Big Dog Little Bed Productions

We met Janice at a wedding we shot a couple years ago (how has it been so long?) and we liked her a lot. Then we found out her business name and we liked her even more despite the fact that we don’t have any dogs. Janice is the mastermind/owner/videographer behind her business Big Dog Little Bed Productions, aptly named after her bigger dog always tried to sleep in Murphy’s bed (you guessed it – Murphy is the little dog). The bigger dog whom the company is named after is unfortunately no longer with us, but she did adopt another bigger dog named Toby who is… well… he’s my new boyfriend, he just doesn’t know it yet.

But anyway – Janice is an absolutely wonderful videographer to work with and produces amazing videos all while being super unobtrusive and adorable. So when she wrote us to confess her love for our photo skillz, we were more than happy to work with her. The goal was to take some headshots and promo stills for her to use for her website (some of which took place in her coworking space Mercury Studio in downtown Durham and some of which were taken at her home, which she renovated and designed herself) and also to take some photos of the pups. Enjoy the cuteness all around!

Headbands of Hope

Hey friends! This is a bit of an out-of-the-ordinary blog post for us, and so I’m going to step aside and let Jess Ekstrom, founder of Headbands of Hope, tell you a bit about her amazing company. Needless to say, her mission really captured my heart and I wanted to do what I could to help them spread their message. :) Take it away, Jess!

“During the summer of 2011, I did an internship at the Make-A-Wish Foundation. I found that girls loved to wear headbands after losing their hair to treatment, but there were no organizations that provided them.

Therefore, I founded Headbands of Hope during my junior year at NC State University. For every headband purchased, one is given to a girl with cancer and $1 is donated to fund childhood cancer research.

Since launching HoH in April 2012, we’ve now donated headbands to every children’s hospital in the United States!

One moment in particular, a girl received her headband in the hospital and sadly passed away a week later. Her mom called me asking if she could have that same headband for all the women in her family to wear to her service the next day because that headband meant so much to her during her last week of life. It’s moments like this that prove how powerful one simple headband can be.

Starting Headbands of Hope has also led me to meet wonderful people, like Carolyn Scott. I had originally reached out to Carolyn in hopes that she’d use one of my headbands for one of her many bridal shoots. Instead, she so generously offered to do a complimentary shoot for Headbands of Hope. I was over the moon!

Not only is Carolyn beyond talented, she was also a blast to work with. Because of her generosity, Carolyn is really helping us spread the word about Headbands of Hope to the bridal community. We feel that our headbands can make perfect bridal headpieces and also give them the chance to give back on their wedding day.

It’s such a great feeling to meet people like Carolyn who want to use their talents for the greater good.

I also want to give a special thanks to all the models who came out for the shoot, Vestique for providing the clothes and Molly’s Musings for the awesome hair styling!”

Ashley+Kyle // Wedding at The Stockroom

We booked Ashley and Kyle sometime last year and they quickly became the #1 supplier of funny cat videos to my Facebook page, and for that I’m forever grateful. At their wedding they had a large wall of personal photos and later in the night I was checking them out, only to discover a photo of Ashley taken at about 5 or 6 at her birthday party, wearing a seriously badass Lion King shirt and sitting next to a giant cat cake and a pile of Lisa Frank cat-themed party hats. We would’ve totally been elementary school BFFs, but now we’ll just have to settle for 30-some BFFS who still celebrate their birthdays with Lisa Frank party hats (I just found a pack of 8 cat ones on Etsy for $10.80. Let’s do this).

Regarding their wedding, it was awesome and comic booked themed! They had different characters at each table, and Kyle gave me permission to open one of his older Batman ones to use for the ring shots, which made me kind of nervous, but also feel super cool. This also gave me the opportunity to look at the sweet ads for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle cereal. Anyway – it was super neat, and super indicative of the offbeat adorableness of Ashley and Kyle that makes us love them so much. Congratulations, guys!

  • Date: July 11, 2015
  • Ceremony + Reception Venue: The Stockroom // Raleigh, NC
  • First Dance Song: “Chemicals Collide” – Cloud Cult
  • Ashley’s Occupation: Attorney
  • Kyle’s Occupation: HRIS Specialist at BB&T
  • How You Met: Match.com
  • Interesting Fact: Ashley can run a 6:45 mile. Kyle currently owns 473 comic books; the oldest is from 1966.
  • Honeymoon: Jamaica!
  • Vendor Credits: Officiant – Nick Garvey (close friend) | DJ – Randy Bennett of Joe Bunn DJ Company | Cake – Whole Foods | Caterer – Catering Works | Hair/Makeup – The Junction | Coordinator – Whitney Davis