Kristi+Todd’s Wedding at Wrightsville United Methodist and Cameron Art Museum // Wilmington, NC

This was our first time photographing a wedding in Wilmington… despite frequenting the beach there as much as humanly possible. ;) And we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves… not just because it was our first venture to the beach this year, but also because it was KP (Kristi) and Todd’s wedding! And we love them!

KP and Todd are referrals that came to us from the outstanding Lori+Hassan who were married in Manteo last year directly after Hurricane Irene. Their wedding venue at 108 Budleigh was under 4 feet of water right before their wedding. Ironically, KP’s wedding venue almost burned down a few days before her wedding. She sent me an email literally stating, “Guuurrrlllll, we almost had an incident yesterday”… which I still crack up thinking about, because most people (myself included) would have been much more… explicit… in our phrasing… and it would go something more like, “$*&@(@*&@#!^!$(!??$@#*#@ My venue almost burned downnnnnn!!!!!” (See the picture she sent me via Facebook here).

But not KP. Because KP and Todd are totally calm, cool, collected… and everyone was totally chill. Fire? What fire? It’s all good. We figured as long as there weren’t any cockatoos involved this year that the wedding would go smoothly no matter what (a joke… both Todd and Geoff had run-ins with the pet cockatoo in the hotel at Lori and Hassan’s wedding, bahaha). To make a very long story short – KP and Todd have known each other for a very long time, but stalking each other on Facebook truly brought them together (although it’s a point of contention as to who stalked who first, who stalked who more, etc.). They are just the sweetest pair together and separately… both of them having that complete and utter southern charm and using it widespread and consistently (hence the “Guuurrrlllll, we almost had an incident” when writing about your wedding venue coming close to being nonexistent).

KP and Todd – you are amazing and your relationship is incredibly strong and good. The couple who eats Chik-fil-A ice cream stays together.

First Dance: Sister Hazel

Bride’s Occupation: Pharmaceutical Research

Groom’s Occupation: Health Care Revenue Recovery Manager

How You Met: Have known each other for 13+ years

Honeymoon Destination: Cabo San Lucas

Date: April 21, 2012

Ceremony Venue: Wrightsville United Methodist Church // Wilmington, NC

Reception Venue: Cameron Art Museum // Wilmington, NC

Officiant: Bob Bauman

DJ: Active Entertainment

Florist: Jimmy Lockamy

Cake: Nancy Hem

Caterer: Angie’s Catering

Hair/Makeup: Clinique/Kristi

Videographer: USC Web and Video Productions

Rachel turns sweet sixteen in Pittsburgh

Rachel loves boy bands. A lot. A whole, whole, whole, whole lot. She says loving boy bands is pretty embarrassing, but not as embarrassing as her grunge phase (to which I can relate). She loves them so much that she knits them scarves. When she’s not knitting scarves and mailing them to boy bands (One Direction is her favorite, although we did rock out some New Kids on the Block in the car), she attends a boarding school in Greensboro, North Carolina and comes home to Pittsburgh, PA as much as she can (something to which I can also relate). She roots for the Pens and works for the Carnegie Museum of Natural History working as a counselor for the camp programs for little kids. She can play guitar and speaks fluent Russian (her family’s from St.  Petersburg) and has three dogs.

I think Rachel is pretty darn awesome. Not only did she sing boy band songs for me, she also told me a lot of chemistry jokes. And anyone who tells me good chemistry jokes is automatically written down in my Book of Favorite People. Happy 16th birthday, Rachel… you rocked this out.

Brooke+Red: A prehistoric engagement session in Raleigh

Ladies and gentlemen, the first of my primary color grooms!

As some of you on my Facebook page know, I have two primary color grooms. Red this year and Blue next year. We’re still scouting out 2014’s primary color groom, so anyone who has a fiancé whom they refer to as “Yellow” on a regular basis, feel free to book us so we can complete the cycle.

On a normal note, meet Brooke and Red! They met online, but weren’t suggested to each other because they were apparently “only” an 80% match (and we all know 95% of the population is undateable). But Red was very specific about who he’d like to meet, found Brooke’s profile, and messaged her. They had a wonderful first date (being the incredibly attractive and charming people that they are), and then before they knew it they would be standing in a large open field with me and a giant helium dinosaur balloon taking engagement pictures.

Red likes golfing and Brooke likes gardening. They both love cooking, but cook in very different ways so that cooperative cooking at the same time has been ruled out entirely. Red’s first CD was the Wayne’s World soundtrack, and Brooke’s was one of the 6 CD deals from Colombia (bonus 90s kid points if you know what I’m talking about), although she was pretty into Ace of Base back in the day (what self-respecting 90s kid wasn’t?). They also really love dinosaurs. A lot. They’re having their wedding reception on the dino floor of the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences in November, and decided to go that one little step further into dino-love by incorporating the prehistoric awesomeness into their engagement session. And those of you who know me well know that I love me some dinosaur ring shots…