I have a new blog! This blog will stay up as archives, but for newer posts please visit my new blog.

Enjoy!

I'm engaged! My boyfriend (or fiance, how strange to say that!) had a late flight in from a business trip on Thursday night (Valentine's Day). We decided to make a late night (9pm) reservation for one of our favorite Eastside haunts, Primizie (who also does amazing wedding catering by the way). It turned out that all of my friends were also planning to go to Primizie that night, so we decided to make it a group thing. Little did I know, it was all sneakily planned like that so that I wouldn't suspect anything!

We had our awesome five course meal and then Mike pulled out a piece of paper and began addressing the group and me. He thanked everyone for being there and said some very sweet things about what we mean to each other and the rest is all a bit of a blur. I can't remember much of what else was said, but thank goodness for the photos. My good friend and amazing photographer Diana Lott pulled out her camera and took photos of the whole thing! Here are a few of my favs...I am so glad my friends were there to witness the proposal and I'm so excited to marry Mike who is the man of my dreams and more.

The ring is amazing - it is a blue aquamarine stone set in a very modern square white gold setting - it's simple and modern and I love it! I'll take pics to post soon.

Don't even ask me about the planning part of it - I'm already stressed about just choosing a date and a location! Thank goodness I'll have my good friend and wedding coordinator Gina of Clink to help me out!

Photos by Diana Lott

I know it's been quiet around here for a bit - I've got exciting things in the works with a new website coming soon. Here is a sneak peek! It's very "me" with lots of cool graphics and modern flair. Stay tuned as I'll be posting favs from 2 bridal portrait shoots soon...

I had the pleasure of traveling to Napa Valley, California last week to be a second shooter for my good friend and amazing photographer Diana Lott for the gorgeous wedding of Jodi and Rocky. Jodi and Rocky held their ceremony at St. Helena Catholic Church and their reception was in the wine cellar at one my favorite Napa wineries, V. Sattui. The wedding went off without a hitch and despite the cold, wet weather thanks to Carmela and her assistant Monique of In Style Weddings and Destinations.

We stayed at an amazing hotel in Yountville called Villagio which I would highly recommend for anyone taking a trip to the area. And for anyone taking a trip to the area who loves food, I would highly recommend Bouchon, Bistro Jeanty (get the tomato soup!), Bouchon Bakery, and Hurley's in Yountville, Go Fish in St. Helena, and the Girl in the Fig and General's Daughter in Sonoma!

It is always so great to get to be a second shooter to renew my creativity and energy, and I'm looking forward to the coming wedding season, which for me starts in mid February!

Heather

I've been designing lots of albums lately so I wanted to post a few of my favorite spreads from some recent designs that I've done. All albums are designed personally by me and each one I think reflects my clients and their individual sense of style and the style of their wedding. Enjoy!

I've been tagged by Barbara Hearne to list 7 unusual facts about myself that most people don't know. Barbara is an amazing wedidng planner, check out her blog here: Barbara's Blog

Here are the rules for the tagging.

1. Link to the person that tagged you and post the rules on your blog.

2. Share 7 random and/or weird things about yourself.

3. Tag 7 random people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs.

4. Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog. I emailed everyone so that people aren’t waiting for their random quirks.

Here I go!

1. I have almost a black belt in Tae Kwon Do! I practiced Tae Kwon Do all through high school but then didn't keep up with it after college. I have a red belt with 2 black stripes, which is the closest you can be to a black belt without actually having gotten one :)

2. I hate peanut butter with a passion. Just the smell of it makes me almost sick.

3. I am obsessed with bags and shoes. I just need more closet space!

4. I used to work for a newspaper (The Williamson County Sun) doing photojournalism. The photo here is the favorite image I ever took working there, of an annual kolache bake in a small Texas town.

5. I used to be really, really scared of bees, until I had to shoot an assignment on a beekeeping club for the newspaper (see #4!) I had to get over my fear real fast!

6. I once had a job working as the Pillsbury dough boy for 2 days. I was 16, and my aunt worked for a food service company and they were doing a Pillsbury promotion, and I couldn't turn down $10 an hour at 16 years old! So, I donned the costume and had to actually do the "hehe" every time someone poked me. And no, there are no photos of that :)

7. I went on a trip to Costa Rica with some girlfriends spur of the moment (they had been planning the trip for months). They certified in scuba diving, and I was convinced to take the 2 hour discover scuba diving class by them (I had never dove before). The instructor forgot to tell me that I needed to relieve the pressure in my mask so I got mask squeeze and had to resurface early on the actual diving excursion. My eyes were swollen shut and once the swelling went down I had popped blood vessels all around my eyes for the rest of the trip! And to top it off, I got seasick on the way back to shore (and I never get seasick!!)

Now I'm tagging:

Jennifer Lindberg

Brooks Whittington

Ashley Garmon

Diana M Lott

SMS Photography

Photography by Vanessa

Whitney Lee Photography

I have a new website for destination weddings!

And stay tuned for a new website in the works, to debut in February!

I had the honor of having some of my images published in the latest issue of The Knot Real Weddings Texas. Tatiana and Chris had such an amazing fall wedding, as you can see by the spreads. Be sure to pick up the issue on newstands!

For 10 days in December I had the opportunity to take an amazing trip to London and parts of Scotland with my good friends Gina with Clink Events, Diana M Lott with Diana M Lott Photography, and Stacy with SMS Photography. It was an amazing, fun, exciting, relaxing, scenic trip and I had a blast. We started the trip with a day and night touring London and we couldn't have done it without the help of my good friend and resident of the London area Philippa. She was so kind to take the day off from work to come into town to show us around and spend the day and night with us.

The next day, we took a train for 8 hours all the way to the north of Scotland to visit Inverness (home of Lochness). There, we took a private tour which included a boat tour of Lochness, a stop at a castle on Lochness, and a tour of the scenic areas of Inverness and surrounding scenic spots.

The next day we took a bus (what a crazy time making it to the bus, ask me about that in person) to a small quaint seaside village called Oban on the West Coast. There in Oban we visited a scotch whiskey distillery and visited many of the very old quaint Scottish pubs. After 2 nights in Oban, we took a very scenic train ride to Glasgow, where we switched trains and continued onto Edinburgh, where we spent the last 4 nights of our trip. In Edinburgh, we visited Edinburgh castle and had dinner at the famous restaurant The Witchery, spent a day shopping at local boutiques, and also spent some time walking around taking photos.

We had a heck of a time getting back home, after more than 24 hours in airports and numerous delays, but we made it back in time to spend Christmas with the families. Here are a few images from our trip, and I hope everyone had a great holiday!

It was such a pleasure to shoot Laura and Ian's wedding! Laura is a good friend - we met when we were assigned as roommates when we studied abroad in London almost 10 years ago! Laura and I have kept in touch over the years since we were roommates so when she asked me to shoot her wedding at Mayfield Park I was thrilled and honored. The wedding was just beautiful with lots of vintage touches and the weather was just perfect for the November day. It was a great way to end my last wedding of the year!

For a blast from the past here are a couple shots of Laura and I from our travels when we studied abroad together.

It is a bit embarassing to post this picture because I look like such a goof, but here is another shot of Laura and I in England almost 10 years ago!