I remember first meeting with Hannah and her telling us that she really just wanted a simple set of photos since it was going to be a quick little wedding. She was even dabbling with the idea of eloping at the courthouse and postponing the reception. As time crept closer and family started chiming in on preparations I would get messages…telling me how she was getting married in a church and the guest list is growing and they’re putting together a reception, lol. Long story short, it was perfect! She got her small wedding but she had her closest friends and family along with all the right details to tie it together.

I was excited about the wedding from the first time I met her. She had me at “little white dress” ♥ Her BCBG dress is so cute! And Kevin was so handsome in his perfectly matched Calvin Klein linen suit. Hannah paired her little white dress with classic Gianni Bini shoes and pretty pink roses from Furrow Flowers in Guthrie, OK.

Kevin and Hannah were married in their beautiful bright church. But just to the side we all noticed the adorable original chapel. It’s one of those special buildings that give you a warm nostalgic feeling inside. We just had to take photos in front. It was at this point that anyone could see how perfect they are together. They were outside, smiling and laughing together…and it was easily over 100 degrees! They are a wonderful lighthearted couple to know. The photos below were from their first glance ♥

Kevin and Hannah met through her brother-in-law, Cody. These boys both wrestled at OSU and have been good buddies. She was a sophomore in college and Kevin was a grad student, they dated for 3 years before he proposed while they were fishing. Kevin has been coaching in Arkansas at OBU as the head wrestling coach and Hannah has gone back to school for radiography.

It’s hard to believe that Hannah started getting her hair done just 30 minutes prior to pictures! She looked amazing! Incase your curious, the stylist’s name is Crystal McBride and she does hair in a little shop by her house here in Stillwater. I loved how chalkboards were mixed in with the theme. The program was a large black mat board in a frame made by Hannah’s sister Hillary and it was written with a chalk pen – a really neat idea and apparently a lot easier to write with than chalk. They also had a chalk board by the reception. I’m glad that I remembered my own chalkboards to finish off the night :)

Hannah’s family really came together for the reception and with some great DIY ideas to boot! The canopy was made by her dad with 4×4 posts and a large canvas. All the table cloths were made from linen fabric from Hobby Lobby. And I found out that she’s reusing the fabric and turning them into drapes! How resourceful!

Hannah’s mom made all the awesome food herself with a little help from from her aunt, sisters, and cousins. The pretty cake that matched her flowers was made by Stacey Anderson of Guthrie, OK.

I was pleasantly surprised to see Val Gladden, a local talent here in Stillwater, performing at the reception. We’ve seen him at many local venues including an Italian restaurant and wine bar here in town. Later on, Kevin mentioned that Val actually taught him how to play the guitar ;)

I know this post is kinda long, but I couldn’t help but share their wonderful day! Check out more of their photos on their Event Page. Happiest Friday my friends and have a fun weekend!

Mortal Muses just turned 1 year old this past Monday! Yay! I can’t believe it’s been a year!? I remember submitting the photo below for the “Stay Cool” theme. The top one is Tammy’s {Mortal Muses founder} stay cool photo. She was featuring some more stay cool shots on her blog too with her popsicle eating doggies. I remembered the day being soooo hot and yes I used my favorite muse to get the stay cool shot. Luckily he likes snow cones a lot, so he didn’t really complain. ;) This lovely community has definitely helped me a lot to be more creative and has pushed me harder to grow and think out of the box to get cool shots. Thank you Mortal Muses and happy birthday! ♥

I can’t help but be happy for the wonderful muses and the group itself. There is lots of talent out there…from one photo to another! You meet these people online and they give their heart to their work and for the love of photography. You can easily tell by all the beautiful photos that they’ve captured! So don’t forget to drop by their site after reading this post and wish them a happy 1 year! There’s a lot of changes going on. Mommy Muse Tammy is off for another adventure and will be watching from the sidelines now while new Queen Muse, Kirstin will take over. She’s pretty talented and cool too, trust me! Well, go on and drop by and have an awesome Wednesday!

