Crunched for time on your wedding day or trying to keep wandering vagrants out of your shots in Moore Square? We have the perfect solution.

Ta-da! Abby and Steve’s Day After session. Remember when they got married? Instead of an engagement session, they went with the day-after session. They knew they’d be decently crunched for time on their day, but also they wanted to go to some slightly more eccentric locations and do some more dramatic type of shots. We had about 15 minutes with them on their wedding day, which isn’t a whole lot when you’re walking around from place to place, so we’re glad they did it. They also had their wedding around noon, so having the day after session in the evening gave them a totally different look in the photos. We love them, and we love Abby and Steve and their wildness and fun selves.

And I have never seen anyone who could make such a crazy face in my entire life. You’ll know it when you see it. Craziest face ever. She said she had always wanted to “capture it on film”… so Abby, your dream has come true!

Abby and Steve’s wedding was not only a great opportunity for Geoff and me to put rings on really awesome things, but a chance to work with a really easygoing couple on a beautiful Sunday morning. There was even a getting-ready cat… my favorite kind. And Geoff decided, between Steve getting out his original Voltron toy for ring shots and seeing Abby’s collection of Chuck Palahniuk books at their house, that we should probably be BFFs now. And I agree. I especially was won over after seeing the birdseed favors that they made for the guests… because this kept our cats entertained for a few hours (watching the birds, I should say… not eating them)… and I’m pretty sure if I could’ve found where the kiddos at the wedding were obtaining their wedding coloring and activity books, I would’ve taken one home for myself. I should also note that all of the decor was made by Abby and Steve… the collecting of the white vases, the making of all of the paper signs, pennants, and even the embroidery. SCORE.

Abby and Steve wanted a vintage-feeling wedding without the vintage-tinged photographs to match, and I have to say I think it came out just right. Their centerpieces and wedding design was absolutely gorgeous and quite fitting for an early morning ceremony and afternoon brunch reception. And despite it looking like rain for a good few hours, it was thankfully our first sunny wedding in a few weeks! Our only hiccup was attempting to keep Moore Square vagrants out of their photographs and, when a police officer tried to help us, the vagrants filed a complaint with the police department, and we ended up getting called for questioning by the police chief. But you know! All in a day’s work, friends!

How You Met: Eharmony

Honeymoon Destination: St. Lucia

Date: May 6, 2012

Ceremony and Reception Venue: Caffe Luna // Raleigh, NC

Officiant: Reverend Barbara Lodge

Cake: Swank Cake Design

Florist: Serendipity Designs // Alana

Hair and Makeup: Makeup For Your Day // Regan + N’Zinga

Kelsey and Drew are going to have the luckiest marriage ever if the sideways rain at their wedding was any indication… and I think it was. Also, they were married on Cinco de Mayo which I’m SURE must be good luck somehow… or at least indicates that your marriage will be filled with excellent Mexican take-out (which, in my opinion, is good luck).

These guys are awfully sweet and wonderful, as evidenced by how many people love them and how they got their grandmother and me gluten-free cupcakes to eat for dessert. :) We hit it off right away at our first consult, and have had a wonderful wedding-planning courtship for the past year or so. I told Geoff, “What am I going to do when Kelsey is married?!” because we e-mail each other a lot. Drew asked Kelsey, “What, does she just sit at the computer waiting for our e-mails?” and the answer is yes… yes, I do. Apparently, I’m in safe hands because she specifically e-mailed me from their honeymoon in Costa Rica this week to assure me that she would not stop e-mailing me.

Drew moved to North Carolina for Kelsey and I hope that they stay because we love them and their furry dog-child, Miley. Miley was a big part of their engagement pictures and joined them again for some wedding pictures on the front porch of the Carolina Inn before the rain became too sideways. She’s very thrilled that her parents are finally officially married but is jealous that she did not get to accompany them to Costa Rica (she is e-mailing me in your place while you’re gone, Kelsey).

So congratulations to the wonderful Kelsey and Drew… and may your wedding have all the good luck in the world and excellent Mexican take-out!

