Once upon a time a girl from North Carolina (well, kind of… she lived in a lot of places, but she went to school at UNC so I’m going to simplify this whole thing and say she’s from North Carolina) and a guy from Mississippi met while both attending the University of Texas at Austin. Then they both got jobs back in Mississippi and moved back there. Then they got engaged and decided to get married back at Stacey’s parents’ retirement home that they built on an old tobacco farm in Pinehurst, NC (but not without an Ole Miss stadium groom’s cake with lots of tiny little sprinkles for people).

Now these two will settle back down in Mississippi together while holding the title of one of the most adorable couples of all time. Their wedding was a beautiful (but very hot) day and a flurry of activity with the biggest bridal party we’ve ever had (whose numbers, we’ve discovered, are standard of a Mississippi wedding). The reception was held in Stacey’s mom’s backyard at a house that her parents built together shortly before her father passed away in 2008, so it was a very important factor into where to have their reception and an absolutely beautiful and meaningful location. Everyone had a fantastic time as it turns out that Stacey’s family is quite the dance team… and there may or may not have been dancing on the actual tables toward the end of the evening (note: you can do this when your wedding is held in your own backyard, but probably not at a regular reception venue, so nobody go out there and say, “Well, I saw this on a blog once” and then get yourself kicked out of your friend’s reception).

We had a fantastic time at their wedding and wish a very happy future to this amazing couple in Mississippi!

Date: October 5, 2013

Ceremony Venue: Pinehurst United Methodist Church // Pinehurst, NC

Reception Venue: Private Residence // Pinehurst, NC

First Dance Song: “How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)” – James Taylor

Stacey’s Occupation: Clinical Social Worker

Brett’s Occupation: Accounting Professor at Ole Miss

How You Met: The Interwebs

Interesting Bride Fact: She eats ice cream every night.

Interesting Groom Fact: He has run with the bulls in Spain.

Honeymoon Destination: Hawaii

Vendor Credits: Officiant – Rev. Les Newsom | DJ – Art Dearing | Florist – Maggie’s Farm | Cake – Fifi’s Cakes | Caterer – Ashten’s Catering | Hair/Makeup – Bamboo

Elizabeth and Bryan are planning a March wedding in Charleston, SC but have thus far put off taking any sort of engagement pictures as they dreaded having their pictures taken.  Of course, they were awesome to work with and Bryan was goofy the entire time and kept Elizabeth laughing, so we think it was pretty painless for them after all. :D The pair met in Austin at a bar when Elizabeth asked him to watch her drink and the rest is pretty much history! Bryan is now a mechanic in Raleigh and Elizabeth owns a corporate event planning business and they’ve happily made North Carolina their home. They introduced us to the awesome downtown bar Clockwork (which has an amazing interior!) and we are incredible gracious for their hospitality in letting us shoot a few photos there. We then ran about downtown to get some more urban type shots and had a great time getting to know this fantastic couple!

We met Katy and Matt in Kitty Hawk for their engagement session last weekend after we were conveniently there for a wedding that we attended (yes, attended for once!). They were coming down from Virginia to have their session in the Outer Banks since they travel there frequently and love it, and we were more than happy to oblige since it’s always an amazing place to shoot. However, an “amazing place to shoot” usually means that you’re stuck with some sort of challenging element… namely a lot of sand in your camera bag and sticking to your lenses with sea-water air. Typically that’s all we need to contend with, but at this point in time there was a storm out in the ocean that caused the waves to be quite insane and pretty much took up the entire beach. We’d place Katy and Matt in a spot, and then they’d get hit with a giant wave that no one saw coming about a half second later. :) We also spent the first part screaming our conversations at each other because the wind was super intense. So after the beach phase we moved onto the sound phase which was much, much calmer… and we could actually talk like normal people and meet the fantastic people that both Katy and Matt are! They braved a lot of elements out there with us but we think the photos are worth it. :)