Kayla! (...and Darby)

Sunday I took one of my most enjoyable engagement sessions--but it helps when you're good friends with your subjects! Meet Kayla and Darby, engaged to be married July 07, 2007. They were absolutely adorable and this is session one of two...a few more formal pictures to come!

Photographer's note: since I didn't know what size Kayla and Darby would need or how they would be using the pictures, I didn't do any additional photoshop cropping.

So the title: when I started this blog, I was living with our friend Kalyn (don't get confused by all these K's!), who ended up being the subject for most of my posts there in the beginning. So now that we had an excuse to take pictures of Kayla, she's very excited to have an entire post dedicated to KAYLA! (....and Darby.) Now for the pics!

Quick funny story:
I needed an assistant for distraction on this shoot, so I enlisted Kayla's roommate Brittany. So to get this shot, I positioned Brittany to my right and said,
"Kayla kiss Darby, Darby look at Brittany."
To which Kayla quipped,
"That's the story of our relationship right there!"
and I laughed.

Some of these shots are my first attempts at taking shots similar to Mike and Holly, who I am interning with, and Lauren Clark. I think I still need some practice...anyone else getting married????

Bridal Portrait Problems

Since so many people have been having trouble viewing the flash presentation of my bridal portraits, Mike and Holly set up a different way of viewing them.

Go to :

http://www.pictology.com/ecom/events/events.aspx?5801635673

If it asks for additional information, here are the answers:

photographer's account#:  5801635673
Event code:  emerald06
password:  bridals

My own wedding for once!

I decided to make a quick post about my own wedding for once. As most of you know, Eric and I will be getting married October 16 of this year (which is, like, 3 weeks away). I learned at Chris and Melissa's wedding that a lot of the people who recieved invitations to our wedding have been clandestinely visitng my blog without my knowledge and without leaving a comment...which is good--now that I know--because I can easily give you some links.

My parents, Karla and Andy McGowan (1979) my grandparents, Kay and Lad Smith (1937), and my great-aunt and uncle, Billie and Eloise Boyd (1941) were all married on October 16th--we'd like it to remain a tradition. Since this date falls on a Monday, however, it is not very convinient for the people who are special to us to be there. Because of that, I wanted to give you these links so that even if you can't come to the wedding, you can feel like you've seen it a little bit.

The wedding will be held at 6:00pm in the courtyard at the Grace Museum. This is approximately what it will look like at the reception:



Our engagement, bridal and wedding photos were/will be taken by Mike and Holly Ward at Belle's Bridal and Wedding Photography. You can view our engagement photos and my bridal portraits at this website by either clicking the hotlinks in this sentence or by visiting the Belle's site and clicking on proofing. You can view a few tasteful pictures from my lingerie shower at my friend Kayla's blog.

And here are a few pictures from the bridal shower our church in Louisiana threw for Eric and me. The photos were taken by our friend Sheila Murry.

me and my mom, Karla

the card my parents made for the set of pots they gave us
(this is also my favorite picture of me ever!)

the cake

to the left is my friend Anna, one of the bridesmaids, and her niece Chloe.
Chloe is helping record the gifts.

me and my mom again

from left to right:
my friend Meagan, me, my friend Anna
(the only bridesmaid not pictured is my friend Helena, though I've
been tempted to photoshop her in)

me and the hostesses--all women I've grown up knowing and loving

One last thing: please RSVP if you have not already done so. Thanks and we hope to see you in a few weeks!

Emerald and Eric

Felicitaciones, le puede tener marraige feliz!

(or, if like me you don't speak Spanish: Congratulations, may you have a happy marraige!)

Disaster though it may have been, I learned a few more things through my Spanish wedding adventure:

1. Meet with the bride before the wedding (even if you are leaving for a week at home two days after you speak with her on the phone).
2. When you meet with the bride, make sure she speaks the same language as you do...and that her family does as well.
3. Sign a contract up front--no matter how nice you think they sound--because people who know will let you know you're an idiot if you don't, regardless of how bad you feel doing it.
4. Don't expect everyone at weddings to LOOK happy--even the groom's parents...even the groom.
5. Be personable and chatter at whoever you think might understand you...otherwise you'll be completely lost in a ceremony you can't even begin to understand!

So I'm sure more people than the bride spoke English...I just didn't meet them. She was, however, very nice, just the sweetest thing ever and I am truly grateful to have been a part of her wedding. But it was not easy. There were several points where the unexplained (to us English speakers) traditions threw me off gaurd and sent me scurrying for the back of the church only to discover there would be another 30 minutes of ceremony before I would miss the kiss shot (you can look, you won't find it here). Also, because of the layout of the church and my total cluelessness as to what was going on, spurring my reluctance to move from my spot, I'm afraid I'm looking nervous in the background of their entire wedding video. Ooops. Now on to the pictures.

Elia in the florescent hall light

So who has ever seen a Catholic wedding where the bride and groom get to sit as well????

The first of the strange traditions I didn' t understand:
The groom, Gabino, was handed a vase of fresh flowers from the alter by one of the priests, which he and Elia set on a table in front of cement Mary. They then knelt down, like so, which made for a great shot but does anyone know the significance here?

Elia and Gabino have two daughters. This is daughter number one, also known as the flower girl. Daughter number two walked down the aisle with her mother. I think that's cute.

The second of the strange traditions. Any ideas?

And happilly ever after into the limo to the reception.

This really was a lot of fun, but I'm glad I'm done with the editing and can get the proofs back to her as soon as possible!...as soon as they come in. Good luck to me!

In the words of Martin Luther King:

[I am now] able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro Spiritual:

Free at last! Free at Last!
Thank God Almighty, [I am] free at last!



It is 1:30 am, September 18th.
Guess who finished her Comm Law paper...

A..W.O.L.

I could make a thousand excuses for why I have not blogged recently. I will list only ten:


1. My plane from Europe was almost hijacked by terrorists.

2. I attended the wedding of my future brother-in-law in TUCSON ARIZONA (translation 12 hours from Abilene) the day after my plane was almost hijacked by terrorists, met and was studied by all of my future family (hopefully I passed), and took pictures at his wedding which I now can not find. Poof! Gone.

3. I shot two more weddings, one of them with the entire ceremony in Spanish, the bride being the only person who spoke English

4. After the airconditioner in my truck went out

5. I dented the back left fender of my truck

6. Then the engine in my truck blew up

7. I spent five days with my parents cleaning out my grandmother's garage, waging war against cockroaches and dragging a 1970 Ford Custom with three locked tires out of said garage and into the driveway (the car has been in the garage at least 20 years without moving. We pulled it out and two days later a tree limb dented its perfect paint job)

8. I drove back to Abilene from Louisiana (8.5 hours) in my mother's 1990 Lincoln Town Car with a squeaky serpantine belt and all the windproofing rattling off...scissors, $2.49. Duct tape, $3.72. Stopping in Livingston to Duct tape the windproofing back onto the roof of a luxury car, priceless.

9. Since I can't pay the credit card bill I racked up in Oxford, I'm working 15 to 20 hours per week in the library, ignoring my Comm Law paper that is due in one week.

10. School started on Monday.


Will post again after the paper's completed...until then, I remain A.W.O.L.