This lovely athletic couple beat the heat yesterday (111 degrees!) to take fun and sporty engagement photos at their Alma Mater. I was so excited when I found out we would be taking engagement photos of Zach and Sam at the football stadium. It’s an exciting and rare opportunity to stand on the 50 yard line with a whole stadium to yourself. ♥ I couldn’t have asked for a better location for a sports-themed engagement shoot. :)

These two are the sweetest! I can’t wait to sort through their photos and share them with you in two weeks. I hope you all have a good week and drink lots of water to beat the heat. Happy Monday friends! ;)

Oh dearest me, doesn’t she look so sweet and gorgeous!? This is Macy, if you remember, I took her family photos last year. And she has flown all the way from Montana to spend some time with her family here in Oklahoma and to get some senior photos done too. She showed up in her cute outfits during the shoot. I think she is a super model in the making, don’t you think!? She has a bubbly personality and very fun to hang out with. ♥ Oh and did I mention that she never complained about how hot it was during the shoot? Yes, like 102F! She’s pretty awesome!

She’s got very blue eyes! And she was willing to sit by this bed of flowers with big bees buzzing around. I mean really big ones!

I was too scared to make her sit on the ledge but you know what, she decided for herself to do it. Pretty brave but hey, just like what I I told you, she’s got what it takes to be a super model! The camera loves her for sure! ♥

You can check out more of Macy’s photos on her Event Page. Have an awesome Friday y’all!

How is everyone’s week going so far? Crazy? Yeah, I hear you! The weather in Oklahoma is just not getting any better let me say. The clouds are beautiful though but it has been extremely hot, 103F average and humid for weeks now. The humidity is what sucks really. And no the Philippines is not humid like this. It is hot there but not this humid. Yes, I really need to get those vacation photos that I took last May in the Philippines. August might be a better time since it has just been crazy busy lately. I promise to get it out next month. Here’s one, just to help you daydream more of nice weather and cool beaches.

I am still having a little hangover from yesterday’s feature on Love & Lavender. And thank you all for your kind words, it means a lot to me and Scott. Thank you so much Josh and Judith! You guys rock! And Love & Lavender! And thank you Lord, I am so humbled.

Congratulations to our friend Tammy over at Bliss and Folly for being the newest Shutter Sister! Yay Tammy! Happy Wednesday my friends! Go relax and get some Margaritas. It’s good for this hot weather! ;)

Hello, there! I have been wanting to post these photos for awhile. I was just waiting for this cool family to come back from their 3-week vacation. I know, right!? I would love to be off for 3 weeks! The ice cream sundae party idea came from Kelli, and of course I bit right into it since I know it would be fun ;) Plus who doesn’t like ice cream on a hot Sunday afternoon?! Drew, Ben, and their dad David were having the best of times from serving ice cream to everyone, putting toppings on their sundaes, then off to play. The toppings were really delicious!

The boys started playing baseball but then decided instead of batting balls they can just start hitting bubbles. They had so much fun whacking them!

I’m sure baby Henry wished he could have had some ice cream but I think he just enjoyed watching everyone play and be merry. He even got to go on his first swing ride with his mommy. He liked it. The backyard with the whole swing and house play set looks pretty darn cool. I’m sure they could play for hours!

I think the boys were pretty exhausted by the end of their play time. They just hung out in their playhouse and just laughed at their dad’s jokes.

Go ahead and check out more of their fun Sunday afternoon on their Event Page. Have a happy Monday!

Sneeeak Peeeek time! Kevin and Hannah are the nicest couple and they really look so great together. I can’t wait to start sorting their photos. It was a nice short wedding with just their family and closest friends attending. But it was as beautiful and special as anyone could have wished it to be. I can’t get over Hannah’s dress! It was short and oh-so-cute!

And Kevin was equally as handsome. You can never go wrong with a linen suit. This was during their first glance ;)

Congratulations again to Kevin and Hannah! Well friends, come back in two weeks for the full story! Happy Friday!

Blue Elephant Photography turns 1 year old today! Hooray! This definitely calls for a celebration don’t you think?! It definitely has been a fun and crazy year for us. But with our journey in pursuing our dream, one baby elephant step at a time, we have grown and learned a lot. Actually, a whole lot! We also have met lots of nice and very supportive people along the way, who eventually became our friends. Both real and virtual ones. Isn’t that awesome!?