First Dance: ”Moondance” – Van Morrison

How You Met: Through friends

Interesting Bride Fact: Has a soft spot for any and all children

Interesting Groom Fact: Is awful handy – no wonder I keep him around :)

Honeymoon Destination: Costa Rica

Date: May 5, 2012

Ceremony and Reception Venue: The Carolina Inn // Chapel Hill, NC

Wedding Planner + Flowers: C&D Events

Officiant: Reverend Carl Johnson

DJ: Jon Fowler

Cake: Rhonda Mullen

Caterer: The Carolina Inn

Hair: Dani

Makeup: Michelle Clark

What makes me so happy with this wedding is how happy Becky looks. Not that she’s not happy or anything like that, but that I remember when we first met Becky and Jake and we basically discussed how bad she hated having her picture taken. According to them, she’d freeze up. The whole deer-in-headlights deal. And I’ve loved seeing how, over time, Becky has been able to completely ignore me. I can see where that wouldn’t be a normal person’s goal… to get someone to ignore you… but it’s awesome when you go from an initial meeting of, “Becky really hates having her picture taken” to Becky running around the city smiling and laughing and not worrying about me jumping out at her from the bushes.

Becky and Jake are those really cool clients that you hope to get but that secretly make you nervous at the same time because they’re really cool and you sometimes feel like maybe your level of cool won’t live up to their standards of cool, you know? I also remember at the first meeting that Jake told me that he didn’t “just want wedding pictures, we want art.” And I thought OKAY WE CAN DO THIS DEEEEEEP BREATTHSSS. And I hope we did. I think we did. To me, the pictures reflect how the two of them are perfectly suited to each other’s quirkiness… and how they not only make a gorgeous couple, but how they’re just so ridiculously right for each other. They’re the type where, if you were friends with Jake, you’d be more than happy to now welcome Becky along to every previously-Jake-only activities and vice versa. They’re kind of infectiously awesome like that. And we like them a whole bunch. I hope these pictures are as cool to you guys as they seem to us. This wedding was rad… and our second time shooting this year and ever at CAM Raleigh where I think I might just set up a tent in the back and live if that’s okay with the staff. Thanks in advance!

So normally I don’t interrupt posts like this, but I thought this was so cool that I had to point it out because it’s tiny so it’s easily missed. But that bird below that flew over the ceremony that Geoff so awesomely caught just happened to be their wedding colors. WEIRD. Thanks, bird!

First Dance: ”Take Care” – Beach House

Bride’s Occupation: Lab Manager at NCSU and also part-time doctoral graduate student in Microbiology at NCSU

Groom’s Occupation: Senior Software Architect at IBM

How You Met: The internets! Online dating site called OKCupid.com – we owe them our firstborn :)

Interesting Bride Fact: Is ALWAYS 5 minutes early to everything…

Interesting Groom Fact: Is ALWAYS 5 minutes early to everything… and purposely arrived 5 minutes LATE to their first date – on a Monday, at a restaurant that, as it turns out, is closed on Mondays – leaving Becky wondering if she had been stood up.

Honeymoon Destination: Dominican Republic

Date: April 28, 2012

Ceremony and Reception Venue: CAM Raleigh // Raleigh, NC

Wedding Planner: Grace Leisure Events

Officiant: Jonathan Prinz

DJ: Frank Meldau of Joe Bunn DJ Company

Florist: John Griffin with Themeworks

Cake: Once in a Blue Moon Bakery

Caterer: Posh Nosh

Hair: Dana Hunter at Alter Ego Salon

Makeup: Belle Trachtenberg at Alter Ego Salon

We get an extraordinary amount of science clients. Maybe our nerdy charm draws them in or the high ratio of dinosaur-to-human photos on our blog. Either way, we love it. I’m secretly terrible at science, but get along really well with scientists because I tend to have the same interests… minus the intelligence. So we were really glad when we booked Monica and Graham’s wedding… and even more glad when we booked their engagement session that was to be half-normal, half-science.

Monica and Graham met at the Governor’s School science camp back in the day and kept in touch as fellow science kids despite long distance. Then they moved slightly closer for college and started dating despite less distance. Then they moved even closer for grad school, where they today are graduate students at NC State; Monica is environmental toxicology and Graham is a physicist (took me about ten tries to spell that word). Engaged and still very much loving science, they came to me with their e-session ideas… a normal shoot first, and then the best. idea. ever.

For those of you who were deprived of the lack of parental supervision that was required to do this awesome experiment in your childhood, you can read about it here… then go try it in your own back yard because you’re an adult now and can blow up all the stuff you want! For everyone else: REMEMBER MENTOS AND DIET COKE!? THAT WAS FREAKING AWESOME.

The Raleigh Downtown Farmers Market has returned! I photographed Opening Day for the Downtown Raleigh Alliance again this year and was loving the new layout and new vendors. :) I also love seeing the old vendors… most of whom I know at this point. They’re awesome people and sell awesome products. Aside from produce, you can find fish, peanut butter, honey, eggs, spices, and all sorts of other goodies… all produced within 90 miles of downtown Raleigh. :) Visit on Wednesdays from 10am-2pm in City Plaza on Fayetteville St.

This was our first time photographing a wedding in Wilmington… despite frequenting the beach there as much as humanly possible. ;) And we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves… not just because it was our first venture to the beach this year, but also because it was KP (Kristi) and Todd’s wedding! And we love them!

KP and Todd are referrals that came to us from the outstanding Lori+Hassan who were married in Manteo last year directly after Hurricane Irene. Their wedding venue at 108 Budleigh was under 4 feet of water right before their wedding. Ironically, KP’s wedding venue almost burned down a few days before her wedding. She sent me an email literally stating, “Guuurrrlllll, we almost had an incident yesterday”… which I still crack up thinking about, because most people (myself included) would have been much more… explicit… in our phrasing… and it would go something more like, “$*&@(@*&@#!^!$(!??$@#*#@ My venue almost burned downnnnnn!!!!!” (See the picture she sent me via Facebook here).

But not KP. Because KP and Todd are totally calm, cool, collected… and everyone was totally chill. Fire? What fire? It’s all good. We figured as long as there weren’t any cockatoos involved this year that the wedding would go smoothly no matter what (a joke… both Todd and Geoff had run-ins with the pet cockatoo in the hotel at Lori and Hassan’s wedding, bahaha). To make a very long story short – KP and Todd have known each other for a very long time, but stalking each other on Facebook truly brought them together (although it’s a point of contention as to who stalked who first, who stalked who more, etc.). They are just the sweetest pair together and separately… both of them having that complete and utter southern charm and using it widespread and consistently (hence the “Guuurrrlllll, we almost had an incident” when writing about your wedding venue coming close to being nonexistent).

KP and Todd – you are amazing and your relationship is incredibly strong and good. The couple who eats Chik-fil-A ice cream stays together.

First Dance: Sister Hazel

Bride’s Occupation: Pharmaceutical Research

Groom’s Occupation: Health Care Revenue Recovery Manager

How You Met: Have known each other for 13+ years

Honeymoon Destination: Cabo San Lucas

Date: April 21, 2012

Ceremony Venue: Wrightsville United Methodist Church // Wilmington, NC

Reception Venue: Cameron Art Museum // Wilmington, NC

Officiant: Bob Bauman

DJ: Active Entertainment

Florist: Jimmy Lockamy

Cake: Nancy Hem

Caterer: Angie’s Catering

Hair/Makeup: Clinique/Kristi

Videographer: USC Web and Video Productions

Rachel loves boy bands. A lot. A whole, whole, whole, whole lot. She says loving boy bands is pretty embarrassing, but not as embarrassing as her grunge phase (to which I can relate). She loves them so much that she knits them scarves. When she’s not knitting scarves and mailing them to boy bands (One Direction is her favorite, although we did rock out some New Kids on the Block in the car), she attends a boarding school in Greensboro, North Carolina and comes home to Pittsburgh, PA as much as she can (something to which I can also relate). She roots for the Pens and works for the Carnegie Museum of Natural History working as a counselor for the camp programs for little kids. She can play guitar and speaks fluent Russian (her family’s from St.  Petersburg) and has three dogs.

I think Rachel is pretty darn awesome. Not only did she sing boy band songs for me, she also told me a lot of chemistry jokes. And anyone who tells me good chemistry jokes is automatically written down in my Book of Favorite People. Happy 16th birthday, Rachel… you rocked this out.

Ladies and gentlemen, the first of my primary color grooms!

