Lexie+Michael // Raleigh Elopement

Lexie and Michael were introduced to us a long time ago by our friends Monica and Graham, whose wedding we shot back in 2012. Well, I guess we knew Lexie first (I spy her in one of their reception photos) and Michael later. Lexie is an identical twin (oddly enough, our third identical twin this season, but our fourth identical twin ever), and for a while we had absolutely no idea how to tell her and her sister Ashley apart. Later someone gave us the pro tip that Ashley has bangs and Lexie doesn’t, and it’s been somewhat easier since then, but if they aren’t standing next to each other it’s still not a fool-proof method and I’m never 100% sure in my answer. But, now that Lexie has been our (wonderful!) client, I think my chances of figuring out who is who will now have a 90% accuracy rate, white dress or not, and I think that’s the best you can really hope for with identical twins. So now that Lexie and Michael are married, it’s going to be Michael’s job to stand next to Lexie all the time so I don’t mess up.

These two were married at the courthouse in Raleigh surrounded by close family and friends, then they had a reception at Watered Garden Florist a few days later (Lexie’s mom is a florist at Watered Garden and did all the flowers for this wedding, which were amaaaaazing!), then a few days after that they had another reception in Chicago with Michael’s side of the family. We happily were able to keep her dress pretty clean throughout the courthouse ceremony and the pictures afterward roaming around the gardens so she could use it at the receptions. Michael studies trees for a living and is really into plants. Lexie rehabs turtles (very jealous of this) and has dogs and is also into plants. Together they are very nature-y and excited to take pictures by some trees and we were excited to take their pictures by trees and everyone was very, very happy. But not as happy as me, who received gluten-free cupcakes care of Monica and Graham from Lexie and Michael’s reception a few days later. ;) Mmm, cupcakes.

Lauren+Kris // Duke Forest Wedding.

Lauren and Kris had all the necessary things for a delightful wedding: donuts, a jazz band, an ice cream truck, a crazy little biodiesel bus, and a phone full of pictures of their cat Calvin using Snapchat wearing a fedora and a fake mustache. They were married by a friend in a little intimate spot of grass in the middle of Duke Forest surrounded by trees and fabulous early fall light. Then we all went on to the reception at The Cookery that was adorned with little golden dinosaurs sporting air plants that were standing guard over bottles of liquor holding wildflowers. I really wanted to steal all of them and start a tiny gold dinosaur plant army but I couldn’t do that because Lauren and Kris are so nice and I feel like it’s probably good luck for your marriage if you start out with your own golden dinosaur plant army and I didn’t want to rob them of that.

Did we mention the ice cream truck? We did, but we’re going to talk about it again right now because ice cream. At one point Lauren held a glass of wine in one hand and an ice cream cone in the other and looked so ridiculously thrilled with the whole thing and I thought yes, this is what happiness looks like. Everyone loves The Parlour and we do too, especially when they arrive in a pink and white truck, and I had two scoops of the Vietnamese Coffee because it’s my favorite, even though I don’t like coffee at all. And we ate our ice cream as the fabulous Mint Julep Jazz Band played on into the night and everyone had the best time talking and socializing. Thank you for having a delightful and charming wedding, Lauren and Kris, and we hope you’re up in DC starting that tiny golden dinosaur plant army with your cat Calvin.

  • Date: September 23, 2016
  • Ceremony Venue: Duke Forest // Durham, NC
  • Reception Venue: The Cookery // Durham, NC
  • Lauren’s Occupation: Economist for the federal government in DC
  • Kris’s Occupation: Energy analyst
  • How You Met: Graduate school classmates at Duke’s Nicholas School of the Environment.
  • Interesting Fact: Although they love Durham almost as much as they love each other, the only actual NC native in their family is their okra-loving cat, Calvin (from APS of Durham).
  • Honeymoon: Not sure yet! The front runners are Croatia and Laos.
  • Vendor Credits: Officiant – Zarak Khan. Band – Mint Julep Jazz Band. Florist – Pine State Flowers. Ice Cream – The Parlour Ice Cream Truck. Caterer – Durham Catering Company. Hair/Makeup – Carla White. Coordinator – Gretchen Garrett of Red Bird Events. Ceremony Music – Jordan Nance. Transporation – Greenway Transit. Donuts – Monuts.

Lauren+Michael+Harrison // Newborn.

We are so excited to introduce you all to Lauren and Michael, and their newborn son Harrison, who is stunning and handsome and wears a lot of hats (not like, in the figurative sense where he has a lot of different roles to play, but rather in the literal sense that he actually does wear a lot of hats). Michael is Kevin’s cousin, and we were so honored to do more work for this awesome family and get to know him and Lauren better (and also their loudly purring cat named Topanga *cue Boy Meets World song*). So they had us over one rainy day shortly after Harrison was born to take pictures of his tiny self in his many hats hanging out with his family and his grandparents. And everything was well and good until it started rainy incredibly hard and got so ridiculously dark that we had to come back a different day when it was brighter to retake some of the photos so they weren’t so gloomy and daaaaark. So if it looks like the set above was taken on two different days, that’s because it was. The good news is that Harrison decided to sleep the second time we were there (yay!) so it was a win-win for sunshine and sleepiness. :)