Michelle & Ryan: Engaged
Meet Michelle and Ryan, two of my favorite lawyers on the planet. We met at Fearrington Village in the Spring for their e:session. They love to shop at the Farmer's Market together for yummy things to cook. That is, they shop when they can take their eyes off each other.
I knew when I first met these two that I would love working with them. They are madly, deeply, truly crazy about each other. Basically I just have to point my camera in their general direction and good things happen. Of course it doesn't hurt that Fearrington is full of awesome spots to photograph.
Ryan is a guy with serious skills. The elusive heel click, for one.
Karate Kid - style Kung Fu:
He's got intricate dance moves (and makes Michelle laugh):
He's got the dip down.
And -- wait for it -- he serenades the love of his life with his guitar. Sigh.
This guy can do cute:
And cuddly:
And, um...well, let's give these two some privacy, shall we?
Yep, the guy with the guitar usually gets the girl. (So all you prospective grooms out there, if you have any hope of marrying a beautiful, smart defense lawyer, you would be wise to follow Ryan's lead and find a guitar teacher now.)
Maybe my favorite of the day.
Check back soon for Michelle's turn in the spotlight: her bridal portrait session, which was possibly my favorite ever (hint: Michelle's session included a stop at Cameron Indoor Stadium and features a blue Cameron Crazies wig). Until then, view the slide show from their e:session here.
Thanks for an awesome afternoon you guys!
Carey & Daryll: Engaged!
...actually, they're married already.
Carey and Daryll tied the knot in a beautiful outdoor ceremony in Goldsboro on July 26 at Walnut Creek Country Club. But since I'm just a wee bit behind in my blogging courtesy of a fabulously successful Spring wedding season, in Elizabeth World, they're still counting down the days until the Big One. Join me in my fantasy, won't you?
Back in April, we met up at Duke Gardens for what would be the first of two engagement sessions, thanks to a surprise thunderstorm. We'd only gotten about 15 minutes into the session when the sky opened up. Daryll is a true officer and a gentleman to boot, so as we huddled under a shelter hoping to wait out the storm, he very gallantly offered to shield my camera from the rain under his shirt. He's even sweeter with Carey.
Sometimes body language says it all:
Possible my favorite from Shoot #1:
It was June before our schedules meshed so that we could give the ol' E: session thing another shot (no pun intended). The couple decided to change up their outfits a bit and the bright orange, blue and green just kills in this picture. I love it. Plus Carey's eyes are gorgeous.
Sometimes an image just cries out for a little processing fun, like this one. How awesome is the light? I didn't create it, just enhanced it with a little glow and popped the colors a bit. Tres, tres romantique!
I mean, really: how cute are they?
I love the look on Daryll's face in this one.
One of the things that's great about shooting in Duke Gardens in the variety of places to shoot. I'd never even seen this spot before this session and I thought I knew the gardens inside out. I love how sweet Carey and Daryll are together and I love, love, love the pretty light:
Check back soon for a post on Carey's bridal session, including the sweetest little dog in the world, Zoe. Meanwhile, enjoy the E: session slide show!
This one just makes me happy.
Here is a shot of Jefri from her bridal portrait session in June. It makes me smile every time I look at it.
Jefri and Adam were married in August, so check back soon for more images of their beautiful, intimate wedding at Duke Gardens. Jefri, you have an amazing smile and I'm so glad I got to capture it!
Must be September 8th.
If Belgian waffles with strawberries and whipped cream are on the breakfast menu, it can only mean one thing:
It's our anniversary!
Some of you may know the sad story of our wedding cake. As in, we didn't have one. The cake I had dreamed about for months failed to materialize at our wedding, courtesy of a very unorganized pastry chef who lost our order one week after we finalized all the details and paid for the thing. I waltzed into my reception, only to be pulled aside by my mother who said, very gently, as if she were expecting a full-on freak-out: "Now, don't get upset."
I don't know about you, but whenever someone says to me "Now, don't get upset" my first reaction is to, well, get upset. Call me crazy, but there you go.
