Liguya and Keng's elopement at Tarrant County Courthouse

Liguya and Keng booked me for a 2 hour Micro-Wedding Package for their elopement ceremony at the Tarrant County Courthouse in Downtown Fort Worth. The micro wedding packages are a very affordable option for couples that don’t need a full day of coverage. Micro wedding packages start at 2 hours of photography time, which basically covers the ceremony and some portraits. For couples who need a little more time, you can customize by adding time on by the hour. There also options to add an album, a pre-wedding portrait, flash drive, and more!

Luis and Shannon's wedding at Stonebridge Venue in Blum, TX

let’s be honest, no one ever reads this part so I am gonna save you the trouble and just list the vendors so you can skip right to the photos! This wedding was GORGEOUS!

Venue: Stonebridge Venue in Blum , TX

Photography and Photo Booth: Stephanie Ray Photography

Caterer: Hard 8 Barbeque

DJ: McGrayson Entertainment

Hair: Marisa and Brit

Make-up: Maria Rizo Beauty

Floral: Sara Norman- Jackie of Random Trades

Dallas World Aquarium Styled Shoot

We took over the Dallas World Aquarium and Zoo at night to bring you this tropical plant inspired styled shoot! For those of you that don’t know what a styled shoot it, it’s when the vendors come together to showcase a themed wedding and use models to create an inspirational set of images we can all use to market our business and products. This particular shoot was my dark and moody take on the Boho theme. I even used my own personal houseplants for the decorations.

The invitation suite by Mad Paperie beautifully sets the scene for this plant inspired wedding shoot! We started out in the cloud forest tract where we set up our ceremony site with a wooden hexagon backdrop provided by DFW Bartending. Our couple looks great in front of this macramé art piece beautifully framed by the lavish tropical plant sprays. The cloud machine and all the gorgeous plants in the cloud forest tract were the perfect backdrop for our ceremony site! The ceremony cake by Tamika Redmon Weddings was the perfect touch to add to our bohemian look. The cake was adorned with a macrame icing detail, and topped with a wood custom cake topper by Walnut Design Co. It was perfect!

We then moved down to the reception set-up in the Manatee room of the Dallas World Aquarium. The sweetheart table features a live potted plant runner with rattan chargers, a full place setting provided by May I Serve u, and plenty of custom details to tie in our tropical plant theme, including custom wood place holders, by Walnut design Co. The Peacock chair set provided by Southern Wild Event Rentals, really adds a dramatic focal point for our sweetheart table.

The guest tables are adorned with gorgeous trailing plant centerpieces with string of pearls and pothos plants resting on modern gold risers. The gold and moss rock details are the perfect match for these towering centerpieces. The reception cake was designed by Stephen’s Sweet Sensations. It was the perfect match for our tropical plant theme with a gorgeous monstera leaf detailed design on the icing.

The place settings have classic white plates with birch wood chargers and gold flatware by May I Serve U. The custom monstera leaf menus, by Scripted Ever After, really tied this theme together!

Guest favors were air plants with hand crafted wooden holders in a variety of shapes. The sign, by Scripted Ever After, reads “Love is in the air plant, please take one” because everyone loves a good plant pun!

Our final stop of the night was the waterfall inside the Aquarium zoo. Here, we have our brides posing with the rattan peacock chair from the sweetheart table provided by Southern Wild Events and a gorgeous boho style bridal bouquet..

Tina Wineglass of Wineglass events brought all these wonderful vendors together to produce this gorgeous styled shoot and brought my vision to life! I love working with Tina and highly recommend her for your next wedding or event! Special thanks to Kyle Hennigan from The Dallas World Aquarium for letting us take over the venue for this shoot. Kyle is now the event manager for the Mason in Dallas, TX. He is an absolute joy to to work with and I am glad we got squeeze in this shoot in his last days at the Aquarium.

A special note to the vendors: I want to thank all the vendors for being patient with me in releasing these photos. I have been waiting months for this shoot to be picked up for publication and unfortunately, we just weren’t able to do it. I tried, but ultimately think that we all deserve to see and share this wonderful collection that we came together to create! Thank you so much for participating in this fun shoot. I could not have done it with out you guys!

Models: real couple Neville and Martin

Our single bride: Patrice Crockett

Planner: Wineglass events

Photographer, florals, and plant styling: Stephanie Ray

Vendors:

Walnut design Co.