As some of you on my Facebook page know, I have two primary color grooms. Red this year and Blue next year. We’re still scouting out 2014′s primary color groom, so anyone who has a fiancé whom they refer to as “Yellow” on a regular basis, feel free to book us so we can complete the cycle.

On a normal note, meet Brooke and Red! They met online, but weren’t suggested to each other because they were apparently “only” an 80% match (and we all know 95% of the population is undateable). But Red was very specific about who he’d like to meet, found Brooke’s profile, and messaged her. They had a wonderful first date (being the incredibly attractive and charming people that they are), and then before they knew it they would be standing in a large open field with me and a giant helium dinosaur balloon taking engagement pictures.

Red likes golfing and Brooke likes gardening. They both love cooking, but cook in very different ways so that cooperative cooking at the same time has been ruled out entirely. Red’s first CD was the Wayne’s World soundtrack, and Brooke’s was one of the 6 CD deals from Colombia (bonus 90s kid points if you know what I’m talking about), although she was pretty into Ace of Base back in the day (what self-respecting 90s kid wasn’t?). They also really love dinosaurs. A lot. They’re having their wedding reception on the dino floor of the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences in November, and decided to go that one little step further into dino-love by incorporating the prehistoric awesomeness into their engagement session. And those of you who know me well know that I love me some dinosaur ring shots…

Wendy and Nelson were married at All Saints Chapel the day before Easter, their rings carried in tiny metal eggs. :) And with Wendy’s son Ashton calling Nelson “Dad” for quite some time now already, the day was a long time coming for all of them. It was beautiful to see them all finally unite as a family, very much in love and supportive of each other.

Laura, the matron of honor, gave a speech about how she knew Nelson was the one for Wendy… and while I’m terrible at remembering speeches and quotes, I’ll paraphrase: Nelson loves cars. A lot. He has a 1968 Camaro and brought it over for Wendy to see when they first started dating. Now, it’s pretty well known in their family circle that Nelson really doesn’t let anyone go near his cars (or especially in them), and he rarely lets it out of the garage because it’s kept in pristine condition. But not only did he bring it over for Wendy – he let Ashton climb in the car. :) Now, for those who know Nelson, this was a really big move on his part, and the start of a wonderful commitment to both Wendy and Ashton.

They all threw a killer wedding at All Saints complete with adorable Easter Egg ornaments as favors and the most. popular. candy. bar. ever. At the very end of the post you’ll see what happens when a bunch of children literally wipe the entire candy bar clean in approximately 20 minutes, and the aftermath that ensued after the sugar kicked in about 30 minutes later…

First Dance: ”Broken Road” – Rascal Flats

Bride’s Occupation: Head Hunter

Groom’s Occupation: Electrical Design Engineer

How You Met: Introduced

Interesting Bride Fact: “Always seems to have everything under control and well organized, but is actually a total mess… :)”

Interesting Groom Fact: ”Is a total germaphobe and control freak!”

Honeymoon Destination: Miami and then onto the Bahamas in June

Date: April 7, 2012

Ceremony and Reception Venue: All Saints Chapel // Raleigh, NC

Officiant: Rev. Robin Renteria

Wedding Coordinator: Sally Oakley – Personalized Wedding Planning

DJ: Black Belt Limousines and Sedans

Florist: Dogwood Tree

Cake: Edible Art

Catering: Unforgettable Food Affairs

Hair: Charisma Salon // Joni

Ceremony Coordinator: Martha Gribble

I was invited last week by Glenwood Hospitality Associates to take photographs of the construction site of the first hotel in Raleigh’s Glenwood South district – the Hampton Inn & Suites. It was definitely something different, and I must say that when I woke up that morning I did not anticipate literally hanging off the roof of 510 Glenwood with my ankles being held by one of the owners of the hotel. :) Nor did I really anticipate the climb up the scaffolding to take pictures inside one of the top floors. There was a lot of deep breathing and meditation techniques employed to coax myself up and down those stairs… :) As a fan of roller coasters and high observation decks, I told Geoff, “I didn’t really think I was afraid of heights before.” To which he replied, “Nah, you’re just afraid of things you can actually fall off of.” :)

Here are some of my favorites of the morning.

