We LOVE the girls over at Williamson County Weddings and Events!  They are all just awesome! (Random side note: does anyone else hear the voice of Hurley from Lost in their head every time they say “awesome” now?)  They are so creative and warm and they are always looking for new ways to make their brides happy!  I stopped by their personal venue, CJ’s Off the Square, the other day to do an invitation shoot for them.  They’re getting ready to launch their online boutique and Amy and I had so much fun running all over CJ’s finding places to put invitations. )  If you’re in need of invitations for your own wedding or event, you should definitely make an appointment with them to see what they have to offer!  We love texture and thick, rich papers and they have such a wide variety.  Check out the images below to see a small sampling of what they can do:

Ah texture!  I could pet this invitation all day long!

MY FAVORITE!!  Well, you just have to feel it and lay eyes on it for yourself.  It’s the most luxurious paper you’ve ever held in your hands…mmm…

They also offer by-hand calligraphy services…

…and custom napkins…

Sean and I have been to Europe, Canada, Mexico, and much of the United States but California has always evaded us.  We’ve just never had a reason to go and yet we feel compelled to be able to say we’ve been there – it’s just something you need to do, you know?  Last week, while in Vegas, we were told about an awesome ghost town in California and so finally we had our reason!  This place was killer cool!  Random photo-ing ensued.  Observe and enjoy…

The empty swings out in the middle of the desert were just eerie!

We felt like we were walking through an old Dharma Initiative Camp – craaaazay!  Don’t you think??

Ah!  I love love LOVE texture and windows and doors!

Self portraitizing…

I had no idea that palm trees do this

The dry lake bed was so cool!  We thought we would be walking out onto sand but it was crunchy soda.

Window + Old chipping rusty paint = awesome!

and finally, my homage to Ansel Adams from the drive back to Vegas.

Thanks for viewing our randomness! )  Hope everyone’s week is off to a great start!

John and Dalisa are some of our favorite people!  They are so much fun, super creative, and extremely giving.  In addition to everything they have going on with their studio, Alt F Photography, they also started the Roadside Families Project in response to the void they saw in the lives of many photographers.  As important as photographers know photography is, they rarely have even a single image with all members of their family in it and so John and Dalisa traveled around the country last summer photographing photographers and encouraging all of them to do the same for other photographers.  This is why I was surprised when it dawned on me that I saw no family photos of the Coopers hanging in their house when we went to visit them last fall!  As of last week, things have been set into motion to make sure that will no longer be the case! )

We planned the shoot for the dry lake bed in the desert which we were SO excited about!  Beautiful blue skies, the cracked texture of the lake floor and a light breeze with the mountains in the distance sounded amazing!  The vision shifted slightly though as we pulled up and saw this:

This massive dust storm was incredible we couldn’t have possibly had a better family to propose getting out in it to! )  Do you want to walk right into the biggest dust storm John has ever seen out here in his 20-something years in Vegas?  Yes please!

Off into the middle of that huge cloud of raging dirt we went.  It was pretty challenging to shoot in because most of the time, it looked like this:

But, when the wind died down for a minute or two in between the large gusts, it looked like this!

…and this…

…and that was just so unbelievably worth the sand blasting our skin received and the 3 showers it took to remove the dirt!

I realize it’s totally contrary to the kosher way in which to build a blog post to show you my favorites first but it worked better that way for my story!  Anti-climatical or not, here are some non-dust storm images that I really like too. )

JMC and Sam…

Dalisa and Ros…

The beautiful couple and their other babies – Bachi and Visa Marie (the boy )

Oh yeah!  I almost forgot this one – another favorite…

A quick one of our disheveled selves by John

Some fun randomness…

and lastly, the whole crew.

Thank you guys so much for playing in the dirt with us! )  We truly are getting spoiled by seeing you so often lately and we miss you already!  Come visit Tennessee soon!

Thanks for looking everyone! )

- Mel and Sean

Yay for my favorites!  Ladies and Gentlemen, I introduce to you – TENNIS TEAM EXTREME

That Tennis Team Extreme…they are so hot right now!

If tennis teams had moves like this, I think it could easily overtake football.  Take note!

Well maybe don’t so much take note of this one, unless you’re stronger than Phil. )  The second move had a first failed attempt…it was great in theory…

since that move didn’t get off the ground, a more simple solution was opted for

The original idea here was to add a tennis ball but I like it better as Phil just plain hitting Peter in the face with a racket. )

With Tennis Team Extreme, everyone is a winner!

Right Adrienne? (For the record, I think this should be your new profile image ;P)

Ok!  I am SO LATE getting to packing for Vegas so I’d better run!  We’ll be back next Wednesday!  Hope you guys enjoyed these at least half us much as we enjoyed being stupid and making them! )  Have a great weekend!!

So you saw where it all started…then someone felt that the tennis court out front really needed to be included too and we made the trip to Target to pick up sweat bands.  Somewhere along the way it was decided that the girls needed to be in over-the-top photos as well and a trip to Target became a hunt for the tackiest things Target is capable of supplying to the general public. )  We’re just not as funny as the guys and we know it so if we can’t beat them at comedy, we would be beat them at all out tackiness! 

I love the guys’ toes in so many of the shots! )

That’s my Target puppy Fifi – her “Major Attitude” t-shirt inspired my look

See?

I love that Adrian’s mut doesn’t match her outfit at all and that she holds it like a football

It was the windiest day ever and Mindy was ready to kill whoever had the idea for her to hold that umbrella but isn’t it fun??

I’m sure Peter’s shot from here was good but it can’t possibly be as good as this!  I’m not sure what’s funnier – the rolled up shorts legs or the fact that he still go wet! )

You can tell by our very white legs that we don’t actually lay out by the pool – ever.

Just another day at the beach…

 I have to say, you’ll have to check the other girl’s blogs because I do think we were at least a little funny but Sean’s flair for style overpowered in his images. ;o)

Whitney and Peter
Adrienne and Chris
Mindy and Phil 

So you’ve seen a bit of the guys outfits but wait until you see their tennis skills… )