Southern Wild Rentals

May I Serve U

Tamika Redmon Weddings

Elizabeth Scott Bridal

Stephanie Nelson Make-up and Hair

Scripted ever after

Mad Paperie

Friday Films Foto

Makeup by Brittney Minor

The Dallas World Aquarium

Stephen’s Sweet Sensations

Kayla and James Studio Pre-wedding Shoot

I am so excited to share this studio portrait session I did with my dear friends, Kayla and James! Since it is summer in Texas, we decided to rent a studio and stay indoors for their engagement portrait session. I knew that Kayla has a love for old shows like the Addams Family, so I reached out to my friends at Southern Wild Events to rent their Morticia Addams replica Peacock chair. This chair was giving me Fleetwood Mac vibes all day! Between the chair and the rolling matte-black background at Pink Pineapple Studio in Bedford, TX we were able to create a really fun modern look with a vintage twist. I could not be happier with how the photos turned out.

A little background on how I met Kayla: She answered an open call I put out for “pin-up” style models about 10 years ago. We became facebook friends and silently followed each others’ lives for about 8 years. Then one day I saw her post about a succulent and I had just started getting into plants myself and it sparked a conversation. Shortly after that I found out that we would be moving from East Dallas to the other side of the metroplex in Fort Worth. I immediately Kayla thought of Kayla, as I realized that she lived in Fort Worth and maybe this meant that she could be my new best friend on this side of town. She accepted my offer of friendship and agreed to meet me for a plant shopping date on my birthday, which has actually become a little tradition for us. When she got engaged to James in 2020 they booked me to shoot their wedding and I have been so excited work with them!

When we were planning the session I wanted to find a studio that had a good selection of props and furniture and I came across Pink Pineapple studio in Bedford. I really loved the rolling black backdrop and they had a great selection of other chairs and furniture as well as smaller pros to create a set. Naturally, Kayla and I both brought plants to incorporate somehow, and Kayla wanted to do some portraits to commemorate her dog, Ellie, who recently crossed over the rainbow bridge. She brought Ellie’s memorial plant with her collar and tags and a pet portrait painted by her friend Megan Doughney.

I really loved the clean look of the black backdrop against the white wall and window. I had some fun moving it around to create different shapes and lines in the photos. It was great to get back in the studio and now I want to open my own studio, but for now, I will stick to renting! If you need a studio in DFW, I highly recommend Pink Pineapple studio group. It was very easy to book online and they even let me come up before the shoot to check out their prop selection and see the space.

A message to the couple: Congrats, Kayla and James! You guys make such a great couple, and I am so grateful for our friendship! I know that you marriage will be a happy one filled with laughter, skulls, horror movies, heavy metal, .and lots of plants! hahaha I cannot wait for your wedding in October!

Amy and Garrett at Modeana Ranch- LUXE Album

It was a gorgeous day at Modeana Ranch for Amy and Garrett’s wedding. The wedding decor was perfect for this country chic venue! The sunflowers with navy accents made a beautiful backdrop for this sweet fall wedding. I love how all the images of the day flowed together so well in their wedding album. I just had to show you guys how the album turned out! A big part of my wedding photography packages is the wedding album. Not to mention it plays a big role in how I go about shooting a wedding in the first place. The album really tells the story of the day and I take pride in perfecting each image to create a true masterpiece that ultimately becomes a family heirloom. The LUXE album is my most popular album type and for good reason! The cover options are endless and the photo quality pages really show off the true bold color and sharp focus of my particular style of photography. I know you can’t have the pleasure of flipping through the pages of the actual book, but at least you can see how all the wonderful images came together to create the finished product. Enjoy!

