome bridal session at Mercer Arboretum in April, we stuck around to take some photos just for fun. The light was perfect, and we’d never been there before, so we wanted to take the opportunity to explore for a bit.
This photo ended up being featured by the Houston Press as one of the Photos of the Week
Just a few days after we got back from Ireland, we went to the Art Car Parade. We go every year with my family as a Mother’s Day tradition. It’s one of my favorite family activities!
Kinky Friedman was once again the Grand Marshall.
This kid didn’t seem to be enjoying the parade as much as everyone else.
I thought this chicken was pretty impressive.
A good example of some of the awesome/crazy you can find at the parade.
These bunny slippers were definitely a hit with the crowd.
And how could we forget swine flu?
One more-my sister’s cat Loki surprised us all by swiping a fish out of my dad’s backyard pond! Poor fishie. And all she ate was the tail. But she did look pretty cute doing it.
Ahh, it feels nice to have the archives cleaned out! I’m still trying to get through my photos from Ireland, but I’ll have some to share soon!
We have finally closed on our first house together, and are completely relocated to Katy. It’s was quite a traumatic move out of Sugar Land, but the torture is over! Now we are tasked with finishing all of our painting, flooring, and mountains of unpacking. Oh, and we have half a garage full of furniture to bring in and/or put together. No easy feat, but since when have we done things easy? There will quite certainly be a garage sale in there somewhere as well. But as a reward, we’ll both have spankin new offices to ourselves, a beautiful house, and a swim spa that I’ve already become addicted to.
We are going to miss Sugar Land dearly, but Katy is a new place to explore with a wonderful atmosphere. It feels much more friendly, and lots more walkable. I can’t tell you how many people I’ve seen on bikes out here! There’s also a lot of great support for small, local businesses, which is awesome for us. We love our new neighbors (and their tolerance for moving trucks in the middle of the night), and we’re already feeling very much at home here!
Here’s a look into some of our progress on the house. Don’t expect to see much more until we’ve finished-our house is a WRECK!
One of the realtor’s photos. My friend Eric acted as our agent in the deal and he kept calling the house “cute as a button.”
The game room, with new carpet and paint. This was my in-transition office briefly, but now it’s filled to the gills with stuff that needs to go in our as-yet-unfloored offices and the attic.
Our bedroom is red! With a king size bed, entertainment center, leather chest for the end of the bed, etc. etc. We’ll add a dresser once we get done with the painting details and get settled in. We need to hang out our drapes, too! Yep, that’s a balcony you’re seeing.
This bathroom used to have carpet-bleh! But I kind of miss it now that it’s gone. Still need to figure out flooring in here, so I can get started using my closet and start taking showers in here instead of the guest bathroom.
JD’s office, with painting in progress. He’s got a few boards of flooring down now, and his computer is back up and running.
I was about 10 minutes in to painting the guest room when the carpet guys showed up. This room was another office for me, because it was the only place I could steal internet from the neighbors. Thank goodness we have our own connection now!
Our entryway got some new carpet. Some genius painted over textured wallpaper under the chair rail, so we’re going to add some beadboard. I think it will be cute and a heck of a lot less tear inducing than trying to rip up the wallpaper!
The living/dining room getting a paint job.
Painting in the living room.
While painting, JD discovered his hair was getting in his face…so I offered a solution.
We found a rotting hole in the floor of my office, so my dad came over to help us fix it up with some new boards. Haven’t gotten any flooring down in here yet.
Flooring progress in our living/dining room. It’s completely finished now, and beautiful! Even if it is covered in boxes. Our swim spa is back there, too! I got a Roomba so we can keep up with the mountain of cat and dog hair that our house generates.
That’s it for now, but we are a couple of busy bees working to get things situated just right! I can barely find my clothes, and most of our pots and pans are still packed up, but it’s home and we both are so in love with it. And the swim spa. Have I mentioned the swim spa?
You can see all of our house photos to date in my Flickr set.
JD and I have so enjoyed getting to know Julianne and Justin. They are two super sweet people that I just know have a lifetime of happiness in store. Let’s take a look into their wedding day.
This is Julianne’s sister Stephanie at Genesis Day Spa with some pretty funky hair. How could I not take this photo?
Julianne totally commandeered her mom’s rental car because it was a cute Solara convertible. Can’t say I blame her!
JD found this lovely piece of signage in the mens’ restroom at St. Theresa’s.
Julianne made such a beautiful bride!
I just loved the group prayer before the ceremony. I think it calmed everyone’s nerves a bit.
