You lazy blogger, you! / We find a photog.

I, like Miss Otter, have been on a little blogging hiatus due to a new job!! In addition to my original hospital, I picked up a job at a county hospital in Dallas! I adore my previous job working with mothers/infants and will stay PRN (very very part time, for non-medical folk!), but this new job is a really great career move. The transition has been time consuming, but exciting!

Anyway! I've teased a lot about our amazing photographer, but it's time for the reveal!

As I mentioned in my Risky Business post, I was totally in love with the photography of Jonathan Ivy and Allison Davis, but it just wasn't in the budget :(

I had actually heard of a photography company based in my high school hometown, Mansfield.  Daydream Photography was fairly new at the time that I contacted them. Small world - the photography assistant used to date one of my guy friends in high school. My younger brother's friend had their senior pictures done by them, and they recommended them. They mostly did senior pictures and family portraits, so I was skeptical. Sure enough, they did weddings too!

Photography by Daydream Photography

Photography by Daydream Photography

 I exchanged a few emails back and forth with the owner, and he was awesome! We had an in-person meeting at his studio, and he was always quick to respond to my emails (a big plus for me). He was willing to give us the printing rights as part of our package, and his prices were excellent. I was really hoping for someone who specialized in wedding photography, but with our small budget we were staying open-minded! I had a good feeling about it, but kept my options open.

I looked and looked and looked. I googled, I asked around, I flipped through countless wedding magazines, and haunted Weddingwire and The Knot.

I think everyone goes through a knot.com phase. Its so exciting, with the little countdown and the seemingly endless vendors! I dont know about you guys...but I grew disenchanted with the Knot very quickly. Checking out the $ page for photographers, I got well...nothing. Nothing really good, anyway. If my memory serves me right, The Knot insisted that only  4 photographers in ALL of DFW were in our price range. I checked out the first 3 web pages, found nothing special, and closed the page. I wish I had clicked on the 4th, because she ended up being our photographer!

Later in my search, I came across June Bug Company.

All photography by June Bug Company

Seriously, I had a hard time even picking just 3 to post on here.

This is really where 'getting in on the ground floor' really, really, really helps. Nadia had been in non-wedding photography for a while, when another photographer called asking for her help shooting a wedding. After that, she couldn't get enough. She'd only been on her own doing purely wedding photography since the end of 2010. But she is holy-crap amazing. Since we booked her, she's been featured in several magazines, added an unbelievable amount of weddings to her gallery and has just gotten better by the day. I love that she captures a sense of fun in all of her pictures!

Funny story, when we decided to meet at Starbucks after a flurry of emails, I almost missed her! She was the tiniest little person (although, that's compared to me at almost 5'10), and looked about 21. The meeting was supposed to be quick, but we were there at least an hour, we just clicked!  The funny thing is, we both thought we were drastically younger than we are! I kept talking about graduation, and eventually she just looked at me with a totally straight face like "You seem really mature, but your parents are okay with you getting married in high school?" I thought I was going. to. die. laughing. I guess she thought I was like, 16. (Its probably the freckles!) I told her that was okay, since I thought she looked like she was still in college! 

She was a little over our budget, but we negotiated a package to include two photographers instead of one and an engagement shoot. We even kept the option open for a boudoir, ow ow! ;)

I couldn't be happier! Did you bond right away with your photographer?