Carolyn+Grif’s Wedding in Asheville, NC

Our very first Carolyn!!! Well, our first Griffin too… but a Carolyn! Both of us felt like we were e-mailing ourselves, and it was frequently quite confusing to read e-mails threads back and forth about this wedding from Carolyn to Carolyn (“Wait… did I write this? Or did Carolyn? But I’m Carolyn. Hmm.”).

Carolyn and Grif got married in the mountains in Asheville with about twenty of their closest family members and friends. It was the lowest-stress wedding we’ve ever attended, and their dog was their ring bearer (he didn’t actually do that good of a job carrying the rings, but he was certainly cute). They got married at the NC Arboretum and afterward greeted their friends and family and split a Twinkie and that was that. We took pictures of the guests and bridal party, then we traded in our dress shoes for some sneakers and hiked to the top of Craggy Pinnacle for photos at the summit where we made everyone move for us because wearing a wedding dress is a bit like a free pass to anywhere. Plus, everyone was impressed with Carolyn’s newfound street cred for hiking in a wedding dress up to 6,000ft. During our hike, Grif kept asking me how I was feeling and if I needed water (he is so nice!!).*

After we hiked back down, we headed into downtown Asheville for their wedding reception at Curate where we all ate tapas and lived happily ever after. We hung out and celebrated with their amazing guests, each one of them nicer and more welcoming than the last, and loved every minute of this wedding. Also, Grif’s parents happen to be the owners of my favorite store in all of Raleigh (Accipiter!) and I was very excited to meet them (go check out their store if you get a chance! It’s in Cameron Village). Geoff and I also met the film editor for the new Zach Galifianakis movie while eating at the bar and he kept offering to buy us ham. It was good times. We were so happy to be a part of this absolutely lovely wedding, and we will miss Carolyn and Grif when they move to Charlotte, but we’ll visit them when we go to Ikea.

*This was actually probably directed at his wife.

Date: July 12, 2014

Ceremony Venue: NC Arboretum // Asheville, NC

Reception Venue: Curate // Asheville, NC

Carolyn’s Occupation: Teacher

Grif’s Occupation: User Experience Designer (he designed and printed their invitations, which are incredible!).

How You Met: In high school :)

Interesting Fact: We met in high school, but didn’t start dating until we reconnected in college through mutual friends.

Honeymoon Destination: Two weeks in Hawaii!

Vendor Credits: Officiant – Jeanne Sommers | Florist – Blossoms at Biltmore Park | Cake – Short Street Cakes | Caterer – Curate | Hair/Makeup – Lola Salon

Kristen+Chris // Engagement in Charlotte, NC

These guys! We like them a lot. They like comic books and video games and regular books and good movies and tv shows and if we were all on a first date we definitely would’ve gone on a second one. They put up with all our antics and climbed through things and on things and laid on the ground in downtown Charlotte. There’s not much more we could’ve asked. They also wanted pictures of themselves eating pizza, which is a great and welcome relief in a sea of wedding guests who yell at us if they think we’re taking a picture of them eating (we’re not – we’re photographing usually the person next to you or behind you and you aren’t in the shot). EATING PIZZA! A messy and amazing food! We were excited to have two people just be themselves, madly in love with pizza (and at Fuel, especially, where great pizza lives in Charlotte). It was awesome. We harassed both of them quite a bit throughout the evening and we’re pretty sure they haven’t fired us from shooting their wedding in December yet! ;) We are very excited to be on Team KrisChris and can’t wait to see them again soon!

Jamila+James // Wedding at NC Arboretum in Asheville

Greetings from Asheville! Oh man, it was great to be there for the past few weekends because the humidity drops substantially and it was actually cool and wonderful outside for a change! Asheville’s also an awesome place to have a wedding in the States when you have quite the international crowd as these guys did. I believe we had some Brits, a Danish guy, possibly a Finn if we’re remember correctly… and many of them live in Guatemala. :) Jamila and James themselves have been internationally long-distant frequently over the course of their relationship. They met salsa dancing in Guatemala, but Jamila was finishing up her doctorate and residency in Connecticut while James lives in England running his business. But they stuck it out and made it work, and now that their wedding is finally done, and Jamila’s officially a doctor, she’ll be going overseas to live with James in England. :)

They held their wedding in Asheville because Jamila’s family lives there, but also because it’s a beautiful place to take all of their awesome international friends for a gorgeous wedding over the 4th of July. We were super excited to be there and photograph the wedding among a supportive cast of characters who love Jamila and James so much! For instance, check out the lengthy scroll of the Best Men speech below (completely with rainbow stickers and hearts on the back for decoration). That was, in fact, the actual length of the speech, and it was an incredible speech for all ages (I wish we’d have videotaped it, but we kind of were occupied taking photos). Their reception was a crazy amazing dance party where we felt incredibly inadequate comparing our non-existent dancing skills to theirs (but thankfully people don’t pay us to dance). A huge thanks and congratulations to Jamila, James, and their wonderful family and friends for having us in Asheville!

Date: July 5, 2014

Ceremony Venue: NC Arboretum // Asheville, NC

Reception Venue: The Venue // Asheville, NC

First Dance Song: “La Llave De Mi Corazon” – Juan Luis Guerra

Jamila’s Occupation: Doctor

James’s Occupation: Entrepreneur

How You Met: Salsa dancing in a bar in Guatemala through mutual friends

Interesting Fact about Jamila: She still knows all the Disney princess songs by heart and sings them regularly!

Interesting Fact about James: He drove a Guatemalan chicken bus from Kansas City to Antigua, Guatemala. What bus license?

Honeymoon Destination: Maldives!

Vendor Credits: Officiant –Rev. Gary Mitchell (fun fact: was to be Jamila’s high school choir director before he changed careers) | DJ – James Donaldson of Sound Extreme | Florist – Beth Hohensee at FloraDiva | Cake – Karen Donatelli at Donatelli Bakery | Caterer – The Venue | Hair – Adorn Salon | Makeup – Wendy Ballance at Blush | Coordinator – Cassey Barret