Tuesday, March 8, 2011 at 3:14PM 
you are one of the sweetest couples i've ever photographed. what a perfect start to this wedding season! wishing you a lifetime of love, laughter, and kisses. congratulations you two! xoxo
Monday, February 7, 2011 at 8:12AM in case you haven't heard the happiest news of my life : I'M ENGAGED! my darling lou proposed on christmas (my favorite day of the year- i have a deep love of xmas music, holiday baking, tree decorating, and presents!) i don't usually get too personal on here, but i kind of want to shout this from the rooftops i'm so over the moon about it! here is a picture of my ring, on the custom marc johns piece that lou had commissioned for me. and a couple pictures of me on xmas morning showing off my new ring ( a rosegold and diamond engagement ring from the late 1800's). my eyes had finally cleared up from all the weeping, but i still look like a bit of a mess- as one should on christmas morning i suppose. i'll write the whole proposal story below, for those that are interested. warning: it's a long one, possibly overly sentimental and too-much information, but i think it's worth the read! (i am also so obviously biased)
as many engagement stories do, this one starts with the ring. lou and i had been talking about getting married and we decided that i should at least try on any rings he was considering (i mean, they're such an investment and i'm SO picky!). lou is very traditional about proposals- something i never really knew until we started talking about it. so he couldn't stand the idea of me knowing which ring he had gotten.
my ring was the first one he emailed me, and i immediately loved it but said i couldn't tell for sure without trying it on. then he sent a bunch more, none of which i cared for. one day he surprised me with a stop at the store that had THE ring. i tried it on and fell immediately, ass-over-teakettle in love with it. we left the store and i was giddy at the thought that someday it might be mine!
two weeks passed and lou told me " babe, i have really bad news. i went back to the store to get your ring and it's gone". i was so bummed, but then secretly thinking that he was probably just trying to trick me. weeks go by and he kept sending me more pictures of rings. i kept telling him no, that i really just loved THE ring and would rather just wait until we found the exact (or very similar) vintage ring somewhere else. i started in on the search. no similar ring to be found (at this point i had very specific desires- a ring from the late 1800's/early 1900's, rose gold, mine cut stones, yellow center diamond, etc). it seemed like an impossible search. i told lou, "i don't even need a ring, i just want to marry you!"
i finally gave up on the idea that he was just trying to trick me after he got {fake} mad at me for telling him that i didn't like any rings except THE ring. i felt bad, bratty and tried even harder to have an open mind about engagement rings. it did not work.
fast forward a couple months (with ring shopping and ring emails in between- and still nothing). lou emailed one of my very favorite artists marc johns and asked him about commissioning a piece of artwork to propose to me with. he didn't get a response. i of course had no idea about this, but three days after lou sent that email i emailed marc asking him what a girl has to do to get one of his pieces (they sell out so fast!). he sent me a sweet & friendly email with advice, complimented my work and made my day. i forwarded it to lou.
lou was shocked that i'd emailed him and that i'd gotten a response and he hadn't. so he copied the emails between me and marc into an email of his own and tried again. marc generally doesn't do commissions but lou persuaded him. marc was familiar with both of our websites/work and lou told him a little more about us and then gave him total creative freedom. the thing i love most about marc's pieces are the humor, his imagination and the whimsy....and his handwriting. i would like to spend a few days inside his mind, seems like such a great place to be! nylon magazine recently called his work "badass whimsy".
marc and lou started a mad rush to get it done by christmas. lou wrote up a list of things he loves about me. marc sent him a rough draft for approval. lou loved it and marc finished it and sent it off to our friends max & margaux's house for wrapping/safekeeping until the day before christmas.
on christmas morning we opened presents (check out that new casio digital watch, eh! i already thought i was the luckiest girl in town). i curled up on the couch when we were done and lou said "hold on, there's one more thing". and he brought out the wrapped piece. as soon as i started taking the paper off and saw the two cameras i started tearing up. i know marc's work, and i knew straight away that this was a custom piece. i couldn't believe that lou had finagled such an amazing christmas present!
as i started reading down the list of things that lou loves about me, i cried harder and harder. i still just thought it was the best present of my life, i had no idea what was coming. i was barely breathing by the time i read "i love the day i realized i want to spend the rest of my life with you" and then "i love that today, i am asking you to be my wife". i am crying just typing this. it was truly the most incredible moment of my life. lou (ever traditional) was down on his knees and pulled THE ring out of his pocket and asked me to marry him. of course i leaped into his arms sobbing and said yes a million times. turns out i'm more than the luckiest girl in town, i'm the luckiest girl on the planet.
marc: thank you. the piece that you created is my most beloved possession (even above THE ring!). i have thanked you via email, twitter, snail mail now this....and still- it will never be enough. a million thank yous.
lou: you are my heart. you make my life full of love, happiness, laughter. you inspire me to be better version of myself while always loving the completely flawed version that i am. you give me everything i have ever wanted and more than i ever dreamed i could have. i am so looking forward to being your wife and to discovering our future together. i love you.
