Amanda and Marshall are engaged! Raleigh Wedding Photography

Amanda and Marshall are such troupers. When their first session date was canceled due to torrential rains, we rescheduled for what had to be one of the hottest days of the summer. You'd never know it from looking at their pictures! We are so excited about their October wedding, not only because they are awesome people, but because Marshall is the brother of Jonathan, whose wedding to Emily we photographed last June. Their reception was at one of our favorite venues, Hinnant Family Vineyards. Sadly, their images have yet to make it up onto the blog...I have quite a "back-blog" of weddings waited to be posted. Maybe we'll do a double wedding blog post after Amanda and Marshall's wedding. :)

 

Here are a few of my favorites from the session. Amanda and Marshall, thanks for toughing it out in the good ol' NC heat. We can't wait for the wedding this Fall when it will (hopefully) be much cooler!

 

 

(Amanda has the most beautiful eyes! Marshall's are pretty amazing, too. I'm willing to bet their kids' eyes are going to have hypnotic powers.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jul 15, 2010 | Wedding Photography | 2 Comments »

Marla and Dan: Engaged!

Meet Marla and Dan. They are in love with each other. Our cameras are in love with them. They have a beautiful connection that was amazing to capture.

 

 

 

 

For their engagement session, we met the couple at Umstead Sate Park . I like engagement session locations to reflect something about the couple, rather than just choosing a generic location because it's pretty or has flowers blooming or is easy to get to. Marla and Dan both enjoy spending time together outdoors and Umstead is one of their favorite places to hike, so naturally, it was the perfect place. The beautiful light in this image is courtesy of the lake to the right. It was a bright sunny day and light was bouncing off that lake and flowing into the woods like crazy. As photographers, we look for the light first and background second. If you have beautiful light, you can make great images no matter what's in the background. Beautiful background, bad light? You either have to make the light you need or move on to another location -- it's that simple. In this case, we had both -- plus, one seriously gorgeous couple.

 

 

 

Dan is a police officer in Durham. I confessed that I'd never made the acquaintance of a law enforcement officer outside of the very few times I've seen one walking up to my car in the rear-view mirror. I was a little intimidated but he put me at ease right away. I won't call him a sweetheart because that might hurt his street-cred, but he was relaxed, fun and obviously crazy-in-love with Marla. 

 

 

 

 

Marla is sweet, easy to talk to and works for an insurance company as one of the good guys. Plus, hello? Gorgeous much? I cannot wait to photograph this woman in a wedding gown. My camera just might melt, so Marla, I will be sure to bring back-ups for our back-ups!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One for the Parentals...

 

 

 

 

...and one for us.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The sun was really, really bright by the lake, so we played with it a bit.

 

 

 

 

 

Here's one reason why Umstead is a special place for this couple: their tree. See the date? Dan carved their initials on the tree back in December of 2007. They're getting married in May, so I think a return trip is in order to add their wedding date. Everyone say it with me now..."Awwwww...."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Marla and Dan, we are so excited to photograph your Duke Gardens wedding in May!

 

You can see more from Marla and Dan's e-session here.

 

 

Apr 09, 2010 | Wedding Photography | 5 Comments »

NC State Engagement session: Kristin and Amin are engaged!

Remember Erin and Tom? The day before their engagement session at UNC, I met Kristin and Amin on the campus of NC State for their engagement session. NC State one day, UNC the next. That was a first for me -- engagement sessions at rival campuses back-to-back. Maybe I angered the ACC gods and that's the cause of the Tarheels' abysmal season? If so, I am very, very sorry...now can the Tarheels please, please start winning again?

 

I met Kristin at the wedding of Jen and Adam back in June (which is soon to be featured here on the blog). She is the talented stylist responsible for helping Jen to achieve maximum glow on her wedding day. I was like a little kid when she asked me to photograph her wedding to Amin this October at Highgrove. (Pecan chicken, here we come!) Amin is a brilliant numbers-guy who graduated from NC State and has a fantastic smile.

Here are just a few of my favorites from their engagement session.

 

Kristin and Amin brought their dogs for a few shots in the beginning of the session.

Those pups were so well-behaved they could have come out of Central Casting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you graduated from NC State, it's kind of a done deal that you've got to have a photograph in front of the bell tower.

 

 

 

 

 

The colors of the leaves on campus were at their peak. Kristin just happened to have on a gorgeous teal sweater.

Blue + orange = complementary colors = beautiful backdrop for photographs!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Loooooooooovvvvvvvvvvvvvveeeeeeeee.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To: Whomever painted the colorful graffiti at the free expression tunnel at NC State

From: Me

Re: THANKS.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hands down, favorite.

 

 

Kristin and Amin, we cannot wait for October 2. It's going to be awesome and we're so excited we get to be there!

Feb 13, 2010 | Wedding Photography | 2 Comments »

Dianna & Todd: Sneak Peek

 

Things to know about Dianna and Todd: 1) they are adorable; 2) they are getting married in one month; 3) Todd's head makes a great light reflector; 4) a Victory is better than a Harley; and 5) they are madly in love. We can't wait for the wedding on September 26th!

 

Check out Dianna and Todd's engagement session slideshow

 

 

P.S. I finally found a good grassy spot that no one has destroyed yet. :)

 

 

Aug 27, 2009 | Wedding Photography | Leave A Comment »

Joanna and Andrew: Engaged

 

If I was writing this one week from today, I'd have to call this post "Joanna and Andrew: Married" 'cause these two are tying the knot this Sunday at Rose Hill. Andrew and Joanna have an amazing connection that's beautiful to behold. Plus, the camera just loves them!

(And Joanna loves cows. Here's your cows, Jo. No need to thank me. )

 

 

Joanna and I have something in common: the men in our lives prefer it when we let our hair go all curly and crazy, but we like it better straight. Joanna told me Andrew asked her specifically to leave her hair down and wavy for the shoot. I just love that! And, girl, your hair looks gorgeous!

 

 

 

See what I mean about the connection? Poi-fect.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Joanna's got on jeans 'cause she's allergic to grass. Of course, that's where I took them to shoot -- the field with the long grass. Sorry, sweets!

 

 

 

 

Maybe my fave above. No, it's this one! Wait...

 

 

 

 

One for the parents. Sometimes a girl's got to do what a girl's got to do.

 

 

 

 

And one for me.

 

 

 

 

One for them...

 

 

 

 

...aaand one for me.

 

 

 

 

 

Now back to our regularly scheduled engagement session.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Things got all quiet and sweet, which is awesome, but hey, one can only take so much gorgeousness and love radiating directly at them, so that could only mean one thing: time for the piggy-back ride. An oldie, but goodie.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I had to include a shot of Joanna's ring. Andrew designed it himself (I hear he only had a teensy-tiny bit of help.)

Ladies, what do we call a man who can design sparkly things this pretty? Say it with me now: A keeper!

 

 

 

 

 

Joanna and Andrew, I'm so excited about being with you on your wedding day! It's going to be an amazing day. See you soon!

View the slideshow here.

 

 

 

 

 

May 21, 2009 | Wedding Photography | 3 Comments »