Reflecting

I know that I have written posts about this before, but I cannot help constantly feeling thankful for the things in my life, including the ways that God has blessed Stan and I in this business.

I am not sure how many of you know the history of Stacy Cross Photography, so I thought I'd give you a quick summary so that you know what a miracle it is that we are where we are today. :)

When I was in high school (Episcopal High in Houston - class of 2000), I took a photography class at the prompting of my best friend, Ashley Anderson. Ashley and I were like two peas in a pod and, coincidentally, we also looked like sisters. :) Anyway, Ashley was very good at convincing me to do things I didn't want to do like playing soccer for the first time in my life my senior year, and taking a photography class because she wanted me to keep her company. :) I had no idea at the time that taking that class would have such a huge impact on my future endeavors, but that was when I fell in love with photography.

When I went off to college (UT - class of 2004), I had a couple of friends ask me to shoot their weddings because they knew of my interest in photography. I thought it would be fun, so I did it. :) Once I had shot 3 weddings, my dad told me that the government was going to come after me if I didn't officially declare my business, so I went ahead and did that. :) Through this whole process, I still had NO idea where this was going and I certainly did not expect for it to turn in to my actual job.

From about 2000 until 2006 I shot an average of about 5-6 weddings a year as well as several events and portrait sessions and every bit of business that came my way was word-of-mouth or through the many ads I placed on Craig's List. :) I embraced the fact that I was not a serious photographer and that this business was something fun to do on the side to earn a bit of extra money.

In December of 2006, I was feeling a bit of burn out at my old day job. I had recently become more interested in learning more about wedding photography and had been teaching myself a ton of things through my internet explorations. This eventually caused me to feel like it could be possible for me to make this my full-time job. I had also started Nursing school that August and with my part-time day job, school demands, and a part-time photography business, I was beginning to feel overwhelmed and exhausted. I realized that photography was my true passion and that I wanted to take the risk to pursue it further, even if it did not guarantee me a steady paycheck. Stan and I thought and prayed about this and we decided that, if the road was cleared for me to pursue photography further, that I would go ahead and quit my day job.

I remember sitting on my couch the day after Christmas and just saying a simple, no-frills prayer to God. I basically told him that if I booked 12 weddings for 2007, I would feel secure that it was the right thing to do to leave my day job. Well, miraculously, I booked 12 weddings THAT WEEK. It was amazing and a huge answer to prayer! I immediately put my 2 weeks in and, though it was hard to leave my good friends there, I walked away from that job and ventured down the road to where I am today.

I have been nothing short of amazed EVERY single day since then. Every need I've had has been met, every fear and insecurity has been answered with love and encouragement. This has proven to be one of the best decisions Stan and I have made and I honestly owe every bit of it to the Lord. He has been so faithful to me in this and every endeavor of my life. I only hope that I can use this opporunity to bless and encourage others.

I know I have only scratched the surface of learning about photography and developing myself as a photographer, but I am so amazed by how far I've come in such a short time. I have so much more to learn, but I am so thankful for where I am. It's really a miracle to me. :)

So, if you've taken the time to read all of this, thank you. Thank you all for loving and embracing me. Thank you for trusting me to take your picture and to spend some of your most special moments in life with you. Thank you for helping me learn and grow through my successes and my mistakes. And thank you for believing in me.

Much love,
Stacy

Kevin & Misty's Wedding!

I love Kevin and Misty! :)

I had a great time on Saturday at their wedding and my good pal and fellow pro photog, Tyler Schmitt, graced me with his presence to help me capture their day. Hey may put some of the pictures he took up on his blog soon. Oh, and today is his Birthday, so send him a cake or something! ;)

Despite the fact that Misty was incredibly ill and almost had to postpone her wedding due to a terrible case of food poisoning, she was such a champ and went through the day with nothing but smiles. Amazingly, though she felt awful, she looked absolutely, drop-dead, stunningly gorgeous!

Kevin and Misty - I hope yall have an awesome honeymoon and it was such a joy to spend your big day with you! :) See you soon! Love, Stacy

I've become a major sucker for cute wedding shoes . . . can't help it.






A prayer for Misty's healing and for a beautiful wedding day. This was moments before the ceremony.








Sweet, wonderful Grandpa. :) I fell in love.


Misty and her lovely mom.




















Grandpa got out on the dance floor and it was awesome!

Can't wait!

Tomorrow I'll be shooting Kevin and Misty's wedding and I can't wait. They are such a great couple and I am so honored that they chose me. :) Pictures soon!

Taking my last test today!

Wish me luck. :) I am taking my last test of my summer class today and I cannot wait to be done! No time for bloggity today, sorry. Just wanted to let you know what I'm doing.

Love
Stacy

*EDIT* I don't know how I did this, but somehow I did not realized that I have FOUR tests instead of three, so I have one more after this! Grrrr.

4:27pm Friday - EDIT - You will not believe that I did this, but I went ahead and took BOTH tests today! hahaha! I just got myself so psyched up to be finished today that I could not let that not happen! :) I am DOOOOONNNNNNEEEEEE!