{enough of me sitting at my computer sobbing} i'm feeling kind of like i'm naked on the internet. but there it is, all out there. thanks for reading! xoxo
engagement story, marc johns, personal Tuesday, February 1, 2011 at 8:42AM does a lingerie shopping party with your friends that involves bubbly, sweets and the fanciest most lovely lingerie in existence not sound like the most ridiculously fun thing ever?! well, i know from personal experience that it is. i photographed a staged one for RUE (pgs 220-241) in december and then last week i snuck out for an evening with my friend elizabeth for a night at kiki de montparnasse who was having an insane sale event (champagne and choc covered strawberried included) that was made even more fun with the GILT coupon i bought. we had the best time trying things on, ooohing and awing over the pretty and feeling ultra sexy and fancy free for a night! now i want to plan something just like this shoot for all my girls. and faire frou frou would be the place to do it! their lingerie is bananas gorgeous, the store owners are as sweet as macaroons and the whole store is styled so pretty you want to move in. OH, and wouldn't this be the funnest bachelorette party EVER?! or pre-valentine's girls day?! and i could sneak along to take pictures! holy moly me oh my! xoxo
the incredible people involved in making this all happen and be so damn pretty and delicious:
talent: models international
styling: sitting in a tree events
wardrobe stylist: the life styled
hair/makeup: fiore beauty
sweets: my sweet and saucy shop
paper goods: wiley valentine
and of course, RUE!
RUE magazine, faire frou frou Monday, January 31, 2011 at 10:27AM 
tomorrow i will share my favorites from my shoot with RUE magazine (pgs 220-241) get excited! xoxo
Friday, January 28, 2011 at 12:15PM 
a great little feature on one of our most favorite design duos BASH PLEASE and some of our pictures from HITCHED (featuring the amazing styling of sitting in a tree events). LOVE!
c weddings magazine in Published! Monday, January 17, 2011 at 7:00AM 
so everyone already knows about my absolute devotion to monique lhullier wedding dresses. i was as loyal as a golden retriever to her feminine, elegant, swoon-worthy gowns. i never even thought of another. until i found jenny packham. and O. M. G. i'm officially cheating on monique with jenny. because i can't help myself. now i want to marry TWO dress designers. this can't be good.
Friday, December 31, 2010 at 4:17PM 
wishing all of you a wonderful, safe and happy happy new year! can't wait to see you in 2011! xoxo
Friday, December 24, 2010 at 11:49AM this video from our friend brian (sharkpig) is a highlights reel from the past year that makes me giddy! some of our most favorite friends are featured in it, including max & margaux, kelly & paige, michael, and of course my personal favorite lou! head over to the flashdance to see more of brian's videos from his "twelve days of sharkpig".
merry christmas!, sharkpig, the flashdance Friday, December 17, 2010 at 12:46PM
michael, sharkpig (brian), and i all went up to SF on labor day weekend for kathryn and chris' wedding. it's one of the ones i've been wanting to blog...so someday the photos will be up here. in the meantime, check out brian's video of their day. love him, love weddings where he keeps us all laughing, and absolutely love the dance parties created by michael (aka the flashdance). have you thought about your dj or having a super rad video of your day? think fast because these two are booking up like there's no 2011. xoxo
Friday, December 3, 2010 at 12:19PM 
i know it's been far too long since i posted one of the incredible weddings we've been lucky enough to photograph this fall, and that's just because things are BANANAS around here! i promise, there will be a flood of fun weddings and beautiful inspiration coming...from weddings all around the country and world! my priority is to get wedding photos to my brides and grooms as quickly as possible, so sometimes that means that i have to neglect other things (mainly this blog, and my hair). thank you for your patience, support, sweet comments, the amazing emails and tweets. in the brilliant words of one of our october brides, "i fucking love you". xoxo
Thursday, November 4, 2010 at 7:00AM 
jack and i will be in puerto vallarta and sayulita for mike & grace's wedding this weekend. sayulita is the hometown of our oscar, so i will always have a place on my heart for it. i have promised lou that i will not, under any circumstances, bring home another dog. but a baby chihuahua, that's a grey area right? since they're the size of a kitten? see you soon! xoxo
Thursday, October 14, 2010 at 8:37AM 
this is one of my all-time favorite wedding magazines, so it's a thrill to see our work in print! you can find a copy for yourself in your local barnes and nobles (call first to make sure!) or to have one shipped to you directly from the sweet gals at the magazine.
