Archive for the 'Personal' Category

Page 2 of 3

Spring Workshop!!

Published on March 30, 2011 in For Photographers and Personal. Closed

We’re excited to announce our Spring Workshop!! May 28th! Join us for a fun day of shooting, hanging out, and getting to know other photographers. Space is limited because we want to make sure everyone gets some great portfolio images, and some one-on-one time!

Workshop topics will be personalized to attendees- so what is your dream workshop? Lighting, posing, post-processing & editing, web design/presence, engagements, kids, camera basics, or more~ Let us know! Complete details will be announced next week on our fan page. We look forward to seeing you guys there! :  )

-Matt & Ivy   Ivy Weddings Workshop_Spring_2011_Dallas TX

Save the Dates.

Published on January 27, 2011 in Engagements, Personal, Uncategorized and Weddings. Closed

We love when we get surprises in the mail. Sometimes it’s a Thank You note, or a Christmas/New Year’s card, or a special Save the Date with photos from one of our couple’s engagement sessions with us. I adore all the cute designs and colors our brides choose for their Save the Dates. I’ve started putting them all on our fridge, so that it’s one huge colorful mess!!! ; )

I haven’t had a chance to photograph them all, but here are a couple of the latest:

Dallas Austin Wedding Photographers - Ivy Weddings - Save the Date Examples-1e - Web

Special thanks to our lovely brides who send us their save the dates! Even though we’ve already saved the date, we LOVE getting them! ; )

-Ivy

The Holidays Already Came?!?

Published on January 6, 2011 in Personal and Ringo and Lenny. Closed

Wow! Christmas and New Years have already flown by! We hope all of you guys had a wonderful holiday season this year, and are kicking off 2011 in a big way. We definitely are! We’re only a few days into 2011, but we’ve already shot our first wedding of the year, and we have lots of exciting stuff in the works that we can’t wait to share with all of you.

So what did you do for the holidays this year? As many of you know, this was our first Christmas together since we got married almost 1 year ago (anniversary here we come!). We tried, and somehow, seemed to pull everything off – including spending time with both sides of the family, and having our own special Christmas with just us and the puppies.

1 Ivy Weddings - Christmas with Matt and Ivy

Of course, Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without the smell of freshly baked cookies or the taste of some creamy homemade eggnog… neither of which I am remotely capable of pulling off by myself. So I stepped aside as Ivy worked her culinary magic by herself! ;)

2 Ivy Weddings - Christmas with Matt and Ivy

My job is the delectable one of taking pictures of the process, which can basically be described as a series of mouth-watering, “don’t-you-dare-sneak-a-bite-or-gulp-of-that-yet-Matt”, and flirt-with-Ivy-in-her-baking-apron moments. I really don’t think many things could be more enjoyable than making cookies and eggnog for Christmas, and I’m now thinking of creating a bi-monthly holiday to do exactly that, a little more often.

3 Ivy Weddings - Christmas with Matt and Ivy

4 Ivy Weddings - Christmas with Matt and Ivy

Now what looks cooler as a Christmas present than a fresh bottle of eggnog and a box of homemade cookies?

Well, there could be something that definitely doesn’t taste as good, but still looks pretty cool…

5 Ivy Weddings - Christmas with Matt and Ivy

Apparently Santa had time this year to swing by the camera store and bring a new copy of Ivy’s favorite prime lens, and one of my favorite primes! Just for the record, in case you’re reading this, Santa, the seams of our stockings won’t last long if you try to cram in a 50mm f1.2 L lens, much less with a lens hood on. The same goes for the 28mm f1.8… next time it’s ok to just put it under the tree.

Ringo and Lenny got a few treats in their stockings that they went nuts over… Including some new mini-tennis balls, since they’ve lost the one they played with the past few months, a totally awesome bouncy ball that we can stuff treats in (ok, slightly infuriating to them at first, but very entertaining for us), and a puppy version of Christmas dinner. At the end of the day they were ready to sleep into the new year!