Another favorite from last weekend

Dear Mom and Dad,

Go ahead out there and dance - seriously - no, don't worry about me.

I'll just stay here and . . . watch your belongings.

It's really no big deal - Aunt __________ will stay here and keep an eye on me in case I start to act up.

Love,

Cute Kid

Venue recommendation!

I am super picky about who I recommend because I want to make sure that every bride & groom that comes my way only has the BEST for their wedding. I've been meaning to brag on this gal/this place for a long time, but just now got down to it! :)

The girl's name is Rachel Gill and she is the private events director at Berry Creek Country Club in Georgetown. First of all, she is one of the coolest gals I've met in my time in this business. She genuinely wants to help couples throw the party of their lifetimes and she's so invested in making things go great at BCCC. The facility is lovely and there's a golf course where you can get married there.

Rachel and I hung out recently and mutually fell in love with each other! :) She is someone I would trust any bride & groom with and I am so happy to know people like her are out there at venues and ready to serve with their hearts. :)

Check her out:

Berry Creek Country Club Website : www.berrycreekcountryclub.com
BCCC's Blog, which Rachel keeps loaded with great wedding ideas! : http://berrycreekcc.blogspot.com/

(I'm sorry I'm having a hard time getting the hyperlinks to come up! Just copy and paste those addresses! Thanks.)

I knew I was awesome, but this proves it!

* Disclaimer: this post is just a joke and is really silly. I promise I don't actually think I'm all that! However, I do think I'm at least the bag of chips. :) Haha! *

I am taking a short course this summer in Human Growth and Development and I'm learing a lot of interesting things about this area of psychology. This week I read about two fascinating topics I wanted to share with you. :)

1) Handedness - "Handedness, the preference for using one hand over the other, is usually evident by age 3. Because the left hemisphere of the brain, which controls the right side of the body, is usually dominant, most people favor their right side. In people whose brains are more functionally symmetrical, the right hemisphere tends to dominate, making them left-handed."
- Human Development, Chapter 7, page 243

2) The Only Child - "Are only children spoiled, selfish, lonely, or maladjusted? Research does not bear out this stereotype. According to an analysis of 115 studies, "onlies" do comparitively well. In occupational and educational achievement and intelligence, they surpass children with siblings. Only children also tend to be more mature and motivated to achieve and to have higher self-esteem. They do not differ, however, in overall adjustment or sociability. Perhaps these children do better because their parents spend more time and focus more attention on them, talk to them more, do more with them, and expect more of them. Research in China, which mandates one-child families, also has produced encouraging findings about only children." - Human Development, Chapter 8, page 307

See, I told you. :) Yes, I am both left-handed and an only child and I was surprised and ammused to read both of these passages in my textbook. I'm not actually sure if this says anything real about me, but I thought it would be funny to share anyway! Hopefully all you right-handed, sibling-having people will finally see how much better the rest of us have it! ; )

Hey - just out of curiosity - do I have an amen from any other left-handed only children out there? It would be fun to know I'm not all alone. :)

Tim & Stephanie's Wedding!

Stan and I had a B-L-A-S-T at Tim and Steph's wedding this Saturday! I don't think we've ever had such a fun, zany wedding party to hang out with all day - they were the BEST!

2 years ago I shot Steph's sister Judi's wedding and I was SO excited when they called me to tell me that Stephanie was engaged and that they wanted me to shoot her wedding, too. I had so much fun with this awesome group of family and friends the first time - what a treat it was to get to see them all again!

Tim & Steph - thank you so much for having Stan and I there to share this amazing day with you! And to all the wedding party members: thank you for making us feel like a part of your crazy group and being willing to do all kinds of wild stuff, all for the sake of awesome pictures! :)

I loved Stephanie's gorgeous Vera Wang shoes.....unfortunately they were too small for me or I would have taken them! :)






Their ring bearer was AMAZING! First of all, he was the cutest thing in the whole universe. He loved to make faces every time he was around our cameras. In this picture, he is actually looking at Stan's camera over to the side as he's walking down the isle - I loved it!












Her flowers were gorgeous. If I find out who did them, I'll let you know! I didn't taste the cakes, but they looked soo good!


Tim and Stephanie sat down and ate as soon as they got to their reception so that they could start mingling with their guests quickly. They had a private dinner in a separate room and Stan and I walked up to get a couple of shots of them. When we rounded the corner to the room this is what we saw. They are so good together and so in love!


The girls were so full of energy (and lovely fruity drinks :) ) so we took advantage of their excitement and got a ton of cute shots of them all together. We only had one major jumping mishap, but ladies, wouldn't you agree it was completely worth the photographic evidence we collected?! ;)






The guys were all so handsome

(FYI - yes, they are on both sides of a MOVING escalator. awesome.)



In this shot, grandma is telling me about how the lady on her purse is actually her. She had a fabulous sense of humor and told me several un-repeatable jokes throughout the night!


Recipients of the "most amazing dancers" award of the night:


runners up: