July 17, 2015

Wedding in New Orleans, LA

When Jess and Steve e-mailed us to inquire about our availability to photograph a wedding in New Orleans, we did a lot of happy dances. So, so many happy dances. We’ve always wanted to visit Louisiana, and we knew New Orleans would provide the insanely varied and funky backdrop to a million killer wedding photos, but I’m not sure we realized just how awesome it would actually be. We estimated about a 10/10 on the awesome scale, but it ended up being more like a 51/10.

Their wedding venue was Race+Religious (on the corners of, you guessed it, Race and Religious streets) in the Lower Garden District. We were lucky enough to grab the Air BnB available next door so we literally walked about 5 feet to the wedding (best commute ever). And we spent the days before the wedding in awe of the venue, the Garden District, the French Quarter, and every other place we visited in New Orleans. Everything is old. Old, tilted, crumbling, peeling. Everything is a million different colors. The paint on buildings is chipped away to reveal concrete which is peeled away to reveal brick. There are palm trees and huge oaks destroying the sidewalks and ferns everywhere. It was like someone went inside my head and thought up the most visually interesting place for me ever and then put it in a city and a venue. I certainly left part of my heart there for sure as it’s basically an entire city devoted to the holiday of Halloween, and we all know how I feel about that. Bats bats bats.

Anyway – besides loving New Orleans and Race+Religious, we love Jess and Steve. A lot. They’re cooler than we could ever probably achieve, and it shows. Look at her dress! And the little tiny pictures she hand painted for her tables! And who can forget the pool donut? Also, her head smelled really great all day, so there’s that. Jess and Steve – thank you for bringing us to this fabulous city and showing us an amazing time. We heart you a lot.

Date: June 27, 2015
Ceremony + Reception Venue: Race+Religious // New Orleans, LA
First Dance Song: “Joy” – Iron & Wine
Honeymoon: Minimoon in Shenandoah National Park
Vendor Credits: Officiant –Legit Officiant Andrew Pattison | Florist – Poppy & Mint | Cake – Pure Cake | Caterer – Joel’s

4 nice things said

July 13, 2015

Ashley and Her Dress.

Had the chance to do bridal portraits with one of my favorite people. She’s my height, so I didn’t even have to stand up on my tip toes once. Also, we mainly just talked about cats. She’s a beautiful cat lady.

2 nice things said

July 11, 2015

Carly+Jay’s Downtown Durham Wedding

When Carly and Jay inquired about their wedding, they told us that Jay really likes singing Usher for karaoke. They also told us that they like No Doubt and Horse Feathers. We replied to their e-mail stating that we weren’t quite able to rectify their love of those two bands with Usher, but that we’d overlook their discrepancy. They responded by challenging us to a heated debate and/or lightsaber battle to prove to us that 90s Usher is the best. We counter-offered by challenging them to a game of ping pong in our office. They lost. We won. No Doubt beats Usher. They’re still upset about it, but whatever.

They still hired us to shoot their awesome wedding in downtown Durham. Carly’s parents own the sweetest private residence of all private residences where they have a rooftop that overlooks the city as well as a thousand other super cool things about their house (a giant safe! a cool spiral staircase! a library wall with a Beauty and the Beast-style library ladder!), so they decided to get married there (it wasn’t a hard choice). It translated into an amazing wedding venue. And now we are super lucky to call Carly and Jay our friends, and despite their interesting fact stating that they hope to spend their lives together abroad, we’re pretty sure that they like us enough to stay here… or at least hide us in their suitcases.

Date: June 20, 2015
Ceremony + Reception Site: Private Residence // Durham, NC
First Dance Song: “Walking on a Dream” – Empire of the Sun
Carly’s Occupation: High School English Teacher
Jay’s Occupation: Bartender and student at UNC
How You Met: Carly tried to get Jay to dance with her after a few too many beers. Jay politely turned her down…then asked her out the next night. They fell in love 2 hours later. :)
Interesting Fact: We lived in Korea and traveled around SE Asia together. We hope to spend most of our lives together abroad.
Honeymoon: Hiking, camping, and relaxing in the Canadian rockies and Vancouver for 3 1/2 weeks. Alberta and British Columbia, Canada.
Vendor Credits: Officiant – Reverend Ingrid Sagula | DJ – DJ SPCLGST | Florist – Gillian Rose Galdy | Cake – Amelia Smith | Caterer – Durham Catering | Hair/Makeup – Arrow Salon | Coordinator – A Swanky Affair (Amanda Scott) | Ice Cream – The Parlour

2 nice things said