Sorry we’ve been on a blogging hiatus. Life has been a bit crazy with the firehouse and building our new studio. We promise to be better!

Winter engagement sessions are kind of a crap shoot. You could get a blizzard (pretty, but hard to move around in) or a spring like day. Thankfully, Frank and Michelle got the latter plus a good dose of gorgeous light. It was a perfect day to stroll by a creek and play with their cute and furry dog, Mocha.

One of the reasons we moved to St Louis was to discover a new city and new places to shoot. Even after two years, the city continues to dole out gorgeous nooks and crannies. We grabbed Dan, Jane and their rescued dog, Wolfie, for a stroll around one of those cute cityscapes.

Us.

If you come here often, you probably already know that our number 1 piece of advice for couples planning their wedding is “Be sure to inject your personality and don’t do anything ‘just because.’” We met Mike and Mary late in their planning, but based on all of the personal touches they had planned, they were surely meant to be one of our couples. Mary wore her grandma’s wedding dress (with a few thoughtful updates) for their ceremony at their home church. We captured some chilly portraits in the park just down from their Lafayette Square house and filled time before the reception at their favorite hangout spot: 33 Wine Bar. The reception bar showed off Mike’s love of unique beers. Dessert brownies were served in mini Cardinals helmets along with an invitation for guests to choose their favorite scoop of ice cream from the truck parked out front. After hours of dancing to a fabulous band, couples left with a favor for their four legged friends, sent with care from Mike and Mary’s dog.

Us.

We’ve been waiting to go public with the news, but if you’ve run into us sometime in the past month we probably couldn’t help but tell you: We bought a firehouse! Today we signed the final paperwork and grabbed the keys to one of the coolest spaces we could ever hope to own. So Hawes Photography is moving one more time and putting down permanent roots here in St. Louis. The space is awesome, but needs plenty of work… so much so that we didn’t want to flood this blog with firehouse projects and decided to create a space just for it: A Fire Pole in the Dining Room. Hop over to see more pictures and come back often to see the latest project we’re crossing off our massive list.

Speaking of DIY, the trailer is still in progress. The fall wedding season and subsequent winter weather caused a shut down on the project. We have a sweet spot picked out for her at the firehouse and Aaron will have space for a workshop. Hopefully this spring we can wrap it up and show you the final product.

It’s been a little while since we’ve shared the blog and magazine features we’ve had recently. We feel honored every time someone highlights our work. Click on any of the images to see the features.

Featured in the fall issue of The Knot magazine.

Featured in the fall issue of St Louis Bride & Groom Magazine.