I don’t even have the words to express how much I LOVE this couple!  I love when we become friends with our clients.  Molly and Taylor are so much fun and they know how to throw a party!

These are vendors that helped make their day fabulous!

• Wedding Coordinator: Valarie Maier  www.weddingessentialsbyvalarie.com
• Cake: www.paninicakes.com
• DJ’s: Dezi Vargas/Miles Goodpasture  www.themusicmaniacs.com
• Caterer: www.celebrationrestaurant.com
• Dress: Circle Park Bridal www.circleparkbridal.com
• Flowers: Fat Blossom
• Photography: Cindy Mills Photography www.cindymillsphotography.com

I love the next two!  The one on the left is Saylor’s view and the one on the right is mine.  TOTALLY worth it to have two photographers.  Especially when you get the guy’s point of view and the woman’s point of view.  And that’s just MY point of view.

Hope I didn’t go overboard with the pictures.  I just COULDN’T narrow it down anymore!  I have been looking forward to this wedding for what seems like forever!  Molly and Taylor are a blast.  They are still in the #1 spot for most fun engagement session EVER. ;)  They are going to be hard to beat!  I feel like all we did was laugh.  Which, is one of my favorites things to do!  I can’t wait until we get together again.

Here we are at the end of the night.  Molly and Taylor, Saylor and I both want to wish you all the happiness in the world. Congratulations!

Last Saturday at the Dallas Arboretum was a bit drizzly, but you wouldn’t know it, because Alison and Tim were glowing. ;)  Too cheesy?  Because they really were!  Check out how incredibly BEAUTIFUL their small, intimate wedding at the Arboretum was:

Dear Blog,

I have a confession to make.  This may be hard to take, but I just can’t live with myself if I don’t tell you the truth.  I have been cheating on you.  With Twitter.  I’m sorry.  I didn’t mean for it to happen.  It just did.  Twitter is so easy going and fast and always has time for me.  Twitter makes it SO easy to share photos from my iPhone and always lets me know when my friends have something to say.  I know those reasons are not a good excuse, and I hope you will forgive me for neglecting you.  Maybe this video with make up for it.

Love, Cindy

Here is a little video I threw together (literally) last night.  I videoed and snapped about 20 mins. of Mia playing in our backyard and in about 2 hours had this sweet little video that I have been planning on making for some time now.  I keep watching it over and over and every time it chokes me up.  I can’t watch it without thinking about how someday I will show this to her when she has her own 4 year old.  I’m not sure what it is about the black and white, bubbles and that SONG, but I am just in awe today at how BEAUTIFUL my daughter is.  It makes me forget that she broke my favorite vintage camera and threw up red kool-aid in the MIDDLE of my living room carpet.  When I watch this video all I see is love and happiness!  I hope you enjoy it too.

Mia in the backyard | July 2009 from Cindy Mills on Vimeo.

Clouds heavy with rain are not what you want to see on the morning of an outdoor wedding.  I was only a little worried, because I knew even if we had to move indoors it was still going to be a beautiful wedding.  God was smiling on us on Sunday because not only did it NOT rain, it turned out to be one of the most beautiful days of the year!  A nice warm (but not hot), sunny, gorgeous, Texas day in the country.  Usually a wedding is a bit of a stressful event.  There is almost always an important item that goes missing or someone is late and panic ensues.  At the very least the day falls behind schedule.  THIS was NOT one of those stressful events.  As a matter of fact Abby and Jason’s perfect day was probably the most relaxing, laid back wedding I’ve ever attended as a photographer.  Everyone there was relaxed and blissfully happy!

I had a very hard time narrowing down to just a few images for the blog so pull up a chair, sit back and enjoy!

Congratulations Abby and Jason!  Thank so much for making me and Saylor a part of your important day.  Hope you have a great time in Colorado!

One of my favorite memories from growing up is of taking pictures in the bluebonnets every spring.  I’m sure people from other states think it’s an odd tradition, but us Texans get excited over a field of bluebonnets.

There is a BEAUTIFUL field of them that I know of….it’s a secret, but I’d be happy to take you there for a session if you want. wink. wink.

Today, Mia and I dropped by to get a few photos.  I haven’t done a mini-session with her in quite awhile.  She went through an uncomfortable smiling phase.  Like the episode of “Friends” where Monica and Chandler go to have their engagement photos taken and Chandler makes that terrible fake smile……..that was Mia.  Anyway, she seems to be over it (mostly) and was very excited by the blanket of blue flowers as far as the eye could see.

It really is amazing and beautiful to see so many bluebonnets in one field.  Tradition passed on.  You can rest easy mom!