Anyway, long story short: we got married in the morning and had a brunch reception at one of my favorite NC venues, the Carolina Inn. Mom, god bless her, along with a quick-thinking bridesmaid, had the chef create a stack of Belgian waffles and decorated the faux-cake with strawberries and whipped cream. This is what we cut and fed each other much to the delight of our guests (and the immense relief of my Mom and Frank, who swears that's when he knew without a shadow of a doubt that he had married the right person when I didn't throw the anticipated full-on freak-out over the missing cake).
We never say something "went wrong" at a wedding. Instead, the "thing" in question went "not as planned." Our "not as planned" resulted in a long-standing tradition: every year on our anniversary we go out for Belgian waffles. This year, Daniel got to come along because his school is closed for the day due to a power outage caused by Tropical Storm Hanna. He commemorated our anniversary tradition with these shots. This one is barely blog-sharp, but it's cute:
Happy Anniversary to us!
Kaitlin & Nick: Engaged!
Caution: If it's early and you're one of those cynical types who needs their coffee before confronting undeniable evidence of true love, major happiness and, let's face it, just outright adorable-ness: you might just want to back away from the computer right now and go get your caffeine fix.
(I know I had to.)
'Cause Kaitlin and Nick are engaged!
I drove up to Virginia to do Kaitlin & Nick's e-session and to see their wedding venue with them, the beautiful Mill at Fine Creek in Powhatan. What a gorgeous place to get married. We're so excited for the wedding on September 13! (Imagine me yelling, "Road Trip!")
Kaitlin suggested we do their engagement session at Sunday Park in Midlothian and I'm so glad she did! I love a location that gives me lots of great options to shoot. But let's face it -- I could have slapped them up against a concrete wall and the images would have been awesome, 'cause they are both so darn cute together. And fun. And happy. And did I mention adorable earlier??
How great is this: Kaitlin is an engineer who's going back to school to teach. I love that! Check out her eyelashes in this shot. It's not even that close-up and her lashes are still fierce.
Nick is also known as "Party in a Box." Not sure where the box part fits in, but he had us both laughing the entire time. Ladies -- always marry the one who can make you laugh.
I love this one. The light was so pretty and I pumped up the golden quality with the Flare Up: Golden action from Boutwell's TR2 action set.
There were so many great places to shoot, but sometimes all you need is a wall and two people in love.
Kaitlin and Nick both graduated from Virgina Tech (Nick's an engineer too) and that's where they met. So naturally, they had to change into their Tech shirts for the second half of the session.
Maybe my fave.
Kaitlin & Nick -- thanks for the awesome afternoon and the great Mexican food afterwards! See you soon...
To view their e-session slide show, click here.
Kristen and Austin: Married!
Everybody, meet Makayla.
Makayla, meet everybody.
Some flower girls are made; others are born. Makayla was born to be a flower girl. It's in her girly DNA. And really, what's not to like?
You get to wear a little make-up and new jewelry:
Super-cute shoes -- with heels.
And the perfect bag to tie it all together.
Plus, the most popular girl in the room is your BFF.
Your new BFF is really a beautiful princess (in a sparkly dress):
There's a handsome prince:
And lots of pretty things (what girl doesn't love flowers?):
There is a down-side to being a flower girl. You have to take pictures with boys.
And sometimes you have to give up your basket of flower petals in order to persuade one of the little stinkers to walk down the aisle. But what he doesn't know is you really wanted to carry the rings anyway. (It's best to let him think it was his idea.)
Boys. They just don't take this whole wedding thing seriously.
You have to be able to stand still a lot.
And another thing: there's quite a bit of kissing. Ick.
But they don't seem to mind too much.
Did I mention the kissing?
The best thing about a wedding...the cake!
It does make people do funny things though.
After it was all over, we got to throw fluffy pink confetti at them!
Yep, being a flower girl rocks. And the best part: the beautiful princess and the handsome prince get to live happily ever after.
(View Kristen & Austin's slide show here.)
