Category: Weddings

this wedding is total proof that november weddings are awesome and should not be dismissed as cold or dreary! cortney and james, two super nice and wonderful people, met in chiropractic school and are soon opening up their own business in durham. when i first met them to discuss their wedding, cortney and i found out that we grew up and went to school not too far from each other in pittsburgh and that she went to high school with geoff’s best man for our own wedding! small world!  they are two of the sweetest people i’ve ever met and had great families and friends (i was very popular with the pittsburgh side of the family). ;) they had a beautiful wedding day with the temperature in the low 70s and the leaves just starting to change. their vendors were also fabulous! and, to start making things easier to read, i’m going to begin listing the vendors and their links below to make things a little easier on the eyes.

date: november 13, 2010

venue: 1705 prime

hair: citrine salon

hotel: renaissance by marriot, north hills

cake: sweet memories bakery

flowers: julie liles floral and event design

dj: greg ramsey of the joe bunn dj company

officiant: reverend barbara lodge

musician: harpist elizabeth munch

citrine salon chapel hill

geoff, being a good assistant by sitting on the couch in hair salons on his phone. ;)

citrine salon chapel hill citrine salon chapel hill citrine salon chapel hill

gotta have the jimmy john’s!!

renaissance by marriot north hills bride getting ready renaissance by marriot bride getting ready bride makeup bridesmaids getting ready

cortney and james opted to see each other before the ceremony, or have “first look” pictures. their ceremony was late in the day and the sun set directly afterwards, so it was a great choice to get pictures in before the sun set. also, it helps calm the nerves to see each other beforehand and makes for a much more relaxed day!

first look photos wedding photographs first look

hahaha this picture cracks me up every time i see it. cortney’s, “soo, what do you think??” pose. she was GORGEOUS! she wore a flower in her hair taken from her mother’s wedding day hat and had a beautiful dress that fit her style so well. and i can’t compliment the flowers enough… but maybe that’s because i pretty much had the same ones! ;) so beautiful and perfect for their day.

first look wedding photographs

we had a super handsome and sweet group of gentlemen.

raleigh wedding groomsmen

bridesmaids silver shoes

groomsmen socks 1705 prime bridal party

and look at these good looking ladies!!

raleigh wedding bridesmaids

i am so in love with the following series of couple shots that i feel the need to emphasize how awesome november is for weddings.

raleigh wedding photographer raleigh wedding photographers

cortney is so pretty and james is super handsome and together they will make the most attractive team of chiropractors ever!

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1705 prime is one of the best wedding venues in the raleigh area, in my humble opinion. the outside is very southern/old school while the inside is very modern/hip and the food is delicious and wonderful. their staff and wedding coordinator was nothing but fabulous. we have a great time every time we shoot there. we’ll be returning in february for another wedding and i’m definitely looking forward to it.

1705 prime wedding wedding guests

rev. lodge married us in october and we had a nice little reunion. :)

reverend barbara lodge 1705 prime wedding 1705 prime elizabeth munch harpist 1705 prime 1705 prime wedding 1705 prime wedding sweet memories bakery nc 1705 prime first dance

raleigh wedding photographer

the mother of the groom, left, made the fantastic cookies seen on the right for the couple’s cookie table. for those of you who don’t know, it is standard pittsburgh tradition to have a cookie table at your wedding. this doesn’t take the place of the cake, but it’s more like a candy bar sort of thing. if you get married in pittsburgh, you must have cookies. that’s pretty much all i can tell you in terms of history/significance, haha. anyway, the “best cookie ever” was a delicious gluten free cookie that i could actually eat! and it really was the best cookie ever –  i chowed down on these all night!

mother son dance

cortney’s parents moved to raleigh, but her dad still operates his own chiropractor business back in pittsburgh 3 days a week. he was hilarious!! we had a great time talking about the ‘burgh and making fun of geoff for going to valley high school. booo vikings! ;)

father daughter dance 1705 prime reception 1705 prime wedding 1705 prime wedding reception 1705 prime sweet memories bakery 1705 prime wedding reception 1705 prime wedding reception wedding reception

oh hey! it’s just me, your photographer, in your photo booth.

joe bunn dj company photobooth

wedding reception

1705 prime wedding

congratulations and much love to cortney and james for having a beautiful wedding with great friends and family! best of luck in life and your business!

kelsey and adam’s wedding date finally came! you may remember the adorable couple from their engagement shoot with their daughter, emma grace. kelsey and i have been facebook chatting it up over the last couple of months and we were so excited for our weddings which are falling a few days apart (mine is coming up in a few days!). i love the bond that you can build with clients and that lovely point where clients become friends. :) kelsey and adam are definitely that – my friends as well as a beautiful couple who has a wonderful group of family and friends. they thankfully had a warm, dry, sunny day on october 9th when they were married in pinehurst, nc. enjoy!

bride getting ready with white flats wedding jewelry bridesmaids

had to get a shot of the mother/daughter wedding dresses. :) emma grace’s tiny dress was just too cute! we hung it in the same place as mom’s as a surprise… we thought kelsey would enjoy the side-by-side pics. :)

mother and daughter wedding dresses bride getting ready with perfume bridal veil

first look pictures are becoming very popular for several reasons: 1.) you get ALL of the nervous jitters out of the way so you’re both relaxed for the ceremony 2.) extra time for pictures! 3.) your better half actually gets to tell you what they think about what you’re wearing instead of smiling at you in silence then turning to do the ceremony 4.) you get to express your love for each other in a very genuine way before the ceremony and all-day ruckus begins 5.) they make ADORABLE pictures!

