Amanda and Todd’s Wedding September 19, 2008

For the next several days I’m going to re-cap our two week adventure to NC, NYC, Delaware & Maryland.

The first stop was Amanda and Todd’s wedding in Linville, NC, near Banner Elk. Amanda and I have known each other for years. When I was a newspaper gal right after college, part of my job was taking sports pictures at the local high school.  Amanda was a high school athlete and that’s how we met.

Enter Amanda, this super-cute, super-sassy red head. I loved her immediately and we were instant friends. One day we were out jogging and ran by the CUTEST little chapel at Eseeola Lodge. It was a little stone chapel with five little pews and it had a rope swing hanging from a tree outside. We stopped and looked at it and talked about how cute of a place it would be for a little wedding…Ahhhh, someday.

Anyway, we hadn’t seen each other in years until Amanda found us on the web and her sister booked us to do her wedding (we can’t wait for that in May ‘09!).   And, to make a long story short, just after Megan called us, Amanda called and said that she and her fiance Todd, who is in the Navy, were getting married – and ASAP because he was about to be deployed to Iraq.

The wedding was so sweet, so intimate – just family. It was really perfect! The little chapel from our run soo many years ago was just the right place. Todd left a couple of days ago for Iraq so here’s a few photos to cheer them them up! Todd – hope you are well – we loved meeting you and our prayers are with you while you are away!!!!

This is a pic I took of Miss Amanda a billion years ago when I worked at the newspaper and she was in high school. She was on the track team and hurdles were her thing… (Little footnote: when I took this picture I thought is was like one of the best pictures I’d ever taken – that’s why I still have it after all these years! Ha!)

Now all grown up and so in love …. Amanda 

Amanda and Todd, what a handsome soldier…

These are the sassiest girls! Seriously, even the little ones are sassy. Amanda and Todd, plus her three sisters and mom. We’re doing Megan and Roan’s engagement pics this weekend – Yay, I’m so excited!! 

I just wanted to show the chapel – cutest place ever!!

This is during the ceremony. The chapel was so tiny it would have been too much for Dan and I both to be in there.  Dan was inside during the ceremony and I stayed outside the doors. I like this through the doors perspective….

I love this picture… she just stepped into the chapel with her mom and dad who were walking her down the aisle. I love the look on her face as she is seeing Todd and I love the look on her parents’ faces – and the way her mom is holding her hand.

I always imagined this picture but with the bride in the swing. Unfortunately Amanda’s dress wasn’t right for swinging but Todd was sweet enough to grant me this one request – such a good sport!

And here is everybody!

After the ceremony we headed down the road for some pictures of just the two of them. The two in the beginning of this post plus here are a few more..

so sweet

This one is fun

Congrats Amanda and Todd  - we love you guys!!! Todd be safe and we hope you come home soon!!

Straight out of the camera… September 18, 2008

It’s not too often any more that you see a photograph that is ’straight out of the camera.’  Basically all professional images have some level of post-production or ‘photoshopping’ done to them in order to get professional results (in terms of color, sharpness, and we won’t mention the the airbrushing techniques ; )

But, this image is an exception to that rule. It is pretty much straight out of the camera.  Eliza and Brent are such a cute couple, they’re perfect together!!! : )

Register to Vote! September 18, 2008

The deadline to register to vote for the Presidential Election is Oct. 6. Yikes – that’s right around the corner! I just did it myself and so I’m taking the opportunity to remind people here on my little blog. AND you have to mail something in so you’d better get going if you haven’t done it already. Just click on this link, and Rock the Vote will make a form for you. Then, print out the form, SIGN IT, and mail it in. They will give you the address for your state. If you are registered but have moved in the last year you will need to change your address and mail in the same form. AND for all my recently married ladies, you need to do the same thing if you’ve changed your name. 

The link is:
http://www.rockthevote.com

Bridal Portraits! September 17, 2008

**If your name is Justin Hoskins, please leave this blog right now.  You may not scoll down, even for a second to peak. No peaking, no poking, don’t even think about reading beyond this one sentence. Thanks so much.**

We don’t do too many bridal sessions (‘bridal-logistics’ don’t always allow for the time) but we got to do these a few days ago and it was so much fun. For anyone who doesn’t know, a bridal portrait is a photo session with just the bride, all done up – like a dress rehearsal for the wedding.  It’s a great trial run for the hair and makeup (and just one more opportunity to get in the dress before the big day!) At the session the bride gets to be the supermodel and we get some great, relaxed pics of the bride for her to make prints from, include in the album, etc.  They can be displayed at the wedding, bridal luncheon, you get the picture : )  This is Ashley Williams, owner and photographer of Blackbird Photography. You may remember her engagement session with Justin.  They will be tying the knot at the Maple Grove Inn in just a few weeks!

