Eclectic Images Blog » personal news

happy valentine’s day!

admin — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 17:52:28 +0000

I hope everyone has a fabulous Valentine’s Day, whatever your plans may be. Mike and I are staying in, making dinner together (steak and lobster), drinking some wine, and relaxing. I’m really looking forward to it (especially drinking some dessert wine that I bought on a recent trip to Seattle!)

I wanted to share a few Valentine’s Day cards I made for Zoey to hand out to the other kiddos at daycare today. They were super easy to make – I just used some leftover paper from craft projects, cut out some hearts, and sewed them on the cardstock!

And to all of those couples who are getting engaged this V Day, congratulations!!!

I’ve got a really cool wedding and engagement session coming up soon on the blog, so stay tuned!

Jeremy and Lindsay | Della Terra Mountain Chateau | Estes Park, Colorado

admin — Sat, 17 Sep 2011 17:35:58 +0000

I’ve been meaning to post photos from our trip to Colorado for months now (almost three months to be exact)! We went to Estes Park, Colorado for a week in July to participate in my brother’s wedding and to have a little family vacation. Unfortunately, Mike had major work obligations so he was only about to be with us for a couple days of the trip, but Zoey’s grandparents got to spend a lot of time with her which they loved. We flew into Denver where we stayed for a day (and drove down to Colorado Springs to see the Garden of the Gods, which you will see in the first set of photos). Then, we drove up to Estes Park, stopping in Boulder for lunch on the way. Estes Park was absolutely amazing, perfect weather (especially compared to Austin at the time), and just so pretty everywhere0 There is not a bad view any which way you look! We drove up into Rocky Mountain National Park a couple times and even got to see snow! In July! Jeremy and Lindsay’s wedding was beautiful and amazing and so much fun! So much fun in fact that my aunt Karen fell and broke her wrist! It was quite the fun and eventful reception. All in all, we were in Colorado for a week and loved every minute of it! It was so nice to spend some quality time with family. Here are some pics! (since it was my brother’s wedding and I was a bridesmaid, I didn’t take a ton of photos, but of course I couldn’t help but take some!). My good friends Diana M Lott and Stacy Sodolak were the official photographers, and I imagine they will be posting their favs online very soon!

zoey is 1!

admin — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 23:05:14 +0000

Sorry I’ve been MIA, July has been a busy, fun month! I’ve got a couple really cool weddings coming up on the blog (wait until you see Britney’s shoes!) as well as some super fun engagement sessions. During July we’ve been on a family vacation to the coast (Corpus Christi) as well as spent a week in Estes Park, Colorado for my brother’s wedding so many, many pics to come from that…

In the meantime, Zoey wanted to show you how to properly eat a cupcake! I can’t believe she is already one year old (today!), time flies…she is an amazing little girl (I cannot believe I am calling her a little girl and not a baby!). She is fun, spunky, silly, sweet, and overall awesomeness.

help me win a patio makeover!

admin — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 01:29:22 +0000

I am so honored and thrilled – I entered our neglected front porch in a “makeover your social space” contest on one of my favorite home design blogs, Making it Lovely, and we were SO LUCKY to be chosen as top 10 finalists out of the almost 300 entries!! PLEASE PLEASE vote for us! Click this link and scroll down to vote for “Heather.” If we win, we get 150,000 American Express points to makeover our space and a custom design plan from Nicole of Making it Lovely!

If you’d like to see more photos of our home remodel, you can see them on our personal blog here!

Zoey is 10 months old

admin — Thu, 26 May 2011 21:00:02 +0000

Zoey is 10 months old! She is better than I could ever have imagined and I love her so much it makes my heart hurt. She is the most easy going, happy, pleasant baby to be around. And I realize I am completely biased, but other people tell me the same thing She is my little mini best friend and I can’t wait to see her grow up (but not too fast!)

This is what happens when you try to take photos on the one day that Zoey is teething

And this little collage is 5 minutes in the life of Zoey, she is so entertaining!

2010: Austin wedding photography year in review

admin — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 19:10:04 +0000

Wow. 2010 was a pretty amazing year both personally and professionally and I am one lucky, lucky girl. In 2010 on the personal front, we continued the remodel of our home, finally completing the upstairs part of our house (including the kitchen, yay!) and moving all of our belongings from our cramped downstairs and unpacking many, many boxes that were in the garage for over a year. All of this while I completed the second and third trimesters of my pregnancy. Almost two weeks past my original due date on July 22, 2010, the biggest miracle of the year for us took place – our beautiful daughter Zoey was born, and the next few months were followed by a little bit of sleep and a whole lot of love

Also during the first part of 2010, and all while pregnant, I supervised the finish out and construction in my studio/retail space in the East Village Lofts. It was completed in late March, right around the same time our kitchen was completed in our home. Needless to say, it was a busy, busy first part of the year. Well, to tell the truth it was a busy, busy entire year!

I shot a bunch of beautiful and amazing weddings in 2010 and I have to say that I feel so lucky to have wonderful clients who really understand and appreciate my work and who are fun, laid back, creative, and elegant. I was also able to do some traveling in 2010…in February my husband Mike and I took a “babymoon” – a pre-baby last hurrah cruise to the Caribbean. Then, in August when Zoey was just 6 weeks old we took her with us to Malibu, California while I photographed the wedding of Maeling and Dzuy. Just a week after that, I traveled to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico for the beautiful wedding of Erica and Brian. And lastly, in October Mike and I traveled to Maui, Hawaii (while my mom watched Zoey, her first grandbaby) for the wedding of Anna Kate and Charles.

