Oh oak trees…

The one on the left…wowza, guys! Love it!

A quick outfit change then it was out to the pasture for us. The winds were pretty intense out there but thankfully they came with the most beautiful cloudy skies…

Tiffany + Jay — thank you for inviting me out to the beautiful Moulton, TX and totally working it for my camera. Also, {and perhaps more importantly} a big thank you to you and your family for feeding me Joel’s BBQ before I hit the road ;) You know how to make a preggo girl feel welcome {and not want to leave}! It was a pleasure getting to capture these images for you and I cannot wait for your big day to get here. I hope you enjoy this little sneak peek!

Needless to say, I stuck to my work and left the relaxation to another day so we could get great shots of this awesome family :) And speaking of awesome, can I please mention how beautiful and photogenic they all are?? I mean, all of them. Seriously?!

You may recognize this little fam :) Love them!

Jackson cracked me up when editing this session. He has the best expressions :)

Big hugs, Johnston fam! You all did such a great job and as always, it was a joy spending time with you. Thank you so much for your hospitality {and the yummy breakfast!}. I hope you enjoy the sneak peek!

Happy weekend, folks :)

Perfection…

I cannot get over this next one. So pretty, Sharon!

Hair and Makeup: Lily of Houston Makeup 

Bouquet: Treschelle from Tres’ Bloom Floral Studio

There were so many amazing, sweet moments from Sharon and Scott’s Amber Springs wedding last month, along with some of the most customized details I have seen yet {Sharon is a DIY rock star, y’all!}, and I am thrilled to be able to share some images from their big day with you today.

Perfection: a stunning lacy Anzoani dress and sparkly strappy heels…

The florals crafted by Treschelle of Tres’ Bloom Floral Studio were truly incredible, made even lovelier by the addition of this locket which held a photograph of Sharon’s mother and grandfather:

Sharon’s ‘something blue’ was a swatch of her mother’s that was sewn into the dress…love.

The dapper groom:

Love this shot Troy captured of the kiss :)

One of the craziest, funniest, most entertaining wedding parties ever…and we loved it!

Now THAT is a very happy groom.

Sharon is the creative mastermind behind nearly every last detail for their wedding, including these matching door monograms, and dozens of mason jars adorned with pearls, ribbon, burlap, and fresh blooms.

More loveliness from Tres’ Bloom.

This peony-and-pearl-topped wedding cake made by Edible Designs by Jessie was a stunner.

Introducing the new Mr. and Mrs!

And they’re off to Antigua!

Congratulations Scott and Sharon!! Thank you so much for allowing us to document your beautiful wedding day!

Today, I thought I would switch things up just a bit and stray from my usual Thursday Thread format to bring you some of my random thoughts with a more cohesive theme: becoming a parent {man, I’m still not even close to being used to that word!}. It seems that before you even technically become a mom {or dad}, you learn a lot from your own experiences during pregnancy, and from the experiences of others. Well-wishers started giving us advice seemingly from day 1, which I totally appreciate. Seriously. But I think there is a huge difference in giving advice and forcing an opinion on someone, and we have been super lucky to have friends, family, and even strangers offer friendly tips while respecting our right to make our own mistakes decisions. For the most part {hehe}. Over the past 7 or so months, we have already learned so much {with an infinite amount yet to learn, I know}, so I thought it would be fun to share some of the invaluable and just plain hilarious things we have discovered…

1. Comparison is the theif of joy.  I have seen that quote all over Pinterest and Facebook and it is sooooo true. And equally as hard to apply to your life…especially as a new mom-to-be. You want to make sure you are doing everything right, and comparison often seems like the only way to reassure you of your successes or indicate that something needs to change. For example, after we registered for our stroller and car seat, I found myself looking at every. single. stroller. and every. single. car. seat. that moms around me were using for their babies. I kind of obsessed about it, wondering what the safest  and best option was for our girl. Some brands we liked and some we hated, and after stressing and questioning and being downright confused, we found that it really didn’t matter what everyone else had. We had to make the right choice for us – our needs, our wants, our budget, our baby. Decision made, now move confidently forward. Whether it’s what to buy, what food to eat, how to vaccinate, or what school to enroll in, we simply cannot worry what other people have/do/think or we will most certainly lose our joy.  I know this is going to be one of the hardest reoccurring lessons in parenthood — being confident in how you choose to parent your children — but I feel like we are already being prepped for it….

