Diane+Jeff+Cora // At Home Family Session

A little ditty… ’bout JEFF AND DIANEEEE (sorry guys, I had to. It pops in my mind every time I think of either one of you.) We became friends with Jeff and Diane through our other friends Beth and David! We knew them from little get togethers and what not, and then spent a week with them in St. John when Beth and David got married. We got sunburned and drank some tasty tropical drinks and played board games and hung out in hot tubs and gave zero $&#*s. And for those of you who hear my often-repeated warning story about how you should always wear a lifejacket when you snorkel, this is the “other Jeff” who was snorkeling with Geoff and me during my near-death experience! Besides being good at tropical vacationing, Jeff is really, really good at identifying lots of obscure bands and beer, and Diane is really, really good at making crafts and cookies. She can sew like a crazy woman, and her skills are much admired far and wide. Then we went to their house to meet their daughter Cora, and found out that all of Diane’s family can sew like crazy women and are ALL really, really good at crafts. Cora, while absolutely adorable in every possible way, is not good at sewing yet because she’s not even two and you shouldn’t given needles to toddlers. She is, however, really good at swings, riding in wagons, and applying sprinkles to cookies. It is Diane’s family tradition to go insane regarding the amount and variety of Christmas cookies they produce every year, and this year Cora participated happily with Diane’s sister and her kids (Toby the dog was also really happy about this because Cora’s fine motor skills are still developing so she drops a lot of food and Toby swoops in like the cutest little garbage disposal you’ve ever seen). We’re sure as she gets older that Cora will become most excellent at both crafts and craft beer, making both of her parents very proud.

Carolyn+Shawn // Wedding at The Umstead Hotel.

Remember Carolyn and Shawn from their engagement session? They’re back! Only this time we were surrounded by 100+ other people calling Carolyn and me by the same name and it was a very confusing but lovely 8 hours. ;) Carolyn’s dad is named Steve and that’s also my dad’s name, and she also has a grandmother named Jean and that’s my middle name! We are like a name-twinning family. They’re also all really short like me so I immediately liked them from the beginning. :) The wedding took place in the always gorgeous first weekend of November at the Umstead, and the weather was beautiful. Carolyn and Shawn’s families have been so good to us throughout their whole engagement, and we were happy to spend the day with them while we watched them all celebrate (they’re all fierce dancers). Steve also set up a slideshow for his speech! I’m a sucker for slideshows because I get to see our clients as little kids, usually with their old cats, and everyone loves pictures of kids with cats. We could not be happier to have had Carolyn and Shawn as clients, and we wish them all the happiness in the world, and we also hope that they went down that slide from the Atlantis commercial like at least one hundred times during their honeymoon.

  • Date: November 5, 2016
  • Ceremony + Reception Venue: The Umstead Hotel and Spa // Cary, NC
  • First Dance Song: “I Won’t Give Up” – Jason Mraz
  • Carolyn’s Occupation: Office Manager
  • How You Met: 9th grade year of high school.
  • Interesting Fact: We are high school sweethearts.
  • Honeymoon: Atlantis, Bahamas.
  • Vendor Credits: Officiant – Rev. Brent M. Rector. DJ – Mark McNally of Joe Bunn DJ Company. Florist – Gregg Kennedy of Brides and Bouquets. Cake – Blue Moon Bakery. Caterer – The Umstead. Hair/Makeup – Kerri Nicole. Coordinator – Kailey Godley of A Southern Soiree. Linen Rentals – CE Rentals.

Meei+William+LeXi+LeXuen // At Home Session.

Are my fellow American blog readers prepared to feel really inadequate when it comes to the number of languages you speak? Good! You’ve come to the right place. Meei contacted us a while back to do a family session with her husband and two daughters. They love the age of their girls and wanted to get it documented (and we agree; 1 and 3 are super fun ages!). We knew that Meei is Chinese, and we knew we’d have about a 5% chance of pronouncing her full name correctly, but she was super nice about our American handicap and told us to call her May. We also knew that her husband’s name was William, so we were 100% confident in our ability to pronounce his name (we were right!). But what we didn’t know is that William is actually Dominican! And William speaks Spanish and Meei speaks Chinese! They met while they were living in New York and they speak English to each other! And William speaks Spanish to the kids and Meei speaks Chinese to the kids and the kids respond in Spanish to their dad and Chinese to their mom and English at school and I’m sorry for all the exclamation points but this is so impressive to an American who took 6 years of French class and forgot everything! Holy smokes. We were and continue to be incredibly impressed by these trilingual kids and their parents. Such a cool family. The best part of our job is meeting people from all over the world and hearing about their experiences. So glad this family got to be our clients this year!