Katherine & Matt: Formal Wedding Photos at Zilker Botanical Gardens

  Now some of these photos might seem familiar from the wedding highlight slideshow I posted recently.  Katherine and Matthew (or "Kat" and "Matt") are both friends that I have known for a loooong long time.  Coincidentally, they have also been dating a loooong long time.  How long you say?  How does since middle school strike you?

It's been a wild ride as they've dated on and off, and throughout the whole remained the best of friends.   Though if I had a nickel for every time someone said "I am so excited y'all are  finally getting married"... well I would have a lot of nickels.

Thomas and I flew down Thursday before the wedding, which was a grand two-day affair on Friday and Saturday.  We managed to catch a flight early enough in the day that we were able to do this bride and groom pre-shoot at the Zilker Botanical Gardens.  We got some individual bridals as well as some photos of the two of them.  After the shoot we headed on over to Katherine's home for some pre-wedding day barbeque and some music, where I sorted and edited like a madwoman on my laptop so that we could order some enlargements for the reception on Saturday. (On a side-note, anybody going to Austin that wants great bbq MUST go to Rudy's.  It's not optional.  But I digress...)

Matt and Katherine both looked fabulous, and had that glow that only those on the brink of the best day of their life really can show.

Having moved out of Texas before I really started shooting professionally, I had never taken photographs at the Botanical Gardens quite the same way before.  I used to come here all the time, but I never realized the wealth of photo locations this place has.  It's chock full of beautiful spots like this one below...

I've known Katherine forever, and she's one of the sweetest, most outrageous, talented, and "out there" people you will ever meet.

  

Katherine is a playwright, and has directed many a play (she and I even ran a theater camp once-upon-a-time, but that's another story).  So of course, we had to show off her very official director's chair.

There will be more to come of these two as I finish up the photos from the wedding day in San Antonio and the reception in Austin.  We'll probably have to break it up over several days, because a LOT happened, and there was so many cool things that I wanted to share with y'all.

Zilker Botanical Gardens

  I had a few minutes before the bride and groom arrived for the formals / bridals/ groomals session at the Zilker Botanical Gardens in Austin Texas a couple weeks ago, so I made sure to stop and smell the flowers!

Now I am not really one for landscape photography.  As a general rule when I see a gorgeous sunset, or a majestic mountain peak, or a colorful bed of flowers, I say to myself "OH that's beautiful.  Now I just need a person there so I can take a photo."  When I take a photo, it's usually not complete unless there is someone in the picture as well.

That being said, the Zilker Botanical Gardens was a special place for me when I was growing up in Austin, and I went there all the time to think.  It's one of the iconic places in Austin, and if you happen to be visiting, you should not miss it.  More photos to come from Texas, as I make progress on Katherine and Matt's wedding, and as I finish up an engagement session I ended up doing for an old friend and his beautiful fiancee.

Sneak Peek: Austin Texas LDS Wedding Photography

  As I mentioned the other day, we were back in my hometown in Austin TX shooting a wedding over the weekend.  Here is a sneak peek of some of the photos from the formals shoot that we did on Thursday at the Zilker Botanical Gardens before the wedding, and some photos from the wedding day itself on Friday at the LDS Temple in San Antonio.  They had their reception on Saturday at the Vineyards at Chappell Lodge, so I had some time to quickly go through and get a few of my favorites from the two shoots for this slideshow.  We ran it for the wedding, and one of the coolest things about it (aside from the awesome photos, of course)?  The song is actually the bride singing!!!

It's a song she wrote for her (now)husband a year ago about their relationship.  You can actually buy the song on itunes- her name is Katherine Gee and the song's title is Sunshine and Rain. She is fabulously talented!  In fact, her entire family is unbelievable as well... the whole wedding process was like a big broadway musical, with spontaneous poems, musical performances, and some really awesome dancing.

I'll definitely be posting more pictures from the wedding later on in future posts, but I just had to share a couple now so y'all can see what I was up to.  I had so much fun, and was so honored to be a part of it.