August 21, 2013

Brandie+William’s Backyard Wedding

Brandie and William are two of the nicest people you’ll ever meet and it saddens us a bit that they live in Nashville, Tennessee now because we can’t really see them, but we’ve assured them that we’ll come visit (and we mean it) because they are great and because Carolyn is their dog Quinn’s bff. Their other dog, Parker, is slightly less well adjusted (no offense, Parker) and was originally going to be boarded for their wedding after it was decided that he would be too scared to be in the actual ceremony. However, it was also then decided that he would be too scared to be boarded as well, so he came to the wedding but sat upstairs and hid under Brandie’s dress and pouted the whole time, essentially taking the place of a 3-year-old flower girl. Carolyn had to hide her ridiculously high level of enthusiasm that the dogs were there (because they are so cuuuute) and try to avoid taking only pictures of the dogs (look how cuuuuute).

The wedding was held at Brandie’s parents’ backyard in Stem. They bought the property and built the house a few years ago, but the backyard was wooded. They slowly cleared it out and landscaped, building a path and a gazebo for the wedding, and doing an incredible amount of hard work to make it a beautiful place for Brandie and William’s ceremony. Brandie and William put together a ton of the decor (all peacock themed) and transported a car full of cupcakes (and two dogs) all the way from Nashville successfully, which we consider to be a substantial feat. Their officiant had married Brandie’s parents 39 years ago and, coincidentally, her parents won the longest married anniversary dance that same evening. :) At the end of the night their families had put together a fireworks display and Geoff took some beautiful pictures while Carolyn ran and hid in the woods (I’m quite terrified of fireworks). It was an absolutely gorgeous day and we are so grateful for Brandie and William being awesome people and clients! Congratulations!

Date: August 3, 2013

Ceremony and Reception Venue: Brandie’s parents’ home // Stem, NC

First Dance Song: “Lost Without You” – Robin Thicke

Brandie’s Occupation: Med/peds Hospitalist

William’s Occupation: Sales specialist for Home Depot

How You Met: We met in Chapel Hill, NC while visiting friends on Cinco de Mayo

Interesting Bride Fact: Not happy unless reading 4 books at once.

Interesting Groom Fact: He is a Words with Friends champion.

Honeymoon Destination: The Florida Keys

Vendor Credits: Officiant – The Rev. Dr. Edward O. de Bary (Interesting fact: He married Brandie’s parents 39 years ago and is a family friend) | DJ – Tim Hazell from TJDJ Music | Florist – Ashley Jordan Florist | Cake – The Cupcake Collection in Nashville, TN | Caterer – Simply Delicious | Hair – Courtney Difluvio from Urban Edge Salon | Makeup – Dawn Hicks, family friend | Coordinator – Beth Lewis, friend | Landscaping Flowers- Coley Bunch Nursery

2 nice things said

August 8, 2013

Team Emmerika’s Wedding at Babylon

Our Facebook fans (and my mother) have been waiting for us to post Erika and Emmanuel’s wedding since we shot it. They quickly became fan favorites after their engagement session (presumably on their good looks and charm alone) and people ask us about them often with inquiries such as, “Tell us more about that couple who was juggling vegetables in your kitchen,” and “That one couple with the guy who has dreadlocks looks fun and nice.” I’m pretty sure that if they became public figures or perhaps even opened their own Youtube channel that they’d skyrocket to fame and then we’d subsequently reap in the royalties by selling our photographs of them “from back when.”

But we must say that while looks can be deceiving and you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover and all that – you’re all completely accurate in this case, and Erika and Emmanuel are in fact as fun, nice, adorable, and sweet as they appear. As in – people couldn’t stop giving toasts at their wedding. Eventually they had to STOP PEOPLE FROM GIVING THEM TOASTS OR IT WOULD’VE NEVER ENDED. That’s how much everyone loves them. And how nice their friends are (who are kind of exactly like them to the point where I told the best man, “We’re going to force our way into your group of friends now, okay?” to which he replied, “Oh absolutely.”).

Their wedding had a Plants Vs. Zombies cake topper and a Captain (their friend married them and the captain hat was bought to lend him more of an air of authenticity, which it absolutely did). They got married at Babylon, a Moroccan restaurant in downtown Raleigh, and one of the bridesmaids was a guest at the wedding we had shot the day before (her picture can be found directly below the goldfish) which, we think, says something about how our clients are pretty awesome and travel in the same awesome circles being awesome together. There were Dr. Who socks and Dr. Who reception bow ties. There was a spontaneous wedding party dance breakout to “Lean on Me.” And there was Erika and Emmanuel whom we love and cherish and cannot thank enough for being the most amazing people and I could go on and on but someone should probably take the mic away from me too or else the blog post will never end.

Date: July 28, 2013

Ceremony and Reception Venue: Babylon Restaurant // Raleigh, NC

First Dance Song: “I’m Yours” – Jason Mraz

Erika’s Occupation: Optometric technician and office minion

Emmanuel’s Occupation: High school English teacher

How You Met: Ice skating at the Ice House in Cary, NC

Interesting Bride Fact: She makes weird faces when she has to take pictures (I tried to warn you), has a hard time reading directions (thanks for including a lot of them in this sheet, jerks) and prefers jumping into things.

Interesting Groom Fact: He is the best chef ever, is extremely adventerous but uncomfortable with heights, can walk on his hands and do flips off of walls.

Honeymoon Destination: St. Lucia

2 nice things said

August 5, 2013

Megan+Andrew’s Downtown Raleigh Wedding

I believe the first time Megan came over to our house for their wedding consult she was derailed by our discussion of Breaking Bad for so long that her roommate probably suspected foul play. Needless to say, we’ve loved Megan from the minute we met her and while we hadn’t met Andrew until the wedding, we knew we’d love him just as much – and we did. :) We loved them both even more when we discovered that one of their favorite television show characters is also our long-standing favorite of all-time: Secret Service Aaron (man, we miss 24). When you meet another couple with as deep of a love for Secret Service Aaron, it’s a bond that cannot easily be broken.

We ran around their wedding discussing 24, hanging out on sidewalks in front of historic Raleigh homes, discussing the Maid of Honor’s orange kitten named Waffles of whose fan club I’ve delightfully declared myself president of based on his Instagram pictures alone, and watching the ring bearer do the most amazing dance I’ve ever seen at any wedding which basically included him shifting his hips from side to side with no expression on his face whatsoever for several hours… hours… in the tiniest pleated pants I’ve ever seen. There was also a dog there in a tiny tuxedo. I don’t know what else to say – clearly this should all convince you that this wedding was awesome and that Megan and Andrew are awesome and that tiny dogs in tuxedos are awesome (and heavily photographed by us at all weddings where they make an appearance).