I have reach that point, you know, the one where you have the itch to travel anywhere as long as it is somewhere but here!  I am there.  I’m ready to smell the breeze off the ocean, to smell the scent of something new or to hear the sounds of laughter and curiosity.  Jonathan & I have always been big travelers but with the addition of our little bundle of joy, we have experienced a small dry spell from our normal escapades. But do not worry, this is just a stage in our lives, we have a trip to Sanibel Island  coming up in May but still this is too far away.  We have a few trips to the Houston area schedule but this is too small.  I’m looking for something more and now…ahhh how our lives change over time.  I will keep you posted as to what schemes I think up to get Jonathan to take Emma and I somewhere.  In the mean time I will share some photos from good times past.

Paris earlier this year!

At the beautiful Paris Opera House.  We watched a modern ballet there and it was quite interesting to say the least!  The Opera House itself is absolutely beautiful!!!

An AMAZING restaurant in France that now has a location in NYC that I can’t wait to visit!

Here is the whole crew from our last trip to Europe!

The outdoor market where we found the French paintings that now hang in Baby Emma’s beautiful nursery!

View from our house in Antibes.  Absolutely breathtaking!

France becomes us don’t you think?

2 very tired yet happy people living it up…well technically 3 tired people  Baby Emma is about 4 months along in this photo!

The Avignon countryside

The Louvre Museum

This trip was such an amazing trip!  We got to experience, see, eat & try things we have never done before.  I think Jonathan is officially in love with Europe now and I can’t wait to experience it not pregnant where I can really embrace all sides of the culture.  I finish the post from memory lane with this.

Here is the latest installment of my favorite little model.  Isn’t she cute?

This last one is my favorite image I have taken of our baby Emma.  I think you tell why.

OK, so I am going to try and not spam you with pictures of my baby girl, but I am going to be honest its going to be hard.  I mean come on, she’s perfect!  This is her second photo shoot.  I think the pastel streamers were the perfect touch to soften up this shoot.  Baby photography is something that I am starting to really enjoy.  Maybe there is a new branch of Jonathan Ivy on the horizon!

Click here to view her first photo session!

This probably is one of my ‘most favoritest’ photo shoots I have ever done.  My newborn baby girls photo session was a lot of fun.  To be totally honest I am in no way a newborn baby photographer.  I’m a pretty good wedding photographer, at least thats what my mom tells me, but I have no idea what to do with a newborn.  Before baby Emma was born the most experience I have ever had with a baby is reading “The Caveman’s Pregnancy Companion” that my photography mentor gave me because he knew I had no idea what I was doing.  So when Emma was born ( 6 days ago, feels like forever, like she has always been here) I was blown away at how instantly she became the most important thing in my life and that nothing was ever going to be the same.  (Emma is hiccuping in the background as I write this and I just thought you should know, its pretty cute) So yeah I said it, I’m a sucker, Emma is going to be a Daddy’s girl forever.  So this photo session is actually the third attempt at it since she came home from the hospital and I think I finally figured it out.  I now present to you Emma Eisley Foster’s 1st successful newborn baby photos!

Huge Thank You to Jamie our designer for getting Emma this awesome hammock!  We obviously had a ton of fun with it!

Well most of y’all know that we have been anxiously awaiting the arrival of our little one Emma Eilsey and we are excited to say, she is on her way! Samantha was admitted into the hospital Thursday night and is ready to get this show on the road. We can not wait to see if Emma has Samantha’s red hair and Jonathan’s button nose.  We will keep everyone updated on the progress and we promise the cutests pictures EVER are only hours away!

So, as you can guess, we may be out of touch for just a couple days while we learn how to be parents. We are so excited to take on this crazy, wild ride we keep hearing about from other parents.

If you do not already follow us on Facebook, now is the time to as all up to date information will be found there. You can check out the Jonathan Ivy Photography page or feel free to swing by Samantha or Jonathan’s Facebook page. Samantha’s page has more photos (see her Baby Foster album) and more live information as we all think she has a slight addiction to the web.

We also wanted to share a few of our favorite maternity photos. While we are not maternity photographers by trade, we did have a lot of fun taking these. The first set of photos you will see below are by Jonathan and our assistant Jamie out at White Rock Lake. Samantha is about 8 months pregnant here:

These next set of photos are by the amazing Alycia Alvarez Photography! She is the best at maternity, newborn, children’s and boudoir photography. You have to check out her work!

Isn’t she amazing! We love Alycia!

Well, we are off. We will keep you posted and you can rest assure that as soon as Jonathan can get this little one to the hudio and in front of his backdrops you will have pictures of her. Y’all have a wonderful week!

So now that we have little baby emma on the way we are nesting and getting the upstairs to our hudio (home-studio) ready.  We are starting by laying wood floors upstairs except for the master bedroom.  Here is a time lapse video I created of the install process!  Yes… I am that nerdy.

So Jonathan and I were so excited when Elizabeth with After Yes wedding planning invited us to be a part of After Hours with After Yes which is a gathering for couples and vendors to mix and mingle in a unique setting.  This month the party was held at Sambuca in Uptown and it featured so many fabulous vendors.  Here are just a couple of photos from his fabulous event.  We hope to see you at the next After Hours.  Follow After Yes on facebook for more details.