It all started with playing spades at a coffee shop and just daydreaming of having a photography business. And then came our desire to make this dream of ours come true. And I mean we were dreaming BIG. And the more desire we had, the more we start taking actions, and the more we felt we were getting closer and closer to making this dream come true.

To ALL of you who supports our photography and has allowed us to do what we love everyday, thank you so so much! I will never cease to be amazed by you all. And thank you for inspiring us! So don’t be afraid to dream BIG! Believe in yourself and make it happen! Happy Wednesday! Margaritas anyone?

Hi Friends! I hope your Monday went well. I enjoyed today despite me feeling a bit sick. I actually had a nice afternoon photo walk with Scott and Megan. Megan is my colleague’s wife and she’s trying to learn how to shoot with her Sony DSLR camera before her trip to China this week. We had quite a blast especially since we started out eating some ice cream which helps make Mondays better. Here are my favorite shots of the day. What happened to this flower? I don’t know but it looks different than the others…but who wants to look like the other flowers? It would be boring if they look all the same right? Looks unique, I liked it a lot!

And this is Megan, I like hanging out with her coz she’s so cute and she’s always happy and positive. I need friends like that, I’m sure we all do. ;) She can be pretty silly like this sometimes ♥ Have a good rest of the week!

Grant and Tessa’s wedding was simply beautiful. I remember when I first met them in the fall to take their engagement photos ~ they were so much in love! ♥ It was touching watching them now get married in the church they attend together. A lot of their friends and families came to celebrate this special day and they were all wonderful and nice. Tessa’s dress was beautifully embroidered, she looked absolutely gorgeous! Grant was nervous and excited at the same time but in the end he came off calm and collected. ;)

The photo above and to the right, is a re-creation from a photo that Tessa showed me. It was her sister, Cara’s wedding, and Tessa was the flower girl smiling at her big sister. I thought the idea of re-creating it was so cute! This time around with Tessa and Cara’s daughter, Britton. There are so many creative ideas and DIY details to share from this wedding! You can definitely see where her inspiration and colors came from. Tessa did lots of work on putting the decors together and those pomander balls for sure was time-tedious! There was a table with a dictionary and guests were supposed to circle words to remind Grant and Tessa of their wedding day. That’s pretty neat!

They look so great together. Tessa definitely rocked her wedding dress! Grant, during their first glance, was surely surprised and impressed upon seeing Tessa. Tessa’s Grandma was not feeling well and was not able to come, so she created a tag with her Grandma’s photo in it and tied it around her bouquet. Very thoughtful and clever to whip up something that quick.

Her wedding party is so cute! I loved and was honored by how they infused their engagement photos into their wedding. They projected a slideshow of the photos set to music while the guests were being seated. It was so surreal to me! And as Tessa walked down the Aisle, Grant was all smiles. Awww, she’s a stunner!

And I have to mention how Grant’s groomsmen are truly a comical bunch with plenty of jokes and spontaneous opera singing throughout the day. Grant’s best man, Nathan, even broke into a dance (to Here Comes the Sun) during the recessional. And I loved what they did for the reception. A candy bar! They had jordan almonds, gumballs, apple licorice twizzlers, root beer stick candy, cotton candy rock candy, coca-cola gummies, blueberry lollipops, and more ♥ They also served cake and pie. The cake stands even had a nest with some robin eggs. So cool and again creative! Their sweet tea came in cute mason jars that Tessa had been slowly collecting for awhile. The newly wed jars had “G” and “T” tags while the guests had “A” tags (first letter of the newlywed’s last name) which Tessa made too.

There were these blue painted eggs with bird seeds in them to shower the newlyweds when they leave, and yes she painted all of them! And that’s a whole lotta eggs!

Congratulations to Grant and Tessa! Your wedding day was beautiful and I’m so happy for you! Check out their Event Page for a slideshow with more photos! The slideshow has been formatted by Vimeo to fit the screen, so there might be some cropping. Anyway, go ahead and check it out! Have a happy Saturday!!!