Jessica Lemmons Photography Blog, Longview Washington (Wa.) photographer.

A few weeks back Brian and Allie tied the knot here in town at the Expo Center.   I was so excited for Allie to get married – her and I have been friends from WAY back, we were waitresses together after high school, and she played a big part in my husbands proposal to me over 5 years ago.   You might recognize the two of them from their e-session.

I had SO much fun with them – their wedding was so gorgeous, joyful and full of happy tears throughout the whole day.

I had a blast with you two!   Thank you for having me.  :-)

The details:

The gorgeous bride:

The lovely bridesmaids:

and….handsome groom and groomsmen:

Their adorable little family:

The ceremony:

Husband and wife:

I have to say, this was probably one of my favorite parts – the maid of honor shared a somewhat embarrassing story (it was GREAT!) and Allie’s reactions to it had me cracking up!

Congrats guys!   I’m so happy for you two to start this new chapter of your lives together!!!

Nearly two weeks ago I had the honor of photographing Nick and Samantha’s wedding – this isn’t the first time I’ve photographed either of them, you might remember Sam and Nick from their e-session, or Sam from Trash the Dress – part 1 or part 2.  They have been amazing to work with for sure!

Before I go into details about the wedding though, I have to give a HUGE thank you to Nate Yaro for shooting with me.  My husband has been shooting with me for awhile now, but two days before the wedding he had to be hospitalized.   Nate was amazing and said he would help me with just two days notice…..Nate shot with me all last year.  It was a huge relief to have someone who knew what they were doing and knew my routine, shooting with me that day.  Of course I was worried sick the whole day about my husband, so I have to give an extra special thank you to him for helping me keep my mind on the job which normally is no problem, but with a husband in the hospital it was a little harder than normal.   So thank you Nate – It was a huge, major blessing having you there to help. Also – several of the photos shown below are from him….he did awesome!  :-)

So….on to Nick and Sam – we started out the day at Samantha’s parents home getting ready for the day –

While I was busy taking pictures of the girls, Nate headed over to where the guys were getting ready and grabbed some photos of them.

Then it was on to formals -

We had hoped that the rain would hold up for us so we could do some outdoor photos, but the weather didn’t cooperate.  Fortunately though, the wedding was going to happen at Fathers House in Longview, which my office shares a parking lot with.  The office building I’m located in was built in the 20′s and the current owner of the building has kept with the vintage theme in the building’s decor.  So….we decided to hop across the parking lot and take advantage of the crazy carpet and decor outside of my office suite, and the fun furniture in my office for an indoor shoot.

Then (amazingly!) the rain went away and the sun came out, so we decided to run across the street for a quick shot of the wedding party outdoors -

Then it was time for the ceremony -

Nate captured this one with his wide-angle lens.

And then we headed over to a beautiful reception at the McClelland Arts Center

Of course I have many, MANY more photos, but I could go on with this wedding all day, and this is, after all, a preview so I will stop here and make them wait for  the rest.  :-)

Thank you Samantha and Nick for having me as your photographer!  Congratulations on your new life together!

Mike and Kelly got married on Saturday.   It was a perfectly gorgeous day for a wedding, and I couldn’t have been more happy to be there.  They got married at the First Christian Church here in Longview, and the ceremony and reception were just lovely.    You could just tell these two are absolutely perfect for each other and so in love!  Mike surprised Kelly the morning of with a very sweet note and a gift of some beautiful pearls for her to wear with her dress.  It was so sweet that I had to take a photo of it.     She made an absolutely stunning bride, and Mikes expression was priceless when he saw her for the first time as she walked down the aisle.

My assistant Nate did a fabulous job helping me capture their day, and several of the images that I’m showing below are from his cameras.  It’s really been wonderful having him help me – I couldn’t ask for a better assistant!    Thank you Nate!  :-)

A huge thank you to Mike and Kelly as well, it has been wonderful getting to know you two and sharing in your special day.  I hope that you cherish these photographs for many, many years to come, and I pray for God’s richest blessings on you two as you begin your new life together!

I met up with Mike and Kelly yesterday for their engagement session out at Willow Grove.    I’m scheduled to photograph their wedding on July 18th and I’m looking forward to it!  I love it when couples choose to do an engagment session prior to thier wedding – it’s such a great time for us all to get familiar with each other, the bride and groom get a chance to see how I work and and I get a feel for how the couple is going to interact on thier wedding day.   When the wedding day comes, the photography seems to flow that much smoother because we are all already familiar with each other.   It makes my job a piece of cake! 

I really enjoyed getting to know these two a little better – it was fun getting them to laugh and I *hope* they enjoyed themselves as much as I did!  Thank you  Mike and Kelly and I look forward to seeing you two again here soon!

Well…..sister-in-law that is!    Sunday night I did an engagement session for my husbands little brother and his fiance Nicole.   These two are so perfect together, I am just gushing with excitement for the two of them.  I’ll be shooting their wedding July 25th in Rose Valley and I just can’t wait.

Nicole is  professional cake decorator, she works at Market Place here in Longview and does a phenomenal job decorating cakes.  Her cakes are works of art…..it’s amazing!  I would HIGHLY recommend her for any wedding cakes or birthday cakes or any other type of cake for that matter, they really are beautiful and unique, and of course yummy!

Craig works with my husband at the family business in Kelso.   The two of them get along great, and we all love hanging out together when our crazy schedules don’t get in the way.    I’ve been waiting a few years for him to finally get married and I am so excited that it’s happening soon, and to a girl we all just love!

I love these two.  Enjoy.  

This one had me cracking up – it’s so “them.”  

So I totally loved the soundtrack for this particular wedding – Beatles songs and covers played for quite a few of the events during the wedding and I haven’t been able to get the songs out of my head since!

Judah and Becca had a seriously BEAUTIFUL wedding.   Everything was so classy and stylish.  The couple was amazing too.  Judah I’ve known….well, forever – we were childhood friends, I guess we were even dedicated together as babies (though I don’t remember that far back).  He’s just one of those genuinely nice people that you can’t help but like.  Becca I just met two weeks ago, and I have to say that I was definately impressed by Judah’s pick for his bride!  She was so sweet to me throughout the whole day and had been to me throughout all of the last minute planning too.   I don’t think I’ve ever had such a laid back and friendly bride.

I had a wonderful time…weddings can often be stressful to photograph, but that was SOOO not the case with this wedding.  Every thing was planned so perfectly ahead of time (their wedding planner Molly Guler did an awesome job there!) and so all of the key events just rolled right along.   It was amazing just getting to be a part of it!

Thank you so much for having me Judah and Becca!  I was honered to get to be a part of your day and I hope you enjoy these photos for years to come!