2. I am becoming my mother.  That’s certainly not a bad thing by any means, but I find it absolutely hilarious. I can’t tell you how many times I vowed {during my adolescence} that I would NEVER be like my mom. I wouldn’t be bothered by clutter on the counters, get annoyed when the trashcan was overflowing, or think twice about what kind of food I buy at the store. I swore that I would never say things like “you need to eat more vegetables,”  ”I wonder if that will go on sale,” or “You’ll poke your eye out!” And….now, I am guilty of all of it, especially since becoming pregnant {yes, I’ve even said that last one to Troy if he doesn’t wear glasses while mowing the yard}. And when pondering future obstacles of parenthood {like what we are going to do when our kid only wants junk for dinner, is bullied at school, wants to drive your car, or God forbid, starts dating}, I find myself wondering what my mom did. I also find myself feeling an enormous amount of sympathy for her and guilt over what I put her through! LOL! I assume most new moms {and old moms too} tend to do the same thing when trying to decide what kind of parent they are going to be, but I laugh to myself more times than not because the whole thing is completely and utterly involuntary. It just…happens. And before you know it, you’ve transformed! That’s ok by me though, because I admit, mine is pretty great.

3. Make your words sweet, for you never know when you will have to eat them. Before having kids was even a thought in our minds, it was really easy to criticize the way any of the children of our friends/family/complete strangers behaved. We are guilty of making statements like “If my kid ever acted like that in public…” or the best one, “I will NEVER EVER {insert parenting faux pas here}…” As we quickly approach our due date, we have realized that there will most certainly be days of having a fussy, sick, or downright angry baby, and I fear that behavior we were so quick to judge may be inevitably visited upon us by our own children. Ten fold. Gah!

4. Get your sleep now because you won’t get it when you have kids. This piece of friendly advice has been offered to Troy quite a bit more than me. Maybe it’s because people just assume moms won’t get any sleep at all, so they figure what’s the point in saying that to me? But I know it bugs the crap out of Troy to hear that. Not because he’s dreading that reality or trying to avoid it all together; it’s quite the opposite actually. We haven’t lost much sleep over not getting sleep when the baby comes {pun certainly intended} because that is literally how our lives work now. I am not saying that we won’t value sleep so much more when baby girl arrives, I am just saying that there probably aren’t two people in this world who are better equipped to run on no sleep than the hubs and me. When most of our friends and family are tucked into bed by 9:30 or 10pm, we are just getting our night started, sorting laundry and catching up on The Voice. Seriously. We are routinely in bed around midnight every night, usually later, and Troy gets up at 5am every weekday for a 12hr work day. He’s a rockstar. Albeit, a tired, coffee-addicted rockstar. He declares every morning to be in bed earlier — we both do — and yet it never happens. Oh the joys of being married to a night owl… You can almost always find me editing, answering emails, prepping blog posts, or doing some sort of activity into the wee hours of the night. Before getting pregnant, I functioned quite normally on 3 or so hours a sleep a day. No lie. Now, I sleep a little later than Troy does so he definitely gets the short end of the stick around here having to stay up late to hang out with me and then get up so early in the morning, but my point is that we are really quite prepared for no sleep when baby arrives. No showers, dinner ‘when we can fit it in’, and zero free time, now that’s an entirely different story…

5. Get a maid. It sounds so…I don’t know…defeating? We have always done our own yard and housework, mostly because we didn’t want to pay someone to do it, we didn’t trust someone to do it, and/or because we felt entirely capable of doing it ourselves. Then, the third trimester hit and holy cannoli folks, bending over to plug in the vacuum cleaner is now a feat of great proportions. My stubbornness willingness to do all of the housecleaning is officially no more. We have family coming in this weekend and for the first time in a long time, I could care less if the fans are dusted or the baseboards are sprinkled with dog hair {ok, maybe that last one bugs me a little}. I have realized how hard it is to adequately clean a house as big as ours with me being as big as I am, without some sort of help. Heck, I would probably still feel this way if we lived in the back of my SUV. And I certainly don’t want Troy to have to do it all by himself. Several family members have recommended hiring a cleaning person for the next few months {or for ever…ehem} and for the first time in my whole life, it makes total sense. Scratch that — it’s a must {if you want a clean house}. It’s funny how perspectives change :)

6. The birth of your baby is also a rebirth for you. No truer words have ever been spoken. Almost immediately after learning we were expecting, I swear I could literally feel that change happening. All of those selfish urges started to fly right out the window and our focus went straight to the baby. We actually got excited about spending a fortune on nursery stuff instead of new decor for the house, and buying adorable baby gear instead of  unnecessary clothing purchases for us. And it’s not just about money, it’s also about time. And priorities. Oh priorities. Where you spend your efforts is soooo affected once you realize what’s really important and what kind of environment you want to bring your child into. We have found ourselves completely uninterested in chaos, unreliability, selfishness, and negativity. Obviously no one wants that stuff in their lives but we seemed to put up with it a whole lot more before, maybe because we could. Or because we felt like it was customary and that we should deal with it. But not any more. My mom recently explained to me that nature has a way of weeding out the things/people/priorities that aren’t really important or necessary in your life while you prepare for baby. Because when the baby finally arrives, you won’t be able to balance all of the things that you used to, nor will you want to. Especially the negatives. So true, Mom. It’s all part of growing up and changing in preparation for parenthood I suppose, a rebirth we are definitely embracing.