What’s that? You can’t tell them apart? :)

Canela is 7 years old and has a slightly larger build and muzzle. He looks very much like an adorable fuzzy bear. He is suspected to be Layla’s uncle (Layla is 3 and looks much closer to the standard, traditional golden retriever without bear-relations). They like treats and belly rubs and chin rubs most of all. I was immediately greeted with kisses and licks when I met them at their door, and they proceeded to show me around their house while they went over their notes on how to look best for their pet portraits.

Now – I really and truly love them both (I had to slowly unhinge my jaw on the car ride home to get it functioning again after grinding my teeth the whole session because I was overcome by cuteness and spoke in a baby voice the entire time) …but Canela pretty much stole my heart not just because he looks like a little bear, but also because he is currently undergoing chemotherapy for treatment of his cancer. :( He is taking the chemo very well with little side effects other than he gets tired easily, and there is no prognosis yet on how he’ll fair, but he seems to be doing extraordinarily well and I’m sending all my thoughts and love for Canela to live many more happy doggy years.

Their parents are just as adorable and welcomed me into their home with open arms and a bag full of Guatemala coffee to take home to my parents (the coffee addicts). They met online with Ron living in Raleigh and Claudia living in Guatemala (born and raised). They were married 4 months later in 2005. Ron is now learning Spanish and Claudia checks his homework (although sometimes she grades it wrong). They are fantastic people and fantastic parents to these sweet little furry kids!

My dear Alabama photography friend, Kathleen Clipper, interviewed me for a personal blog project she’s been doing! Please visit her page and check out the interview!

http://www.kathleenclipper.com/blog/colorful-interview-carolyn-scott-color-project-mobile-al-senior-portrait-

As if landing the sister of your former client isn’t a high enough compliment, Geoff and I apparently won over the future groom at Gwen+Nick’s wedding as well. Bethany told me on the phone that while her fiancé Kevin goes with the flow of wedding planning, he was pretty adamant that he wanted us to photograph their wedding as well. I love when the grooms like us. :) But even if I didn’t already have a soft spot in my heart for these two, they would’ve won me over in about 30 seconds anyway. :) This was the most playful engagement session I think I’ve photographed (Bethany did tell me on the phone that “…Kevin will be fine, we’ll just put him on the playground…” which turned out to be incredibly true), and two of the most happy-go-lucky people I’ve met. I think it shows, which is good considering Bethany told me, “You know those engagement sessions where everyone is all serious and they don’t even look happy to be engaged? Yeah, we don’t want that.” So I told them to just have a good time… and they did. :)

Without risk of ruining their whole meeting/first date/proposal story (let’s save it for their July wedding blog post, shall we?), I’ll give you Bethany+Kevin: fierce Words with Friends competitors, riders of ostriches, conquerors of the sandpit dinosaur rodeo.

We have a special place in our hearts for Kelly and John. Maybe it was the fact that they couldn’t decide whether or not to play Queen, Prince, or Bruce Springsteen for their first dance. Or maybe it was because we’re pretty big into modernist architecture and they’re both architects. Or maybe it’s because they were married at CAM, Raleigh’s Contemporary Art Museum, and we were married at Artspace, another art museum down the street. Or maybe it’s because their favorite show is the Walking Dead. Or maybe it’s because they’re in Costa Rica for their honeymoon and that’s where we went too. :)

Or maybe it’s just because they are awesome. Besides, they did make their own signs and invitations with John’s graphic design talent. They also made their own reception lighting… which is something we’ve never seen (yep – all of those glowing and non-glowing cubes hanging from the ceiling were hand-made by Kelly and John). But besides all of our mutual interests and their outward awesomeness, they are also very sweet, genuine people who wanted their wedding to be a good time with lots of happy candids of their friends. And Geoff, myself, and Randy (the DJ) can all vouch for the fact that their reception was outstanding and a good time with lots of happy people to say the least. I knew they’d be a rowdy reception crowd when they starting “Woooo!”ing during the first kiss at the ceremony. ;) So thank you to Kelly and John, who were nothing but sweet and amazing and adorable, and their lovely family and friends for showing us a fantastic Saturday night despite the rain.