i highly recommend going with the first look pictures. we’re doing it for our wedding because we don’t want a cocktail hour, and i’d love to get pictures beforehand for time, so geoff and i can talk about the dress, and so i can concentrate on actually walking down the aisle (which is stairs!) instead of trying to see what geoff’s expression is. :) if you don’t trust me about first look pictures yet, just look at how adorable kelsey and adam’s are! he was sooo nervous to see her, which made it even more adorable.

first look

he has such a sweet expression on his face. :) such a lovely set of pictures!

first look first look pictures

then we got all of THIS out of the way before the ceremony! it was an easy, low-stress day. love it. the bridesmaids wore sangria colored dresses with the groomsmen in matching ties.

bridal party in sangria bridesmaids in sangria dresses groomsmen with sunglasses

kelsey’s bro walked her down the aisle and into the sunny ceremony. it was bright! it made the pictures look very fall-esque though and i’m digging them. :)

southern pines wedding ceremony

southern wines wedding photographer

southern pines wedding ceremony

two-sided first kiss! thanks to geoff for getting the one on the left. :)

first kiss

i’m in love with this ring shot. i’m in love with her ring!

claddagh wedding ring

wedding portraits

raleigh wedding photographer

southern pines wedding photographer

southern pines bride

southern pines wedding

autumn wedding north carolina

emma grace making her tiny debut for the second time on the CSP blog. :)

baby wedding dress

autumn wedding

they had an intimate reception back at kelsey’s mom’s house which was very relaxed and fun. a nice break for my back and feet from a crowded dance floor! sometimes it’s good to switch things up a bit. :)

north carolina wedding photographer blog

wedding dog

outdoor wedding reception

outdoor wedding reception

thank you, kelsey and adam, for entrusting me with your pictures, which i know are very important to you. you have been amazing to work with all this time and i look forward to seeing you in raleigh soon! :) congratulations!!

i had the great opportunity to photograph a wedding with one of the most beautiful couples (inside and out) in chapel hill on october 2nd. meet melissa and jimmy. :) they met at clemson university and, after a long bout of long distance wedding planning with jimmy stationed in germany, melissa moved there with him. they love it and i could not be happier for them! they’re both genuinely very sweet and nice people… not to mention the total rocking-ness of their bridal party!! this was one of those weddings where i get home and i actually still have energy left because everything was so relaxed and people were so supportive. worked with some great vendors on this one as well!

the girls got their hair done at the aveda institute and went on to the church of st. thomas more to get ready before the ceremony.

st. thomas more catholic church chapel hill, nc bride getting ready st. thomas more catholic church chapel hill, nc

the picture on the left below is just after her bridesmaids had literally lifted her up and set her in her dress, haha. the picture on the right is melissa wrapping her grandfather’s rosary he used as a child around her wrist as a tribute.

bride rosary

i love seeing the expressions from the couples during the walk down the aisle. thanks to geoff for this shot. :)

ceremony groom walking down the aisle wedding ceremony

st. thomas more is a catholic church and they did a full mass wedding, but it wasn’t without the occasional giggles. :)

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what a lovely group of girls! i love black bridesmaid dresses!

bridesmaids black dresses

and what a good looking group of guys, of course! jimmy had on his uniform and the females in attendance were swooning.

groomsmen dress blues

the wedding reception was held at the carolina inn in chapel hill, nc. we got their formals outside because it’s a beautiful building. the reception room was the old well room and was very near to the UNC game party that was happening, so we had the occasional congratulatory yells from strangers in the building. gotta love it!

carolina inn wedding pictures

one of the bridal party members coined this their zoolander pose, and that’s pretty much accurate.

the carolina inn wedding photographer the carolina inn wedding pictures

this is my favorite of the day. melissa is gorrrrgeous. i’m pretty sure i could put her in some sort of giant pumpkin costume or clown wig and she’d still be just as gorgeous.

bridal portrait chapel hill wedding pictures carolina inn

ahhhh! this kills me. :) melissa and jimmy had this picture taken at his formal before his commissioning in the army and it’s framed in their house. they wanted to recreate it on their wedding day now that he has his new uniform and her dress was a wedding dress this time! the recreation is planned to hang next to it. i think we did a darn good job recreating!

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north carolina wedding photographer

they’re both really big clemson tiger fans and had a purple and orange tribute candy bar which was great! so of course the rings had to go in the multi-colored M&Ms.

chapel hill wedding photographer

carolina inn wedding

wedding portraits

first dance

katie cathey of events by la fête rocked out the wedding reception in the old well room! and the cake walk did a fantastic job on their cake.

Events By La Fête

wedding reception carolina inn

carolina inn old well room wedding reception

wedding reception carolina inn old well room

i’m always a sucker for the guys to break out into random group singing in the middle of the reception. my favorite part of any day.

wedding reception carolina inn

the fantastic mark mcnally of the joe bunn dj company threw a fantastic dance party!

joe bunn dj company

carolina inn old well room

melissa used her mother’s garter and was not planning on having a garter toss as she was just generally against it. at some point in the evening we got word that jimmy had negotiated the garter toss…and i’m glad he did because the below picture is adorable.

garter removal

wedding reception

carolina inn wedding reception

i love a good bubble exit.

bubble exit wedding

carolina inn wedding

this wedding was such a joy to work on. thank you to melissa, jimmy, their awesome bridal party and supportive family and friends, katie cathey, mark mcnally, and the carolina inn for being so wonderful! have a GREAT time in germany you guys and keep in touch!