It’s Here!

It’s not the 15th yet! You are right but we just couldn’t wait to share… share what? OUR NEW WEBSITE! That’s right! Head on over to nexttomestudios.com and check it out for yourself. We couldn’t be happier with how it turned out and we think you’ll agree. Have a look and don’t be shy… let us know what you think!

But before you take off, there are a few more things we need to tell you:

First, along with our new website comes a new blog. As such, you will need to update your RSS feeds or Google Readers with our new blog link nexttomestudios.com/blog/ to keep up with us as we have moved everything over and will no longer be posting to this blog.

Speaking of blogging, along with our new website we also posted a sweet engagement session we did with Buck & Taylor to the new blog to kick things off that you wont want to miss. Promise.

Lastly, we need to give some some major props and a huge thanks to Cody at Caava Design who is the phenomenal master mind and designer behind our new brand. Give him a holler if you are looking for a great designer. You’ll be glad that you did.

Enjoy and we will will catch you on the new blog!

–C&J

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Rob & Stephanie’s Backyard Poolside Wedding

Happy 4th of July, everybody! From where I sit in our little home office, I can hear patriotic country music being blasted from one of our neighboring condos… gotta love east county. You know what I love about the 4th of July? I get an entire week off from work, and it is just delightful. The school I work for is year round (equals no real summer break for me), so the one week I do get off is extremely welcome. We kicked off my first day off by traveling up to Long Beach to capture a dockside wedding for the awesome Stacey and Paul, where we were forced to drink raspberry sparkletini and specially brewed “Paul Beer” all day.

Forced, I tell you.

Today we’re heading to Ramona to celebrate the holiday with some of our good friends, but first we promised you the full post of Stephanie and Rob’s wedding. These two are ridiculously cute first of all. Just silly and goofy and so fun to follow around all day. They had a beautiful backyard wedding in early December, just before all the leaves started falling from the trees. Everything was golden yellow and deep green—a super amazing background for first look pictures for sure. You might also spot a former couple of Next to Me Studios in these pictures—Stephanie’s sister and brother-in-law, Katie and Mike, got hitched last summer at the Marina Village. It’s the absolute best when we get to see our people again!

-J

Rob & Stephanie’s Backyard Poolside Wedding Preview

Here we are. July 1. Exactly half way through 2012. Jordan and I have had our hands full these last 2 weeks so it’s going to take us a few more days to get the full post up and keep you all apprised of the latest happenings. But we couldn’t leave you without a first of the month post so here’s the deal; Here is a little stand-alone preview of what’s to come. That’s right! I’m not cheating you out of shots for the coming post… no sir! Enjoy these now and then come back in a few days for a whole new post with lots more of Rob and Stephanie’s wedding goodness. See you in a few days. Enjoy!

—C

Make sure you come back now, ya hear?!

Brumfield Maternity

I’m having a hard time focusing my mind on words for this post because honestly, I’m super excited right now and my mind is racing. Jordan and I got word from our amazing designer that our brand new website and blog is off to the programmer and we cant wait to pull the sheet off it for you. Though this is why I’m excited, it’s not why I can’t focus. Now that we are getting close to launching, Jordan and I are looking at revamping all our brand pieces like packaging, thank you cards, new product offerings, communication pieces, etc. Everything is wide open right now with possibilities and it’s fun! We placed some orders today and if you want to see what we have cooking you might just have to book a little session with us to get all our goodies. ;) But here’s the scary (and also awesome) part. In two weeks we start our heaviest stretch of shooting for us ever with 6 weddings in 7 weeks… and oh yeah, Jordan and I have our full-time day jobs during the week too (not to mention that Jordan is finishing up her Master’s degree in the new couple weeks too). So that doesn’t exactly leave a lot of down time, and therefore we’re scrambling to get all our brand related ‘to do’s’ knocked out before we dive into a wonderful sea of editing wedding collections (which we are thoroughly looking forward to)!

But before we start flooding you with wedding post after wedding post, I thought I’d sneak in one more family-ish session with Matt and Donna’s maternity session. We’ve gotten to know Matt and Donna really well over the last year and Jordan even worked at the same summer camp with Donna back in the college days. We got a late start as we lost track of time, talking at our place before heading down to the Sweetwater Reservoir. We scrambled to capture the last little bits of golden light as the sun disappeared between the hills and the temperature dropped dramatically (which none of us were prepared for). But freezing temperatures or not, Matt and Donna were still all smiles and big laughs—I think they even made us laugh more than we made them. Especially when Matt was so confused about why we spent so much money on lenses that don’t zoom, and while Jordan and Donna tried to find a variety of colored letter blocks to spell “James”—only to realize there was no escape from three red letters in a row. We did a bit of trespassing again, and a good thing too! All the epic lake shots at the end we got were totally worth the risk I think. Hmmm, I think that I am going to design up some photographer trespassing exception stickers that I can slap on those no trespassing signs when we are out… I wonder if they would fly with the cops?… hmmm, I might be on to something… Anyways, little James has since been born and I know for a fact that you are going to be meeting him in the future, blogger friends. Enjoy!