First Dance: ”I Wanna Be Your Lover” – Prince

Bride’s Occupation: Architectural Intern

Groom’s Occupation: Creative Director/Graphic Designer

How You Met: In architecture school at NC State

Interesting Bride Fact: Kelly and John were 2 of 5 winners of a competition to design a bike rack for downtown Raleigh, both will be made and installed by April

Interesting Groom Fact: Took a 2 month road trip after graduating college – Kelly met him in Chicago & Seattle

Honeymoon Destination: Costa Rica

Date: March 24, 2012

Ceremony Venue: CAM Raleigh (Contemporary Art Museum) // Raleigh, NC

Reception Venue: The Stockroom // Raleigh, NC

Officiant: Clark Scalera

DJ: Randy Bennett of Joe Bunn DJ Company 

Florist: The Flower Cupboard

Cake: Sweet Escapes Bakery

Catering: Beau Bennett – Beau Catering

Hair/Makeup: Bottega Hair Studio

Ceremony Coordinator: Martha Gribble

Friends!!

Geoff and I are sooo ridiculously excited to announce that Carolyn Scott Photography has won “Best Photographer” in Raleigh (as voted by the people of Raleigh) for the Raleigh Downtowner Magazine 2012 “Best of Downtowner” Awards!!! Ahhhh!!! :)

Our friend and client Jen joked, “You must have the best client base too! ;)” But in all reality, this is actually an award for best client base. :) If we didn’t have supportive and wonderful clients, we wouldn’t have won this award at all since it was strictly based on voting… and let’s face it, we only voted for ourselves once, so somebody else must’ve voted too. ;) :D In all seriousness, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts and hope that you enjoy this award as much as we are and give yourselves a pat on the back for making this happen. We love you!

Please pick up a free copy of the Raleigh Downtowner if you’re around the city, or view the electronic version here .

I like these two a lot. They’re really, really silly and not afraid of their silliness. They’re also really fun and outgoing and not afraid of geese. Christina is Andrew’s striking older sister in a sibling trio who all have fantastic brown eyes (or at least 2 out of 3 since I haven’t met the oldest sister… but I’m assuming she also has awesome eyes). Steven is her partner-in-crime-and-silliness, who ironically warned me that Christina would photobomb all of the pictures, then proceeded to photobomb them all himself. :) They were set up by Christina’s sister who was Steven’s best friend in college. Their first date was bowling, where Christina crushed Steven’s score but not his heart (badum-ching!), and Christina has since moved back to Pittsburgh (from Philadelphia where she went to school) to be with him as they plan for their September wedding in the ‘Burgh. :)

We started off the session at the street corner where their first kiss took place, and ultimately their engagement (cute!). It looked awfully doomy and overcast, but by the time we got to the city it was all blue sky and fluffy clouds! I think these two are just a ray of sunshine on a Pittsburghy day. :)

This was a wedding with a lot of firsts for us. The first wedding of 2012. The first wedding at Duke Chapel. The first bridal party who all brushed their teeth for us. The first that ended with us drinking milkshakes from Cookout in a limo. I can’t say that it could have ended any better. Elise and Jeff are very comfortable with each other, and very nice and polite to everyone they meet, putting everyone around them instantly at ease. I’ve never been nervous around either of them. I think it’s impossible to be anything but relaxed and smiling, as I think it’s impossible for Elise and Jeff to be anything but relaxed and smiling. So this was a very happy crew: happy family, happy friends, happy Elise and Jeff. I think this shows in their pictures. Everyone who was happy was also fun and ridiculous, and this also shows in their pictures (in a good way). And we couldn’t ask for anything better than a really good, fun crew who welcomed us with open arms into our first wedding of the year.

I did one bridal show ever which is where I met Elise. She sent me an email afterward saying, “Our wedding is so far away that I really hadn’t even thought of planning anything, but visiting your booth and looking at your pictures made me SO EXCITED!” Two years and some contracts later, we’re photographing her and Jeff brushing their teeth in Duke Gardens using their custom toothbrush favors (Elise is in dental school) and riding around with them in limos, visiting the local Cookout in formal wear and drinking milkshakes. It is a strange world, and I can’t say that I didn’t sit in the back of the limo on the drive back to our car, sipping on my peanut butter milkshake, and wonder how I got here, but I’m so thankful for Elise and Jeff’s love and support of each other and of us. It’s a beautiful thing, and a great way to kick of the year. Congratulations, friends!

Bride’s Occupation: Soon to be Pediatric Dental Resident in Seattle!

