Lauren and Jacob live in a really rad house with a 2 month-ish baby named Oscar and a vivacious 2 year-oldish toddler named Jane. They all share, together, a really great blue fireplace and and several awesome vintage chairs. But most importantly (to me, anyway), they share all of Lauren and Jacob’s meticulously cared for childhood toys. We’re talking everything I loved and used to have as a child, and then some. It was awesome! Plus, they didn’t seem weirded out when I got out my phone and started sending pictures of the toys to family. My old Care Bear purse was there, in ridiculously pristine condition and complete with original tiny change purse that I’m sure I lost about 2 days after receiving it! My old My Pet Monster was there (technically my sister’s BUT MINE IN MY HEART), in almost brand-new like condition, complete with original plastic handcuffs (!!)! And my old, purple Popple was there! It was my dearest childhood toy that I really couldn’t be parted with… but that I also threw in the local lake (then burst into tears and made my dad swim in and retrieve it). Lauren and Jacob also have a lot of Cabbage Patch Kids, which were also, obviously, an 80s-kid favorite.

It made my day to see all this stuff again, and in such great condition! Quite impressive. But even more impressive is that they also have in their possession a vintage Michael Jackson doll that kinda looks like a Ken Doll except it’s Michael Jackson in his American Music Awards circa 1984 outfit, complete with visible white socks. The 100% best thing about this is that Lauren holds up this doll and goes “hee-hee!” and thus has taught Jane to also say, “hee-hee!” when she picks up the doll (definitely click on that link). I don’t think I’ve ever been more impressed and delighted in all my years of photography. Hee-hee!

Anyway – besides their vintage toys, they are also pretty great all on their own. Oscar sleeps a lot because he is a baby, but he does smile charmingly and is quite adorable. Jane took a strong liking to Geoff and wouldn’t go anywhere in the house or outside without him. “Geoff!” she’d say, and then point upstairs. “Geoff!” she’d say, and then point downstairs. There was a lot of ordering him around, but also handing him babydolls. She took a lot of delight into forcing him inside her playhouse and then repeatedly ringing the doorbell like a bad prank situation (Jane is really great). She also likes eating lunch (me too!) and cats (YES!) and when she sees a cat outside makes an immediate beeline for it with squealing delight (THIS IS ALSO ME!). They are a cute-as-a-button-on-a-vintage-Michael-Jackson-American-Music-Awards-jacket family and we’re happy to have photographed them.

Jodi Foy is the World’s Nicest Dentist. I can vouch for this based on her ads in the Indy Week (which drew me to her practice when we moved here in 2008), but also because she is, obviously, my forever dentist. That’s like when you adopt a cat or dog and they find their forever home, but instead it’s when you find a dentist that somehow makes you enjoy going to the dentist, and you then follow on Instagram as they hold celebrations for the Royal Wedding (bouquet toss included) and go to Backstreet Boy concerts, and you decide that you’ll never go to another dentist even if you have to drive on 40 and sit in traffic. Jodi Foy is that forever dentist for me. And the Foyettes! Gahh the Foyettes. The Foyettes, and every Foyette that I’ve ever had the pleasure of knowing, have all been wonderful – every single one of them. They are equally as nice and hilarious as Jodi, and somehow they all remember me and exactly what plans I had six months ago when I last saw them.

So I was overjoyyyyed to be asked to do promo pictures for this wonderful, wonderful crew! They needed new headshots and group shots, and I drove there and we did them and we laughed and bit some unsuspecting patient’s hand with a plastic alligator and made her pretend like she has no idea how to brush her teeth (sorry, Sunny). It was fun and it always is. She is 100% and without any doubt recommended by yours truly as a dentist. She’ll talk to you about The Walking Dead and photography and hockey and the Foyettes will remember all your vacations and your husband’s plans too. I love these women with my whole being.

Margaret and Bryan are singlehandedly responsible for nearly destroying our marriage by getting us hooked on the video game Overcooked. We first learned about this during their engagement session in Winston-Salem where Margaret described it as a video game in which “You’re a bunch of adorable characters working in a restaurant to fill orders really fast, but the restaurant is also haunted.” Immediately intrigued by this definition, we went home and downloaded it. And it is exactly as Margaret described:

I’m a little red fox wearing a chef’s hat. Geoff’s a guy who has a box for a head wearing a chef’s hat. We’re trying to make hamburgers, but we’re on different sides of a restaurant located in lava. He has the plates. I have the lettuce. I need to get the lettuce to him, but it needs to be placed on a rotating small rock in the lava. When it finally gets to Geoff, he falls in the lava, and we need to start over. Eventually Geoff falls in the lava so much that we lose entirely. Or – I’m a little raccoon wearing a chef’s hat, and Geoff’s a little black fox wearing a chef’s hat. We’re trying to make soup in a land full of ice. He has the onions, I have the tomatoes, and the kitchen is always catching on fire (nobody knows where the fire extinguisher is, or we dropped it in the lake). He sends the onions over to me, and I fall in the icy water and die. Eventually I fall in the icy water so often that we lose entirely.

Basically – this video game is impossible, but you’re always blaming your loss on your spouse’s inability to navigate either lava or ice, or the fact that they can’t chop vegetables fast enough. Of course YOU’RE chopping fast enough and YOU never accidentally send a plated order down the garbage disposal. There’s a lot of yelling. It’s like assembling Ikea furniture, but worse, and there’s no shelf when you’re done – just resentment.

We don’t resent Margaret and Bryan, though. In fact, we LOVE Overcooked, and actually beat the entire game, and are somehow still married (don’t hold your breath though, we still have bonus levels to complete and the holiday edition). And we’re grateful for Margaret and Bryan for introducing us to a game that we didn’t know we needed in order to hone our hamburger making skills. And it’s a testament to their own marriage that they, too, have played Overcooked and LOOK – they still got married! They must have good communication and the ability to make a mean pepperoni pizza peacefully together, and that’s what love is all about. They had a beautiful wedding with a stormtrooper ring bearer and a giant movie book for a guest book that I signed on the Temple of Doom page because that’s what Geoff would’ve wanted (he’s not dead – he was just across the room when I signed it). We’re so glad we got to work with these guys, and we will never forget them every time we yell at each other about vegetables.

Also, shout out to anyone who recognizes this ceremony’s fabulous cello player from a past wedding of ours! :D


Date: May 27, 2018
Ceremony + Reception Venue: Brier Creek Country Club // Raleigh, NC
First Dance Song: “I Love You” – Alex Clare
Margaret’s Occupation: Teacher
Bryan’s Occupation: Doctor
How You Met: OK Cupid
Interesting Fact: Love pugs
Honeymoon: Cartagena, Colombia
Officiant: Reverend Pam Carey
DJ: Jeff Simpson
Florist: The English Garden
Cake: Raleigh Cake Pops
Caterer: Brier Creek Country Club
Hair/Makeup: Brenda Van Benschoten
Coordinator: Shawn Shindler
Photo Booth: Shutter Booth
Ceremony Musicians: Elegant Ensembles