7. Some bits of advice have been plain and simple and straight to the point:

• You will never be done with laundry. Ever.
• 1,000 registry items are completely unnecessary.  All you really need are diapers :)
• Your baby, even unborn, can drive you a little nuts. Especially at 2 in the morning when all you want to do is sleep. {I love her so much, but the kicks are crazy!}
• Be kind to yourself. You don’t need to be Superwoman; no one is perfect. You have the right to get mad, cry, or laugh at yourself and any mistakes you are going to make.
• Laugh more and worry less.
• Do the best you can and when all else fails, just focus on getting her through another day!

Got any advice or lessons learned for us to add to our list?? :)

Photo credit: Alicia Pyne

I knew the candid photographs would come, and they did, resulting in some very sweet images of Presley and her amazing family. But what I took away from that day is how important the little things are. How we must relish in the moments. Every milestone, every connection. And hey, Presley. Held. My. Hand. What a gift…

“My baby girl, Presley Rose, was born, healthy as an ox- 8 lbs. 6.3 oz. born three days before my due date in August, mind you. She remained in the 95-100 percentiles for her whole first year of life. She met all of her milestones – weaning, walking, talking, and fine/gross motor skills. To me and to the world, she was just like any other kid (well, to me she was a ‘baby-genius-supermodel,’ naturally).”

“She and I stayed home together for two years. I rarely left her with a babysitter and at 17 months she started daycare- and I went back to school. The transition was rough, but they kept assuring me it was normal and wouldn’t continue. Well, it never got easier and she suddenly quit talking all together. She cried continuously day and night. Was she depressed? That’s the only thing that ever even crossed my mind- I went back to school and now she was depressed…” 

“After many rough nights and a process of elimination, along with a multitude of tests, observations, surveys and evaluations, Presley was finally diagnosed a few weeks before her third birthday… Autism. At that point, we didn’t need a diagnosis to know that something was definitely wrong; all we wanted was our daughter back. Little did we know what that simple 6-letter-word would bring to our lives.”

“In addition to unraveling autism in our own daughter, we learned quickly that we needed to help other affected families in their own struggle by volunteering with Autism Speaks. After we received the diagnosis and realized how hard our road ahead would be we found this non-profit group and have since dedicated time and energy into funding for further research for the ultimate answer. We enrolled in an infant-sibling study with Washington University, joined the Autism Speaks walk committee, started an autism playgroup, started walk teams with our companies and most importantly have been able to connect with other local families & lean on one another for the support and acceptance we all need.”

“The cool thing about autism, sounds like an oxymoron, but the cool thing with any child with special needs is that when you reach a new goal, you hear a new word or witness a changed behavior you’ve been working toward– no matter what you’ve been dealing with or stressing about or crying over stops and you’re instantly reminded that you’re doing something right.”

“I would do anything to have a “normal” life for my daughter but I am now convinced that regardless of reason, she has brought out the best in so many people and will continue to teach us all that life is limitless and with hard work and determination, anything is possible. She proves that each and every day of our lives.” 

“To all of the families struggling with autism, I like to say- stay the course, raise awareness, advocate and stir the pot!”

I genuinely appreciate the opportunity to work with families like this one, and I have so much appreciation and admiration for what they do every single day. Lacey, Kyle, Audrey, and sweet Presley, many many thanks. It was such a joy meeting you and I hope you love the images that came from our time together. You guys are so great and I know you will continue to do the amazing things that you are doing for autism awareness and your precious girl.  Big hugs to all four of you!

The excerpts are from Presley’s story as told by her mom, Lacey. 