Planner: After Yes

Hair Design: Sonia Trevino

Makeup: Faces by Briana

Gowns: Bridal Boutique in Lewisville, TX

Models: Monet Mercer, Rebecca Smith, Shelley Kurian

Stylings: November Lily

How cute are the little wedding party boxes?  These were created by November Lily as ideas to be used when creating “day of” gift boxes for your wedding party.  For more tips and ideas be sure to check out stylings by November Lily!

Jewelry Show: Stella & Dot- Tamytha Smith

Brides, Grooms and vendors mixin’ and minglin’ while enjoying drinks and appetizers paid for by Sambuca and After Yes!  Everyone loves complimentary yummy food and drinks right?!

Maps: Merry Maps

Photography: Jonathan Ivy Photography

Partners in Crime!  These 3 lovely ladies make things happen!

From all of us to all of you, we hope to see you at the next After Hours with After Yes!  Have a fabulous day!

We are so excited to share that we are Published again!  Its always so fun writing those words.  The beautiful wedding of Henry & Katherine VanDyck has a 2 page spread in the February 2011 issue of The One Bride Guide.  Katie can also be seen reading the magazine while getting her hair done at the front of the magazine and Jonathan Ivy Photography can be seen in a later ad by Butler Signature Events towards the end of the magazine.  It was such a pleasure working with all the fabulous vendors to make this feature happen, in particular Amy Canterbury with Butler Signature Events.  We are so excited to share a bit of this beautiful spread with you (the cover is not by us).

(more…)

Lewisville, TX– January 31, 2011 – WeddingWire, the nation’s leading wedding technology company, is thrilled to announce Jonathan Ivy Photography has been selected to receive the prestigious annual WeddingWire Bride’s Choice Awards™ 2011 for Photography!

Recognition for the Bride’s Choice Awards™ 2011 is determined by recent reviews and extensive surveys from over 750,000 WeddingWire newlyweds. Our past clients are among those that shared their experiences on WeddingWire, the largest wedding review site in the nation.

Jonathan Ivy Photography stands among the top five percent of wedding professionals in the WeddingWire community, representing quality and service excellence within the wedding industry. Awards were given to the top wedding professionals across 20 service categories, from wedding venues to wedding photographers, and were based on the overall professional achievements throughout the past year.

“WeddingWire is honored to celebrate the success of the top-rated wedding professionals within the WeddingWire community,” said Timothy Chi, WeddingWire’s Chief Executive Officer. “With the annual Bride’s Choice Awards™ program, WeddingWire has the unique opportunity to recognize the best wedding professionals across the US and Canada. We applaud Jonathan Ivy Photography for their professionalism and dedication to enhancing the wedding planning experience last year.”

We are happy to announce that Jonathan Ivy Photography is among the very best Photography within the WeddingWire Network, which includes leading wedding planning sites WeddingWire, Martha Stewart Weddings, Project Wedding and Weddingbee. We would like to thank our past clients for nominating us to receive the Bride’s Choice Awards™ 2011.

For more information, please visit our WeddingWire Storefront today at http://www.weddingwire.com/biz/jonathan-ivy-photography-lewisville/0378cf711f54aa75.html.

For more information on the Bride’s Choice Awards™ 2011, please visit www.WeddingWire.com.

About WeddingWire, Inc.

WeddingWire.com, the nation’s leading technology company serving the $70 billion wedding industry, is the only online wedding planning resource designed to empower both engaged couples and wedding professionals. For engaged couples, WeddingWire offers the ability to search, compare and book over 200,000 local wedding vendors, from wedding venues to wedding photographers to wedding cakes. WeddingWire also offers an online community and a suite of cutting-edge planning tools for weddings, including wedding websites and wedding checklists, all at no charge. For wedding professionals, WeddingWire provides free online management tools creating the only market opportunity that gives local businesses control over their clients, reviews, leads and performance. Businesses that join the WeddingWire Network appear on WeddingWire.com and other leading sites, including MarthaStewartWeddings.com (NYSE: MSO), ProjectWedding.com and Weddingbee.com (both part of eHarmony), and Celebrations.com (part of the 1-800-Flowers family of brands, NASDAQ: FLWS).

Dallas Wedding Photographer Jonathan Ivy Photography is a International photographer based out of Dallas, TX who enjoys working locally and world-wide. Thank you for visiting us and for viewing this DFW Wedding.

We are so excited to announce we were nominated for Best Dallas Wedding Blog!  We are so excited!  So, if you have a chance we would love for yall to check out our blog and vote for us if you like it by clicking here.  We are very excited about the blog!  It was custom designed by DoodleDog Advertising and they did a fabulous job!  Be sure to check out Nikki and the whole DoodleDog Team.

Also, we recently found out we placed #16 out of #266 photographers in the WFAA AList Best Dallas Photographers which is 3 places higher than last year (2009) which we placed #19.  So Thank You All So Much for believing in us and trusting us to take photos of you and your beautiful families and for voting!

We are so proud of this new award!