Lindsay+Ken Get Married in Durham

I had worked with Lindsay and Ken on their engagement shoot, and then again with Lindsay on her bridals, and I spent the few months leading up to their wedding hopelessly trying to explain their personalities to Geoff and how much I love both of them (I think Geoff thought I was kind of weird). Then he met them, and it took him only about 5 seconds with each of them to understand what I was talking about. Hopefully this blog post doesn’t come across as a really creepy love letter to them from their photographers.

Lindsay, first, is an absolutely beautiful person inside and out, but has an amazingly silly/quirky/goofy/hilarious personality that is completely at odds with her super formal and thick southern South Carolina accent. My brain basically can’t compute what’s happening while in her presence, but I do know that I laugh the entire time and, apparently, slip into an occasional completely non-existent southern accent which Geoff pointed out to me a few times. She has a definite tendency toward the dramatic and will often strike ridiculous poses. Her sister, mom, and myself had to tell her several times during her bridal session to stop… for just a minute… and smile normally. Now – normally we’re giving anything for people to be silly like that, so this was the first time I had to tell someone to actually stop acting silly for a second so I could take a normal picture. She’s the type of person who can entertain me endlessly and who’s incredibly charming and amusing at the same time. Like a really, really silly comedian who dresses impeccably and has a very formal southern way of speaking.

Ken is a little easier to explain, but just as charming. He initially struck me as decently formal, but the more I’ve gotten to know him I realize that he’s just as quirky, but in a more subtle way. He’s almost always wearing an expression of amusement (probably because of Lindsay) and is just a really, super decent and nice guy. He let me harass him for a couple hours during the engagement session and took it quite well, and I think I sealed the deal of gaining client-photographer trust when we discovered we share a mutual love of 24 and Kiefer Sutherland. During the wedding he was just as fantastic to work with as before and was probably our first groom to stay on the dance floor 99% of the night.

I know that I’m not ever going to do these two awesome people justice in words, but you’ll just have to trust me that they’re really good people… and that Geoff and I had an incredibly good time being thoroughly entertained at their wedding. Also – check out the gallery that they made in the Cotton Room with some of the photos from their engagement session! It was kind of like having my own art showcase. ;) :D

Date: September 14, 2013

Ceremony Venue: Sarah P. Duke Gardens // Durham, NC

Reception Venue: The Cotton Room // Durham, NC

Linday’s Occupation: Optometrist

Ken’s Occupation: Optometrist

How You Met: Optometry School Ft. Lauderdale Florida

Interesting Bride Fact: Boxer fanatic: Lincoln & Mona – Lover all things artistic: music, art, theatre, food, etc etc etc etc:: unique experience realizing life resumes after 09/14/13 when I bought my Cats tix for October performace — felt weird….

Interesting Groom Fact: Muscle cars, beer, pizza & all things Dude Americana.

Vendor Credits: Officiant – Pastor William | DJ – Frankie Hagan with Island Sound | Florist – Robin Roberts with Flowers for You in Goldsboro, NC | Cake – Cakes by Cinda | Caterer – Triangle Catering with the Cotton Room | Hair/Makeup – Heather Weeks | Videographer – Big Dog Little Bed Productions | The Cotton Room Coordinator – Amalia | Sarah P. Duke Gardens Coordinator – Marcia | Hired Director – Pat Kiewert

Deb+Carey’s Wedding at the Rand-Bryan House

Deb and Carey’s initial e-mail to us simply said this: “Photograph our wedding & help fight off the Walkers if they attack the farm.”

Obviously we loved them right away and were thankful that someone was able to discern from our website how awesome we are at fighting the undead. Thankfully we didn’t need to use our zombie-fighting training techniques that we skillfully honed up all the way to their wedding on their actual wedding day, but we were certainly prepared and absolutely willing to accept the task head on. Unfortunately, while there weren’t zombies, there were an outrageous amount of grasshoppers. And while we love grasshoppers dearly (we actually do), they were magnetically drawn to Deb’s dress and a lot of them ended up inside the tulle. So while we didn’t need to spend our time fighting zombies, we did spend a lot of our time trying to carefully save grasshoppers from Deb’s dress (and save Deb from the grasshoppers). The wildlife at the house loved her (see bee attacking picture below) and we can’t blame them because she looked amazing and they can DANCE!

We always envy people who can actually dance since Geoff and I shuffled around in about a 3×3 square for our first dance, so anything more than shuffling is super impressive to us. But Deb and Carey met at swing dancing class and can actually dance. Like, really, really dance. Like, twirling around all over the place and Carolyn ducking for cover by a table so she doesn’t get kicked in the face kind of dancing. And so could almost everyone else at their wedding. It was like a crazy swing dancing convention. And then there were mini donuts! And milk! I’ve never sat down at a reception before and just drank a carton of milk, but I totally did at this wedding, and it was good. We love Deb and Carey and give them a big warm and fuzzy congratulations and thank them so much for allowing us to be part of their wedding and lives! (P.S. Yes, their cake topper is a cake topper inception).

Date: September 7, 2013

Ceremony and Reception Venue: The Rand-Bryan House // Garner, NC

First Dance Song: “My Blue Heaven” – Frank Sinatra

How You Met: Swing dance class

Vendor Credits: Officiant – Richard Salsman, ordained specifically to marry us :) | DJ – Bill Baucom | Florist, Cake, Caterer, and Coordinator – Catering Works | Hair/Makeup – Makeup for Your Day

Narissa+Sara Engaged in Charlotte

These two are kind of amazing, and I don’t think I’ve laughed so hard during a session in a long time (or while reading e-mail correspondences). Besides being awesome, their other handy attributes include working at a place where you can get free gourmet popsicles (and give some to your photographers) and having convenient access to the James K. Polk historic site where you can see, well, stuff about James K. Polk. That’s got to come in handy sometimes, though, right? And to answer the question on everyone’s mind: yes, they do have pine-scented candles with James K. Polk printed on them.

Our mission was, in Narissa and Sara’s words, “…for ya’ll to survive and for us to look like a straight couple.” We, of course, accepted this, as well as accepted a mission to photograph their Shepherd/Husky mix named Poncho Oscar who was absolutely ridiculous. Unbeknownst to all of us, we all also accepted the far less glamorous mission of being eaten alive by a multitude of fire ants which subsequently swelled up Carolyn’s foot for a good 3 days and Narissa’s ankle as well. But we think it was worth it.

We could on for a good while about how hilarious and kind and fantastic these two are, but we’re going to leave you some quotes about each other from them instead which kind of sum it all up.

Sara: “Narissa is honest, loving, tan year-round, genuine, hilarious, and absolutely beautiful. These are just a few of the reasons why I am going to make her my wife.”

Narissa: “I am looking forward to the day I can call Sara my woman-husband.”

Poncho: “These two ladies are crazy.”