–C

Bishop and Moses Families

Chris has been on me to get this blog out like the barley I burned into one of our best pots earlier today. As in, really, really on me (and can’t be scrubbed off no matter how much I try). Probably this is because last month, when it was my turn to blog, I was two days late in gettin’ it done. Luckily for me, this week has not been too hectic for us. Since this is the last week of one of my final Master’s classes, I’m actually really surprised about the lack of intense work. Maybe they’re trying to be nice to us before we start our capstone projects next week… Whatever the reason, it’s been a freeing week with time to go grocery shopping, find delicious, healthy recipes, meal plan, and burn the heck out of our pots. (Sigh. That was a good pot.)

Enough about my cooking woes, though!

Let’s get down to business here. Specifically, the two adorables who are showcasing today’s post.

Oh, how I love taking pictures of these two babies.

Seriously, there is just too much cuteness to stand it when these two are around.

What else do I love? That we’ve gotten to photograph their entire first year!  From newborns, to six monthers, and now they’re a year old! And now that I think about it, we’ve actually had a fourth shoot with Will—his pre-coming-into-the-world photo shoot—aka, Chris and Shay’s maternity shoot.

These two bambinos, and Nelly’s big brother Alex (who apparently won a big award at his sixth grade graduation today, good job, Alex!), are just the sweetest, most fun to photograph kids on the planet. Look at those smiles! Look at those mischievous grins! Look at the excitement of playing with gigantic candy! Look at those great big brother skills!

Cousins. They’re the coolest, right?

-J

It’s a girl!

Congratulations to this beautiful family—a baby sister is on the way! More pictures of the big reveal to come. :)

– J

Aubrey Maternity

Happy middle of May, readers! Is it just me, or is this year flying by a ridiculous rate? It’s already nearly graduation time again at the school where I work, and I could have sworn we just did last year’s graduation. Time is nuts that way.

Well, we have a very special family shoot to share with you all tonight. Special, because it involves one of our favorite families of all time, the Aubreys! Yes, you’ve seen them here before at least once or twice, and there will be many more to come, let me assure you, because their little family just keeps growing! Baby # 2, who makes her technical debut in these family photos, was born in February, and because time is flying so fast, I’m sure we’ll be doing her six month shots before we can blink!

But back to this shoot. Let me tell you something about this particular day: it was freezing! Jen, Justin, and Zoey were such troopers, but just look at those rosy cheeks Zo is sportings. That is cold, my friends. But that just means we had an amazing shoot with lots of running (to keep warm), big wrestling cuddles, and comfy family-sized blankets wrapped around everyone. Oh, how I love this family!

– J

Christian & Devin’s Day of the Dead Wedding

Oh look at that, it’s the first of the month again. Where does time go? I feel like this year is just blazing by. I mean seriously, May already?!? Jordan and I are just getting to the tail end of a pretty packed couple months of shooting/editing. We wish we could just turn around and hand our clients their pictures right after their shoot, but that’s only the beginning for us. The second half of our image magic happens with editing after our day jobs, usually into the late hours of the night over the weeks that follow the shoot. We’ve been keeping on track, and somehow during those recent late nights editing we stumbled on to watching the show The Walking Dead. Have you seen this show? It’s done extremely well and to be honest, feels a little too real sometimes. It can definitely get your heart pounding.

Speaking of things that are well done, you have to check out the wedding of Christian and Devin. Christian and I go way back—he was my supervisor at the design company where I currently hold my day job, back when I was an intern and had just started my career. He taught me  about the printing process, prepress, and design, so we spent a lot of time working together. So I was quite honored when he contacted us about being part of their wedding.

Christian and Devin are certainly individuals, and that really came out in their “Day of the Dead” themed wedding. But there was nothing morbid about their celebration with tons of bright colors, wonderful patterns, and lots of love beaming from them and all their friends and family. Christian even designed their super rad logo that they had printed onto shot glasses, which were then used by their guests to do tequila shots during the toasts and also served as party favors. How cool is that!

Trespassing Six Month Olds: Drips Family

Oh, the shame! Chris promised our loyal followers a post every first and fifteenth of the month… and it’s the seventeenth. Oops. Don’t blame Chris, loyal followers; he reminded me on the twelfth. (Double oops.) I don’t suppose I can blame it on working on my Master’s? Or perhaps editing Easter photos? Or preparing for an intense interview last week? No? Darn.

Well, hopefully, I can make up for the late post with an extra dose of cuteness, yes? Miss Brooklyn here is just about the most adorable, most cuddly, and most willing-to-smile-for-the-camera six-month-old anyone has ever had the opportunity to photograph. Hands down. She came out of the car seat grinning and didn’t stop all afternoon.