Another lovely moment, Julianne’s mom spending just a few more moments with her before lining up to go down the aisle.
We always make sure to catch the groom’s reaction to his bride walking down the aisle, and Justin’s was so perfect!
Julianne and Justin had their reception at Pecan Grove Country Club. It was so classic and wonderfully put together!
This…was pretty awesome. That’s all I’m going to say about that!
Julianne’s little brother totally knew how to get down!
Julianne’s mom was pretty hilarious!
Oh yeah, there was a conga line!
Julianne and Justin had easily the most active photobooth we’ve had so far. I was out there almost the entire night! It was so much fun for the guests (and me!). The mustaches were, as always, a big hit. We are going to have to stock up on them!
This was an extra-special photobooth moment. Julianne’s brother Matthew and his wife Sherry are expecting a baby. She barely shows, but we thought it was a totally appropriate time to take this super early maternity shot.
And they’re off!!
Julianne and Justin, it has been such a wonderful experience photographing you and your families. I hope that you’ve enjoyed your sneak peek!
I know, we’ve got crickets chirping on our blog-it’s been so long since we’ve updated, but we’ve got a few good reasons!
Things are crazy in the Merritt house these days, crazy good. In the past month, JD and I have celebrated our first anniversary, made a return trip to Dublin, Ireland, and we bought a beautiful house in Katy! Snaptacular Photos is as busy as ever-we’re shooting nearly a bridal every week these days, and we’ve got a full schedule of weddings already shot as well as plenty lined up for the summer. As we work hard to juggle all of these wonderful gifts, I can’t help but think we’re in the middle of a happiness explosion, and we’re so lucky to be in it!
We have lots to catch up on here on the blog-we owe you at least a couple of bridals and a wedding or two that we’ve got queued up. If you’re lucky, I might share some of our recent photographs from Mercer Arboretum, iFest, and the Art Car Parade, too! We will of course be posting photos of our home and trip to Dublin if we can manage to squeeze them in between painting, flooring, packing, heavy lifting and somehow trying to keep up with client editing!
I know, you’re getting stressed just reading this. But think, one of these days, we’ll be relaxing in our pool (oh yeah, we have a pool!), at our fully floored, painted, and moved in house, completely caught up on commitments, and reflect on these days as a wonderful, wild ride. But I don’t think it will be nearly as fun as actually being in it!
JD and I just love Crystal and Marcus. If you spend any amount of time with them, two things are immediately clear-they are totally meant for each other, and they radiate good times everywhere they go. Their wedding was all about having fun and celebrating the awesomeness that is Crystal and Marcus!
The weather was absolutely gorgeous-and I was totally impressed by Northwest Forest. They have an Alamo. For real. You’ll see.
If there was a Cute Overload for floral arrangements…this would so be on it.
One of the many reasons why I loved this wedding. Crystal went the practical-but-cute route and wore these super cool sandals!
We got Marcus and his groomsmen to do their best Anchorman impression-pretty badass, right?
The ceremony was in a beautiful gazebo area behind the even more beautiful hotel!
We spent a little time at the Alamo, yes-the ALAMO, at Northwest Forest for some portraits after the ceremony.
I just love this photo. During the cake cutting, JD caught some bright flash off a guest that turned out to be awesome-it created a shadow on the wall that looks like some sort of attack is going on!
Zack got attacked by a swarm of women on the dance floor. He acted so embarrassed, but I think this photo is proof he was totally eating it up!
There was a special surprise at the reception-Crystal’s uncle skillfully played the sax for a few songs.
Do you SEE the way Marcus is looking at Crystal? My heart, it is melting.
The toasts at their wedding were probably my favorite so far. The guys were good, but the ladies totally brought the comedy. Crystal’s maid of honor told us a priceless story of Crystal asking her to dig up some information on Marcus, also known as “Coach Handsome!”
Crystal keeps the party going while waiting at the bar!
This little kiddo just plain ran out of steam-but she was dancing up a storm just a few hours before.
Crystal and Marcus, we have so enjoyed working with you and your families. Congratulations!
What’s better than getting awesome photos from us? Getting a gift…for getting awesome photos.
Wait, what?
Okay, let me explain. JD and I are introducing a special incentive program for our wedding clients. On top of your beautiful album, prints, and canvases, you can get a free gift in return from us for being such loyal clients…think of it as the icing on an already delicious cake!
It’s super simple. If you spend up to a certain price point with us, you’ll get a really special gift in return! Even more special? You can’t buy these gifts. You can only get them as Icing on the Cake.