Groom’s Occupation: Attorney – soon to be ex-attorney/unemployed because [Elise is] dragging him across the country.

How You Met: [Elise+Jeff] were in the same freshmen dorm at Duke – of the 100 or so kids housed there, 5 couples have gotten married!

Interesting Bride Fact: Bride has a double uvula (the hanging thing in the back of the throat) – this is Jeff’s go to weird fact about [her].

Interesting Groom Fact: Jeff’s own personal holiday is when the new Madden Xbox game comes out. Also has the uncanny ability to make Elise laugh on cue.

Honeymoon Destination: Elise wrote, “Motel 6 – This is what Jeff keeps telling me. In reality he says he won’t tell me until we’re boarding the plane (and he says not the first plane…)”. In actuality, it was the Bahamas. :) Jeff broke the news to Elise during the reception after a good chunk of the family kept nagging him to tell her. :D

Date: March 10, 2012

Ceremony Venue: Duke Chapel // Durham, NC

Reception Venue: The Cotton Room // Durham, NC

Hotel: Millennium Hotel // Durham, NC

Officiant: Reverend Bill Fowler (family friend and Duke alum)

DJ: The Perfect Beat // Apex, NC

Florist: Elise and her mother and aunt made all of the floral arrangements themselves!

Cake: Sugarland // Chapel Hill, NC

Hair/Makeup: Moshi Moshi Means Hello! // Chapel Hill, NC

Videographer: Daniel and Kevin // Heart Stone Films

The first wedding of the year is officially over, meaning I can now post Elise’s bridal portraits!! :D Ow ow!

Elise and I did these back in the beginning of February (hence the no “Carolyn” watermarks on them because I uploaded these to the blog last month and now am too lazy to go back and put my name on them, but Geoff couldn’t attend the session so I don’t really think they need to be labeled anyway). I asked her whether or not she wanted them to be funky or traditional, and she said she had thought traditional in front of Duke Chapel (where they were married yesterday in a wedding of awesome!) but now that I mentioned it, funky might be fun too. :) Sooo we split ‘em up. Half in a crazy amazing antique store, the other half at Duke. Both, apparently, equally treacherous for her gorgeous dress (bridal portraits aren’t for the terribly faint of heart, and your dress will get dirty and need cleaned, and you may trip and rip part of your dress under your high heels, so make sure that you have a good and nice gown person who understands the dangers and can do any cleaning and repairs well before the wedding).

Elise is amazingly beautiful, and Geoff and I both agree that she looks like a young Molly Ringwald. I wasn’t sure whether or not Elise would be offended despite how gorgeous we think Molly Ringwald is (since you know how sometimes people tell you that you look like someone you don’t think you look like and it freaks you out?), but Geoff assured me that “Molly Ringwald was like, the Queen of the 80s!!” I told Elise, and she said, “Anytime anyone compares me to the Queen of anything (especially the 80s) I’m thrilled!”

This is why we love you, Elise. Have a great time in the Bahamas!

Ben grew up in Indiana and came to North Carolina for college but ended up in New York City, NY while Amy grew up in Raleigh but went to college in Ithica and winded up in New York City, NY, only to come back to Durham for their engagement session at Duke University. GOT IT? Good! :D

So both Amy and Ben were in the same states at kind of roughly the same time periods but nothing ever really overlapped. Amy was introduced to Ben through a cleverly-disguised blind date set up by their mutual friends while she was visiting New York City (Ben already lived there at this point). They spoke to each other online for a few months while Amy was finishing up school/cleverly devising a way to get back to New York City while in Ithica. She visited him often, one thing led to another, etc., and it all accumulates into a very happy wedding this September at Temple Beth and 1705 Prime in Raleigh! For now they remain happily situated in New York where Ben works for a software company and Beth is a physical therapist.

So why Duke University? Ben went to college at Duke and they dig the architecture and the general space (it also reminds Amy of Cornell, where she went to school). And I was sooo super happy and delighted that parts of the campus actually had flowers and leaves and things that were bright and happy! It’s kind of hit or miss around in the area right now as to whether or not all of the grass is completely dead or bright green. :) Anyway – I had a great time with these two nice and fun and adorable people and look forward to their triumphant return to North Carolina in September!