https://stefaniciottiphotography.com/home-dfw, https://stefaniciottiphotography.com/home-engagements, https://doortwenty

Stefani Larson, 5500 Swiss Avenue, Dallas, TX (2026)

10/20/2026

4 years ago, I was photographing Andy and Chris as they were getting ready to get married.

This weekend, I got to photograph them again... only this time, they had a very adorable little addition to their family. 🥹

Meet Auggie!! 🤍

When they reached out a few months ago about family photos, I was SO excited!

I was actually telling one of my brides recently that sometimes I feel a little like a teacher sending her students off into the world after graduation. 😂

We spend so much time together leading up to the wedding, and then suddenly they're married, the wedding planning is over, and they're off on their next adventure!

It's always a little bittersweet because we don't have quite as many excuses to talk as often anymore. But I'm still over here cheering them on, and I absolutely LOVE getting updates and hearing what everyone's been up to.

And when I get to see them in person again? Even better!

Especially when that means meeting the newest members of their families.

And little Auggie? Oh my goodness... what a CUTIE. 😍

I've had the pleasure of photographing Andy and Chris as an engaged couple, on their wedding day, and now as parents to this sweet little one-year-old boy.

I mean, how cool is that?!

Andy and Chris, I couldn't be happier for you two. It was SO lovely to see you again, and getting to meet Auggie and see you both as parents was such a joy!

What a beautiful little family you've made. 🤍

10/15/2026

There was a season in my business when I genuinely wondered if I wanted to do this anymore.

I was working constantly, completely burned out, and somehow still feeling like I wasn't doing enough.

Which is a strange place to find yourself when you've spent years building a business around something you love.

But somewhere along the way, I'd gotten so caught up in trying to build a successful business that I'd stopped asking myself what success actually looked like for me.

I was listening to ALL the advice.

How often I should post, blog or send out a newsletter. What I should charge. How much time I should spend with clients. What I should be doing to grow.

And the more I listened, the more confused I got and the less I trusted myself.

Eventually, I realized I'd built a business that didn't feel like mine anymore.

And honestly, I came pretty close to walking away from it altogether.

It took time, reflection, and some really wonderful outside support to start untangling all of that.

But one of the biggest lessons I've learned over the past 12 years is that there's a difference between learning from other people and letting them make your decisions for you.

So I started experimenting.

I stopped forcing myself to show up on social media just because someone said I needed to post five times a week.

I gave myself permission to spend MORE time with my clients, even when conventional business advice told me I should be finding ways to spend less.

And I started asking whether the things I was doing actually made sense for my business, my clients, and the life I wanted to build.

I gave myself permission to try things simply because they felt right for me, without knowing whether they'd work.

Some things have been working. Others have not. And I’ve learned from all of it.

I still love learning. I still seek out coaches, mentors, education, and people who challenge my thinking.

But I've gotten much better at treating their advice as something to consider rather than something I have to follow.

And the more I've leaned into that, the more I've found my way back to what I loved about entrepreneurship in the first place.

The freedom to be curious. To create. To experiment. To build something that reflects what I value and how I want to show up for the people I serve.

And to remember that I'm allowed to decide what success looks like for me.

I recently had the opportunity to share more about this journey, my photography career, and the story behind Door 22 in an interview with Voyage Dallas.

If you'd like to read the full conversation, you can find it here: https://bit.ly/4hGPADF

10/13/2026

“Absolutely not.” 😂

That was Maura's response when I told her she should wait to open her wedding album until she and her husband, Justin, could sit down and experience it together.

It's something I always encourage my couples to do. There's just something so special about turning those pages for the first time and getting to relive your wedding day together!

But Maura disagreed lol

She looked at me, very matter-of-factly, and said, “You and I are the ones who created this album, and you get to see my reaction and enjoy this with me.”

And honestly, how was I supposed to argue with that?! 🥹

So we sat down at the coffee shop we’d met several times leading up to her wedding day, opened it up, and started turning pages.

And oh my goodness. The JOY. 😭

I don't often get to witness this part of the experience, and getting to sit across from her and watch her light up with every page was just incredible.

As much as I love creating photographs, there's something entirely different about seeing what those photographs mean to the people in them.

And it's one of the reasons I love wedding albums so much.

There's something about holding those memories in your hands and reliving your day, page by page, that just doesn't compare to scrolling through photographs on a screen.

Maura chose an album with a full acrylic photographic cover, so when it's closed, it looks like a beautiful piece of art. She even sent me a picture of it sitting on a shelf in their home afterward, and it makes me so happy knowing those memories have a place in their everyday life.

But I think my favorite part of this whole experience was that she wanted me to be part of it.