A few of our favs….

Isn’t Ashley such a doll?!  

LOVE this one….

LOVED her lacy veil and dress!

Ashley said their wedding will have sort of vintage theme to it so I did a little old-fashioned processing of this next image….

Jay + Emily’s Wedding September 2, 2008

Emily and Jay’s wedding took place in Fancy Gap, Virginia right off the Blue Ridge Parkway. It was a whole weekend filled with music, friends, family and fireworks! Emily and Jay live in Charlotte, NC and Emily is one of my best friends from college so it was especially fun for me to photograph her wedding. People always assume that we won’t have a good time or that they won’t get to be with me if I am taking the pictures but that’s not the case at all and Emily knew it. We absolutely LOVE what we do and the photographer is with you all day long – AND is there for all of your moments.  I think it’s a really intimate thing to photograph someone’s wedding and it always makes me feel closer to the person no matter how much I know them before the wedding. I always tear up at some point during the wedding (usually at the most random things) but this one was especially meaningful for me. Thanks Emily and Jay – you guys are a great couple and I know you will have an awesome life together!!!

Emily’s wedding was fantastic. It was on a farm – a friend of her parents and it was beautiful. Everything was perfect – the venue, flowers, music, food and PEOPLE except it did rain just before the ceremony. Everyone had umbrellas though. (How does that always happen? Do people always bring umbrellas to weddings because somehow there always seems to be enough?)  So, before the ceremony was a little tense trying to decide what to do but my favorite parts are in the slideshow… Jay and Emily’s dads talking…Jay whistling to signal everyone to come in out of the rain…the girls waiting in the dark room…the guys saying a prayer with the minister…and then putting their hands in the middle like – yes, lets do this.! So watch the slideshow… just wanted to mention it because you might not pick up on it unless you were there.

Below are a few of our favorites and then  click here for the slideshow. They are huge Widespread Panic fans so hence the music .

Beautiful Emily…

During the ceremony….

Yay! Married!!

This is 100% candid and I bet they had no clue we were taking this picture. This was right after the ceremony, which I think is the most special few moments for the couple. You can see the wedding party still coming in through the door.

This is a wedding party picture that I love. Not stiff, just totally fun and happy

One of my favorites 

Love, love, love this – might be my favorite

and this….

Emily and Jay danced to ‘Blue Skies” by the Allman Brothers. It was fast and sooo fun.

Emily is a natural born singer. She is really, really good. She had two amazing bands at her reception but the highlight (I think) was when she got up on stage and sang a couple of songs. She can sing like crazy and I swear there was not a dry eye in sight. 

And here is Jay watching her sing. She was singing to him mostly and it was so sweet. 

Obviously I’m not going in order here but this was in the car on the way to the ceremony. We were singing then too – and loud!! It was fun and this is what every bride should do on her way to the ceremony – sing out loud and LOUD  with girlfriends on the way to the wedding. It’s what I did and it’s a part I’ll always remember about my wedding. I think we had just pulled up into the place and Emily was looking at everything – so exciting!!

fun… I think Jay sortive resembles Dennis the Menace (in a cute, fun way )

This is just before the ceremony as the boys were walking up. Look at that sweet smile on Jay’s face.

Love this one of the groomsmen. Look at Jay’s dad on the end – do they not look soo much alike??

This was totally candid. We were taking the picture of the whole wedding party above and he just randomly kissed her forehead. Ahhh, so sweet…

This might be my favorite

And since this is MY blog I get to say Thank You to Ryan, one of the bridesmaid’s friends, who so generously kept me and my camera dry throughout the ceremony. THANK YOU!!!

Ok, these next three are kinda different and I’m not sure how I like them so I want some opinions…So while we were taking pics of Emily and her bridesmaids we decided to do something different – really different. (We did normal shots too of course) We had a little extra time because Emily is such a good planner (she used to do it for a living) so we got to play around a bit. There was this old building at Volunteer Gap Inn, the place where we all stayed. It had this old Coca Cola sign on it. And right down the street there was this old country store that sold actual bottled Cokes. So that morning I saw the sign and the Cokes and thought we could do something fun if we had time. So, here it is  - we directed the girls to look kinds rough, which is the total opposite of what bridesmaids and the bride are usually suppose to look like….it was really hard for everyone to keep a straight face and not smile or crack up laughing. I don’t know how popular these are going to be but we surely had a fun time trying. And Emily is using one as her blog header on http://www.emilymonday.com. , which I think is super cute, especially because of her last name.

It’s too wide for it all to fit but here is the full frame.

Don’t forget to watch the slideshow! Click HERE!