Leila+Colin // Asheville, NC Wedding

Okay before I start this, it’s important to know that Leila’s name is pronounced “LIE-LA.” We literally started writing it that way in e-mails so I could remember, all caps included. I knew someone who had her named spelled Leila once, but pronounced it “Lee-la,” which is what I had been calling Leila in my head for months when I was corrected by Heather at Gilded Bridal, which is where Leila bought her stunner of a dress. Have you ever mispronounced someone’s name before? Something about the correction makes the mispronunciation even worse. It causes me to overthink it. Then “Lee-la” turned into “Lee… no, Lay-la… no no, Lee-la, yeah, Lee-la. NO. Lieeeeee…laa?” I couldn’t get it right. Until I remembered good old Lyla Garrity from Friday Night Lights. No, her name isn’t spelled Leila, but it’s pronounced “LIE-LA” and I freaking love Friday Night Lights so for some reason I was able to remember it this way because #texasforever and #cleareyesfullheartscantlose. I am 100% impressed that I didn’t call Colin “Rigs” once.

Now that we have that settled, Leila was our beloved former clients Carly+Jay’s maid of honor and we were so happy when she asked us to shoot her and Colin’s wedding in Asheville! It was actually in Swannanoa which is a pretty little small town just far enough outside of Asheville to be very woodsy, yet close enough where I could overdose on cinnamon buns at Posana for brunch. Ideal conditions. Hidden River Events is an incredible venue with a ton of wildflowers, horses, and dare I say the best lighting conditions on the planet (well, in the evening of October 14th anyway). It was beautiful. And Leila and Colin aren’t so bad themselves. Leila is of Palestinian descent and she and Colin met in Palestine doing all sorts of wonderful humanitarian goodness for people over there. They continue to do humanitarian goodness for all sorts of people from their homebase in Washington, DC with their dog Mr. B while watching Seinfeld at the same time. They were surrounded at their wedding by other Palestinians and also a lot of Irish. There were lots of good accents.

Leila and Colin were super fun to work with when we weren’t bringing up childhood traumas such as the death of Artax in the Neverending Story (don’t worry kids, I’ve since researched this heavily and the horse did not actually die, but was given to the actor who played Atreyu and died “much much later, living a good life doing horse stuff”). We are so, so happy to have been their wedding photographers and excited to see them and Mr. B again this spring for another portrait session where we don’t have to bring up the Neverending Story again (but we might because remember the rock guy?!). We love you guys! Thank you forever and ever neverending for having us. Isn’t this wedding purdy?

– Date: October 14, 2017
– Ceremony + Reception Venue: Hidden River Events // Swannanoa, NC
– Leila’s Occupation: Public Health
– Colin’s Occupation: PhD
– How You Met: Palestine
– Interesting Fact: I can do a lot of pushups.
– Honeymoon: Maybe Chile.
– Vendor Credits: Officiant – Jeanne Sommer. DJ+Florist+Coordinator – Hidden River Events. Food – Anne’s Custom Catering. Makeup – Jen O’Leary. Hair – Sarah Carpenter.

Crystal+Jason // Anniversary Session

Crystal and Jason seem to be like an adorable rain magnet. And if raining in the form of a hurricane on your wedding day is some sort of good luck, then having it rain againnnn during your anniversary portrait session you drove in from Charlotte to accomplish, then I’d say that they’re neck-deep in luck and need to play the lottery ASAP. 1870 Farm, where they were married, were gracious enough to have us return to shoot their portrait session. I got to pet a goat. It was great. They showed me all the areas that they were supposed to take pictures at had Hurricane Matthew not been an uninvited guest at their wedding. And this was the lake we were going to take pictures at! And this was the tree we were supposed to get married under! The tour was lovely, but interrupted halfway through by a turkey that meant business, and stopped me from spending as much time with the adorable goat as I would’ve preferred. Atlas, Crystal and Jason’s really cute little teddy bear dog, was also hell bent on killing said turkey, although I’m fairly confident he would’ve lost due to his small stature and the look of utter annihilation that the turkey had in its eye, and we moved on. We were supposed to shoot in the evening, but we moved it up to try and shoot in the space between the rain and were mostly successful, but it did start to rain toward the end. They busted out the white wedding umbrellas they used to shield themselves a year ago at their wedding and we continued onward. Rain cannot stop them. We are so glad to have been a part of their rainy wedding and their rainy anniversary shoot and their lives. Now please play the lottery and share some of it with us, thanks.

Melanie+Ryan+Scarlett+Raven // Halloween Family Session

Halloween is quite near and dear to our hearts. My birthday is in October, and I’ve usurped Halloween as my own personal holiday since I was born. Then Geoff and I were married on the 23rd with a Halloween-themed wedding, and basically Halloween all year, Halloween all the time, Halloween Halloween Halloween. We met Melanie and Ryan some time ago, and they are ALSO Halloween Halloween Halloween in ALL THE BEST WAYS! We were unfortunately unavailable to photograph their wedding but they’ve returned to us now with their sweet daughters Scarlett and Raven and booked us for a Halloween family session and we were SO EXCITED!! Their decorations are quite impressive, and we’ve learned we need to up our outdoor game a bit. They also have the most fabulous and wonderful collection of tiny little Halloween houses that light up and have moving ghosts and they’re all very elaborate and spooky. We had Christmas houses like this when we were little, but had I known Halloween houses existed, my parents would’ve been in trouble.

So we hung out with this Halloweeny crew at their place, checking out their decorations and running around the house playing! Scarlett is a brave and strong girl, who doesn’t flinch when her dad turns the corner wearing a terrifying clown mask, but instead attempts to block him with a Wonder Woman arm maneuver while still trying to hold onto some M&Ms. Raven loves the Zombie Man in the yard, and the giant inflatable spider down the street at a neighbor’s. She also adores the Chucky dolls upstairs in their attic, but isn’t quite okay with the terrifying clown mask yet (we’re working on it). Both children love their Halloween balloons, candy-dispensing mummy head, and the giant rubber rat sitting on top of their play kitchen. They also enjoy telling Alexa to play “This is Halloween” but forget the Danny Elfman part so Alexa plays the Marilyn Manson version and the kids hide. Melanie and Ryan enjoy horror movies (surprise!), getting their pictures taken with Robert Englund, collecting wonderful horror movie art, and being our heroes. Cheers to this spooktacular family of ghouls and ghoulettes! We are so happy to have been a little part of your boooootiful Halloween season.