Eliza and Brent – Sneak Peek December 16, 2008

Saturday we had the absolute pleasure of photographing Eliza Rudder and Brent Dickenson’s wedding. We haven’t even gone through all the images but we wanted to share a few that immediately jumped out as favorites…..more to come soon. Enjoy!

A pretty bride…

A pretty detail…

This was fun…Eliza and Brent were adamant about not seeing each other before the ceremony (which is perfectly fine for us, photography-wise. Some couples want to, some don’t and it doesn’t matter to us either way).  Before the ceremony, after all of the bridesmaids and groomsmen pictures were finished, Eliza and Brent met  outside of this door frame to touch hands and say a few words to each other – they could not see each other. I LOVE THIS PICTURE!

This is my (Natalie) favorite picture so far – This was moments before the ceremony – the girls were hiding in the stairwell, about to walk up and enter the sanctuary.  I love it because of the light, the graininess (ISO 1600), the drama, and Eliza’s face is sweet and pensive – she’s listening to the music upstairs.

The joy of having two photographers: Brent at the same moment as Eliza on the stairs. All of our cameras synced down to the second so that everything comes out moment by moment. This is at 6:30 pm. 

The ceremony at First Baptist Church was very well attended. Notice the 10 bridesmaids and 10 groomsmen! – they all fit just perfectly up there. It was a very lovely ceremony and afterwards, the reception was held at Club Le Conte…..More to come soon!!

 

 

Sara and Bailey’s Wedding November 6, 2008

You might remember Sara and Bailey’s engagement photos from a few months ago but finally the big day has come and gone and we’re so excited to blog their wedding! Sara and Bailey are an amazing couple – such super sweet people, and their family and friends couldn’t have made us feel more welcome at their wedding. Sara and Bailey’s wedding was a marathon! We started early at the Hilton Saturday morning and then moved over to  St. John’s Cathedral downtown where they were married in the afternoon. Sara and Bailey had a reception on site directly after the ceremony and a break before a night-time, second reception at the Arts & Culture Alliance’s Emporium Center on Gay Street. 

Here are a few of our favs…. To view their Wedding Slideshow – Click HERE.

Happy groom…

…and a beautiful bride!!!

The stained glass in the Cathedral was beautiful!

I love this peeking through the door shot of Bailey’s best man. We LOVE doing weddings because everyone, especially the wedding party, is always so happy, fun to be around, and thrilled to be a part of their friend/family’s big day. 

Bailey is an Episcopal priest at Saint Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Oak Ridge. This was a sweet moment with his priests but I imagine he felt a little out of his element being on the other side.

Sara has perfect skin, hair, eyebrows…the list goes on  

Photography was not allowed during the ceremony, but we were able to snap this one through the door as Bailey and her father started to proceed down the aisle. I love the light in this image.

Married!

Walking into the reception…

I love these next two.  This one is mine…

This one is Dan’s – I think I like his better

This might be my favorite of the day… has a European feel to it?

Bubbles and getting into the car…

A couple of atmosphere shots from the second reception at the Emporium.

The End! Watch the Slideshow!!! Click HERE.

Ashley and Justin’s Wedding… October 17, 2008

has come and gone . Kinda sad it’s over…

You must watch the slideshow!! I’ll be so upset if anyone just looks at these few pics and not the whole slideshow….so click HERE!!

It was a beautiful wedding at The Maple Grove Inn – one of my favorite places. We had the MOST BEAUTIFUL weather! Ashley called earlier that week and I was asking her what she knew about the weather (brides are always the best informed on the weather – they usually begin researching the weather for the wedding day at least one year in advance, looking at charts, graphs, history – and then finally waiting ’til 10 days out when you can see weather.com’s 10 day outlook……in my opinion the best place to look). Well, Ashley said, “it actually says 0% chance of rain.”  - And it never says 0% ?!?! – they always give it at least a 10% chance! And, they were right, so we were all thrilled. 

