Preston + Teresa: The Wedding (2004 repost) Wed. February 3, 2010 i do
A wedding before my 50 1.2, 5d, and trusty Totally Rad Actions (what did I ever do without them???)
Wow, it's crazy how many of you remember Preston and Teresa from the Knot chat boards back in 2004! Due to a quite overwhelming response, I have decided to dig through the archives and rustle up a few of their wedding photos.
I shot this wedding in Cabo San Lucas in 2004 at the Marquis Los Cabos-an absolutely jaw-droppingly gorgeous location. It was brand new back then, and this may have even been the first wedding there. Becker shot this wedding with me and some of the photos below might be his--there's no way for me to go back and tell at this point!
Anyway, enjoy!
Preston and Teresa, six years ago:
The ceremony contained Jewish and Spanish elements to pay tribute to both their cultures:
The breaking of the glass:
First kiss:
This is one of my favorite shots ever. I think that the coming back down the aisle photos are some of my favorites of the day more often than not!
Some beachy portraits:
I LOVE LOVE LOVE this one! What a gem--I had totally forgotten about it, but the colors are so refreshing:
Teresa may or may not have been a backup dancer for Prince at one point--that is a rumor I cannot confirm or deny:
We did a day after session--it was the first one I ever did. I have no idea if anyone else was doing these back then, this was before blogs and forums were really popular, so I thought I was being terribly daring. Here's one that Becker shot of me shooting:
And the resulting image:
Looking at these photos, while I have always and still do love them, I can't believe how far I've come both personally and professionally. It's hard to see those differences day to day, but looking through this wedding brings 2004 back to me like it was yesterday. I wasn't even living in California yet!
Preston + Teresa = Grayson Tue. February 2, 2010 people
I get asked this question all the time:
"How do you get into shooting Destination Weddings?"
My answer?
"You need a couple like Teresa and Preston."
Back in 2004, I was still living in North Carolina, had just started my own business, and was determined to make it. I got a call one day from a coordinator who told me about a client she had who was considering flying me to Cabo for her wedding! Needless to say, I was extremely excited, and jumped at the chance. This couple, Preston and Teresa, turned out to be the single most instrumental couple in my whole career.
After shooting the wedding in Cabo, Teresa immediately got onto The Knot destination chat board, which was very new at the time. I think she was one of the first brides to bring a photographer with her to her destination wedding, and when she posted the photos, the other girls on the board were really excited that such a thing would be an option!
That same day, I probably got 50 inquiries for destination weddings.
And that is how I became a destination wedding photographer :)
Now, that was six years ago, and a lot can change in six years. Moves from North Carolina to New York City, and to Connecticut. Teresa now has her own interior design business (you should check out her blog, The Stamford Wife--she's amazing.
More importantly though, Preston and Teresa have added a gorgeous, smart, adorable little boy to their family! On my trip to New York a few weeks ago, I was able to meet up with them to shoot a few photos of their family in the city and the parks of Manhattan. We had a blast, even with the freezing cold (now I'm a spoiled So. Cal girl).
We started off at a coffee shop, where I was introduced to the star of the show, Grayson:
What an adorable little monkey!
We decided to shoot inside for a bit, so we cruised over to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where what Gray really wanted to do was ditch the stroller and walk around:
And fly. Of course he also wanted to fly:
I love this series of Preston helping to teach his son to work those stairs:
Seriously, he could not be any cuter:
But, alas, it was time to head outside:
Teresa, you are even more stylish than you were six years ago as a bride, which I didn't think was possible:
Bye bye!
Grayson loves to be up high!
And is very curious about what Mommy and Daddy are doing down there...
This little area of Central Park was so cute with its swings! While Jeff and I walked to the shoot, it was SO STINKIN' COLD, but bu the time we got back outside, the wind had died down and it was really nice out:
I hope that they will look back on these photos and love the feeling of them:
This was Grayson's first try in the swings! He was a bit dubious at first...
Not quite sure what was going on....
...But he LOVED it!
With mommy:
Seriously, he was begging for more! the kid might have a bit of a daredevil streak:
We decided to steal just a few more minutes outside, even though the cold was starting to return:
Only a few more months till they'll be running after this guy:
He is just so much fun!
The cold was starting to get to his little cheeks, but he didn't mind:
Off on his own:
Preston & Teresa, you have the most beautiful family! Thank you so much for allowing me to be a part of your lives :)
**If you are interesting in having jessica claire shoot relaxed, casual family photos in your city or in orange county, california, please shoot us an email at clients@jessicaclaire.net
Wow--a week goes really fast! Thu. January 28, 2010 my life
Is it Thursday again already? Yikes! I need to stay up on keeping my blog updated--once a week isn't going to do the trick, now is it?!
Here is what is going on in my world this week:
1. I have the best husband ever. He is a wonderful person, and I wake up thankful for him every day. He is not, however, exactly like me--we are opposites in a few key ways. Case in point--he is warm-natured, and I am cold-natured. I am always cold. I would rather always be cold than always be hot because when you're cold you can always wear another sweater, but when you're hot there's a limit to what you can do. Anyway, his hot-naturedness causes conflict between us when it comes to keeping the thermostat set at a particular temperature, figuring out what kind and how many blankets to have on hand, and of course, to have the air blowing in the car or not.
It's been an unusually cold and rainy few weeks in So. Cal, which has caused me to be quite cold in the house. The other day, Jeff did something so amazing and selfless that I want to scream it from the rooftops...
HE BOUGHT ME AN ELECTRIC BLANKET!
