Caitlyn+Jasmine // Santa Paula, CA Wedding // Limoneira Ranch

LEMONS AND LEMONS AND LEMONS and oh so many wonderful people exist in California, but none quite so great as Caitlyn+Jasmine. We happily and excitedly present to you our very first (of what we can only hope will be many more) California wedding. And our sneaking suspicions of how easy it is to be a photographer on the west coast have 100% been confirmed as literally every place we saw in Southern California was beautiful. But our job was especially easy because not only was our scenery gorgeous (lemons! mountains!) but our subjects were as well (Caitlyn! Jasmine!). You may remember them from their engagement session in Chapel Hill, NC where they gained many fans of their tattoos (we still get people who ask us about them). So how’d we get from North Carolina to California? Caitlyn was stationed at Fort Bragg at the time, and Jasmine was in NC after just finishing a master’s in Iceland when we did their session in Chapel Hill. But they both originally grew up in Southern California, and wanted to get married there before jet-setting off again to new and exciting places.

We are so lucky to have had a wedding out in CA, and also so lucky that the weather cooperated! After many fires in the area this past fall, Mother Nature decided to douse this particular area with rain surrounding the wedding. But luckily it cleared up for the wedding (yay!) and we were left with some beautiful haze. Limoneria Ranch is a wedding venue situated between acres and acres of citrus ranch land in California. It has mountains in the background and more lemons than you’ve ever seen. Also, lemons apparently come with a lot of thorns, which is something we quickly discovered when they kept piercing the soles of my shoes and going into my feet. Who knew? Probably every Californian reading this. I’ll wear more appropriate footwear next time. Besides beautiful mountains and all of the lemons, almost everyone at the wedding had a fun accent but us (they flew in from all over the world!). They were honored with adorable signs on all of the tables and the cutest bird-themed place cards we ever did see. Everyone danced the night away under the open sky and ate s’mores by a fire, and it was everything we thought a California wedding should be. We love you, Caitlyn and Jasmine! Thank you for introducing us to a bit of California life.

– Date: March 9, 2018
– Ceremony + Reception Venue: Limoneira Ranch // Santa Paula, CA
– First Dance Song: “I Love You Always Forever” – Betty Who
– Caitlyn’s Occupation: Public affairs sergeant/photojournalist for the US Army
– Jasmine’s Occupation: Fancy map stuff/researcher and PhD candidate at the University of Southeast Norway.
– How You Met: We were friends in high school, lived down the street from each other and got together our third year of college (despite going to colleges across the country from each other)
– Interesting Fact: We have explored 10 different countries together! Jasmine just finished studying volcanoes in Iceland for graduate school. She loves cheese, rabbits, and geography. Caitlyn can do 42 pushups in 2 minutes, and loves birds and craft beer.
– Honeymoon: New Zealand

Officiant: Denise Hayes (Jasmine’s step-mum)
DJ: DJ Keelez
Florist: Unique Floral Designs
Cake: The Butter End Cakery
Caterer: Plated Events by Chef Jason
Wedding Planner: Golden Poppy Events (Sara Beveridge)

Cari+Will+Charlie // Newborn Session.

Cari and Will’s wedding will always be near and dear to our hearts. It was our first wedding shot at the Haw River Ballroom, which is now one of our favorite venues, and it was the wedding that produced the now famous Ring Bearer Meltdown shot (about halfway down this post) that still remains my favorite photograph to date. Also, we happened to gain two very wonderful friends from this wedding whom we love dearly. We’ve eaten dinner with them at their house over long conversations about 24 and screened in decks. We’ve watched as Will shot Nerf suction cup arrows at their skylights to scare raccoons. We’ve called Cari over deck advice. We’ve asked Will about random nerve pain symptoms. We obtained our wonderful veterinarian on behalf of Cari’s recommendation. We’ve talked about any and all furniture and design choices. These guys are near and dear to our hearts. And so now is Charlie.

Charlie came into the world with two amazing parents and a handpainted nursery done by mom. He also has older cat sibling Jack (who is not yet a fan of his younger brother) and an older dog sibling Dudley (who is definitely a fan of new brother! also a fan of treats! also a fan of blankets! also a fan of photography!). Charlie so far has really taken to: eating, eating, wearing elaborate hats, eating, eating, non-candid/intense-staring-into-the-camera type of photography, eating, eating, tiki lounge music, and eating. We are excited to see what this kid does in the future. We’re hoping he breaks down at a wedding when he’s a ring bearer. Congratulations to the whole fam – you have quite a handsome young lad who is able to currently wear many hats (literally), and may he do so (figuratively) in his life to come. We love you, Cari+Will!

Eun+Matt // A Family Session

In 2012 we photographed a lovely wedding at Duke Chapel of an even more lovely couple named Eun and Matt, and now we’ve reunited to photograph their family! We got to meet their incredible kiddos Evan and Madeleine, and we played around their backyard and then spent some time at the NCMA. When we got to their house, Evan walked us around and gave us a detailed tour. This included him telling us that it was impossible for him to accidentally go down the drain while taking a bath because he’s too big, but that bacteria and germs and other things in baths CAN go down the drain, but you can only see those under a microscope (where you can also see allergies). He also told us all about how washers and dryers work, except his instructions included filling the washing machine with milk to make the clothes clean (he quickly backpedaled on this information). Interests also include rockets, spiders, singing songs from the movie Cars, picking and identifying spiders, and his new striped belt. He also adores his little sister Madeleine. Madeleine just turned one, and her interests include her stuffed sheep, apple juice, applesauce, and getting pushed around in a blue plastic car. They are both pretty great, as are their awesome parents whom we adore! It was so nice to see them again and meet their great kids – love seeing our couples again! Thank you, Eun+Matt!