I wanted to go ahead and share the last of our spring mini sessions with you for a little late-in-the-day photo enjoyment :) Kit and Justin wrapped up the minis for the day and had the sun not been setting on us, we probably could have walked all around Hermann Park with them, just chatting it up {and maybe snapping a few photos here and there}. I say it every time, but it’s true — I adore all of my mini session clients; they are the best. First-timers to CDP, Kit and Justin are not only completely adorable and super photogenic, they are probably one of the nicest I have ever had the pleasure of working with. Not even kidding, folks. So friggin sweet. And their pup is too… I think he needs a pal, and Troy may have convinced Justin to jump on the bandwagon and get one more little furball :) You are sooo welcome, Kit! {hehehe}

Here is a glimpse at the last of our spring minis:

We loved working with you, Kit and Justin! Thanks for a great time :)

Amanda and Corey, you guys have been a blast to work with since we met last fall and we feel so honored to have been able to photograph your gorgeous wedding for you. Thank you for being so amazing! We know that you will have a lifetime of love and happiness, surrounded by the greatest family and friends, and wish you all the best as you start this new journey together as husband and wife. Here are a few of my very favorite images from your big day — enjoy!

All of the vibrant floral arrangements were provided by the talented Amanda Simmons.

I love this shot of Amanda’s girls with her mom and Corey’s mom:

I am still swooning over this Pronovias gown. Wait until you see the back!

Told you — absolutely breathtaking, right?

Love this shot of Amanda :)

The handsome groom, just as stylish with his Gucci shoes.

Married!

Probably my favorite exit of all time — their two girls could not wait to walk down the aisle with them, so that’s exactly what they did :) Amanda and Corey’s expressions are priceless!

Love.

The reception was filled with lots of bold details and personalizations — we seriously couldn’t believe how much work Amanda put into it all…

Cake by Alma’s Cakes, adorned with more of those amazing orchids and a topper made by the bride herself.

After all the guests left to prepare for the sparkler exit, the bride and groom had one last romantic dance alone, under a custom starry ‘sky’ created by the super talented guys from DJ’s Unlimited…

And they’re off to Cabo!

Big hugs, A + C — we can’t wait to show you the rest :)

Today soooo doesn’t feel like a Thursday. I just realized what day it was and that I need to get  a Thread up, so here ya go!

1. CDP News. Just wanted to let you guys know that I am nearing maternity leave, so if you need to place/complete any orders OR want to get a jumpstart on fall bookings, holler at me sooner than later! I have already started reserving sessions and you know how fast those spots get taken :) I will also be doing a round of minis this fall via the halfway to the holidays promo I typically release in June/July so be sure to keep an eye out for that if you are interested as well. Lastly, I am not sure what the deal was with the autism awareness giveaway – if Facebook wouldn’t show me your tags, or what — but I couldn’t find many :( If you did share the giveaway via Facebook or  Instagram as outlined in the original giveaway post, please let me know asap so you can be entered to win. Thanks, folks!!

2. Speaking of Instagram, yesterday Troy sent me a post that a friend of ours, Jeannie, shared on Facebook of a hilllarious Instagram parody. OMG I died; it is so true! The sad part is that I am guilty of pretty much every single description they make fun of {It’s such a thrill to add a filter.. lo-fi, lo-fi!!!!}. Warning, video does include some vulgar language.

3. High Fives. This week, I’m loving all kinds of things, so I have quite a few high fives to hand out :)

• First, to good friends. You know, the really really good ones who are always there for you, who you can always trust, and who only want to see you happy. Love my girls :)
• Snickers mixed with dark chocolate ice cream a la Marble Slab. Need I say more?
• The Bible. An obvious standing high five, but seriously, it is packed full of answers to life’s toughest questions and debacles. This week has definitely found me looking there quite a bit…
• Sales and coupons. I don’t know that I will ever go anywhere again without first Googling “(store) coupons.” I saved almost $100 this week alone thanks to that handy little method.
• My hubby. Because the third trimester is really starting to be a you-know-what and he has been a saint making sure I am comfy and taken care of. Love him like crazy.

4. Thread Tunes. I was peeking at the iTunes chart today and the top songs and albums are pretty random if I do say so myself, everything from Pink and Justin Timberlake to Fleetwood Mac and Kenny Chesney. I definitely agree with Pink being near the top though, her new song Just Give Me a Reason featuring Fun.’s  Nate Ruess is pretty killer. High five to whomever thought of that matchup :)

5. Sneak Peek. Next on the blog, Amanda and Corey’s gorgeous Chateau Polonez wedding!

I thought I would share another of my spring minis with you today :) This time, it’s the Green family {who I also happen to adore}. Do you remember my amazing gender reveal party cake? Rebecca is the confectionery genius behind its glory {any yumminess}, and her family is just as sweet. Here are a few of my faves from their session…

The next one is definitely a favorite, such a beautiful family!

Smiles all the way around!

Thanks, Green family! It’s always a joy getting to spend time with you guys, even if it’s short-lived! You all did such a wonderful job and I hope you love the images as much as I do :)