It's this one:
(you can get it at Target)
Not only is it a heated blanket, it is a King Size blanket, and he actually told me to go ahead and put it on the bed. Ladies, I know that you can understand what a triumph this has been for me.
Ironically, it was way too hot and I took it off the bed last night and it will now be relegated for snuggling on the couch. Jeff still gets the points though!
2. I seem to have not blogged since last Thursday Thoughts. Yuck--I suck. Will do better next week, promise. It's lame to have Thursday Thoughts if I don't post any thoughts in between.
3. It rained last week so the big girls outing to get nails done turned into just Candice, Chenin and I. I decided to get a color on my nails even though I am so careless that it gets chipped off rather quickly. I got a pink color, which is pretty much par for the course for me. I think I might try something a bit more daring for Vegas for WPPI though--maybe this:
(most likely not the outfit though, although, you never know!)
4. I had two shoots this week, a wedding on Saturday, my first of the year as well as a shoot in the snow! I can't wait to share both of these shoots with you as well as tons of shots from my most recent workshop, but it's going to be a few more days, since I haven't gone through all the photos yet.
5. I can't wait for football season to be over. The games are so long and they suck up ALL DAY ON SUNDAYS. It's annoying. Too bad we're rolling right on into baseball season. Boo.
Thursday Thoughts With Jessica Claire Thu. January 21, 2010 my life
Hello everyone! In an attempt to post more personal stuff on my blog, I am starting a new feature called Thursday Thoughts, where each Thursday I'll chat about recent happenings, things that I think are funny, personal stories and photos, and anything exciting that is going on in my world. I will also include some things that I approve of, and some things that have induced strong dislike on my part :)
Here we go!
This past weekend, a group of friends and I took our annual trip up to Big Bear. Basically we rent a big cabin and then spend the next three days skiing, snowboarding, being lazy, and just generally hanging around. This trip, the popular thing to do was to play Words With Friends on our iPhones. It is VERY similar to Scrabble but with a slightly different board and it also has a chat feature :) You might think that this is lame (and actually a certain contingent of our members did too), and I'll admit that there was more than one time when 9 of us sat in a room and played one another on this game. BUT, it is FUN! By the end of the trip, even the haters were on board. You should download this app--it's quite addictive!
At the end of the trip, it started snowing. I mean, REALLY snowing, to the point where there were near white-out conditions at some points. We decided after our cabin lost power and the forecast called for 2-4 feet of snow to make a run for it while we still could. I kind of wanted to be snowed in for a week, but with some of us having weddings this Saturday, we played it safe and headed back. Here's a quick little photo of the view as we left--you can see Candice running down the stairs like a pack mule--we left rather abruptly :):
Here's the view of the road as we made our way through town-Michael drove very carefully and we made it home safe and sound, in plenty of time for a little poker game:
I received some photos back from the lab that I shot for fun over Christmas vacation this week! I had forgotten that I shot these, so they were fun to see. Here's one of Jeff's dad reading the Christmas story to the kids on Christmas Eve, before opening gifts:
We gave Aly a princess tent, which made Jeff really happy too. I don't really like to play princesses as much as he does, so he and Aly are quite a good match in that respect:
Kids somehow know that Jeff is just one of them:
We also made a visit to my Dad and Ruth, and while we were there I convinced my step-sister Liana to drag her baby out in the snow so I could snap a few photos. Maya wasn't sure what to think of it at first:
Once she was with her mom though, she seemed to think it was fun!
In other news, I reached 10,000 twitter followers today!
My goal is to increase that to 25000 over the next 2 years, so if you don't follow my Twitter yet, you can find it here: http://www.twitter.com/jessicaclaire.
Here's what else is on my mind:
-I need to take down the remainder of my Christmas decorations. I was trying to pass them off as "winter", but it's time for them to go, seriously.
-I'm annoyed at all the drama over the PDN "Influential" list. I do not think I deserve to be on it, but I am sad about all the nastiness it seemed to bring forward
-I went to the Utterly Engaged party last night, even though I swore off networking parties over the past few years and it was so FUN!
-A new PINK POLKA DOT cover is being launched in the Shootsac™ Newsletter tomorrow! If you want to receive it and snag a new cover, **click here** -I love s'mores. So much.
-Cyndie Norwood always beats me at Words With Friends. She is scary good at it.
-Jeff is awesome
-Every Thursday at 4pm PST you should make it a point to chat live with Becker and the guest of the week. This week is Jasmine Star! Go here and chat with them: the b school live chat
That's it for now, Happy Thursday! I'd love to see people leave a comment with one random thing that's happened to them this week, or a suggestion of something I should try this coming week for review next week :)
JC/OC Workshop-Sneak Peek! Fri. January 15, 2010 photographers
It's been sunny every single day for the past several months in Orange County. So when Cortnie of I Love Lollipops, the spectacular event design and coordination team that conceptualized and styled my most recent workshop told me ten days in advance that it might rain that day, my reaction was, "Come on Cortnie, they can't predict the weather"!
Wrong.
For ONCE, they actually did predict the weather correctly, because the morning of my workshop, for the first time in weeks, possibly MONTHS, it rained. And rained. And rained. Our gorgeous location--CLOSED. Our backup location: A mudslide. So off we went to backup location #3 (bet you're impressed that there was one), with the Lolliladies handling every bump in the road like absolute angels sent from heaven.
And the workshop was a raging success.
Here's a little sneak peek--more to come next week both here and on Style Me Pretty!
The gorgeous Troy and Aimee Grover were the models, along with beautiful bridesmaid Lindye Galloway (not pictured here)
The Lolliladies are. so. completely. amazing. I love them. Seriously:
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