Everything counts toward your total-wedding day coverage, portrait sessions, albums, canvas wraps, prints…everything. Everything except taxes, anyway!
Awesome right? The really big news? For the first time in…ever, we’re offering high resolution files. Really. But you can only get them as Icing on the Cake. Here are the details:
$3,000: 10 page 5×5 mini album-awesome for stashing in your purse!
$3,500: High resolution images from your wedding and portrait sessions
$4,000: iPod Touch engraved and filled with your favorite images
You can stack your gifts, too. So if you spend $4,000, you’ll get everything: the mini album, high resolution images, AND the iPod Touch!
We hope you’ll take advantage of this super cool opportunity!
We’ve shot at Discovery Green a few times now, and you’d think we’d be sick of it at this point, but it just seems to get more fun every time we go! Of course, it helps that we have cute and adventurous couples like Lauren and Chase to shoot with. We had such an adventure with these two. We got started with their doggies at Discovery Green, explored the park a bit, stopped by Toyota Center and the surrounding area, and then finished up at Houston Fire Station #8 (also known as “Downtown Heat”).
One of the things I love most about our engagement sessions is the opportunity to explore our city and see new things with really fun couples, and we totally got to do just that with Lauren and Chase. This was a first time trip to a fire station for both JD and I, and we’re so glad we had the opportunity. Thanks to Chase, who is a Houston firefighter, for making it happen! I love that we got to make this session so personal with them, and filled with the things they love: their dogs, the Rockets, firefighting, and each other!
Aren’t their dogs so sweet? They were so excited to be out at the park and just so lovable.
We took a quick moment to hang out on the dock.
Then we were off to see if we could sneak into Toyota Center. We couldn’t, bummer! But we had some fun anyway.
We were about 99% sure that this building was haunted or full of junkies, but that didn’t stop us from having a little fun! If you look really hard, you can see someone or something back there…
…ah, just kidding! But I made you look, didn’t I?
The downtown fire station was totally awesome. They were really friendly, and we got to take a full tour!
After a truck pulled in and one of the firefighters left his gear behind, Lauren jumped into it, totally unprompted. Go Lauren!
Thank you Lauren and Chase for an adventurous engagement session! We are so looking forward to your wedding this summer!
When we first met Crystal and Marcus, I just knew we were going to be BFFs. Our first meeting was at Chuy’s over Texas Martinis, chips, and creamy jalapeno dip. The clicking was there and we were going to be totally disappointed if they didn’t book us because we were in love. Lucky for us, they did! They are both teachers at Cy Woods High School, and we all thought it would be fun to do the session there!
You probably can’t tell, but Marcus is totally cracking up here. Actually, most of our session was pretty much a laugh fest!
Marcus is a football coach, so we spent a little time at the stadium messing around. You have nooo idea how hard Crystal and Marcus worked to get this helmet on her head!
Don’t tell the kids-their teachers are totally making out under the bleachers!!
These two are getting married in just three short weeks, and we absolutely cannot wait. We just know it’s going to be a blast!
JD and I have two of the awesomest, most gosh darn sweet and cute nieces on the face of the Earth. It has come to my attention that even though we have a ton of photos of them, I’ve never shared them here! I think it’s about time we rectified that situation, isn’t it? Here’s a tiny handful of our two favorite tiny ladies in the world!
Meet Gracie-she lives in Houston, so we’ve been able to do two sessions with her now. This was taken when she was just about four months old. I have another one from this session that shows off her totally cute baby butt, but I think I’ll save it so that we can bring it out again when we meet her first boyfriend!
My how she has grown! She’s just shy of a year here.
She’s learning at a young age that magazines are pretty fun. Here she is soaking in one of her grandmother’s magazines. I am pretty sure she was in the other room when this happened!
Our other niece is Sosie. She lives in Boston, so we don’t get to see her as much, but we certainly love every minute we get with her. This past August, we went up to Boston for a visit, then drove up to Maine for the day. Here we are walking along the Marginal Way.
Sosie and her parents Brandon and Kristen came for a visit on MLK weekend, a belated holiday trip. While they were here, we spent a quick early afternoon at the zoo. Poor Sosie was really sick, but I think she had a great time anyway.
Like most kids her age, Sosie is totally obsessed with Yo Gabba Gabba. She pretty much has the intro memorized-I’ve seen video proof! But she does take some time out to say hi to the giraffes every now and then.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this little glimpse into our family!
