How much do we love Martha and Justin? Let me count the ways:

1. They took us to Chicago for their engagement session.

2. Martha likes to send me links about glow-in-the-dark cats.

3. They agreed to a Back to the Future themed wedding… but somehow that fell through.

4. They are smart: Justin is an astrophysicist and Martha is some sort of developmental biologist who holds some sort of job studying fish hearts (sorry, Martha, for butchering your official title… all I can remember are fish hearts).

5. They wanted to have their final consult over pizza… and any couple that wants to have a consult over pizza is a-okay with me (gluten-free for me, of course).

There are lots of other ways, but we all know I’m bad with math and science, so I’m going to stop at 5 because that’s a reasonable number. May we now present to you Martha and Justin’s wedding! It was full of sciencey goodness, rolling heads, blue shoes, and lots of salsa dancing. Read on, friends!

Date: September 3rd, 2011

Ceremony Venue: Immaculate Conception // Durham, NC

Reception Venue: Kirby Horton Hall at Duke Gardens // Durham, NC

Day of Coordinators: C and D Events

Catering: Durham Catering

Non-Bouquet Florist: Dan and Ethel Vogel

Bouquet Florist: Flowers on Broad Street

Transportation: Jason Clark

Cake: Daisy Cakes

Hair/Makeup: Posh the Salon // Durham, NC

DJ: Cortland Williams

How pretty is our Martha? I loved her hair and veil. It fits her spunky personality perfectly. She’s beautiful! Also, digging the blue wedding shoes.

Their wedding centerpieces were fantastic. They laid pieces of different fabrics down the tables as runners, but the fabric was patterned and gave the tables a sort of antique-y feel. They coupled these with wild flowers in mason jars and old-timey science books. Yes, there was Solaris and Space Odyssey. It was an adorable and very tasteful way to incorporate their love of science. :) Later (a few pictures down), you’ll see their computation guest book and the little tubes that Martha took from her lab to fill with M&Ms as favors, haha. Brilliant!

Martha’s wedding ring is a sapphire and we loved Justin’s tie!

The stories behind the pictures below: Martha and Justin had a regular first dance, but they also had a choreographed dance. You see, Martha and her family are super good salsa dancers. Martha’s family frequently make fun of Justin for his white-boy dance moves, so Martha’s been teaching him. I’d say he’s doing quite well.

While it ended in tragedy, it was the best cake cutting ever while it lasted. Note Martha’s head in the middle tipping a little too far to the right… then it’s gone. Martha came up to me afterward and said, “So what does that mean?” and I said, “Good luck?” :) Justin was very concerned.

Geoff and I excessively documented the little boy below throughout the afternoon, as neither one of us can resist a kid playing a Gameboy in the middle of a wedding. The following are pictures of this adorable ring bearer being completely in the zone while everyone dances away around him.

Loved the streamer exit, Martha’s dad’s exit, and Geoff’s awesome picture below to the right. :)

We love you, Martha and Justin! I’d say good luck and that we’d hope to see you in the future but we have a pizza date in the near future… and I hope that you both find jobs in Raleigh and get used to the total lack of public transportation so that Justin doesn’t get too sad and convince you both to move back to Chicago. It’s warm here! And we like you guys a lot!

 

emily and michael were married on may 23rd at the millenium hotel in durham. their original plans were to be married in duke gardens and have their reception at the millenium, but the forecast called for rain all day. this added some last minute changes the morning of as the wedding party were trying to decide where to have to the wedding, but it all worked out beautifully and they were indeed married in the hotel. added tidbit of interestingness? emily and her family and friends are from canada, so everyone was in town for the wedding! they were a beautiful couple and i had a great time working with them.

millenium hotel durham white wedding shoes wedding ring shot bridal portrait

we did some of their formals at duke gardens anyway because, of course, it stopped raining around the time that the ceremony should’ve been. so we take some formals and just as we’re sitting down to do some of these shots, it starts raining. the weather in north carolina is so unpredictable! but we all hid under a big tree and resumed the process after a few minutes. the bride and groom were so flexible and everything worked out great!

raleigh wedding photographer

this groomsman cake was amazing! they put a little veil on the shark that the fisherman is catching…adorable.

groomsman cake reception duke gardens wedding

wedding weekend.

i had two weddings this weekend – one of some awesome friends and one of a fantastic client, so it was good times all around. can’t wait to post some of these! :)

in the meantime, here are some shots i took at the duke gardens rehearsal on friday. it’s beautiful there this time of year (when it’s not raining).

duke gardens duke gardens