And that really meant an awful lot to me. 😭

Maura, you are such a joy and bright light in this world. Thank you for letting me share in one more special little piece of your wedding story. 🤍

10/09/2026

One of the strangest parts of owning a business is that there isn't really one job description...

You're the marketer and the accountant and customer service and sales and operations and IT and whatever other hat needs to be worn that day.

And unlike a traditional job, there's rarely a clear moment when you clock out.

Running a business is incredibly rewarding. But it can also become very all-consuming... and quite lonely.

Which is why I've become so passionate about what we're building with Parker County Women in Business. 🥰

Last Friday morning, ten of us met at a local coffee shop.

And we just... talked.

About business. About life. About what we're working on. About the things we're loving and the ones we're still trying to figure out.

And it was SO refreshing.

Because the more this group grows, the more I realize we don't need yet another place to "network". A place where we're lectured at for an hour or we spend 20 minutes frantically delivering our sales pitch and trying to pass out as many business cards as we can.

What we're really craving is community.

A place where you can ask for help when you're stuck because someone else may have already figured out the thing you're struggling with. Where you can lend your own expertise when the thing overwhelming someone else happens to be the thing you're really good at.

A place to bounce around ideas, make friends, laugh over coffee, and be around people who understand how hard it can be to build a business while also trying to have an actual life outside of it.

Because yes, there's business value in knowing great people and helping one another grow.

But there's also a lot of value in simply not doing all of this alone.

That's the kind of community I've been itching to build.

And Friday morning felt like a really lovely start to it. 🥰

We've got more opportunities to get together coming soon, and if you're a woman who owns, runs, or is actively building a business in Parker County or one of our surrounding communities, we'd love to have you join us.

There are nearly 200 of us in the group already, and there's always room for more. 🤍

Come hang out with us here: https://bit.ly/3WhUChp

10/07/2026

This Saturday, I get to photograph a wedding inside a planetarium... yeah, you read that right. 🤩

Which is every bit as cool... and photographically challenging... as it sounds.

Emily and Michael envisioned getting married underneath the moon and stars, which means the planetarium needs to stay DARK.

Beautiful for a wedding ceremony... but a very interesting challenge when your entire job depends on light.

So this past Saturday morning, we met at the Fort Worth Museum of Science & History to do some testing.

How much light can we introduce without losing the feeling they love about the planetarium? What will actually work once the ceremony begins? And what can we figure out now instead of trying to solve it on their wedding day?

They told me recently that one of the reasons they chose me was because when they first explained what they were envisioning for their ceremony, I didn't brush off the challenge. I asked questions and really tried to understand what they wanted to create and why it mattered to them.

Because if something is important to the people I'm photographing, it's important to me, too. And so often, the work behind a photograph starts long before I ever take it.

In this case, it started with a couple of trips to the planetarium, a whole lot of questions, and a Saturday morning spent testing lights under the stars.

And this Saturday, we finally get to see it all come together when these two get married underneath them. 🥹✨

I cannot WAIT to celebrate with them! 🤍

10/05/2026

When planning an engagement session, one of my favorite questions to ask is:

What feels like you right now?

Not just where would be beautiful, but what do you love doing together? Where do you spend your time? What parts of your relationship would be fun to have photographs of someday?

Edie + Daniel's session is one of my favorite examples.

While their very first interaction involved tequila shots at an office party, lol, the first time they really got to hang out and talk was the very next day, playing tennis and basketball.

So when we started planning their engagement photos, they wanted to bring some of that story into them.

We played tennis. We played basketball. We wandered around a park because spending time in nature is another thing they love doing together.

And what I really love is that these photographs now hold little pieces of who Edie + Daniel actually were while they were engaged.

Years from now, they won't only get to remember what they looked like.

They'll get to remember what being them felt like.

And that's what I want to encourage you to think about when you're planning your own engagement session.

Maybe it's the coffee shop you practically live at. The neighborhood you spent your first few years together in. Cooking dinner at home. Your favorite hiking trail. The dive bar where you had your first date. Something you always do together that seems completely ordinary right now.

It doesn't need to be impressive.

It just needs to be yours. 🤍

10/01/2026

One of the easiest mistakes to make when building a wedding timeline is assuming that if everything technically fits, you have enough time.

2:00 first look.
2:15 wedding party.
2:30 family photos.
3:00 hide away for the ceremony.

Perfect.

Except... humans are involved. 😂

Someone needs the bathroom. Dad wandered off. The flowers haven't arrived yet. Your dress takes longer to bustle than expected. It takes ten minutes just to get twelve people to stop talking and get on the shuttle.

