Back in October of last year, my aunt sent me a link to this beautiful old Episcopal church about 15 minutes from her ranch, and I immediately had a vision and started dreaming. From the first moment, I saw the beautiful architecture, I KNEW I had to do a photo shoot there.

So, I made a mood board and started pestering people.

First, it was the local dioceses who owned the 167-year-old St. Mary’s (the church). I called them at least 10 times, sent emails, and texts, begged people who lived there to go ask them to call me back, and then finally I reached the right number and person and received approval to have a photoshoot. Very lovely people, just VERY busy.

Secondly, I needed models. My cousin Brett was getting married in my aunt's town, so I was already planning to be there in March, and I knew that a good majority of my (very large) extended family would be attending - including a couple of my cousins who had previous modeling experience and FABULOUS hair. So after some great conversation about expectations and what was responsible clothing for a 14-year-old and her mother, as well as getting my friend Kelli to agree to wear a wedding dress, I got yes's from 4 models.

The next step was securing dresses that fit the needs of my models, my vision, and the location. When I say I scoured the internet, I mean I was on every website from Amazon to local boutiques. After over 100 searches, and hundreds of pages, I found Raw & Golden Rentals. Kylie and her sister run this online rental company in Utah and she was so incredibly sweet when I had questions about colors and the process. We found four dresses that elevated my expectations and worked better than I could have hoped for.

Then it was time to find a hair and make-up artist. Now, St. Francisville isn't exactly the middle of nowhere, but it's not Dallas. I reached out to a few people but no one seemed very interested in driving out from Baton Rouge, so I finally just asked my cousin Ashley if she knew anyone. Turns out, her sister-in-law, Liz Goodfellow, is a talented hair and makeup artist at OohLaLa Salon. YALL. This woman is magic and took my inspiration, made it happen, and did it all in less than 2 hours for all three models who all have very thick hair. Plus it was raining that day and you would never know it from the shots and I had them RUNNING through the rain for most of the shoot.

After that, we needed flowers. I also went through a few florists and got ghosted by a couple (no shade, again, it was a busy weekend for a lot of people). Then, I was connected to Mia Sophia Florist. Mrs. Debbie is a gem of a human being and I was beyond excited by her vision for the florals, especially for the portrait chair that my father-in-law gave me - I knew it belonged at the shoot.

The Thursday before, I loaded up my car and drove the 7 hours to St. Francisville where I spent the weekend celebrating my sweet cousins, danced, and drank a little too much. But when Monday rolled around, it was GAME TIME. It had been threatening to storm, which was ideal weather for what I was wanting, but it had me on edge. I didn't want thunder and lighting, but a good mist was what I was hoping for.

Liz knocked out hair and makeup, we had hamburgers and tried out the dresses on everyone. Raw & Golden Rentals had sent me an extra dress because she knew it would fit the theme, and it fit my cousin Maddie, PERFECTLY. Once we had decided on dress and jewelry combos, we headed out to meet the incredible volunteers who were on site while we had access to St. Mary’s. We drove through some rain, but when we pulled onto the gravel driveway for the church, we were all immediately so excited.

The church sits on roughly 2 acres of land and is backed up by woods and farmland. The red brick and towering features are incredible in person. But nothing could have prepared me for the stunning insides. Simple, tall arched windows surround the entirety of the structure and let in soft, natural light. A large window perched over the raised altar space, and honestly took my breath away.

Mrs. Debbie pulled up with the florals and we got to work. We had 3 hours in the stunning building where Kelli and Austin shared kisses, Maddie and Georgie danced, I upset the local residents by stumbling into their homes (sorry spider dude), and we used protein shakes to prop open some windows. Rain pattered off and on outside, and we used up every inch of the gorgeous space. My friends and cousins indulged my strange requests and poses, ran through the rain, and laughed with me through it all. Georgie had even brought her wedding dress made by my talented Aunt Debbie, so we had an outfit change and got back to work.

After about two and a half hours straight, my brain emptied of all thoughts and dehydration took over. I looked around at my awesome team and asked if anyone had any more ideas and was met with equally tired faces. So we packed up and said goodbye to St. Mary’s.

I took over 2,000 photos and ended up editing just over 300. The photos in this post are some of my top favorite shots, but I plan to share them all over time. I am so thankful to everyone who helped me - especially my husband who listened to my mumblings and let me talk to him about this shoot almost endlessly for the last 6 months. Most of my thanks go to my Aunt Liz. Had she not sent me a photo of this gorgeous church, I would never have started to plot and ended up with these incredible images.