first place winner in two categories for the wedding photographic society 3rd quarter contest!

things have been quiet over here at CSP as i closed down the doors for 3 weeks while geoff and i got married and went on our honeymoon to costa rica. :) we had the best time at our wedding and a very interesting (and dangerous!) honeymoon! i’ll be blogging about all these adventures later… :)

but for right now i am so thrilled to announce that i came home to discover that i had won 1st place in two categories in the 3rd quarter contest sponsored by the wedding photographic society! the WPS is headquartered in raleigh and is a network of professional photographers locally and globally. they hold quarterly contests where their panel of judges receive submissions from photographers in various categories. this quarter’s judges were james walters, stacy borelli, and christobal perez.

i won first place in the “beautiful mistake” category from rosalyn and patrick’s wedding. the beautiful mistake category was meant to highlight the occasional mistakes that photographers make that turn out to be a totally awesome picture. in this case, one of my flashes didn’t fire and i was left with this image. i believe i ran over to geoff and was like, “LOOK THIS IS AWESOME” shortly thereafter, haha. i now tend to do this “mistake” on purpose. :)

first place winner wedding photography

the other first place winner of mine was in the category of large groups, which is one of my absolute favorite pictures from my repertoire of wedding pictures. taken from valerie and kenneth’s wedding, this was an image that was created using a very willing and cooperative bridal party + lots of time for pictures + cool lighting + nice setting.  i’ve been told a few times that it looks like it could be a twilight movie poster, haha, which i think is both funny and kind of accurate. one of the judges said it was “kind of badass”, and i’d have to agree. :)

1st place wedding photography

thank you to the judges! i am so flattered and honored to be recognized. and congratulations to all the other winners in the categories! to see the other winners as well as read the comments from the judges on my photographs and others, please visit the WPS website here.

raleigh portrait photographer: renee, daniel, and khia.

enter renee, daniel, and khia! and yes, this is the renee and daniel from july. :) i was so excited to see them again and even more excited to photograph their new puppy, khia. i am a cat person as i’ve never owned dogs and suspect i’d be far too lazy to ever have one, but khia made me want a puppy. like, now. specifically, a puppy just like khia. i can gauge how adorable i think an animal is by how badly my face hurts afterward due to clenching my jaw when i speak to them because i’m overcome with cuteness. and my jaw hurt pretty badly after this session. :) SOOO RIDICULOUSLY CUTE. and she didn’t bark once. how amazing is she!? pet portraits are so fun.

raleigh portrait photographer raleigh pet photographer raleigh pet portraits

there’s a puppy in there somewhere. :) she was awesome at listening! we told her to stay and walked really far with her treats and she stayed, just chilling in the barn. most kids wouldn’t do that!

raleigh portrait photographer raleigh pet portraits pet photographer north carolina

i feel like i need a big canvas of the below two shots in my house somewhere. and when someone asks me if that’s my dog, i will say no. and they’ll look at me funny, but i won’t care.

raleigh portrait photographer puppy portraits

prepare for your hearts to explode, everyone! it’s an australian shepherd puppy driving a john deere.

puppy portraits australian shepherd puppy

and let’s not forget that renee and daniel are adorable themselves. :) love these guys!

raleigh family portraits australian shepherd puppy

sooo, how many of you have the strong urge to go out and get a puppy?!

raleigh wedding photographer in pinehurst: kelsey+adam

kelsey and adam’s wedding date finally came! you may remember the adorable couple from their engagement shoot with their daughter, emma grace. kelsey and i have been facebook chatting it up over the last couple of months and we were so excited for our weddings which are falling a few days apart (mine is coming up in a few days!). i love the bond that you can build with clients and that lovely point where clients become friends. :) kelsey and adam are definitely that – my friends as well as a beautiful couple who has a wonderful group of family and friends. they thankfully had a warm, dry, sunny day on october 9th when they were married in pinehurst, nc. enjoy!

bride getting ready with white flats wedding jewelry bridesmaids

had to get a shot of the mother/daughter wedding dresses. :) emma grace’s tiny dress was just too cute! we hung it in the same place as mom’s as a surprise… we thought kelsey would enjoy the side-by-side pics. :)

mother and daughter wedding dresses bride getting ready with perfume bridal veil

first look pictures are becoming very popular for several reasons: 1.) you get ALL of the nervous jitters out of the way so you’re both relaxed for the ceremony 2.) extra time for pictures! 3.) your better half actually gets to tell you what they think about what you’re wearing instead of smiling at you in silence then turning to do the ceremony 4.) you get to express your love for each other in a very genuine way before the ceremony and all-day ruckus begins 5.) they make ADORABLE pictures!

i highly recommend going with the first look pictures. we’re doing it for our wedding because we don’t want a cocktail hour, and i’d love to get pictures beforehand for time, so geoff and i can talk about the dress, and so i can concentrate on actually walking down the aisle (which is stairs!) instead of trying to see what geoff’s expression is. :) if you don’t trust me about first look pictures yet, just look at how adorable kelsey and adam’s are! he was sooo nervous to see her, which made it even more adorable.

first look

he has such a sweet expression on his face. :) such a lovely set of pictures!

first look first look pictures

then we got all of THIS out of the way before the ceremony! it was an easy, low-stress day. love it. the bridesmaids wore sangria colored dresses with the groomsmen in matching ties.

bridal party in sangria bridesmaids in sangria dresses groomsmen with sunglasses

kelsey’s bro walked her down the aisle and into the sunny ceremony. it was bright! it made the pictures look very fall-esque though and i’m digging them. :)

southern pines wedding ceremony

southern wines wedding photographer

southern pines wedding ceremony

two-sided first kiss! thanks to geoff for getting the one on the left. :)

first kiss

i’m in love with this ring shot. i’m in love with her ring!

claddagh wedding ring

wedding portraits

raleigh wedding photographer

southern pines wedding photographer

southern pines bride

southern pines wedding

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emma grace making her tiny debut for the second time on the CSP blog. :)

baby wedding dress

autumn wedding

they had an intimate reception back at kelsey’s mom’s house which was very relaxed and fun. a nice break for my back and feet from a crowded dance floor! sometimes it’s good to switch things up a bit. :)

north carolina wedding photographer blog

wedding dog

outdoor wedding reception

outdoor wedding reception

thank you, kelsey and adam, for entrusting me with your pictures, which i know are very important to you. you have been amazing to work with all this time and i look forward to seeing you in raleigh soon! :) congratulations!!