Recent Favorites

Welcome to the New Blogsite

I'm so happy to welcome you to the brand new blog!! If you are a blog follower, take a look around and let me know what you think! If your new- this is where I'll post some of my most recent weddings and sessions, as well as things that are going on in my life. You can also check my website- taraswain.com for pricing and info about what I do, but be sure to check back to the blog regularly and hopefully you'll become a blog stalker! :)
About

AboutTara Swain

Hi, I'm Tara! I'm a wedding and portrait photographer based in Paris, Texas. I love bright colors, a vintage, eclectic feel and whimsical ideas. My passions are weddings and child photography. My favorite color is green, my favorite movie is "The Man in the Moon," I'm NOT a morning person, I've been happily married for 6 years with a beautiful 1 year old little girl and I love to blog!!

I shot Denise and Waylon’s beautiful wedding last month in Mt. Vernon. I’ve known Denise for a few years and she is one of the sweetest, most bubbly people you will ever meet. It was such a beautiful, spring day and Denise could have not been more gorgeous. This was my first time meeting Waylon, but from getting to know him that day I can say without a doubt that they will be extremely happy. They make an amazing couple and are so much in love that it just can’t help but make you smile. :)

One thing really stood out to me though. After the ceremony when the entire wedding party met back up in the room behind the sanctuary, while we waited for guests to file into the fellowship hall.. Denise kept thanking everyone for being there and sharing this day with Waylon and herself. Then she kept saying how much fun she was having. :) It’s a given that most brides are going to stress on their wedding days, but not Denise. I don’t think anything could have stressed her out or changed just how happy she was that day. Their families made me feel so welcome and so much like one of the family. I could not have asked for sweeter clients to work with. :)

Here are a few from their wedding day.

  • Denise Smith: I LOVE THEM!!! You are wonderful!! Thank you so much!!! (02.05.11, 07:34PM)
  • Amanda C: The pictures are amazing!!!! Can't wait to see all of them! (02.05.11, 07:39PM)
  • Brianne DeAnda: Love, love, love the pictures!!! I was crying and smiling all at the same time. Beautiful work- beautiful couple! :) Can't wait to see the rest! (02.05.11, 08:07PM)
  • Julie Bell: What a beautiful day this was ! (02.05.11, 08:19PM)
  • Neil Redfern: Fantastic work! Love the colours and vibrancy! I especially like the group shots and the shots with the sun flare at the end :-) (09.06.11, 04:27AM)
open post

Demetrius and Kristi were married a few weeks ago at Lake Crook in Paris. They had a beautiful, colorful, vintage carnival inspired wedding.. complete with pinwheels, a candy bar, a popcorn machine and about every brand of bottled soda you can think of! There were so many awesome details, I was in Heaven! Here are a few from their wedding, enjoy!!

  • Elise Ellexson: These are great! love all the bright colors and the details!!! :) beautiful wedding!! (15.04.11, 04:24PM)
  • Marielle Hayes: Are you kidding me?!?!?! This wedding looks fabulous-all the details are incredible!!! Love the colors, the fun ideas & the way you captured this fun, FUN wedding! (15.04.11, 04:25PM)
  • Blair: OMG! These look absoutely amazing! Props to everyone who contributed to the decorating. It looks so great! I really want a HUGE sucker now! hehe :) Amazing job, once again, Tara! :) (15.04.11, 04:26PM)
  • Nikki Burchinal: I've never seen a Carnival Themed Wedding but this one is Absolutely Amazing.....Tara your an EXCELLENT photographer and all your work ROCKS!!!! (15.04.11, 04:29PM)
  • Erica Hignight: I can't express to you how happy I am that you were there to capture all of their wonderful memories from that day. I think it's safe to say that we will all cherish these pictures for a very very long time! (15.04.11, 04:32PM)
  • Lisa Hignight: Tara, these are just as amazing as I knew they would be! Thanks for all that you did to help out and for your tireless patience with us! Erica Paige, everything was beautiful...thanks for all YOUR hard work to make Kristi and Demetrius's day so special! (15.04.11, 06:02PM)
  • Lauren Wensel: What a DREAM wedding!!! Love, love, LOVE all the colors & details. Excellent work as usual Tara! (15.04.11, 06:38PM)
  • Kristi Hignight: I am speechless..Well not really, but if I started I wouldn't know how to stop! They are AMAZING and FANTASTIC.. Thank you sooo much Tara for capturing everything WONDERFUL about our special day!!

    Also.. Thank you Tiffany P. for amazing the amazing hair and makeup!! (15.04.11, 08:46PM)
  • Jen S: Tara ... AWESOME! The details are totally fabulous and you really did a great job of capturing the day for this couple. The bride was over the top on her decor and I just LOVE it. Hope to see you get published for this one!! Keep up the beautiful work. (15.04.11, 10:47PM)
  • clipping path: Astonished watching the decoration!! Very bright and colorful!! Creative idea!!! (18.04.11, 03:13AM)
  • Ms. King: What a beautiful wedding. Everything looks so fun and flows well. What a wonderful way to take a child's theme and make it adult friendly. Amazing and inspiring. (15.12.11, 10:49PM)
open post

I shot Ashley and Andy’s amazingly beautiful vineyard wedding last month at the Enoch Stomp vineyard in Harleton, Texas. Ashley and Andy are such a cute, fun couple.. I knew it would be a fun wedding. The venue was absolutely gorgeous.. the weather was perfect… Ashley made a beautiful bride… and Andy didn’t look too bad himself. Here are a few from their wedding day.




  • Minda: gorgeous. AMAZING location. (11.04.11, 08:37AM)
  • Genevieve: Another gorgeous wedding Tara! You capture everything so beautifully, the couples must be so happy with their images! And I love their use of candy, I'm going to forward this to one of my brides to see if she'd be up for using candy, it adds such a nice pop of colour!

    I have a question for you since you do a lot of weddings and I admire your style so much :) How do you handle shooting weddings in the middle of the day or when the sun is high? I have a wedding this weekend and we're doing our shots (outdoor hopefully if it's not too cold...we're in Eastern Canada, after all!) between 2:00-3:45pm, so the sun will be pretty high...do you seek shade? Shoot a certain way to avoid harsh light, edit a certain way? Any tips/advice would be great, thanks so much! (And I know you're super busy at the moment, so no rush at all...) (11.04.11, 10:21AM)
  • ashley: I just exploded with excitement!!!! (11.04.11, 10:42AM)
  • ashley: The candy bar was actually the most talked about thing after the wedding, lol. If you have any brides do it, tell them they have to buy LOADS of candy and the cheapest way to do it is Sams! They won't regret it! (11.04.11, 05:34PM)
open post
  • IMG_095
    Pricing + Info
    Wedding + portrait session pricing and information.