I know we shouldn't have a favorite and all, but shooting bridal portraits is like, totally... our favorite. Picture me saying that all "Valley Girl" from Saved By The Bell and flipping my hair over my shoulder. Because that's how I said it in my head. I should amend though and say that bridal portraits are Luke's favorite. I am not sure that I have a favorite, because I love different parts of each session we shoot. For example, I love the nervous giggles during an engagement session (you know who you are! and by that, I am pointing at each and every one of our couples we've ever shot.)

One of my favorite moments of a bridal session actually happens before we actually start taking photos! Luke and I always sequester (big word!) ourselves in our office and close the door while the bride-to-be and her partner in crime for the day, usually her mother, use the rest of our house to get ready for the pictures. I love love love the moment when we hear a tentative knock on our door and then a bride's voice say, "We're ready!" When we open our office door, all of a sudden, there's a bride there. I say "a bride" because chances are when she arrived at our house just a few minutes earlier, she was wearing one of Dad's oversized button down shirts (as to not mess up her hair) and yoga pants and flip flops. Just a few seconds later, there's a bride.

So Krystal arrived in similar fashion, driving all the way to our place from Corpus Christi with her mom and dad. And if you want to get all technical about it (I do) she actually came all the way from Louisiana because that's where SHE actually lives. So it was a long trip, but once she got here and got all gussied up, it was worth it! We'd hung out with Krystal and her mom over coffee and breakfast one day, so we were already excited to see them, but as an extra treat we got to meet Krystal's dad too. The lady of the hour was ready to go and boy, did she look stunning!

Lately it seems like our life is a rotating schedule of this: get up early to meet someone here to work on the house (either painter, carpenter, or electrician), move furniture around to help them do what the task is we need them to do, work from wherever I can find the space to do so (since the house is being worked on), wait for 5:00 when the painter/carpenter/electrician leaves, tidy up the house, move furniture back in a rush before someone gets here, all leading up to my favorite part of the day: the evenings! The evenings are my favorite time of the day because we're either getting to sit on our deck and grill out while the bulldogs play in our yard, OR, on days like this one a few weeks ago, hang out with cool couples like this one and photograph their engagement session.

Megan and James are cool people. I know we say that a lot, but they actually ARE cool people, and the type of people that while we were hanging out with them, I would find myself realizing that, "Oh, hey, stop visiting. We're here to take pictures." They are both Aggies, as are we, so we already have something in common. Aside from that, they are also getting married at Briscoe Manor, which is where we got married. When we first heard from Megan and James, we were at WPPI in Vegas (the photography conference) and we couldn't wait to get back to our hotel room so we could visit with them. Fast forward six months later, here we are!

This session was one of my favorites because we're still in the "fall is new" time here in south Texas. By that, I mean, we're still *not* used to *not* sweating our hineys off all the time. Yes I just said hineys... and I laughed to myself. It was hard to pick "Luke's Favorite" and "Cat's Favorite" because we honestly had quite a few. I hope you'll leave us a comment and let us know what YOUR favorite is! :)

This ranch engagement session is one of our all time favorites!

Katie and Jed brought us to their cattle ranch in Weatherford (near Fort Worth) for their engagement session. It's always fun to go on location for photo sessions, because it's new scenery and places we've never seen. As soon as we saw their beautiful place, we couldn't wait to explore around and shoot their session.

So here's Katie and Jed, a couple who is so natural around one another and clearly very much in love!

Katie and Jed are the proud owners of many different cattle, but their most prized one is this horned Hereford-marked bull named Red Rock. When they decided to make their future home in Weatherford, one of the first things they did was bring Red Rock to live in the pasture beside their home. He is so gentle and came along with us for a while during the shoot. These are some of our favorite photos!

As Luke was taking this photo, I was to his right, taking photos of Katie and Jed like the one above. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw that Red Rock's curiosity was getting the best of him and he was creeping towards us to see exactly what was going on...

... "Hey guys! What are y'all doing?"

What a beautiful ranch, and a beautiful bull.

A close runner up for our favorite. The setting sun was magnificent.

Jed and Katie are our kind of couple - - they make each other laugh. It's so important.

Katie and Jed, you guys knocked our socks off. We couldn't have asked for any better of a time in Weatherford with you two! Thank you for a wonderful evening, and for treating us like honored guests and friends while we were there.

In other news... we can't wait for next summer when we head to Florida (!!) to shoot your beach wedding. Yippee!