Roger+Melanie+Martin+Anabel+Seymour // A lifestyle family session.

We always adore photographing lifestyle family sessions at home, and for some unknown reason (cosmic forces?) our clients always have these super cool houses so it’s always an added bonus. This week’s family had a greenhouse! With turtles! And a super awesome 1960s living room with a white brick wall and built in fireplace that I would definitely steal if it didn’t involve an ill-thought-out plan and the use large scale machinery. Roger and Melanie are awesome parents who are raising two independent and strong kids, Martin and Anabel. They are fearless and wonderful. They ride their bikes fast and put on their own gardening gloves and wear superhero capes and do their own thing. They spent the morning playing Legos, reading, and gardening, which is exactly what my idea Saturday would also constitute… especially considering that they were planting mosquito repellant plants (need these shots to be recreated at our house, please). Also featured in this shoot is 10 year old Cocker Spaniel Extraordinaire Seymour, who is adorable and fluffy and loves Melanie to the ends of the Earth. He also has totally laid claim to that leather chair in their living room. Excited to have worked with this great family!

Molly+Trevor // Duke Gardens Wedding

You know you have the right client-photographer relationship when you show up and the maid of honor that you’ve never met is really excited to present to you a dozen little miniature hands for you to take ring shots with, and then you proceed to also use the bride’s floral binder and Pantone color samples you find lying around and find out that the wedding is floral and Pantone themed. With little hands. Then someone casually suggests hanging the bride’s dress on a pointed hand that’s jutting out of the wall, but it’s facing the wrong way, so the bride gets up on the counter with a hammer and a drill and proceeds to move the hand. Then they tell you that all of the bridesmaids have temporary tattoos that are scented. These… these are my people.

I won’t say too much about Molly and Trevor because they already know we love them, and they already know how fantastic they are (they are the only clients we’ve had to put their photos on a potato), and I already went over some of that from their engagement session (their apartment which is super fabulous and was published on Apartment Therapy, is now going to live on in our dreams as they’ve just recently bought a house which will be, I have no doubt, equally fabulous). So now I’ll just concentrate on their wedding which was pretty incredible. They wallpapered everything. The bar, the seating sign, the aisle runner, the band’s backdrop! Everyone’s table seating had Pantone colors with their names printed on them that doubled on the back as postcards! The kids had matchbox car boutonnieres! I could go on and on for a while but I’ll just stop with Molly’s dress which was incredible. It was floral. It was fantastic. And it was totally a prom dress from Nordstrom’s (we’ve already had a lot of people ask us, so there you have it folks). She said she wasn’t sure when she’d wear it again, but I assured her that she should just wear it all the time because why wouldn’t you.

• Date: April 15, 2017
• Ceremony + Reception Venue: Duke Gardens // Durham, NC
• First Dance Song: “You’ve Got a Friend” – James Taylor
• Molly’s Occupation: Children’s Museum Exhibit Designer
• Trevor’s Occupation: Biochemistry PostDoc
• How You Met: World Wide Web
• Interesting Fact: We have the exact same glasses prescription.
• Honeymoon: Eventually Norway.
• Vendor Credits: Officiant –Meghan Benson. Band – Liquid Pleasure Band. Florist – Pine State Flowers. Cake – Sugarland. Caterer – Chapel Hill Catering Company. Coordinator – Grace Beason of Grace Leisure Events. Molly+Ferry’s Hair: Stephanie Boettcher at Arrow Studio. Molly+Ferry’s Makeup – Pam Hung from OnLoKation Makeup. Bridesmaid’s Hair – Posh Studio. String Musicians – Save the Date Music. Photobooth – Zimzoom Photo Booth. Transportation – Greenway. Ice Cream Truck – The Parlour. Lighting – GetLit Special Event Lighting. Spray Tan – Tansformations.