Tara Swain Photography

These are some of my favorite bridals. Ever. I have been dying to post these for a couple of months and now that Cody and Celeste are finally married, I can!! This is Cody, Celeste’s fiancé’s, horse Norman. We could not have had a better horse. Norman is the most docile horse I’ve ever seen. A couple of times we thought he was actually asleep! Cody got Norman ready for us and then his mom kicked him out of the house. Once he left, we waited a little while to make sure the coast was clear and then went out with Norman. But a few minutes after shooting, Cody drove by and honked! We think he planned it.. being nosy. Luckily we were far enough off of the road that there was no way to see any detail of the dress, other than the fact that it was white. I’ve had LOTS of “country” brides, but Celeste was the first, brave enough, to saddle up for her bridals.We had NO problems, aside form the fact that Celeste’s dress is mermaid style and is completely fitted down to the middle of her thigh.. so getting on and off Norman was so funny to watch. :) I can now mark this off my list of things I want to do for sessions. :) My only problem now is deciding which one to order a canvas of for the office.

On another note.. I’ve been told that if it weren’t for bad luck, I wouldn’t have any luck at all. I’m starting to think this is true. I’ve been stuck at my desk 24/7. Day after day if I’m not shooting, I’m at the computer.. returning emails, editing… etc. So Friday I decided that I would take the morning off and get some things done around the house. We’re still in the rent house until our house is finished and there are 2 bedrooms we use for storage that are full of boxes we didn’t unpack when we moved. I thought it would make me feel better to get away from the computer for a little while and get some other things accomplished. I ended up stepping on something. It was a quick, sharp pain, then the bottom of my foot went sort of numb. I grabbed my foot expecting to see a tack.. a piece of glass.. a thorn.. but there was nothing. No blood… not even a mark that I could see. But if I put weight on it, they pain was horrible. I tried to pick whatever it was out with some tweezers but I couldn’t SEE anything! So I woke Briley up and went to minor emergency. Long story short… after x-rays and a little out-patient surgery, the Dr was able to cut the “thing” out of my heel. It was a SEWING NEEDLE. It must have fallen out of something and stuck into the carpet. It was so far into my heel that the Dr. told me she might have to refer me out to have it removed but thankfully she was able to get it out. The 3 numbing shots in my heel were the worst part of the whole incident… well that the lovely, VERY fashionable, boot that I now get to wear. Of course this happened the day before a wedding. The “trophy” is sitting in a jar on my desk and I have the stitches to prove it. Needless to say my foot is black and blue from standing on it for 6 hours straight.. and I think I’ll be doing a lot of resting tomorrow.

I LOVE this image.

I love the movement of Norman’s tail in this one.

LOOOVE.

I think this should be in a western magazine. :)

ANOOTHER LOVEEE!!

Celeste wanted to run, but Cody didn’t want her too. ;)

I had to post at least one of these in color. Of course normally I love LOTS of color.. but something about these in an antique black and white just seems so perfect.

Ugghh… I think I need to just create a huge collage from this session for a canvas.

Celeste picked out the exact dress she wanted in a magazine. She went online and found THE stores that carried THAT exact dress.

THIS is NOT that dress. The lady at the boutique tried to talk her into this dress and once she tired it on, that was it.

I LOVE this dress. I can’t imagine any other dress being more perfect for Celeste than this one.

Of course during the session Cody’s mom mentioned that Celeste needed a hat for a few shots so she called Cody’s sister, Jessica, at Crazy House and had her bring home a hat. THIS is the hat she brought. She said that Carolyn had been wanting a bride to wear this hat for ever. I think this next set is so fun. :)

Then NORMAN wore the hat. I think Cody will appreciate these. ;)

I think Celeste should just model Wedding dresses.

I loved this next image so much that I couldn’t choose between color or b&w… so I posted both. :)

Lindsay and Matt tied the knot last night and now they are off to Paris and then Rome for their honeymoon!!! :) Congrats guys!!! Wedding blog to follow!!

BERNIE!!

Bernie did so good. :)

For Elise’s bridals I decided to carry out a couple of ideas that I had stuck back. Of course for BOTH of these ideas I had envisioned warm light on a beautiful day. But as usual, Texas weather had other plans. The day of the bridals Elise and I watched the weather texted back and forth all  morning trying to decide what to do. Since Elise lived in Austin now, their wedding was in a month and I was booked solid until September.. we were REALLY praying for sunshine. She was had an appointment with Tiffany to have her hair and makeup done at 2:00… so up until about 1:45 we were still going back and forth on what to do. We finally decided we should go ahead and go for it… and hope for the best. As I was driving out to meet Elise and her mom I was literally racing the storm. The rain was headed that direction and it was following me the whole way. I got there to find Elise and her mom standing in the drive while Elise was getting her dress on. Someone had come by and locked the gate, not knowing it had been unlocked for us. Once Elise was ready, we were still waiting so we started out by taking some in the road where we were waiting. To make things even more complicated, no one could get cell service, so we couldn’t check the radar for the storm. At one point, I looked over to see Elise’s dad standing on the back of my truck holding his phone straight up in the air trying to get service! ;)

I had 2 different, VERY detailed scenes in mind for her bridals. Both of which don’t go well with rain. But of course with Elise’s laid back, easy going personality.. it worked. She was so happy and so trusting in me. It means a LOT to me that even though the sky went black and it starting pouring about 20 minutes into her bridal session she had no doubts in how the pictures would turn out. :) AND her bridals are some of my all time favorites!

Now, after an AMAZING few days spent in Galveston with all of their friends and family, I can finally share some of them. SOO much more to share from our trip… rehearsal dinner, wedding (with AMAZING first look) and even a day after/TTD session on the beach. I’m sure I’ll even slip a few of our vacation pictures with Briley in there somewhere. ;)

CONGRATS TO CARSEN AND ELISE!!!!!!!!

This was one of the concepts. I had been wanting to do this for so long and since Carsen and Elise have been together for so long, I thought it would be perfect for them. However… about 2 minutes after I took this picture… it started to flood and we had to make a sprint for shelter so I wasn’t able to do everything I wanted!!

Elise is ADORABLE!!!!!!!