Dan and Ashley's Heritage Village Wedding

You should all know by now that I love sharing work that I do for friends! Dan and Ashley are our former neighbors, turned great friends. Ashley also assists me on weddings, when I need help, and has become a very dear friend to me through the years. When they got engaged in Ireland, I knew that I would be hearing from them about photographing their wedding. We invited them over for dinner for our consultation and we discussed all the details of their wedding day. I was able to give them some advise and help calm some fears of the “what ifs” but I knew through the whole process that Ashley was destined to worry about what could go wrong. I feel it’s important to tell you this, because a lot of bride’s go through this wedding anxiety. It can definitely be overwhelming as you try to navigate the process of planning a wedding for the first and only time. As a seasoned wedding professional, I make every effort to help with this process since I have so much experience with other vendors and planning the timeline to fit everything in, so you get the best out of your wedding photographs. I proceeded to assist Ashley by referring her to some of my favorite vendors including Linda “the flower lady” McEwan, and Lance Patton of My DFW DJ. With the dream team set up for success, and a decent weather report the week of, we figured it was going to be smooth sailing and everything would turn out alright. Fast forward to the rehearsal and long story short, I became violently ill upon arriving at the rehearsal dinner and had to leave before we were even seated! Let me tell you, I was beyond stressed about how I was going to make it through an entire wedding day when I could barely get up off the bathroom floor, but somehow I rallied and was able to run on adrenaline and Gatorade and get the job done. I guess I was over compensating, because I totally nailed it! I mean, nature had something to do with it, but our meticulous planning to avoid the “what ifs”, was what I credit to the amazing lighting we had for just about every important moment. Even though I felt like I might fall over or vomit at any moment, I was living the dream and I felt like I was on FIRE throughout this entire wedding day! It’s days like this that really remind me why I do what I do. I abso-freaking-lutely LOVE weddings! Especially when the stars align like they did on this day. I hope you enjoy these images as much as I enjoyed creating them for two of my favorite people on this earth! Congrats to Dan and Ashley! Now bring on the babies!

Lise and Darron's Deep Ellum engagement session

When I first met with Lise and Darron, they mentioned to me that they each had a bike and loved to ride together in their spare time. So when it came time to create the look for their engagement portraits, I knew we had to incorporate their motorcycles! I immediately thought of Deep Ellum as our backdrop and since I know the folks over at Deep Ellum Art Co, I decided to ask them if we could commandeer their sidewalk in front of one of the cool murals by Preston Panneck and IZK art. So we set up shop there right as the sun was setting and the sky was just gorgeous, so we snuck over to the street corner for a couple shots with the beautiful Texas sunset behind them. I love it when I have photography clients that are willing to let me be creative! It always leads to great sessions and this engagement shoot was no exception. Lise and Darron trusted my vision from the very beginning and it definitely paid off! Enjoy!

Zach and Katie's Dallas Skyline engagement portraits

When My good friend Zach and his fiance Katie announced they were getting married, I couldn’t wait to congratulate them! I was so excited when they reached out to me about doing an engagement session before their destination wedding in Jamaica. Unfortunately we were unable to travel for their wedding so I knew that I wanted to give them a great gift that they would enjoy for years to come. I offered to do their session as my wedding gift, but they had to agree to do what I wanted! hahaha I know how much they love living in the heart of Dallas, and I am currently obsessed with nightscape portraits, so I suggested we do something that incorporated the skyline of Dallas. I had done some photos of the skyline form the continental bridge before, but not with a human subject, so I wanted to give it a shot! (pun intended) Since Zach is a musician I thought we could start out at one of the most recognized music venues in Dallas, the Kessler theater. Zach brought his “sexiest” guitar (his words, not mine hahaha) and we had some great shots that make him look very Johnny Cash, in my opinion! All in all it was a fun time to get to work with dear friends and we ended getting some amazing captures along the way! Enjoy!

Matt and Aubrey's Downtown Dallas Wedding

Last fall, before I had my baby boy, I was honored to photograph Matt and Aubrey's wedding day at the Magnolia Hotel in downtown Dallas.  My husband was a groomsmen and also my luggage handler for the day, since I was VERY pregnant at that point.  The reception was in the newly renovated Pegasus Room across the street from the Magnolia Hotel, in the Power and Light building.  The chandelier is my current favorite thing in Dallas!  They did an incredible job on this venue.  It is is simply stunning and photographs like a dream!  I was fortunate enough to have my good friend and colleague, Pam Peck as my associate photographer on this wedding and have included some of her amazing images in this gallery.  Enjoy!

Styled Shoot With Tuesdays Together

Last summer I had the privilege of participating in a styled shoot designed by the Tuesdays Together group that helps organize events for local creatives in the wedding business to come together.  There were 4 styles and I was assigned to the "nautical look".  This is the only styled shoot I have participated in and I really did love the experience.  Everything was executed very well and I enjoyed meeting and working with all those involved!  

Venue: @therosemarybarn
Design & Styling: @the_pinktuxedos
Coordination: @katiefrostweddings
Hair & Makeup: @bbwellingtonartistry
Cake: @thelondonbaker
Rentals: @corallanetx, @goldustvintagerentals
Jewelry: @antonioandfrankie
Stationery & Signage: @thesouthernstylus
Tabletop: @toptiereventrentals

Linens: @amlinenrental
Florist: @thepearlpetal

Dress: @elizabethleebridal

Community: @dallas_tuesdays_together, @tuesdaystogetherftworth, @tuesdaystogether_northdallas