6 Ivy Weddings - Christmas with Matt and Ivy - Morkie Puppies in Plaid Jacket Outfits

Lessons I learned this holiday season:

  • Always ask before downing fresh cookies… especially if your wife is making them for your mother.
  • Hang the popcorn on the tree high enough to keep Ringo and Lennon from snacking.
  • When decorating cookies, avoid making snowmen that look like Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight- those won’t make the cut.
  • Few things are more romantic than actually riding in a one horse open sleigh (while seeing the Christmas lights, under a warm blanket).
  • Family is great, but nothing beats watching every single Christmas movie on Hulu (in a row) while sipping cider with the person you love the most.

-Matt

P.S. Ringo and Lenny got new haircuts for the new year! Be on the lookout for their new pics!

It’s almost Christmas

Published on December 22, 2010 in Personal and Ringo and Lenny. 2 Comments

Wow! It’s been a while since we’ve blogged, and the truth is, this past month has been crazy busy for us! We are so thankful for our brides whose weddings we still need to blog…it’s coming, we promise! We finished editing our last wedding of 2010 (YAY!) and we are now officially on Christmas break. Bring on the festivities! Until, of course, our first wedding of 2011…(January 2nd, here we come!).

With everything done, we had a chance to wrap our Christmas presents for the family…and Ringo and Lenny had to come and see what the fuss was all about. 

Ivy Weddings - Our Morkie Puppies-8 Merry Christmas Christmas with puppies has taught us:

1) They love eating popcorn from the tree. The higher we put it, the more daring they become. Diving off the top of the sofa into the tree? No problem.

2) They don’t open presents – but they love to jump ON presents as they chase each other around the tree.

3) The tree skirt is much more fascinating than the tree itself, or hey, even puppy food is boring compared to it.

4) We had to shop for them as well- yes, fancy new toys and treats in their stocking.

5) They love eggnog, especially if they manage to steal some from our cups. ; )

Our next few days will be spent with family and just…together. It’s our first Christmas married, so we’re doing it all- Christmas lights, eggnog, baking cookies (well, one of us bakes, and one of us eats, but it still counts!), dinner dates and movie marathons, seeing family we’ve missed, and of course, presents on Christmas Eve and Christmas day!

We wish everyone a very Merry Christmas!!

Matt & Ivy

Turkey day is on its way!

Published on November 24, 2010 in Personal and Ringo and Lenny. Closed

Happy (Almost) Thanksgiving! While Ringo and Lennon are already taking off for the Holidays, we’re still pumping things out for the final business day before Thanksgiving. Client orders? Proofing uploads? Last minute sessions? Check, check, check… Final turkey-day blog post? Yes, it’s a gorgeous wedding treat to come!

Now its off to the store to fight over the last can of pumpkin pie filling. : )

Ivy Weddings - Our Morkie Puppies-7 Happy Thanksgiving

In the meantime, we’ll be leaving Ringo and Lenny to answer any business emails that come in over the Thanksgiving holiday.

-Matt and Ivy

It’s Halloween

Published on October 31, 2010 in Personal and Ringo and Lenny. Closed

Ringo and Lennon got into the spirit of things…

Ivy Weddings - Our Morkie Puppies-6a - halloween pet costume

Now who can look at them in their costumes and not smile?! Please agree with us so we know we’re not just being biased parents! ; )

Ivy Weddings - Our Morkie Puppies-6b - halloween pet costume

-Matt and Ivy (+Ringo and Lenny)

Tag Team

Published on October 28, 2010 in Personal. 1 Comment

“Matt – watch out!” Ivy shouted.

I stopped walking backwards, camera to my face, and jumped out of the street and back onto the sidewalk. Seconds later a Ford F-250 truck blazed down the road right where I had been. Texans are generally very friendly, but on several photo sessions I’ve had the joy of discovering the “hunter” complex they have. Whether we’re taking photos downtown or in the country, Texans are infinitely warm and friendly towards the couples we’re shooting – but the photographer? Step into the street and it becomes a game of “how-close-can-we-get-to-the-photographer-with-our-huge-truck.” (I still like to believe that they’d never actually run me over, but I don’t plan on experimenting to find out.)

Thankfully I have Ivy.