And now, here are my favorite images from 2010, one from each wedding

Carly and Stephen | January 16th 2010 | University United Methodist Church and The Austin Club

Ziem and Milan | February 20th 2010 | At their home

Melanie and Joe | February 27th 2010 | Laguna Gloria

Blessing and Allan | March 13th 2010 | Laguna Gloria

Lisa and Keith | April 10th 2010 | One World Theatre

Kristin and Matt | April 17th 2010 | St. Peter’s Episcopal Church and Riverhill Country Club, Kerrville, Texas

Jacqueline and Ryan | April 18th 2010 | Hotel St. Cecilia (getting ready and portraits) and Laguna Gloria

Alex and Dylan | May 1st 2010 | Horseshoe Bay Marriott

Ashley and Remmy | May 8th 2010 | Their estate

Evelyn and Collin | May 14th and 15th 2010 | Retreat at Balcones Springs

Amanda and Dave | May 22nd 2010 | Indian Summer Lodge

Tracey and Tanner | May 29th 2010 | Mercury Hall

Zoey Margaret Banks | July 22, 2010 | St. David’s Medical Center

Jake’s Bar Mitzvah | August 21, 2010 | The Four Seasons

Maeling and Dzuy | August 29th 2010 | Calamigos Ranch, Malibu, California

Erica and Brian | September 4th 2010 | destination wedding at Marquis Los Cabos, Mexico

Christy and Dave | October 1st 2010 | Laguna Gloria

Anna Kate and Charles | October 10th 2010 | destination wedding at The Grand Wailea, Maui, Hawaii

Anna Kate and Charles | September 23, 2010 | Wild Onion Ranch Celebration

Sarah and Gary | October 30, 2010 | Hotel Havana (getting ready) and Southwest School of Art and Craft, San Antonio

Leslye and Tom | November 6th 2010 | The Wild Onion Ranch

Aly and Rich | November 20th 2010 | Fleming Chapel and Bella Notte, Round Rock, Texas

And that’s the recap of 2010! I’m looking forward to everything that 2011 will bring, including two trips to the Cancun area of Mexico to shoot weddings, a trip to Colorado for my brother Jeremy’s wedding to Lindsay, Zoey’s first birthday which is sure to be fun (time flies!), and a ton of great local wedding and portrait shoots! So stay tuned to see what I am up to in 2011!

Wishing everyone a happy, healthy, and prosperous 2011! And I’ll leave you with a couple recent pics of Zoey at 5 months old

And lastly, a shot of our family (minus our pups Linus and Moo)

Happy Holidays from the Banks Family!

admin — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 22:30:49 +0000

Myself, Mike, Zoey, Linus and Moo want to wish you all a wonderful holiday and a Happy New Year!!

coming soon…

admin — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 19:02:12 +0000

I’m back from maternity leave, and with a bang! Two weekends ago I photographed an amazing bar mitzvah for the Berber family put on by Caplan Miller Events, last weekend I traveled to Malibu, California with husband and baby in tow (husband stayed at the hotel to watch Zoey while I worked) for the awesome wedding of Dzuy and Maeling, and tomorrow I head to Cabo, Mexico for another awesome destination wedding!

Many, many pics to come soon from all of these events. In the meantime, I will leave you with my favorite recent photo. All of my favorite photos of recent of course are of my favorite subject, Zoey. Here is Linus giving Zoey a kiss attack, as we call them, and Zoey giggling as a result.

Zoey Margaret Banks is here!

admin — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 21:03:33 +0000

Our daughter Zoey Margaret Banks was born at 11:29pm on Thursday, July 22nd. She weighed 7lbs, 12 ounces, and was 21 inches long. She was 10 days late (hence the induction) and really didn’t want to come out, because after 30 hours of labor (without any pain medication!) I had to have a c-section due to failure to make any progress. She was worth everything I went through, she is beautiful and amazing and the light of our lives. Here are a few photos of her birth and then some photos at 10 days old on her announcements. Many of the photos of her birth and subsequent moments were taken by my wonderful husband Mike, because I was a little busy at the time

Mike all dressed for the c-section

Here is me, not looking my prettiest, but so happy to meet our baby girl.

Zoey, not too happy to be out!

Proud nana (my mom) looking on at her first grandbaby,

Proud papa (my dad) seeing Zoey for the first time.

Mike having some face to face time with Zoey.

Mike’s favorite shot, she’s already a Longhorn

This melts me.

Moo meeting Zoey for the first time. He loves her.

Linus, really glad that we were home from the hospital!

First bath!

Zoey, channeling aunt Jemima

And lastly, here are her announcements!

oh baby!

admin — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 14:34:35 +0000

Almost exactly three years ago, I met this man and fell in love.

We moved in together several months later and started a happy little family with my pups, Linus and Moo.

Six months after we met, he proposed, and I of course said yes, yes, yes!

proposal photos by diana m lott photography

In the midst of planning our wedding, we found a house and fell in love with it. We decided to buy it and remodel it.

Then, in January of 2009, we hopped on a plane to Playa del Carmen, Mexico, and got married in front of 30 close family and friends. It was amazing.

wedding photos by gia pham with red fly photography

Then, last November our lives changed once more when this happened:

We are expecting a baby girl anyday now! My due date was Monday, July 12th, but she has decided to be fashionably late (or at this point, just plain late!) Here is the very first picture of our baby girl, and there will be many, many more to come once she is born!

We absolutely can’t wait to meet her and to have her become a part of our lives and our family.

I’ll be on maternity leave until the end of August, and I’ll resume booking portrait sessions in mid September. In the meantime, email will be the easiest way to reach me (info@eclecticimagesphotography.com). Please excuse any delay in reply, as I’ll be a little preoccupied for the next few weeks!