Ashley and Justin’s families and the wedding party were so sweet and so much fun. The reception was rockin. Justin is in a band called The Dirty Guv’nahs – they had another awesome band at their wedding but they did play three or four songs and of course the crowd went wild.

Some of my favs…

This is a present Ash’s mom gave her before the ceremony. She’s reading the card..

And wearing the present.. Her mom said the number of stones indicates the number of grandchildren she wants – she was kidding…well, not really

This bridesmaid on the end cracked me up the whole day ….

This is fun.

Cupcakes=cute! Yumm! Just looking at these cupcakes makes me soo hungry! We always try to get the little details for the bride – small, but important things like the arrangement of cupcakes she planned so carefully, but may have not had a chance to really see during the wedding. 

One of my favs for the day – so fun, so beautiful, so relaxed.

This one is my favorite and I can always count on Dan to take the very best pic of the day. When we see pictures we like we ‘call it’. “I took that” “No, I did” and then we check the credit (a little friendly competition is always good, right?). Dan won this one.

But I won this one

Justin with the lead singer of The Dirty Guv’nahs – they were great!

and everyone loved them!

In my book, this is a pretty tough shot to nail. You have pitch black sky + bright sparklers + bride and groom running and you have less than a second to get them in the right spot cause their either too close or two far away + all the while you’ve got partying people w/ sparklers in hand, nearly catching your hair on fire. 

Just playing with fire….

That spells LOVE (well, it supposed to anyways : )

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!!

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!

Jenna + Adam’s slideshow… July 2, 2008

We just finished Jenna and Adam’s slideshow – here is the link  www.watson-studios.com/jennaandadamswedding . I wish we cold post the slideshow in the here but we can’t…for now…until we have the new site. Anyways, hope everyone likes the pictures. I will be sending out a mass-email to family, friends and guests once everything is uploaded. Happy viewing!

A new favorite….. All of the bridesmaids wore different white/cream color dresses AND different shoes or no shoes and I loved this b/c it showed each girl’s unique style.

 

New, temporary June 21, 2008

Yes, our site is a bit different! We decided to update it to better fit what we are doing, which has changed in focus since Dan and I both started working for ourselves almost 1 year ago. Well, he’s been doing it for about 3 years now. We are ALL ABOUT weddings mostly. We are still taking architecture clients and we still have www.danwatsonphotography.com for that purpose but Watson-Studios is both of us now, not just Natalie, except I’m still doing all the kids. So, I (Natalie) had to get rid of all the cute girly stuff in the Watson-Studios design since there’s a man in the house. No more pink logo. No more little sheep. No more notebook paper. But, this will only be the look of our site for the next two months, until mid August (hopefully sooner) because we hired (two days ago) this great Pheonix-based company, ITDR www.intothedarkroom.com, to design us a photo blog-site, which will be our main site…and we are super, SUPER excited!! We are going to get a whole new look that better matches our work and I can’t wait to see what they come up with. BUT, we are going to have to get better at blogging, so I’m practicing now  

So, it’s friday night and we are working tonight…well, we are going to. Dan is watching an Earl he recorded…we’re going to put up the new site and keep working on Jenna and Adam’s pictures…..sounds like fun, right? It is! We are totally in love what we do! We are so lucky to be able to work together, work from our house, sleep really late, work til 3 am if we want to, make our own schedules and take phone calls in our PJs. AND we always seem to get the coolest couples. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!

Here are a couple more that we just finished from Jenna’s wedding. 

I love this one with momma ducks.

Playing around with my new actions… Troy, I think from the TR2 set. www.totallyradactions.com

Love this one of Michelle, one of the bride’s BFFEs, and her super cute beau.

 

Jenna and Adam’s wedding June 18, 2008

We had soo much fun this weekend at Jenna and Adam’s wedding. I just started working on their pics tonight and I’m super excited. They are an amazing couple with great friends and family and I’m soo happy for them. So, here are a few of my favs until their slideshow is ready…….

  

a couple of Dan’s night time shots…