"this is where 'cool' comes to die"

This weekend I traveled to Charlotte, where my incredible Maid of Honor had planned the BEST Bachelorette party EVER. I was literally lavished with attention and spoiled rotten by all of my wonderful friends. After lunch, pedicures and a POLE DANCING class (ha!), we went to dinner where I received some very beautiful and thoughtful gifts and then spent the rest of the evening out on the town dancing and celebrating. I had the best time and enjoyed every second I spent with my friends.

Julie, my Maid of Honor, is the most selfless person I have ever met and, along with my other friends, spent weeks ahead of time planning the perfect weekend. Not only did she put everything together, she actually paid for me the entire time and devoted all of herself to make sure I had fun. And honestly, I don't even think I deserved it! I can be ..ahem... a pretty bad friend at times. I am absolutely horrible at returning phone calls, and am not really the most thoughtful person in the world. I don't even know what I did to deserve Julie, but thank you GOD! I honestly don't know what I would do without her.

Sometimes I can get very self conscious about making new friends here in Texas. I always wonder "Will they like me?", "Will they think I'm fun?" and while I have been very lucky to meet a handful of really fantastic girls here, I also always know that my friends in Charlotte love me for me and it means so much. I hate being away from them and while it really, really, REALLY sucks to leave them I know that anytime I see them we will have as much fun as we did this weekend. Whether we are sitting around just talking, or practicing lap dances at Pole Dance Charlotte.

Julie, Christine, Danielle, Rosie, Megan, Kim -
I LOVE YOU GIRLS SO MUCH!!! Thank you for everything.


(please excuse the poor quality of the pictures - I quickly grabbed my Dad's old point and shoot before leaving at 5 am Friday morning!)

My mom and I are going to meet with Jordan Payne today at the La Cima Club! Jordan is the AMAZING wedding planner helping us with the wedding. To me she is the epitome of a Texas girl - big blonde hair, big beautiful smile, big southern accent and BIG infectious laugh. She does wonderful things and I am so excited to get to work with her! LOVE!

I'm still trying to figure out this bloggggg thing. Does anyone know how to include larger pictures? The "large" size that blogspot gives you is just not large enough for me! I'm in TEXAS - everything is supposed to be BIGGER!

Because this IS a photography blog, I'm including a couple of pictures of my FAVE Texas couple, Sarah and Brandon! They are newlyweds and also have the cutest little boy ever, Mason. Sarah and Brandon are one of the happiest couples I know and I just love spending time with them! I did some engagement pictures for them in Austin and it was a really fun trip.










Still working on the awkwardness! Bear with me!

-Darien

a brand new day!

Even though I have blogged before, this NEW blog is just a little bit intimidating...
With it, I am attempting to start my journey into the world of professional photography and that in itself is incredibly overwhelming, but also very exciting!

For those who don't already know me, a little introduction:

My last name isn't Paris JUST YET, but give it a few months! I am marrying my best friend in the entire world on May 15th and absolutely cannot wait to start my life with him. Dan is everything to me, including the voice of encouragement.

I moved from Charlotte, NC to Texas in 2007. I am learning to love it here, but there are definitely days where I still struggle with being away from all of my closest friends, and the city where I grew up.

I have always been interested in art, and especially photography. I took a few photography classes in my early college years and learned the absolute basics of manual shooting. Within the past 8 or so years (DEAR GOD time flies by so quickly!) I have become even more passionate about photography and my skills, as well as my eye, have markedly improved. I love being behind the camera and there is nothing else in this world that I would rather do with my life.

Goodness, this really does feel awkward... I'm sure it reads that way too. I will get used to it , I promise!

In the meantime...



Jeff & Andrea were married in Grapevine this past Saturday and I was very lucky to be able to attend! Jeff is also Dan's best man in our upcoming wedding as Dan was his.



-Darien