Becky+Jake’s really rad wedding at CAM Raleigh

What makes me so happy with this wedding is how happy Becky looks. Not that she’s not happy or anything like that, but that I remember when we first met Becky and Jake and we basically discussed how bad she hated having her picture taken. According to them, she’d freeze up. The whole deer-in-headlights deal. And I’ve loved seeing how, over time, Becky has been able to completely ignore me. I can see where that wouldn’t be a normal person’s goal… to get someone to ignore you… but it’s awesome when you go from an initial meeting of, “Becky really hates having her picture taken” to Becky running around the city smiling and laughing and not worrying about me jumping out at her from the bushes.

Becky and Jake are those really cool clients that you hope to get but that secretly make you nervous at the same time because they’re really cool and you sometimes feel like maybe your level of cool won’t live up to their standards of cool, you know? I also remember at the first meeting that Jake told me that he didn’t “just want wedding pictures, we want art.” And I thought OKAY WE CAN DO THIS DEEEEEEP BREATTHSSS. And I hope we did. I think we did. To me, the pictures reflect how the two of them are perfectly suited to each other’s quirkiness… and how they not only make a gorgeous couple, but how they’re just so ridiculously right for each other. They’re the type where, if you were friends with Jake, you’d be more than happy to now welcome Becky along to every previously-Jake-only activities and vice versa. They’re kind of infectiously awesome like that. And we like them a whole bunch. I hope these pictures are as cool to you guys as they seem to us. This wedding was rad… and our second time shooting this year and ever at CAM Raleigh where I think I might just set up a tent in the back and live if that’s okay with the staff. Thanks in advance!

So normally I don’t interrupt posts like this, but I thought this was so cool that I had to point it out because it’s tiny so it’s easily missed. But that bird below that flew over the ceremony that Geoff so awesomely caught just happened to be their wedding colors. WEIRD. Thanks, bird!

First Dance: “Take Care” – Beach House

Bride’s Occupation: Lab Manager at NCSU and also part-time doctoral graduate student in Microbiology at NCSU

Groom’s Occupation: Senior Software Architect at IBM

How You Met: The internets! Online dating site called OKCupid.com – we owe them our firstborn :)

Interesting Bride Fact: Is ALWAYS 5 minutes early to everything…

Interesting Groom Fact: Is ALWAYS 5 minutes early to everything… and purposely arrived 5 minutes LATE to their first date – on a Monday, at a restaurant that, as it turns out, is closed on Mondays – leaving Becky wondering if she had been stood up.

Honeymoon Destination: Dominican Republic

Date: April 28, 2012

Ceremony and Reception Venue: CAM Raleigh // Raleigh, NC

Wedding Planner: Grace Leisure Events

Officiant: Jonathan Prinz

DJ: Frank Meldau of Joe Bunn DJ Company

Florist: John Griffin with Themeworks

Cake: Once in a Blue Moon Bakery

Caterer: Posh Nosh

Hair: Dana Hunter at Alter Ego Salon

Makeup: Belle Trachtenberg at Alter Ego Salon

Monica+Graham: Engaged in Raleigh and Blinded by Science

We get an extraordinary amount of science clients. Maybe our nerdy charm draws them in or the high ratio of dinosaur-to-human photos on our blog. Either way, we love it. I’m secretly terrible at science, but get along really well with scientists because I tend to have the same interests… minus the intelligence. So we were really glad when we booked Monica and Graham’s wedding… and even more glad when we booked their engagement session that was to be half-normal, half-science.

Monica and Graham met at the Governor’s School science camp back in the day and kept in touch as fellow science kids despite long distance. Then they moved slightly closer for college and started dating despite less distance. Then they moved even closer for grad school, where they today are graduate students at NC State; Monica is environmental toxicology and Graham is a physicist (took me about ten tries to spell that word). Engaged and still very much loving science, they came to me with their e-session ideas… a normal shoot first, and then the best. idea. ever.

For those of you who were deprived of the lack of parental supervision that was required to do this awesome experiment in your childhood, you can read about it here… then go try it in your own back yard because you’re an adult now and can blow up all the stuff you want! For everyone else: REMEMBER MENTOS AND DIET COKE!? THAT WAS FREAKING AWESOME.

Downtown Raleigh Farmers Market // Opening Day

The Raleigh Downtown Farmers Market has returned! I photographed Opening Day for the Downtown Raleigh Alliance again this year and was loving the new layout and new vendors. :) I also love seeing the old vendors… most of whom I know at this point. They’re awesome people and sell awesome products. Aside from produce, you can find fish, peanut butter, honey, eggs, spices, and all sorts of other goodies… all produced within 90 miles of downtown Raleigh. :) Visit on Wednesdays from 10am-2pm in City Plaza on Fayetteville St.