What’s the trespassing all about, you ask? Oh, not much. Just when you find the perfect location- with a lake, and yellow trees, and piles of leaves to play in- signs can’t keep out a baby. :)

Zoey’s Two Year Tea Party

Well hello there! Jordan and I have been crazy busy. Stupidly busy, actually. But we are trying to be busy with good things. Like posting awesome blog posts. Speaking of which, how are you with commitments? I happen to be pretty good with them but I have never made a commitment to you on this blog. So as of today, that is changing (no Aprils fools here). Here’s the deal, we will be posting twice a month now, on the 1st and 15th. We normally post about twice a month anyways but have always been sporadic in the timing in-between posts. So now you have it, mark your calendars, 1st and 15th. Think of it like a payday for your eyes :)

I mentioned we have been busy. But with what you ask? Well first off Jordan is finishing up her Masters in education. She has a few months left and she even got her single subject teaching credential in math a few months back and has been applying for teaching positions (so if any of you know of any teaching openings, let us know! She is amazing and even tutors on the side and has her BA in english. She is crazy smart). I’ve been working double time at my agency as I run their Production Department, trying to meet all the deadlines for our local, national and global clients. This might come as a shock to some of you because no, we don’t do our photography full-time. Like most things, Next to Me Studios had a humble beginning just 14 months ago as a hobby for Jordan and I. And though it is growing—thanks to our amazing clients and their word of mouth—it’s costly turning a hobby into a business that pays the bills. However, after working an extremely long week, there is nothing that Jordan and I look forward to more than hitting the weekend with our cameras to capture your wedding, engagement or family to capture your memories and turning them into our art. We put in countless hours after our day jobs editing your images so that we can deliver to you the best collection of art that we can produce. We love it. So much in fact that we spend practically all our freetime on you. That’s right, YOU. So if you like what we do, help us spread the word to your friends and family by facebooking, tweeting and pinning us if you are moved by our work. Only you give us the opportunity to do what we love to do.

Speaking of love, Zoey is the product to two very dear friends of ours. Jordan has known Jenafer and Justin since middle school (she would like to note Justin was her cohort in earning her first detention ever in the fifth grade). Jenafer was an immense help to us in our own wedding by being an amazing coordinator, along with doing hair and makeup for Jordan and most of the bridesmaids. (Though she doesn’t actually do wedding coordination, she is so amazing that she was offered a job by our caterer by the end of our night.) You’ve seen them on our blog before here, (and you’ll be seeing them again soon, as they just had their second baby in February!). Needless to say, they are rad people and so is their little 2 year old Zoey. For Zoey’s 2nd birthday shoot we went all out with balloons, vintage tea sets, pearls and swings. Pretty much everything a 2 year old could ask for. ENJOY!

– C

Wedding: Tyler & Andrea

Hello, everyone in blogger land! How’s everyone enjoying that daylight savings time? (Both my hands are raised.) DST is the day of the year I looooong for during the cold winter months when it’s dark at 4:30. Sadly, I was stuck in bed sick  this weekend, and didn’t even get to enjoy our first extended day of sunshine and happiness.

But we do have some sunshine and happiness to showcase on the ol’ blog today! I present to you the wedding of Tyler and Andrew Windom, which took place on a beautiful day in early October. These two lovely people chose the North Chapel in San Diego’s Liberty Station to share their vows and party it up with friends and family. And party it up they did. The people at this wedding were dancing machines- just look at all those kids bustin’ a move!

Tyler and Andrea, we so enjoyed getting to hang out with you on your special day!

– J

Torres & Family

Let’s talk about big families today. I love big families. Especially ones with small children. It’s all running and shouting and playing and laughing, and it’s so. much. fun. I only had an “immediate family” growing up, so I’ve learned to really appreciate the idea of aunts, uncles, and cousins. Luckily for me, Chris has a big ol’ Italian family on one side, and a big ol’ French family on the other side, so I finally get to be part of one of those awesome big families.

Speaking of awesome big families, that’s exactly what we have on the blog today! So weird! ;) Do you remember Vyolet of the leopard-print nursery and shaggy chic rug? We took her newborn pictures months and months ago, and she liked us so much, she decided to invite us back for a big group shoot with her parents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents. I’m not going to lie, I may or may not have fallen in love with one or two (or all) of her handsome little cousins. I may or may not have also said to Chris, after we’d packed up all our camera equipment and started to drive away, “All I want in life is my own four-year-old just like those little guys!” Seriously, these were some sweet little dudes. And they clearly adore their newest little cousin, Princess Vyolet.

So to sum up, big families are rad, we love getting to hang out with them, and I cannot wait for a sweet four-year-old of my own. ;)

Enjoy!

– J