Finally.  A post I have been meaning to do for some time.  I just did not get around to it until now, because……well I really have no good excuses.  I just didn’t feel like it. 

Recently I got in some beautiful albums for a wedding client.  As a matter of fact they did what I wish EVERY one of my wedding client’s would do.  They ordered an album for the bride and groom and also an album for each set of parents too!   Bear with me as I point out all the great qualities of the albums made right here in Dallas by Forbeyon!

The size of these albums are 10×10 for the bride and groom’s album and 8×8 for the parent albums.

The book on the left is the bride and groom’s album (a flushmount album) and the two on the right are the parent albums (press-printed albums).  I’ll show some of the differences in a bit.

The option that made me choose Forbeyon as my album vendor is the unique metal cameos they offer.  The photo is actually printed directly on metal and built into the cover of the album.  The metal cameo can be made in any size and positioned anywhere on the cover.  It is an option that will make your wedding album as unique as your special day!  They are available on both the flushmount and the press-printed albums.

There are a few differences between the flushmount album and the press-printed album.  The most important differences are:

Flushmount- photo above

• cover material available includes fabrics AND leathers
• spreads are printed on professional photo paper and then adhered to pages
• available in sizes up to 12×12 and 14×11

Press-printed- photo below

• cover material includes fabrics
• spreads are printed directly on linen paper with a printing press
• available in sizes up to 8×8 and 8×10

 For this particular album my client chose the “Brushed Champagne” fabric.  Notice the slight texture?  It’s really beautiful!

 Here is another comparison of the binding difference of the two albums.  First, the flushmount and then the press-printed.  Pay no attention to my horrible manicure.

 And a comparison of the difference in the inside of the two albums.  First the flushmount printed on photo paper.

and below is the same spread in the press-printed parent album.  It is printed on linen paper.  See the slight texture to the page?

Here is a close up so you can see the texture:

Both albums lay flat when open.  First the flushmount then the press-printed…..

 Some more of the spreads from the album:

Below is an album for a different client.  This album is an 8×10 in the flushmount style with a small metal cameo on the cover. Love it!

 I have some more albums to share like an engagement sign-in album and a giant 12×12 flushmount, but I don’t want overwhelm anyone on a Friday. :)  Have a great weekend!

Click here to see the slideshow

Get ready for this post…..it’s going to be a long one!

I just can’t say enough about this wonderful couple.  They are so fun and thoughtful.  I love clients that make Saylor and I feel like we are part of the family and Maria and Christian definitley did that. Thanks so much to both of you for making us feel so special!

I could go on all day about these two, but I’ll just let you see their personalities shine through the photos……..are you ready?  Grab a drink and get comfy because this is going to take awhile.

From my point of view……….

And from Saylor’s angle……..

 My favorite part of the day….we had some time between the ceremony and the reception for some portraits at the Ft. Worth Water Gardens.

Everybody had a great time dancing.

Thanks Maria and Christian!  We had a great time.  Hope you have a wonderful honeymoon.  Enjoy San Francisco!!  Take a picture of yourselves in front of the Golden Gate bridge for me.

I thought it would be fun to share an album pre-design.  With each of my wedding packages I include an online “album debut” which is basically my version of the story of the couple’s wedding day in an album format.  The couple then has up to two rounds of changes and they pick their choice of cover style etc.  I really enjoy designing the albums for clients and think that the best way for them to see their wedding images for the first time is as an album.  It just really tells their wedding story better than any other product I offer.  Here is a wedding album pre-design from a recent wedding.

click the photo to see the entire album

I have gotten to know Joanna and David over the past several months as I’ve worked with them shooting their engagement, then bridal sessions and then their wedding this past Saturday. They are so sweet and fun and I feel like I can call them friends now instead of just clients. Their families are fun too and were so full of complements that I went home with my heart full and thankful that out of all the wedding photographers they could have hired they chose me! It was an honor.

Well, get ready because this is going to be a monster post. 21 photos! That is narrowed down from the 72 I originally selected for the sneak peek. It was seriously hard to choose just 21.  Gotta save something for the slideshow. 

By the way, as a side note. My husband, Saylor, came along to be my second shooter for this wedding. He did a wonderful job (again) and I just can’t get over how lucky I am to have such a wonderful husband.

O.k………..now the photos.

I got a beautiful sample album in and have finally got some pictures of it.

Here is a quick post of some photos of the album.  When I have more time I will come back and tell you why I think every couple MUST have a wedding album.  You don’t want to miss that there will be photos of my own wedding photos in a Tupperware container.

It even comes in a cool box!  I love it!  Someday my own photos will be in an album…….sigh…..someday.