And suddenly the perfectly organized timeline has everyone watching the clock.

This is one of the reasons I care so much about helping my couples think through their photography timeline before the wedding.

Of course we need enough structure to make sure the things that matter happen.

But I also want room for you to finish the conversation with your grandmother.

To actually have a drink at cocktail hour if that's important to you.

To spend an extra minute together after your first look without someone immediately saying, "Okay! Next!"

To breathe.

Your wedding isn't a production schedule you're supposed to execute perfectly.

It's a day you're supposed to experience.

So build the timeline.

Give yourself some breathing room.

And then, when the day finally gets here, go live it. 🤍

09/16/2026

Meet Door 22. 🤍

The new home for my commercial photography (eg, corporate events, conferences, branding and headshots).

So, why "Door 22"?

When I started thinking about the opportunities that have shaped my life, I realized how many began because another person helped open a door.

Some doors led me around the world.

Some introduced me to lifelong friendships.

One eventually led me to my husband.

Others put opportunities in front of me that I never could have planned for myself, including stepping into photography more than 12 years ago.

Very few of the meaningful things I've built happened entirely on my own.

And I think business works a lot like that, too.

The right person, introduction, opportunity or partnership can completely change what becomes possible next.

That's the idea behind Door 22.

I don't want to simply show up, take photographs and leave. I want to understand what a company is trying to accomplish, who they're trying to reach, and how the photographs will actually be used. That way, I can make the entire project easier for the people I'm working with while creating photographs that are genuinely useful to the business.

And the 22?

It refers to my husband, Kyle, and me. My greatest partnership.

My lucky number has always been 2. His has always been 20. We were both born on the 20th, and our first home together was apartment 202, which we always thought of as 20 + 2.

It became a little reminder that the greatest things happen when the right people come together.

And now Door 22 exists to create that kind of partnership with you.

I'm so excited to announce that Door 22 is officially open. 🤩

If you'd like to see what I've been working on, the new website is live at: doortwentytwo.com

I'd love to hear what you think!

09/15/2026

There's a side of my photography career I've barely shown you here.

Which is kind of funny, considering I've been doing it in some capacity for most of my 12+ years in business.

Corporate events. Conventions. Headshots. Products. Branding sessions. Sporting events. Businesses and the people behind them.

Over the last 6 or so years, that side of my work really began to grow.

And yet, I still mostly treated it as something I did alongside Stefani Ciotti Photography. A fun side quest I loved getting to do, rather than something I was intentionally building.

About a year ago, that started to change.

I began quietly working on an idea for what this side of my business could become if I actually gave it its own identity, its own experience, and the attention I knew it deserved.

Then this summer happened.

I spent 9 days photographing the World Cup matches here in Dallas, working alongside an incredible team and meeting people from all over the world.

And I had so. much. fun.

I loved the pace. I loved the collaboration. I loved being part of a larger team working toward something together. I loved walking into a completely different environment and figuring out how I could best contribute to it.

It confirmed a lot of what I’d already been feeling about this side of my career.

And in the months since, the corporate side of my business has grown faster than ever.

Something I'd been quietly thinking about and building for months suddenly became pretty obvious:

It was time to stop treating this like a side quest.

I wanted to build something around it.

So that's what I've been working on behind the scenes for the past few months.

And tomorrow, I finally get to show you... 😁🤍

09/08/2026

One of my favorite parts of photographing weddings is that I get to pay attention to things the two people getting married simply can't.

Because while you're standing at the altar, you're probably looking at each other.

You may not see your dad trying desperately not to cry.

And while you're getting low on the dance floor with your grandma, you probably aren't watching your siblings laughing together across the room.

But I am.

I'm constantly looking beyond the obvious moment.

Not because every single thing happening needs to become a photograph. It doesn't.

But because I've learned over the years that sometimes the photograph that ends up meaning the most isn't the one everyone knew was about to happen.

It's the reaction.

The person watching from the side.

The tiny interaction that lasted three seconds.

The thing you didn't even know happened until you saw your photographs.

And a lot of that starts long before the wedding.

I want to know who your people are. Who raised you. Who you've known since kindergarten. Who set you two up. Which grandparent you're especially close to. Why that friend standing beside you matters so much.

Because when I know the relationships, I know a little more about where to point my camera.

You don't need to keep track of any of that.

You should be way too busy getting married.

I'll be paying attention. 🤍

Stefani Larson

10/20/2026

10/15/2026

10/13/2026

10/09/2026

10/07/2026

10/05/2026

10/01/2026

09/16/2026

09/15/2026

09/08/2026

Address

Website

Alerts

Contact The Business

Shortcuts

Share

Category

Listing takedown request