It’s obvious at these moments, when she’s helping me dodge crazy truckers or saving me from falling into a canal, that we’re quite the tag team. But its the other moments that make me especially appreciate the extraordinary catch I made when I married Ivy. It’s in the less-dramatic times, when Ivy surprises me with a new book she happened to find in the science section at Barnes & Noble, or when we’re working and she turns my incoherent photographer babble description into a photo that completely exceeds whatever I had in mind, or when she simply knows what I’m thinking by the look on my face – it’s at those times that I love it. I love what we do together… what we make together… what we are together. I love us.

I love her.


Thanks for being on my team, babe.

-Matt

We live with famous puppies.

Published on October 19, 2010 in Personal and Ringo and Lenny. Closed

Ringo and Lenny get more mail than we do.

That’s the text message Matt sent me, after going on our mail run to pick up packages, and taking in the slip to receive the latest package that had been sent to our puppies.

We thought we’d share with you some of the “fan mail” our guys get. We love it that our friends, family, and brides (and some of our grooms, too!) think of the boys and send them little treats, toys, or surprises…and designer handmade outfits. We promise, they LOVE it. Especially the treats that resemble cookies or bacon!

So, while this is not the first package or letter, it was definitely the BIGGEST one! It was a pure Thanksgiving feast for the boys!!

Since it was addressed to them, we let them open it.

Ivy Weddings - Our Morkie Puppies-5a

Ivy Weddings - Our Morkie Puppies-5b

Ivy Weddings - Our Morkie Puppies-5c

Talk about a feast! We never knew there were so many fancy options and, get this, authentic smelling Oreo cookies for doggies (without any chocolate)!

Ivy Weddings - Our Morkie Puppies-5d

Ivy Weddings - Our Morkie Puppies-5e

Ivy Weddings - Our Morkie Puppies-5f

Special thanks to Bethsy who sent these gourmet treats all the way from San Antonio’s HEB market!

The boys really really love them : )

-Matt & Ivy

Project Hope

Published on October 8, 2010 in For Photographers and Personal. Closed

In honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, we will be doing free family portrait sessions for any survivor of breast cancer or those who are going through its storm. Cancer doesn’t care who it attacks- we’ve both lost family and friends to its pain, and we want to encourage those strong ladies who have faced the nastiness of cancer. If you know a special lady who has cancer, or who has survived it, and want to encourage her and her family, send us a message. We will be doing 3 free portrait sessions this month. If we get many more requests, we will see how many more sessions we can do through the holidays.

Ivy Weddings - Project Hope - Through the Lens

Thank you for helping us raise awareness this month. We believe there is Hope and we’re praying that they find a cure soon!

Matt & Ivy

on Love and Food

Published on October 7, 2010 in Personal. Closed

Eight months ago, today, Ivy and I were in the middle of our awesome honeymoon in Spain. Today, I found a picture we took inside one of the many wonderful dessert joints that line the streets of Granada, and it got me thinking.

Food is good. I enjoy eating it.

I was raised in the south on a diet of fried meat and potatoes, and the staple dessert was Blue Bell ice cream. I never did realize just what I was missing out on until I met my beautiful wife-to-be, Ivy. She introduced me to the wonderful world of… well, the food of the world. But it’s been a process. Ivy can testify of my provincial palette, and how long it took to convince me to actually try sushi. I love trying new foods from new places now, but it wasn’t always that way.

Our honeymoon was a big part of my road to culinary open-mindedness.  In my defense, I did try to eat a number of things I’d never tried before, but after a week I was able to convince Ivy to let a dude on a scooter deliver me a pizza from the only Domino’s Pizza joint in classic Madrid.

I love, love, love my wife’s cooking, and we both appreciate being stateside and living next door to our favorite Sushi place (for those nights when we have photos to finish processing). But as Ivy and I are flipping back through our honeymoon photos, I did find myself missing one thing from the menu in Spain.

Dessert.

Ivy Weddings - Dessert in Spain-1

If you haven’t been to Spain, go. Go to Granada, savor the sweet, aromatic flavor of a Pionono with the person you love. In the meantime, I’ll be trying to get a batch shipped back to the States so Ivy and I can relive that moment on our first anniversary.

-Matt

P.S. If you enjoyed reading my ramblings on love and food, please “like” this post. Maybe Ivy will let me write more blog posts. ; )

Pages: Prev 1 2 3 Next