This wedding had so much personality, but we knew that it would from the second we met Hannah and Harrison, and continued once we met Hannah’s parents, and continued again once we met their bridal party and friends. :) Hannah and Harrison (from here on known as H2) were referred to us by their dear friend (and our photography friend!) Melissa Tuck. Her in-laws are great friends with Hannah’s family, and she so graciously referred us for the super important job of documenting this amazing wedding, and we couldn’t be happier. Hannah wore a vintage wedding dress that was worn by both her grandmother and her mother. It had an outstanding hoop skirt and was overall just fantastic. Harrison had on some badass suspenders on both evenings, and can rock a bow tie pretty hard. On day 1, Carolyn was introduced to the concept of “snack cheese” (which, apparently, is just cheese you eat for a snack, but instead of calling it… cheese… you call it “snack cheese”) and was schooled by an eight year old girl on how to tell a frog from a toad. H2 had their first look next to a giant mural of themselves painted on the side of her childhood home by a friend (it features Hannah driving happily with her eyes closed and Harrison being extremely terrified). Then Hannah and Harrison dug up some bourbon that they buried in the backyard, drank it, made some faces, and proceeded to go take pictures with us. Their wedding ceremony was held in Heater Park (where Harrison proposed) in Cary with about fifty people and some yay signs. Their reception was held in the backyard of Hannah’s parents which they had totally redecorated and landscaped for the occasion (it was beautiful). There was a chandelier made out of branches and some tin can people dressed up like a bride and groom. The second night involved a rooftop reception held at Solas in downtown Raleigh. Peter Lamb and the Wolves graced us with their amazing presence (we are super lucky and happy to be joining them for a wedding again in January) and everyone danced the night away (and spilled some glow sticks, which was kind of fascinating. If they break, it spills into a bunch of electric glowing droplets, which, as it turns out, can severely stain your shirt). They talked about epic and legendary family games of Risk, and a good time was had by all.

Date: September 26 and 27, 2014

Ceremony Venue: Heater Park // Cary, NC

Reception Venue (Night 1): Backyard // Private Property

Reception Venue (Night 2): Solas // Raleigh, NC

Hannah’s Occupation: Clinical Research

Harrison’s Occupation: Global Business Intelligence

How You Met: At a party. He thought she was Asian; she was not. Luckily it still turned out ok :)

Interesting Fact: The bride went to the hospital on her bachlorette party because she fell down 2 stairs and knocked herself out.  The groom has impeccable coordination.

Honeymoon Destination: Beach now, Australia/New Zealand later.

Vendor Credits: Officiant – Linda Rhoades | Band – Peter Lamb and the Wolves | Classical Guitar – Mac Ogden | Cake – Blue Moon Bakery | Caterer – Thrills from the Grill (Friday night) and Solas (Saturday night) | Hair/Makeup – The Hair and Face Lounge | Coordinator – Gretchen at RedBird Events | Muralist – Sam Ogden

Hannah & Her Dress.

This beautiful lady got married this weekend so now I can finally share a few of my favorites from her bridal portraits several months back! The dress that she wore had a hoop skirt.. a HOOP skirt, you guys! It was her grandmother’s wedding dress as well as her mother’s wedding dress and is absolutely amazing. Can’t wait to share her and Harrison’s wedding pictures with you guys… it was a good time. :)

 

Greg is called “Grisha” by Abby, her family, and subsequently Geoff and myself, and will therefore be known as Grisha for the rest of this post. The reason this post is so very long is that it’s kind of an engagement session+wedding rolled into one. They wanted to use their engagement session as a first look + wedding pictures instead of doing their newlywed photos on the day of. Unfortunately, we got about five minutes into it when the rain set in. And we’re talking monsoon style rain tapering off into a steady pour. We decided to move them to their wedding day, and we got in about 1.5 hours worth of pictures on their friend’s farm. Abby wore a vintage 1960s dress with a feather hair fascinator that she made. Her earrings were also handmade by Abby and Grisha…made from the plastic ring-sizer kit that Grisha bought when he was trying to figure out her ring size.

Their invitations were also handmade…courtesy of their printer and an atlas they bought. They printed the invitations and folded various sections of the atlas maps for envelopes. They kept the Newfoundland envelope. It’s where they plan on going for their honeymoon. Abby’s mom collected all of the materials for their centerpieces from every place imaginable. She’s been collecting since before they were engaged. “It gotten a lot worse since the engagement happened,” said Abby. I was told that I should probably receive a tetanus shot before photographing the wedding. Grisha’s mother sewed the chuppah and the poles were made from bamboo from the farm where we took their pictures. The cocktail hour was held before the wedding much to the delight of the guests. There was no aisle in the ceremony so I photographed Abby and her father walking to the Top of the Hill from the Carolina Inn. Grisha’s thumbprint is on the inside of Abby’s ring. Instead of a receiving line, the couple opted to serve ice cream to all their guests. There could not be two kinder people on the planet.

I recently started asking some questions to my couples for the blog. Sometimes they answer, sometimes they don’t. Here are Abby and Grisha’s:

First Dance Song [Carolyn’s Answer]: None. After breaking the glass, Abby and Grisha’s guests erupted into spontaneous cheering and dancing, much to the plan of the newlyweds (hence the cocktail hour before the wedding).

Bride’s Occupation: Research assistant, currently applying to medical school, but will probably be applying again next year. So it goes.

Groom’s Occupation: Self-employed fleet GPS tracking device installer.

How You Met: Elevator! At Russian Language Summer Program at Middlebury College.

Interesting Bride Fact [Carolyn’s Answer]: Abby didn’t answer this, so I’ll use this opportunity to tell everyone that we creepily have the same purse, only in different colors. We both got it from Etsy from different sellers, but it’s the same purse. She also has other cute purses with birds. I used to have cute purses with birds until I literally wore a hole through the straps. We’re kind of purse soulmates.

Interesting Groom Fact: Grisha vermicomposts – yes that’s right, there’s a bin of worms in our apartment that he feeds our fruits and vegetables and shredded paper to.

Honeymoon Destination: Newfoundland, Canada (the whole thing! Not just St. Johns or Gros Morne National Park) – but not until summer 2012 and only if I get into medical school.

Date: October 22, 2011

Ceremony and Reception Venue: Top of the Hill Restaurant and Brewery // Chapel Hill, NC

Band: GMISH

Florist: Abby+Grisha made their flowers and boutonnieres using flowers from the Carrboro Farmers Market the morning of their wedding.

Pie: Top of the Hill

Officiant: Robin Renteria

Hair/Makeup: Destenee

Day-Of Coordinator: Not Your Grandmother’s Wedding // Chrissy Brady

Photobooth: Five Star Amusements // Bob Haggarty